
Journalist Mary Raftery Dies At 54 (RTE)
Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries Scandal Must Be Laid To Rest (Mary Raftery, Guardian, June 2011)
Watch: States Of Fear

Journalist Mary Raftery Dies At 54 (RTE)
Watch: States Of Fear
Mike Tompkins there: ‘YouTube musician’, beatboxer, Michael Jackson fan and all round smiley nice guy.
Revenue officials admitted they will hit 15,000 people who have small occupational pensions with a higher tax bill.
But the tax hit will only be temporary because these people are exempt.
That means the taxman will take the money — for a while — and then return it to the pensioners.
The bizarre decision raises serious questions about Revenue’s handling of what has now become a fiasco.
However, the reality for thousands of elderly people now is confusion and a sense of alienation, according to Pensions Ombudsman Paul Kenny.

Spotted at Universal Studios in Japan: forced perspective street art for the park’s 10th anniversary this March.
Either something’s been lost in translation or John Lennon is both Snoopy and Woodstock.
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From Fatescapes: a Photoshopped image series by visual artist Pavel Maria Smejkal.
The originals are: Napalm Girl, Tank Man, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, Starvation in Sudan, and The Execution of Nguyen Van Lém.
IRELAND CLEARLY needs further financial assistance on “non-market terms”, the chief economist with Citigroup, Willem Buiter, said during a visit to Dublin.
The former member of the monetary policy committee of the Bank of England said the most attractive option from Ireland’s point of view would be a reduction on the interest it pays on an outstanding €30 billion in promissory notes, issued mostly to deal with the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank.
OR we could ‘restructure sovereign debt’, he suggested.
OR we could ‘revoke the government guarantee on bank debt’, he posited.
OR we could ‘consolidate all our monthly outgoings into one easy, manageable payment’, he might at least have added for the laugh.
State Needs Further Bailout, Says Bank Expert (Irish Times)