Monthly Archives: November 2012

Heather Perrin, a 61-year-old woman born into a modest background where third-level education was not an option, one who “pulled herself up by the bootstraps” to progress from legal secretary to qualified solicitor at the age of 31, and to a seat on the bench at 57, is now consigned to An Dóchas women’s prison.

Prisoners there now routinely double up in rooms designed as private singles, and sleep in “hard bunk beds with thin duvets”, in the words of one source.

A woman known for her liking for good jewellery and prestigious car marques, one for whom her public face and dignity were perceived to be particularly important, will be reduced to purchasing stock from the prison shop on a stipend of less than €2 a day.

However, one of the biggest challenges she faces in prison, perhaps, will be the known fact of her former occupation, a factor acknowledged by Judge Mary Ellen Ring.

Judge not, lest ye be etc.

Fallout for judge will not end when jail term is over (Kathy Sheridan, Irish Times)

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)

The Olllam

Comprising John McSherry (centre), Tyler Duncan (left), and Michael Shimmin.

Paul Flynn writes:

I know it’s sometimes frowned upon but can you please feature this clip for The Olllam, the new group of my good friend John McSherry from Belfast who has teamed up with multi-instrumentalists Tyler Duncan and Michael Shimmin from Detroit and are launching their 1st album.
You will never listen to traditional Irish music the same way after bending an ear to this fantastic sound – there’s drum & bass, glam, with trad at its centre.

The Ollam

They ARE.

Luke Crowley-Holland writes:

The UCC branch of the Labour Party [some members above] has this afternoon held a ‘charity collection’ for UCC President Michael Murphy who has said that he is struggling on his salary of €232,000 per annum.

We are calling on the government to implement a progressive budget that promotes the concept of equality.

It is over-paid people like UCC President Michael Murphy who should be targeted in Budget 2013; not students who rely on grants to get through college.

 

“Money raised from the ‘charity collection’ will be donated to UCCSU’s Student Hardship Fund,

On this day one hundred years ago Albania declared independence from the Ottoman Empire. The Southeast European state has had a turbulent existence, to say the least, since then.

Albania was invaded in 1939 by Italy, and again in 1943 by the Nazis, but thankfully in 1944 Enver Hoxha’s Party of Labour established a People’s Republic, and Albania’s recovery began.

The return of capitalism to Albania in the nineties quickly led to poverty as people’s savings were wiped out by Ponzi schemes. Civil society collapsed, there was a surge in emigration and eventually an armed rising in 1997. In recent years the Albanian economy has recovered, and is now growing faster than any other in Europe.

Here at Broadsheet we are proud of our long tradition of neutrality on the question of new states joining the European Union, but we feel the time has come for us to make a stand.

We wish President Bujar Nishani success in his attempts to join the EU.

Happy Birthday, Albania.