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Hello,
Apologies for the lateness of this article! I had meant to write and release this yesterday but I didn't get round to it (procrastination is a great strength of mine). This article will comprise of the following:

The Fourth Amendment:
- A further note on MU consolidation....Is it an idea confined to a small pressure group or something that Ireland wants?
- Beanandteddy's national strikes...A great initiative to be continued in the future?
- New player education...Are we doing enough to help new players?

The Fourth Guinness:
-Jokes, humour and wit - The announcement of the results of the caption competition



A further note on the consolidation of MU's

To add to my previous article about MU consolidation, I would like to factor in a question to the issue: Do people really want this?

The best evidence we have comes from the MoC survey done on a cross-section of the population, excepting those below Level 20, found in this article here. The answer to the MU consolidation question was not a majority ''no'', but there was really no real desire to join in one unit either. The definite 'Yes' camp only made up a third of respondents, while the definite ''No'' camp was 44%. Therefore, although some people tried to interpret this result favourably, the overall mood of the Irish population is realistically, one of disapproval.

But can this be changed? I should certainly hope so. I would reiterate what I said previously: The IA needs to be made more attractive in terms of social and political groupings and the fact remains that consolidating the MU's into one unit would create a very large power base for a very small group of people. Both of these factors need to be considered on a very detailed basis before any realistic plan can be put forward to set consolidation in motion. I certainly don't agree with starving non-IA members of government support/supplies, doing that is just isolating a huge section of the population and would seriously disrupt national unity.

A word on National Strikes

Although the planning for the National Strike was a little off beam, I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed it and have never seen eIreland in such an active and productive light. Personally, I certainly think this should be an initiative which is carried on in the future and it would certainly help the cause for consolidation; showing that we can work together to achieve something that we can be proud of. I think we should say a collective 'thank you' to President Beanandteddy for thinking up such an impressive idea and lets hope that future Presidents will take it on board and continue it.

New Player Education

While there is absolutely no doubt that everyone in eIreland wants to help new players (they provide more activity, more ideas, more soldiers and more workers), the question we must always ask ourselves is...are we doing enough to obtain and retain them? Here are two constructive suggestions:

Speaking as somebody who is relatively new, I suppose I can offer a fresh pair of eyes on this. The sense of community in eIreland is immense; as I said in my first article, it's what kept me playing past day 1, it would be great if we could harness it and there is clear demand, as expressed by the MoC survey, for a forum. Perhaps we could jolt forum activity a bit more and help new players feel more included through the community orientated aspect of the game while providing them with an education. This is something I feel the MoC should look into.

Boot camp is a great idea and although I didn't go through it myself, I see the value in it and I think the people who lead it do an absolutely amazing job, my only criticism is the fact that maybe not enough outreach is done via articles and messaging. I'd also like to see more initiatives like these set up, I think they're great ideas and I will personally be doing a series of educational articles in TFL to try and help new players.



Wexfail - the cartoon


The Results of the caption competition
I'd like to congratulate Mr Ginge, although Grainne came a very close second for the money 😃


All my friends fell out with me since I got my new hair :"(

Leprechaun's riddle of the week
Solve the riddle and get 10IEP! Post your entries in comments, you must have voted and subbed to enter (1 guess each).

What never gets any wetter, no matter how much it rains?

Happy solving!
Wishing everybody in Ireland a great day,
V+S
Leprechaunlad