From left: Nick Kelly, John Ryan and Bodger coped with lockdown through uplifting balladry. Olga on bodhran (out of picture).

How’s your voice?

With pubs now back in business*(*well, sort of), what better way to mark the occasion than ask: What’s your favourite drinking song?

Here’s mine.

Simply answer below for the chance to be in with a shout of winning a merry €25 Golden Discs voucher.

The winner will be chosen by my personal barman.

Please include video links if possible.

Lines MUST close at 10am (Saturday).

Nick says: Good luck.

Nick adds: Hic.

Golden Discs

Earlier: Last week’s winner

Pic: Thurles, 1952

A delightful, if heartrending stop motion short (eight years in the making) by Suresh Eriyat about mistakes and forgiveness wherein a young girl attempts to redeem the accidental breakage of a family heirloom by selling baskets on the streets of Mumbai.

Making of… featurette here.

shortoftheweek

Thomas Byrne, Fianna Fáil TD and Minister of State for European Affairs

This evening.

Amid public silence from his party, Ken McFadden, the Meath Fianna Fáil activist who named his friend Thomas Byrne as the source of the Barry Cowen drink drive leak, has tweeted his thoughts.

Mr McFadden writes:

‘I want to say a HUGE Thank You to all of the hundreds of people who have been in contact with support and to tell me they believe me 100%. I’m still getting through the messages, and they have come from every political party and none.

Today I did a number of media interviews and working on a few more over the weekend, the support has been overwhelming,

I also want to say it was not an easy decision to take to go public on the issue of the leak and who leaked it, I have had praise for being “brave” and others with abuse, I “betrayed” a “friend”.

I remain steadfast the information I put out on Wednesday night was the truth and I can live with the abuse from a certain few and even the two individuals (one from Slane and the one from Duleek ) who are being fed misinformation and worse by a person known to me but no longer a friend,

The more of this abuse I get the more interviews and tweets I will do, so let’s just see,

The allegations I am a man with a grudge who is angry I didn’t get a ministerial driver’s job are not true. I was unhappy I did not get the job having been asked by Thomas Byrne at least three times would I do it.

I was unhappy the way that information was given or in this case not given to me and when I eventually caught up with Thomas I felt the way it was handled by him was very grubby, so I was unhappy YES.

Does that mean I turned into a Looney Tune and decided to lie about a very serious matter like the Cowen leak? NO, it is a ridiculous allegation and it is something Trump would do with anyone telling a truth he didn’t want to hear,

I spent a decade or so trying to help/support and win elections for Thomas Byrne and I walked many a road with him and for him in all sorts of weather and conditions,

We had good elections, we were abused in some , we were welcomed in others, we met the best of people at the doors and out canvassing for with us, it was incredible.

I have made life long friendships out of Fianna Fáil and politics and  I wouldn’t give back a day, so please know I’ve been there through thick and thin.

To suggest I suddenly turned on someone over a job is just an excuse for someone who must look at their own behaviour in recent times and must be honest with themselves, I can’t do that for them.

They literally pulled the ladder up behind them as soon as they got news they were in as a minister and I to this day do not know why, I think a quick ring around the elected councillors in Meath will back up the picture I’m painting here.

I love politics and I love the Fianna Fáil party. I will always support FF and always vote FF no matter what

Finally I just want to say I’m sorry my actions on this issue have caused stress and hurt to the people around Thomas Byrne and especially his family who I know very well and who are people I have a huge regard for and are not part of this issue.

I say again the allegations I made on Wednesday are true and I will defend them anywhere.’

Ken McFadden

Earlier: Slow Byrne

Previously: Well Now

Wednesday: Who Spilled?

Rollingnews

This evening.

Compulsory maskage?

To the bikes!

Earlier: Let’s Do Some Shots

Slow Byrne

UPDATE:

Spokes.

A podcast of thought-provoking conversations with interesting people from diverse backgrounds.

Presented by Collete Colfer, a lecturer at the Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) and produced by Colette with her husband Terry Hackett.

Latest episode: Jonathan Haidt (above). A supporter of  greater diversity of viewpoints on college campuses and one of the signatories of ‘A Letter on Justice and Open Debate‘ which was published online by Harper’s Magazine this week.

Collete writes:

Haidt is an American social psychologist and the author of over 90 academic articles and three books. In this episode of Spokes Jonathan talks about the American based international organisation The Heterodox Academy (HxA) which he co-founded in 2015 and which promotes open inquiry and viewpoint diversity in academia, he also touches on topics such as group think, orthodoxy, religion and politics….

Spokes

Previously: Hello, Yes, I’d Like To Cancel My Subscription To Harper’s

Primary school teacher Patrick Harte was sentenced to three years this afternoon for the abuse of seven primary school boys at Synge Street between September 1968 and September 1970; The school’s crest with motto ‘Viriliter Age’ (Act Manfully)

This afternoon.

Via RTÉ

The men who were abused in the 1960’s and 70’s by Harte said they have finally been believed and have won their fight for justice.

An emotional Fr Tony Conlon, now a catholic priest, said afterwards they had fought for seven years and thanked the gardaí, the DPP, the prosecution services, and One in Four who had helped them over the years.

Harte repeatedly and continuously indecently assaulted his pupils in the Christian Brothers school in Synge Street amidst an atmosphere of severe corporal punishment, physical and verbal abuse, violence and terror.

He regularly beat the children with “the leather”, and once smashed a child’s head against a wall.

Harte found reasons to call the boys up to his desk, sometimes for praise and other times for correction of minor misbehaviours.

He would warn the rest of the class to look at their books and not raise their heads before he indecently assaulted the children…..

Ex-primary school teacher jailed for 3 years over sex assaults (RTÉ)

Pics: RTÉ