I should have had these clips in the “Irish Blog Awards 2009 – The Interviews” post, but didn’t get time to do much more (’cool’) editing … that is, until now:

This is John Williams… and no, he’s not the famous composer known for his movie scores, white beard and slightly Richard Attenborough -like looks… – although he has, like his more famous namesake, done work on television scores and various other audio productions in his capacity as a sound engineer.

He’s also one of Ireland’s most prolific twitterers. I nabbed him for a few words last Saturday night during a smoke break, and this is what he had to say for himself:

[2:54]

Also out in the smoking area (isn’t it always they way… the fun times happen out in the bleedin’ freezin’ cold!) was bubbly Cork lady, Catherine – from MyMunster.com – who spoke to me briefly about the site (they connect Munster rugby fans world-wide) and about why she was there at the Irish Blog Awards 2009.

[1:21]

Unfortunately, the only words I got out of event organiser and blogging supremo Damien Mulley (while the recorder was on, anyway), were the following:


[00:08]

… so I wandered off and interviewed Rick then.

… and yes, this is the last of these interviews (sadly)!

Sod the oscars – the rebel county was the place to be this weekend at the 4th annual Irish Blog Awards in the Cork International Airport Hotel. I was in attendance and it was a crackin’ night!

Massive kudos to Damien Mulley for organising an incredible event. There’s loads of photos online already, and I’m sure, plenty more to come.

I, along with many others, was posting updates and pictures to twitter (mostly under the tag #iba09) including the results as they happened! (Full winners list is now online). After the awards ceremony itself, I was wandering around with my recorder, looking for victims to be interviewed briefly – and I nabbed the following:

	Suzy Byrne (Maman Poulet) – winner, Best News & Current Affairs Blog & Grand Prix winner, Best Blog (05:23)
	Grandad/Richard O’Connor (Head Rambles) – past winner & nominee for Best Personal Blog (02:36)
	Rick O’Shea – Past winner, 2FM daytime DJ and Irish Blog Awards MC (03:26)

Thanks a million to these three for the interviews. To the others I was chatting to and recording, many many thanks also!… I just haven’t gotten around to editing that little mountain of audio down just yet.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting new people and catching up with people I’d met before. The hotel itself is awesome and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Jason is absolutely right to want people to write up a good review for it and, of course to vote for Rick in the Meteors!

I’m sure there’s loads of IBA’09 stories yet to be told – including the tale of the Ryanair plane-load of speed-tweeting bloggers stuck on the tarmac in Dublin – and the various anecdotes of the Twitster (Twitterers playing Twister) on a bouncy castle while the DJ pumped out the tunes … but I’ll leave those accounts for other bloggers to report on. I got a LOT of sleep once I got home today… now I’m off to get some more.

By all means, draw your own conclusions, – but it would seem to me that Jim Corr, guitarist with Dundalk based band “The Corrs”, has far too much time, money and Internet access on his hands.

In a radio interview on Today FM’s “The Last Word” yesterday, he went on a well rehearsed rant about the Lisbon Treaty and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Apparently, he got on the air thanks to his buddy Tony Fenton (pictured with him here).

During his rant, he claimed that:

The Bush administration, with the help of the intelligence community – the CIA, etc., carried out the atrocities in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania

Explosives were planted in the WTC towers in order to ensure that they “collapsed neatly into their own footprint”

Rudolph Guiliani, then mayor of New York, covered it up by shipping evidence (including steel from the towers) abroad

None of the hi-jackers were actually on the airline passenger manifests and at least eight are still alive and free today

We are headed towards a “new world order” culminating in a single world government which he said would be a “scientific dictatorship” – starting with Mexico, Canada and the US merging (and using one currency, the “Amero“) – and those later merging with Europe and Asia.

It all smacks quite clearly of some very well known conspiracy theories which have been circulating on the Internet for the past 6 years (including one in a Google Video which he referenced) – most of which a lot of us have heard (and laughed at, in fairness) before and most if not all of which have been comprehensively debunked.

Oh!- and he also claimed, in a roundabout way, that the Lisbon Treaty will mean the eventual introduction of the death penalty in the E.U.

They’re also talking about this on boards.ie and Damien blogged about this earlier today (but the YouTube video he referenced doesn’t have the full interview)…

So here’s the full interview now:

Oh and Jim’s not alone either…! Won’t we all be kicking ourselves if 10 or 20 years down the line, he’s found out to have been correct all along? Ray D’Arcy said on air today that if that does happen, he’ll publicly apologise to Jim Corr for not believing him but added that he didn’t think at that stage anyone would care about the Louth man’s opinion.

Do we care now? Whatever about Jim’s “sensational” outburst – everyone should get themselves properly informed – there’s only two weeks left before the country goes to the polls in the Lisbon Treaty Referendum.

Accomplished actor, National Rifle Association activist (and ex-President) and friend of George W. Bush, Charlton Heston died at his Beverley Hills home last night with his wife (and presumably a loaded gun) by his side.

Here he is, talking to Michael Moore (who mentions the death on his web site), in the movie ‘Bowling for Columbine‘.

More: Story on RTÉ News
Via Rick: Charlton Heston Videos