My Blog Awards

DaithaiC in all too typical pose

Blogging is often seen as a lonely furrow but I don’t know how. Through the excellent London Blogger’s Meetup I have met many of my contemporaries at the edge of Citizen Journalism and not met a lonely soul amongst them. People often ask how do you find the time. Why? Nobody asks people how they find time to go to the hairdresser, play golf, go to happy clappy churches, pubs, concerts, Rugby clubs, or work late at the office destroying human lives. Why pick on Bloggers? In fact Bloggers are altruistic, edgy, interesting people with something to share. They also represent Freedom from the Press – an important concept as our media gets taken over by malevolent vested interests with far from hidden agenda.



Sure there are the strange ones in this unfiltered land. I don’t do rants or attempt character assassination as life is short and we owe it to ourselves and others to behave with decency. But Internet land is full of Blobs of Bile who are like demented alcoholics transferring their own self loathing onto others. Then there are dark obsessive’s out there. There is the sad sex stuff largely generated by the second biggest industry in the US. I did a short Blog in support of Brooke Magnanti better known as by her blogging nom de plume “Belle de Jour” and sure enough in piled the prurient. Then there are the wacko conspiracy theorists that seem to always end up in the cul-de-sac of anti Semitism. So for the short piece I did on Gerry Rafferty when he died (Catholic, Irish father, Scottish mother) in piled the searches *Gerry Rafferty Jewish?*. Until the Saddo Firewall is invented leave them to it I say.

So before presenting my Blog Awards this is time to reflect on the success of the Daithai C Blog. First what would I do differently? Well not have a stupid name for a start which means nothing to readers – my name in Gaelic but spelt slightly wrongly so as to make it easy to register on bookmarking and repeater sites! Seemed clever at the time! Also Blogs tend to be specialist to align with readers and advertisers but this one at its kindest must be described as non-specialist! It covers my first love Architecture but also Travel, Transport, Politics and Irish affairs, and then some! It started off in 2007 because I was curious and ignorant about blogging and was fed up being in conversations which I didn’t quite understand.



So I took some travel guides I had done and slapped then on to see what would happen, the first one being the Ibis Moussafir in Marrakech in August 2007. Now over 550 contributions later it has been something of a phenomenon. Over this weekend alone over 2,000 people will have read something from the Blog. It is followed on Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, Multiply and much more. It is referenced, blogrolled, backlinked and quoted on many other sites. And as I believe in the concept of an open Internet there are no copyright or ownership claims on the site, all the material is freely available to link and quote. It has reached not just the mainstream but places at the very end of the known world such as Ulan Bator and Wolverhampton.



So in the principle of caring and sharing and inspired by my Blog Buddy MuMu Daithai C now makes his very first Blog Awards on to Blogs which I like, reference and which keep me going. Thanks again for all your encouragement, comments, feedback and kind words of support over the years.

Here are the lucky winners of the DC’s inaugural Lovely Blog award.




1. http://www.missus-emm.com/index.html: Missus Emm; A South African with a passion living in London and being a citizen of the world.

2. http://www.thegirlinthecafe.com Ingrid is Dutch, an old bloggy buddy was living in London, is obsessed with Bill Nighy and captures the zeitgeist of Cafe Society in her always stylish blog with her own wonderful photography. She has now relocated back to Holland but we look forward to The Girl still being part of our life.

3. http://www.photopol.com Póló is an inhabitant of my home town of Dear Dirty Dublin and a genuine authority on much of interest. Photopol started off as a photo blog but now you will find history, politics, a religious (sic) blog and even a Gaelic language blog, An Cnagaire! (The Knocker)

Now each winner can pass it on to 3 other blogs…Enjoy!



And for the versatile blog award:

1. http://quiz.eblana.eu/ A Parisian phenomenon! My buddy Páraic Maguire is Mr Quiz in Paris and runs the best little Pub Quiz in Paris at The Green Linnet, 8 avenue Victoria, 75004 Paris (metro Hôtel de Ville or Châtelet) every Wednesday, 9.30 pm. It is a phenomenon in a land where such things are unknown and the Quiz like the site is in both English and French.

2. http://london-underground.blogspot.com/ Annie Mole’s single minded obsession with what is going on under London.

3. http://torytroll.blogspot.com/ Adam Bienkov’s on the money London political Blog which has broken many major stories.

4. http://mumugb.blogspot.com/ MuMu’s perspective on being a French Yummy Mummy who loves living in London but finds the natives strange!

5. http://secondaryadventures.blogspot.com/ The iPad Polyanna of Pimlico is the daughter of MuMu the aforementioned Yummy Mummy and both writes and perceives beyond her tender years.

6. http://www.smileforlondon.com A stylish site by creative people who are bringing art, the web and media together in new and exciting ways.

7. http://whatnottodoinloveandbusiness.com/ Sherrod’s beautiful site and stories. Great look and feel and does what it says on the label.



Now you guys need to pass the award to 7 other blogs and say 7 things about you that we don't know about you yet!

So in the spirit of this enterprise here are seven things you may not know about DaithaiC although the clues are in the Blogs!





1. I have Adolph Hitler to thank for being Irish
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/moonlight-sonata_14.html

2. James Joyce was a neighbour
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/06/james-joyce-and-me.html

3. I made basic mistakes in trying to chat up a Princess
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-not-to-make-first-impression.html

4. I organised the Boomtown Rats first concert
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/08/bob-geldof-and-me.html

5. I shovelled concrete with a descendant of the last Crusader King of Jerusalem
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/01/lady-miranda.html

6. I have a Great Uncle buried in the Ainse on the Hindenburg line
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/towards-somme-personal-journey.html

7. I lived in Baggotonia around the corner from Raglan Road
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/07/on-raglan-roag.html