A First For Everything

Before Christmas, Blacknight had a sale on their ‘.ie’ domain names.

I’ve never bought one of these domains before for two reasons - 1) They’re very expensive compared to other domain extensions and 2) In typical Irish fashion, there’s apparently a load of hassle involved in obtaining one.

I couldn’t pass up this sale and had to buy one. So I went for walsho.ie - mainly to find out if there really is a lot of hassle involved.

Bought it, and thought I had it sorted.

Alas, I did not.

I had to send a signed letter to them, outlining my claim to the domain, and what my intentions were for it.

A signed letter.

Meaning I had to type it, print it, sign it, scan it and then send it.

I had no idea what to write either, and it’s hard to take it seriously when I’m justifying my claim to own “walsho.ie”.

So here is my letter to the good people of Blacknight (they are very efficient I must say, I’m not knocking them with this post).

“Claim to Walsho.ie

Dear Sir/Madam,

I write this to outline my claim to the domain name “walsho.ie”.

Currently I own the domains “walsho.net” and “walsho.com” which are used for my own personal blog, which I have been running since July 2007. You’ve probably heard of me, I’m kind of a big deal.

I wish to add “walsho.ie” to my repertoire of domains for my blog, as I feel it is essential that I obtain the Irish domain extension, especially because my website’s tagline reads “The Blog of an Irish Hero”. I’m a patriotic man you see. What sort of Irish Hero would I be if I didn’t even bother getting a paltry “.ie” domain extension? Not a very good one I’ll tell you.

You may be wondering where the name “walsho” came from. Well, I’ll be happy to explain. Very happy indeed.

You see, my surname is Walsh. Now, if you add a crafty little “o” to that, you have “walsho”. Pretty sneaky, I know. But the name first arose in my mid-teens. I find that in casual conversation, sometimes addressing someone with a single-syllabled name doesn’t quite fit the bill. Just doesn’t cut the mustard. My forename is Mark, so that doesn’t work either. And so, we had “walsho”. A few mavericks tested the waters with “Walshie” but it never caught on. I’m glad. It’s a bit effeminate. And as I’m sure you know, I am a mountain of a man, bursting with testosterone and masculinity.

People began to use this as a nickname for me. They’d say things like, “Hey, Walsho, c’mere a minute” or “Oh Walsho, you da man!” or “Stop that Walsho, you’re hurting me”. You get the jist. Wait, is it “jist” or “gist”? I never know. It’s hard to find answer online, since the word is slang, I suppose.

Admittedly I have never enjoyed it when women I’ve been intimate with have called me Walsho. Perhaps if she was being tongue-in-cheek, that’d be grand y’know, but in general I don’t like it. Nicknames are more for your mates really aren’t they?

Now, another thing I’d like to mention is th- Hold on a sec. A song just came on iTunes that I don’t really want to listen to. I’ve got it on shuffle like. Be right back.

Okay, where was I?

Oh, nevermind.

I’d like very much if you could let me have the domain. I have signed below, as requested. I shall hope you won’t be flogging that signature on eBay for a small fortune, you little rascals.”

For those who wish to see the signed pdf version, click here. Note that I could only find a thick marker to sign it with at the time.

I received a prompt response this morning:

“Dear Registrant,

Thank you very much for your application for the registration of the domain name: walsho.ie

This has been accepted”

Cheers lads.

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