The Silver Voice Finalist Littlewoods Ireland Blog Awards 2016

It has come as a tremendous surprise to have been selected for the finals of the Littlewoods Ireland Blog Awards 2016. To make the long list was great and then the thrill of making the short list in two categories was wonderful. But here we are now in the final of the Education and Science category! It is an honour indeed to be in the company of such excellent bloggers and I send congratulations to all them for  having made it to the finals. I also wish to acknowledge those who did not make the final cut – among them are some of Ireland’s most dedicated and expert bloggers who spend untold hours researching their subjects and generously getting their information on line to share with others! A huge ‘Bula Bos’ to them all!

As a senior citizen who was encouraged and advised by younger techies, I must say what a thrill it is to be in the final list. How I wish more of my generation in Ireland would join the blogosphere! We have stories to tell; we have a perspective that is uniquely ours; we have history to record; we have peers to encourage! And there are wonderful people all over the world who read blogs and who communicate and relate back. To each of them I want to say a big ‘thank you’ for the encouragement to carry on! To the judges who took time to pore over these pages and deemed them worthy of a place in the final, a huge thanks! The Littlewoods Ireland Blog Awards Ireland 2016 Finalist badge will be worn with great pride on this site.

Voting open for Irish Blog Awards 2016 – can you spare a vote?

I am still recovering from the delight and shock of Thesilvervoice making the shortlist in two different categories for the Littlewoods Ireland Blog Awards 2016 and renewed thanks to all my supporters and readers who make keeping the blog so worthwhile.

Thesilvervoice has been shortlisted  in  the Personal list  in EDUCATION & SCIENCE and in ARTS & CULTURE categories.  This blog originated under the watchful and critical eye of a younger family member and is  testament to intergenerational learning, a concept dear to my heart for the potential it has to change lives and have a positive effect on the lives of older people – as indeed it has on mine. It is therefore a very special and particular delight to be shortlisted in the same category as my mentor. This, plus the fact that several of my favourite bloggers feature in the same categories, means I am conflicted on how to use my one vote per category!

Voting has now opened and will continue until  midnight Irish time on Tuesday next, August 23rd. 20% of the votes come from readers, so if you would like to vote for me in either or both categories, please click  here or on the icon in the sidebar to the right. And thank you very much indeed!

Along Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way. One of the places I gather material for thesilvervoice blog

Shortlisted! Littlewoods Ireland Blog Awards 2016

I am delighted to say that The Silver Voice has been shortlisted in two of the Personal categories  for the Littlewoods Ireland Blog Awards 2016. It is truly a great honour for me to be in such excellent company as many of the blogs I follow and admire so very much are also shortlisted in the same categories! A huge ‘thank you’ to those who nominated me in the first instance and to the judges who selected me to go to the next stage. Voting will begin tomorrow, with 20% being from readers and 80% from peers.

As a blogger of the ‘third age’ it is particularly gratifying to be shoulder to shoulder with the more typical younger bloggers and to show that age is not a barrier to being online.This is a very significant ‘first’ for me and I am deeply grateful to all who visit my blog and have contributed to it by reading and engaging with comments.

Thank you so much!

Blog Awards Ireland 2015

I am really honoured, not to mention thrilled, that my blog, The Silver Voice from Ireland,has been short-listed for the 2015 Blog Awards Ireland in the Education and Science category. I am very grateful to the people who nominated me for the long list, and above all am so very grateful to the tens of thousands of you who have visited my blog over the last few years.

The next stage of the judging includes public voting that accounts for 30% of the total mark. Voting takes place over the next week or so. I would very much appreciate your support if you feel so inclined. Voting can be done here or also from the icon on the right side on my site.

In fact I have been short-listed in the same group as blogs I admire greatly and have nominated myself, because they have been  particularly inspirational and supportive to me as a novice blogger, You might like to take a look at their pages too!  They are Irish in American Civil War  which can be seen here and Limerick Life’s blog that can be seen here.

In any event,thank you so much to everyone who drops by to read my pages and who takes the time to comment. You are very much appreciated!

It is not the winning, but the taking part that counts!

 

 

International Women’s Day: The Gender Agenda

“The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum” is the theme for International Women’s Day on Friday next 8, March.

The story of how this annual celebration came about is  so worth repeating as it is in itself a triumph  of ‘ The Gender Agenda’ and an inspiration to all of us girls who want to celebrate the road  travelled in our name, or raise awareness of  paths that still need to be trod on behalf of our sisters across the world.

From my blog of March 2011, to mark the centenary of this international event:

The first International Women’s Day was celebrated in March 1911. It had its origins in America a few years earlier where women had come together to protest against poor working conditions, resulting in a National Women’s Day being declared by the Socialist Party of America. Subsequently at an International Conference for Working Women in Copenhagen, attended by delegates from 17 countries, and including the first 3 women elected to the Finnish Parliament, a proposal to have a special day each year to focus on women’s issues was met with unanimous approval.

Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark observed the first International Women’s Day in March 1911. More than a million men and women attended rallies in support of women’s right to work, right to vote, right to hold public office. In 1913, Russian women observed International Women’s Day campaigning for peace and in 1914, other European countries joined in.

In 1917, amid great unrest in Russia caused by millions of casualties, terrible food shortages, and with many women removed from farms to work in the factories, International Women’s Day prompted 90,00 workers to strike and the army at Petrograd to revolt. Attempts to end the unrest were not successful and Tsar Nicholas II abdicated some days later. The new provisional government granted universal suffrage with equality for women.

Down the decades, the movement has continued to grow and has become a worldwide event in countries all over the world. In 25 countries it is an official holiday while in China Madagascar and Nepal it is an official holiday for women only. In many countries from Bangladesh to Guinea, from Vietnam to Iceland, from Afghanistan to Zambia, events will take place on March 8th to mark International Women’s Day. The top 5 countries for International Women’s day activity to mark the centenary on March 8th are the UK, Canada, Australia, the United States and Ireland.

International Women’s Day has evolved into a global day of celebration of the achievements of women, socially, politically, and economically. Women’s rights campaigners highlight inequalities and raise money for Charity and   Celebrities the world over associate themselves with the day.

So, whether you want to celebrate, raise awareness for a cause or make a call for action, International Women’s Day is a special day for our Gender Agenda! Go on, DO something!

And while we are at it, what about an International Women’s Day event for Female Bloggers! If interested, please share this post and we may be able to build an online event across the globe to celebrate who we are!

For a list of hundreds of activities and events by country, see http://tinyurl.com/bpve9tg

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 23,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 5 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

 

The Silver Voice Blog wins Social Networking Award

Séan Gallagher, Presidential Candidate, presents the Social Networking Award.

Age Action Ireland is a charity which promotes positive ageing and better policies and services for older people. In association with Google they run the Silver Surfer Awards, which celebrates older people who have embraced information technology for pleasure or as a way of enhancing their lives. Nominations were sought for 5 categories – Most Dedicated IT Learner; Hobbies on the Net; IT Volunteer of the Year, Family Tutor and  Social Networking Award. In addition the hunt was on for a person over 90 for the Golden IT Award and an older person who embraces internet technology with a sense of fun for the title ‘Google Silver Surfer of the year 2011 with Age Action’. The awards ceremony was held at Google HQ in Dublin on 27  September. Noted Irish TV Personality Derek Davis was Master of Ceremonies, while Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte was also in attendance. Three of Ireland’s Presidential Candidates,  Michael D. Higgins, Martin McGuinness and Sean Gallagher, were on hand to present the awards.

I was both surprised and shocked to discover that this blog led to my being

Damian Shiels, who nominated me for the award, and Michael D Higgins,Presidential Candidate.

shortlisted in the Social Networking category, and even more astonished when it was revealed that The Silver Voice had won! There were some truly special nominees and winners present on the day, and I was humbled to be among them. I would like to thank Age Action Ireland and Google for a wonderful day out, and for organising a marvellous event.  Damian Shiels was the person who nominated me in the first place and it was good that he was also present to share the occasion. Many thanks as well to those of you who read my (sometimes diverse!) ramblings, and hopefully there will be many more posts to come in the future!

The World Is Your Oyster

Today I discovered a really good site that may be of interest. Seniorsforliving.com list their choice of  sites from the 100 top Seniors Blogs and Websites.

It is good to see the range of topics that are of interest to the mature generation –  healthy living; stories from travellers;thoughts on growing old gracefully;the joys of grandparenting; loads of good humour and a wealth of other  good reading.

The striking thing about these blogs is  that the authors are almost exclusively in North America, where of course they have blazed a trail on joining the cyber society, with a home computer being almost s common as having a domestic refrigerator..

I will post relevant links on this blog from time to time so that you do not have to go searching  in Google to find something that will make you smile, something to challenge you, something to give you hope or to reinforce your own views.

Hello!

Welcome to this blog!

A particular welcome to the ‘silver generation’, those of us of a certain vintage who may wish to shout louder to be heard; those who may find themselves in less than favourable circumstances and who need to discover a way of becoming victorious rather than being victims; those of us who may feel that we have been left behind in this time of blogging, tweeting, and social networking; those of us who feel that we have a lot to offer but are perhaps never asked. Our lives are changing at a pace that we have not before experienced; but we KNOW that we can make a difference!