So hopefully this year's Oxegen experience won't be like the above picture. The last one I was at was not all that muddy, but there were random strangers fireballing tents, which was somewhat less than enjoyable.

But this year, no... I have the dry shampoo, the wet shampoo (for those hot showers that they're providing, and on the website go to great pains to describe as "FREE" [their caps, not mine] as if they could reasonably charge for running water in Kildare), the wellies (not Hunters, but I do want them, the fashion whore in me will not be silenced). Anyway, one could say I am prepared. Then again, one could be wrong - one can never be prepared for the festival-related surprise, the event that you never saw happening, the event that you hope never to repeat (like 2006's episode when a good friend was tumbled while inside a Portaloo...).

Wish me luck. I will hopefully be back to blogging, with vigour, on Monday morning, when the mud and the filth have both been washed off my weary limbs.

Every Sunday, the Sunday Independent is purchased, and consumed, with vigour, a casa Mac Cabe - okay, to rephrase: every Sunday, I buy, and consume the Sunday Independent with great vigour, some relish and the occasional bout of mouth-vomit, usually induced by one Mr B Egan.

And every Sunday, the Independent and its group of fearless industry leaders (the journalists) pioneer several worthy causes. This week, Michelle Doherty, Channel 6 presenter and Irish model (news to me, on both counts). Last week, Malahide and its bevvy of beautiful young wimmin. Here they were, beautiful and rich and jetting off to Marbella for the summer, or to Hong Kong, to spend Mummy and Daddy's money. But - wait - these Malahide madames don't take anything for granted! Of course not! They are aware of the lengths to which their oil tycoon parents went to earn them their cash.

2007 was a particularly high year for the Indo. Marcus Sweeney tells all (and, oh, there's an interview with Radiohead on the inside); Wesanna do soft-porn (and if you're interested, Jack Nicholson talks to our journo on page 12); these beautiful women talk about what it's like to be a woman today. . . in their underwear.

The Independent has its priorities all wrong. Radiohead vs Marcus Sweeney? Should that sentence ever even have been written?

Or. . . there's another, frightening, less starkly obvious possibility. Could it be that we (in this bracket I am including myself; feel free to exclude yourself as you deem fit) have our priorities all wrong?! Could it be that our obsession with Wesanna and the late, great Katy and all their friends and money and houses and shoes and dresses (you get the point) has reached a scary sort of fanaticism?

For all we give out about Tila Tequila (the Myspace-made star of Tila Tequila's Shot at Love), who is famous for (a) being popular and (b) being bisexual even though (c) she's probably neither in reality, we are nonsensically obsessed with these Irish A-listers whose roles in Irish life seem to be confined to turning up at vaguely alcohol-associated events and flirting with the presenters of Exposé or, if they're really unlucky, Ryan Tubridy.

So now I'm going cold turkey. Myself and the Independent - our love affair is over. Anyway, I'm mighty peeved about what they said about my Geraldine.

"European Central Bank Officials are raising the prospect of interest-rate increases for the first time since the global credit squeeze began last August, stepping up their battle to keep inflation in check" - Irish Independent, Wednesday 23 April 2008.

If you are reading Property Plus supplement (funded through advertising by estate agents), you get this:

"ECB President, Jean Claude Trichet, is expected to help improve housing affordability by cutting interest rates before the end of the year..." - Irish Independent Property Plus supplement, Friday 25 April 2008.

Which is it lads?

De son côté, The Irish Independent est plutôt perçu comme populiste et ultra libéral en économie. Ce qui fait aujourd'hui son succès sont surtout ses suppléments et notamment sa publication du dimanche, The Sunday Independent. A noter que The Irish Independent est publié sous deux formats différents : broadsheet et tabloïd (grand et petit format)... afin de s'adapter à tous ses lecteurs.

Concernant les tarifs de ces quotidiens, l'Irish Times coûte 2€ et l'Irish Independent 1,80€. Ce qui équivaut à peu près au quotidien Le Monde en France (1,30€) si l'on considère le niveau de vie bien plus élevé en Irlande qu'en France!!

Evidemment, comme leurs voisins étrangers, The Irish Times et The Irish Independent possèdent leur propre site Internet :

Le premier s'est lancé dans l'aventure Internet dès 1994 avec pour objectif de toucher la population irlandaise présentes un peu partout dans le monde (notamment aux États-Unis). Page d'accueil épurée et contenu diversifié sont les principaux ingrédients de sa recette. Malheureusement, les archives sont payantes depuis 2002...

Néanmoins, le site Internet de The Irish Independent est plus professionnel que celui de son concurrent The Irish Times ; en effet, il s'apparente plus un réel site d'informations continues. Sa présentation et son contenu rappelle celui du quotidien français Le Monde. Il est complet et très riche.

Voici les liens vers les 2 sites Internet :

www.ireland.com

www.independent.ie

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