Good Morning You Hublicious People
...good day all....going for a cold ride today....can you see me smilin'?.... no snow here today!....sun's coming out.... yahoo!
Good luck with that outing - thaw again here in Ireland
Monday 10th January 2011 - thaw setting in again - hope your day is good where ever you are
Wednesday 8am here in Ireland - rain rain rain - but at least it is warming up - hope your weather is good at this time and our thoughts are with our friends in Australia who are suffering so much at this time - God Bless
Thursday 13th January 2011 weather has greatly improved - hope your weather is good
Friday Spring in the air
Sunday Morning - weather good - cool but not bad -
Cool but dry here in Ireland this morning - dont forget Valentien's Day coming real soon
When we think of Valentines Day we dont automatically think of Great Britain in the nineteenth-century. However, it was in Great Britain in the nineteenth-century that the sending of Valentine cards became a fashion. This cottage industry of card making and sending for Valentines Day was soon viewed as a possible commercial enterprise.
Esther Howland to many was a ordinary woman living in Worcester, Massachusetts. However, Esther had a keen eye for business and so it was that in 1847 Esther established a very successful home based business making Valentine Cards. Many women today who aspire to being self employed in their own business need look no further for inspiration than Esther Howland.
Esther used the British card models to design and fashion her Valentine Cards. Esther had identified a commercial niche in the market and filled it with her beautiful cards. What an inspiration Esther remains today, at a time when many women were expected to know their place, Esther struck a blow for women and their rights to equality and freedom.
America which is world famous today for its hello and goodbye greetings, "You have a nice day now", was no different in the 19th century. The Valentines card become very popular in 19th Century America and its commercialisation just went from strength to strength.
Indeed it is fair to say that the Valintine Card introduced in America by Esther was the fore runner to the array of general greeting cards found now in America for all and every occassion. The Valentine cards were the blue print for the commercialisation of all American holidays, where people now exchange cards and greetings as a way of saying thanks.
Each year across the world there are approximetly one billion Valentines cards exchanged, who could ever have imagined that. With cards selling for anything from $1 to $50 + this is big business indeed. Indeed Valentines day is only out done by Christmas in the card sales industry. When one adds to card sales the sales of romantic dinners, wine, fancy underwear, chocolates, teddy bears and so on and so forth this is certainly a mass market at an otheriwse commercially quiet time of the year.
Valentines day
Valentines Day. St Valentine
It is also worth noting that study after study shows that men spend twice as much on Valentines Day as women do. One wonders why this is. It is also worth noting that in 1797, fifty years before Esther Howland launched her card business, a British publisher had issued The Young Mans Valentine Writer. This booklet contained dozens of verses and romantic lyrics for those young men who could not find their own words to describe their feelings for the woman they loved.
One wonders if the publication of such a book in 1797 suggests that men may be the ones that treat Valentines with the seriousness it deserves. It is also worth noting that during this period when postage was so expensive most cards were delivered by hand. Later of course with the advent of the penny stamp postage system, cards could be sent by post. This of course was less personal and lacked the face to face contact and hand touching of the previous century.
Esther was not the only one to tap into the commercialisation of Valentine cards, indeed numberous cards were being produced with drawings and verse. The printing presses could now mass produce cards and these were known as 'mechanical valentines'. So now we had mass production and cheaper postage. And human kind being what it is meant that cards could now be sent anonymously by post. It also meant that the prudish Victorian caution was gone and cards became more saucey.
It was now possible to send a card containing a saucey verse and drawing to the person you may simply have fancied. Today of course things have gone a step further. The introduction of the Internet has seen an explosion in the number of greetings and exchanges between people from different continents and cultures. Cyber space is the new meeting place for millions of people. Not only do people now meet and exchange greetings on the internet but they can meet their life partner on the net.
Saint Valentine would be happy that so many people honour his name with love and friendly greetings. The man himself was a Christian Martyr, he was a Priest in Rome who was murdered around the year 269 AD.
Saint Valentine is laid to rest in Dublin, Ireland. His relics are interred at the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church. They were presented as a gift to the Carmalite Order from Pope Gregory xvi in 1835.Still freezing here in Ireland
Saturday Cold but dry - hope your weather is good
sunday dry but cool - hows your weather
Wednesday - Spring is in the air - sort of - hope your weather is good
Thursday here in Ireland, weather getting better, still cool but the birds are starting to sing
Thursday 3 Feb 2011 hope your weather is good and your year going well
Monday 7th February 2011 hope your day is good where ever you are
Spring has finally arrived thank God - birds singing and flowers growing - hope your weather is good
good morning y'all!!!......Ahmm...I mean good morning theirishobserver.!!!
first time on this thread....whoot woot!! but definitely not the first good morningGood morning Irish! I haven't seen this for a while. Good morning my fellow hubbers. Lunch time in Melbourne Oz.
Happy St Patricks Day from IRISH
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has today told an audience of business leaders in Washington, DC, that Ireland is open for business and has a strong and stable Government for national recovery.
Mr Kenny, who is in the city ahead of the St Patrick's Day celebrations tomorrow, said the Government "will do what is necessary" to rein in the State's debt and bring its public finances and banks into "proper order".
During his speech, the Taoiseach said: "I want us to use the spirit and purpose of Patrick to create a very different public, political and business narrative.
"A narrative based on the very ideas on which he based his life: compassion, gentleness, sincerity, responsibility, respect, honour, forgiveness, redemption, restitution, love, letting go."
Declaring a renewal was already under way, Mr Kenny said Ireland was an "unbeatable country" whose time was "coming again".
The high point of Mr Kenny’s stay in Washington will be a meeting in the Oval Office with President Barack Obama tomorrow and the White House reception tomorrow evening. He is also scheduled to meet US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner this evening.
Closer to home, preparations are under way for a series of parades around the country with over 100 events taking place across the island of Ireland.
Almost 280,000 passengers are expected to travel through Dublin airport over the course of the St Patrick's Day Festival this weekend from tomorrow.
Met Éireann is forecasting a damp and misty start to St Patrick's Day, but weather is expected to quickly improve and should be fine from mid-morning onwards.
Overall, nine Ministers are travelling abroad for St Patrick’s Day festivities this year, down from the 22 who left Ireland in 2010.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore will be in New York for St Patrick's Day. Paris beckons for Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney, while Ruairí Quinn, Minister for Education, visits Rome and Milan. Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald will go to Australia and New Zealand. Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton heads for London today and tomorrow. Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs Jimmy Deenihan arrived back in Ireland yesterday after two-day official visit to London.
India is the destination for Leo Varadkar, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. He began his visit in New Delhi today with a series of meeting with business, aviation, education and tourism interest.
Over 500,000 people are expected to attend the Dublin parade which will start at Parnell Square at noon tomorrow and is scheduled to end at about 2pm at St Patrick's Cathedral.
Boxing champion Katie Taylor will be the grand marshal for this year’s parade which has a literary theme. Parade participants will interpret a specially-commissioned short story Brilliant by Roddy Doyle.
There will be no parking along the route of the parade from 7pm and a number of roads will be closed throughout the city tomorrow. However, gardaí are to re-open roads as the parade passes.
The following roads will be closed from 5am to 3pm: Dominick Street Upr; Mountjoy Street; Palmerston Place; St Mary's Place North; Granby Row; Parnell Square; part of O’Connell Street; O’Connell Bridge; Westmoreland Street; College Green, Dame Street; Lord Edward Street and Christchurch Place.
Nicholas Street, Patrick Street and New Street South will close from 5am to 4pm. Clanbrassil Street and Newmarket Square from 5am to 4.30pm.
More than half a million attendees are expected at the Cork parade will start at Parnell Bridge at 1pm tomorrow, before travelling on towards South Mall, Grand Parade, Patrick St, Merchants Quay and finishing up on Parnell Place.
The parade route will be closed from 11:45am until after it has finished. Copley St, Union Quay and Lapps Quay will also be closed from 6am.
The Belfast parade will depart City Hall at 12pm and then travel into Donegall Square North and Chichester St, before turning into Victoria Street and then Custom House Square.
Donegall Square, Wellington Place and Chichester Street will be closed to all traffic for the duration of the parade. Victoria Street will be closed while the parade moves along it to Custom House Square.
As many as 60,000 people are expected at the Galway parade which will start on Father Burke Road at 12.30pm before travelling onto Fairhill Road; Dominic Street; Bridge Street; Mainguard Street; Shop Street; William Street; Williamgate Street and onto Eyre Square. The route will be closed from approx 10am to 3pm.
Elsewhere, about 40,000 people are expected at the Waterford parade which begins at The Glen at 1pm and continues onwards Thomas Street; The Quays; and The Mall and onto Parnell Street. A large number of road closures will be in place in the city centre from 9:30am to 2:30pm and motorists should avoid driving into the city.
Up to 30,000 people are expected to attend the Limerick city parade which will start on O'Connell Avenue at midday before travelling towards The Crescent; O'Connell Street; Patrick Street and Bank Place.
No parking will be allowed along the route from 4am. Traffic will not be permitted inbound over Sarsfield Bridge and only local traffic will be able to access the traffic from Union Cross between 11am and 2pm.
Elsewhere, gardaí and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) have announced a major campaign in the run up St Patrick’s Day as new figures show there have been 49 road deaths so far this year, 15 more than for the same period last year.
Last year over the St Patrick's holiday weekend 323 drivers were arrested for drink driving and 849 were caught speeding.
“As people travel throughout the country to various social and sporting events over the St Patrick’s day period, I appeal to everyone using the road to think safe and act safely at all times," said Assistant Commissioner John Twomey
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