The Blog Awards 2008

It was my third annual visit to the blog awards this year. And as ever it was nice to meet some of the faces behind blogs. Unfortunately there were many I wanted to meet, but didn’t.

I actually spent most of the night talking to Anthony and Michael Nugent. Joe, as ever, was great to chat to. Other than that there was a brief chat with Simon, Rymus, Sandy, Treasa, Annette, Bock, and er, that was about it. I did want to speak to more, but was negligent in my blog networking.

Congrats to the well deserved joint winners in my category, Limerick Blogger and Maman Poulet, both very much deserved. I did not expect to be nominated not to mind win – my blogging has been hit and miss at best over the last 12 months. And my mini-obsession with the Mahon Tribunal doesn’t help in keeping loyal readers happy.

What impressed me the most however was the turn out. For years I was ranting on about how eventually there would be 1,000’s of Irish bloggers, and now there are. I guess I spotted the trend early, back when there was a dozen or so Irish blogs, but it is fantastic to see such a vast range of topics and interests, even more categories to give awards under than I would ever have expected.

For my own part, it seems that my blogging prime, thus far, was in the period 2002 – 2004 before my return to university. Certainly in terms of both traffic (2,500k a day), comments (several per post) and posts (7 -8 per day), that was when I was fully committed. But that university thing is finally ending, thus allowing me more time to dedicate to things online (hopefully).

At the start it was just this blog, but of late it has branched out into other things.

The Mahon Tribunal wiki was started in December 2007, and has taken a huge amount of my time so far. I feel it is worth it though. Categorising and indexing all witnesses over five years has been time consuming. And there is still a tonne left to do. YouTube videos and Google Maps have also been added, hopefully making the very complex Tribunal easier to understand.

Then there’s the Resign, Mr Ahern Facebook group (2,200 strong), and the upcoming event (April 12, protest) which I have been remiss in organising of late. Added to that is digging into the RTE archives and ripping stuff onto YouTube. All time consuming. Oh and then there’s my full time job, my dissertation, my essays and my exams in May. And lectures that I usually miss.

So by June, most of this stuff will be sorted. And, hopefully, I can start ramping up my posts on here. Back to the good ol’ days you might say. I know from cookies and comments that many of my most loyal readers (some of you are here several years), have stuck with me, and still return several times a week. To you, I say thank you for your patience.

Here’s to a more consistent blogging future.