This might interest the politics fans. I wasted a bit of my Sunday by inputting the name of each current TD into Technorati and generated a watch list for each. Here are Technorati Watchlists (RSS feeds) for each TD going alphabetically. Maybe James can help make an OPML file out of this? I have the raw urls in a txt file if it is neeed. Comments appreciated.
** A
Bertie Ahern
Dermot Ahern
Michael Ahern
Bernard Allen
Noel Ahern
Barry Andrews
Seán Ardagh
Liam Aylward
**B
Niall Blaney
Dan Boyle
Johnny Brady
Martin Brady
James Breen
Patrick Breen
Seamus Brennan
Tommy Broughan
John Browne
John Bruton
Richard Bruton
Joan Burton
**C
Joe Callanan
Ivor Callely
Pat Carey
John Carty
Donie Cassidy
Michael Collins
Paul Connaughton
Paudge Connolly
Beverley Cooper-Flynn
Joe Costello
Mary Coughlan
Simon Coveney
Brian Cowen
Jerry Cowley
Seymour Crawford
John Cregan
Sean Crowe
Ciaran Cuffe
Martin Cullen
John Curran
**D
Noel Davern
SÃle de Valera
John Deasy
Jimmy Deenihan
Noel Dempsey
Tony Dempsey
John Dennehy
Jimmy Devins
Bernard Durkan
**E
John Ellis
Damien English
Olwyn Enright
**F
Frank Fahey
Martin Ferris
Michael Finneran
Dermot Fitzpatrick
Sean Fleming
Mildred Fox
**G
Pat The Cope Gallagher
Eamon Gilmore
Jim Glennon
Paul Gogarty
John Gormley
Noel Grealish
Tony Gregory
**H
Mary Hanafin
Marian Harkin
Mary Harney
Sean Haughey
Tom Hayes
Jackie Healy-Rae
Seamus Healy
Joe Higgins
Michael D Higgins
Máire Hoctor
Phil Hogan
Brendan Howlin
**J
Joe Jacob
**K
Cecilia Keaveney
Paul Kehoe
Billy Kelleher
Peter Kelly
Enda Kenny
Tony Killeen
Séamus Kirk
Tom Kitt
**L
Brian Lenihan
Conor Lenihan
Michael Lowry
Kathleen Lynch
**M
Micheál Martin
Pádraic McCormack
Charlie McCreevy
James McDaid
Michael McDowell
Tom McEllistrim
Shane McEntee
Dinny McGinley
Paul McGrath
Finian McGrath
John McGuinness
Paddy McHugh
Liz McManus
Gay Mitchell
Olivia Mitchell
John Moloney
Arthur Morgan
Donal Moynihan
Breeda Moynihan-Cronin
Michael Mulcahy
Catherine Murphy
Gerard Murphy
**N
Denis Naughten
Dan Neville
Matthew Nolan
Michael Noonan
**O
CaoimhghÃn Ó Caoláin
Éamon Ó CuÃv
Seán Ó Fearghail
Aengus Ó Snodaigh
Charlie O’Connor
Willie O’Dea
Liz O’Donnell
John O’Donoghue
Denis O’Donovan
Fergus O’Dowd
Noel O’Flynn
Rory O’Hanlon
Batt O’Keeffe
Jim O’Keeffe
Ned O’Keeffe
Tim O’Malley
Fiona O’Malley
Brian O’Shea
Jan O’Sullivan
**P
Tom Parlon
Séamus Pattison
William Penrose
John Perry
Peter Power
Seán Power
**Q
Ruairà Quinn
**R
Pat Rabbitte
Michael Ring
Dick Roche
Eoin Ryan
Sean Ryan
Eamon Ryan
** S
Trevor Sargent
Mae Sexton
Joe Sherlock
RóisÃn Shortall
Brendan Smith
Michael Smith
Emmet Stagg
David Stanton
**T
Billy Timmins
Noel Treacy
Liam Twomey
**U
Mary Upton
**W
Jack Wall
Dan Wallace
Mary Wallace
Joe Walsh
Ollie Wilkinson
Michael Woods
G V Wright
So…ummmm…what does this do? When I clicked on one of the names there, just a page of gobbledegook came up? What’s RSS and Technorati anyway…and um, I’m deadly serious about that! I hear everyone talking about it but I’ve no clue! Do I need it for my blog?
RSS is the raw format that a blog post is delivered in to a blog aggregator. This is what the likes of IrishBlogs.ie uses to take posts from your blog and display it on their site. You can have your own personal aggregator too for sites that you read a lot. It means you fire up an application and it brings all new content from your favourite sites into one page in a browser (a bit like your own IrishBlogs.ie but for sites you want to see) or else into a specific application.
The latest version of Internet Explorer or Microsoft Vista allows you to use these feeds and displays them whatever way you want. So for example if you were a fan of say Liz McManus, the link I sent when used in your aggregator will deliver to you any webpage or blog post that mentions her name.
and where is the one for Joe Higgins ?
Under “h”
Good work – Some of them through up some interesting things – Although no longer a TD, John Brutons feed throws up a few blogs on the Bilderburg grouping.
Odd, Bruton is still down on the Oireachtas website. Who got his seat?
Ask and ye shall receive.
Shane McEntee (FG) won the seat in the 2005 by-election – you have a feed for him.
Good work, but would it be helpful to add “TD” to the search query? For example the search for “John Gormley” throws up more results for a Canadian talk radio host than for the Green TD.
Ryan, unfortunately if that is done then it will probably only pick up the chatter on the publications that use the formal titles. Most blogs wouldn’t stick in the TD name. What could be done though is add a filtering system to a feed aggregator that removes any mention of talk show hosts or civil war leaders or astronauts etc who have the same names as TDs. All you need to do is build an aggregator and a filtering plugin.
Great stuff Damien and John, I’ve now plugged the OPML into the Open Irish Directory. RSS and OPML really do make mashups a snap 🙂
[…] Damien Mulley built a TD watchlist, John Handelaar compiled the list of feeds into an OPML file and I plugged it into the Open Irish Directory so you can now keep an eye on news stories relating to TDs by browsing the – Community & State -> Government & Law -> Dáil […]
[…] A while back I created feeds for every TD in the country. Well, now myself and the amazingRob Synnott have created a handy aggregator for all these details. It’s called Politics In Ireland. It updates twice a day. Maybe it’ll update more frequently the closer it gets to the election. I hope this compliments the already great politics sites that are out there. […]
Very cool! You will of course be providing an OPML file of all feeds for inclusion in the Open Irish Directory? 🙂