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Here’s my take of the best Irish websites for you to inform yourself about, and discuss politics.

First up the news sites, politico focuses on politics & society, thejournal.ie is main-stream and independent, Indy Media is more lefty with articles on activism, and broadsheet.ie is the satire site that pokes fun at everything.

If you feel you know enough – it’s time to discuss. Politics.ie for a fight, boards.ie for a slow chat, or help me get the ball rolling in the United Minds forum.

Then we have information and analysis sites. King of this category is KildareStreet.com which has up-to-date info on politician’s activity in the Oireachtas. Meanwhile the Oireachtas website has info on your politicians, but no interactivity. My website techgroup.ie has profiles and twitter feeds for the Technical Group in the Dail (the ones not poisoned by big party politics. Super impressive mega ugly Elections Ireland has stats on all Irish elections since the start of the state. There are hundreds of politics blogs like election.ie that would take too long to list.

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Broadsheet.ie is a satirical blog focusing on irregularities and typos in the Irish media, on things that look like Ireland, and general funny and interesting stuff from the web.

I find a smile on the face makes the news easier to digest.

broadsheet.ie

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Politics.ie is the busiest Irish politics forum. With typically hundreds of people online at any time, it is one of the busiest websites in the country.

A brilliant resource, really busy, surely our saviour? It’s definitely beneficial, but the huge obstacle the site faces is the non-stop bickering.

It’s full of political party trolls, people who have made up opinions and are unwilling to change them, and intimidating jerks who love shouting down newbies.

So it’s pretty much like real life.

politics.ie

I jest: it’s a great site, but it just seems a pity that nothing productive comes from the thousands of debates on the site. Perhaps promoting the collaboration area for open government ideas & solutions could be a good step?

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KildareStreet.com is an information resource for parliamentary activity in Ireland.

As they say themselves: “KildareStreet.com is a searchable archive of everything that’s been said in the Dáil and all written parliamentary questions since January 2004, and everything in the Seanad since September 2002.”

They also have information on all TD’s and senators detailing how often they participate in debates.

I genuinely believe this is a great resource, and ideally all citizens would check this site regularly to make our representatives more active.

Sadly it highlights how ineffective our system of government is.

KildareStreet.com

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TheJournal.ie is Ireland’s leading independent news source. The social media savvy journalists who set this up are blazing a trail through the antiquated world of poor and crony-ish journalism in Ireland.

Like them on facebook and they will send you a wrap up of the main news storys at 9am and 5pm each day. Handy.

TheJournal.ie

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Oireachtas.ie is the official website of the Irish parliament that has been hijacked by political parties. On the site there is comprehensive information on TDs & senators (our elected dictators), information on bills being discussed and passed in legislation, and a games section (a terrific use of tax payers money) – and as if i didn’t have enough to do, I got 20,800 on the quiz game. Go me.

This website does not have any interactivity at all. Why do people who work for us refuse to have a system for us to instruct them what to to do? This site would be the perfect host for an online forum with a voting system so we the people of this sovereign nation could make our own decisions.

oireachtas.ie

So while reviewing the site I was surprised to find a career’s section after having just read this piece on government cronyism being alive and well.

LOL – there was one job on it, that hasn’t been updated in eight months, and I recall at the time of that job going up (a new deputy wanted to hire a secretary) that nobody knew how they would go about such a weird thing (as they never even tried hiring outside of the family before.) C’mon politicians! We are watching you!

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wethecitizens.ie (We The Citizens) is an initiative aimed at improving our republic through deliberative democracy and citizen’s assemblies. In 2011, seven events took place where people met with the objective of improving Ireland culminating in the National Citizen’s Assembly on June 25th.

The website is neat, has survey’s you can take, an area where you can suggest discussion items, an area where you can discuss previously suggested items, and a news section. And it looks great.

The challenge for these guys is what they do next – they have opened up a discussion, but what now? It’s not clear from their site, but I look forward to seeing what it is when they’re ready to show.

wethecitizens.ie