</a


Above from left: Dan O’Brien and Sean Spicer

This afternoon.

The Gresham Hotel, Dublin 1

Former President Trump White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer at an event called  ‘The Evolution of American Conservatism, the Presidency of Donald Trump and the Implications for US Foreign Policy’ MC-ed by economist Dan O’Brien and hosted by the Trump-loathing IIEA Institute of International & European Affairs.

Evolution?

FIGHT!

Leah Farrell/RollingNews

 

If you’ve never seen it, German animator Emanuel Strixner’s 2006 tale of two creatures gambling away their senses will simultaneously delight and disgust you.

Or just one of those things. 

DOTT – Wedding Song

Galway-based DOTT writes:

On the third anniversary of Dott members’ Anna and Evan’s Wedding Day, Dott have released a new video for Wedding Song, taken from their new album Heart Swell.

The video, by Madra Dana, is a look back at what weddings looked like before Same Sex Marriage was legal while being juxtaposed with McCarthy’s lyrics which contemplate how the Marriage Referendum has changed love and matrimony for the better in Ireland.

The band are also celebrating the launch of the album with some gigs across Ireland [details at link below]…

DOTT

This afternoon.

Oonagh Young Gallery.

James Joyce Street, Mountjoy, Dublin 1

In fairness.

Previously: The Eight Trees In Fade Street

From top: Bloggers Unveiled logo; Áine Carroll

Áine Carrolll writes:

On July 29, The Sunday Times ran an article about ‘Bloggers Unveiled’, where a beautician named Ramona Tracey from Offaly denied being behind the controversial Instagram account.

By way of response, I reached out to a number of people who were involved in Ms Tracey’s alleged exposé.

This is their story.

“I don’t remember a lot of the detail of what happened, but I remember the feeling – the feeling of being worthless. She told me to kill myself.”

Christine Hanley is speaking from her apartment in Toronto. Last weekend she paid close attention as the Irish online scene buzzed to the sound of another big hitter takedown.

The identity of the person behind the controversial Bloggers Unveiled Instagram account had allegedly been revealed and a name was circulating online.

It was a name Hanley had been familiar with for the best part of a decade.

In 2010, Hanley lived here with her Irish husband. By that time she was a long term member of now-deleted internet message board, a place where the members joined as teenagers and grew to be friends by their early 20’s.

One person who joined later, Jess, stood out. Her pictures featured a very beautiful woman – but she was domineering, posted a lot and was always online.

Christine says that Jess soon started picking on her publicly, using details Christine had previously shared with the group to convince everyone that she was, basically, a loser. “All of the threads she was on descended into abuse,” Christine recalls.

This all happened around the time that Facebook started to become popular. Knowing how small Ireland is, Hanley only added people after checking to see if they had a beautiful friend named Jess.

This woman was starting to make her feel uneasy. Christine’s blog reads “the vitriol she spewed was astounding. I was one of her favourite targets.”

Hanley wanted to block Jess from connecting with her on Facebook, to contain the abuse she was getting in the message board.

And then one day, after some careful snooping, she found it, the face of her bully, on Facebook. Except this person’s life was completely different – and her name wasn’t even Jess.

It turned out this girl – whoever she was – had gone on to compete in the Rose of Tralee. When Hanley saw the interview with Ray D’Arcy she knew immediately that the ‘Jess’ she knew from the message board had stolen this person’s pictures.

The woman who had gotten inside her head had been using a mask all along.

Hanley explains how she was relieved when the mask finally slipped. She went on to write a blog, jessisfake.blogspot.com, where she called “Jess” out as a fake and shared it with her real friends in the group. It turned out that “Jess” had hurt a lot of the other members.

Ten years ago on that blog, Hanley published a name: Ramona Tracey.

Continue reading →

 

Pope Francis

“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it” (1 Cor 12:26). These words of Saint Paul forcefully echo in my heart as I acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons.

Crimes that inflict deep wounds of pain and powerlessness, primarily among the victims, but also in their family members and in the larger community of believers and nonbelievers alike.

Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated.

The pain of the victims and their families is also our pain, and so it is urgent that we once more reaffirm our commitment to ensure the protection of minors and of vulnerable adults.”

Extract from a letter from Pope Francis to the “People of God”, this afternoon. Full letter at link below.

Read Full Letter: Pope Francis On Abuse (CNN)

Earlier: No Shows And Cover Ups

Pic: Getty

 

Usually, he’d have the stereo out of it by now.

Kidding.

Darragh Doyle tweetz:

If you lost a keyring with 5 keys on it, including 2 Mercedes keys and 3 smaller keys, with a Coachtraders tag near the Grand Canal today, I dropped them into Kevin Street Garda Station for you.