Yearly Archives: 2013

90317289903172869031729090317288Liberty Hall, Dublin, this afternoon.

Now fully wrapped in 1913 commemorative cartoon-style hangings,185 feet long, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 1913 Lockout.

Previously: Stand Up Comic

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)

90137692

Bottler

Not you again?

The DUP [health] minister [Edwin Poots} has said his controversial decision – to deny gay men the opportunity to donate blood – is based on two pieces of evidence — a letter from the Minister for Health in the Republic and a document on the issue by the European Department for the Quality of Medicines and Healthcare (EDQMH).
The letter from Dr James Reilly TD (above) sent to Mr Poots at the end of May said that the lifetime ban on gay men donating blood exists in Ireland “is based not only on risk factors for HIV but on other blood borne agents known to be associated with MSM (men who have sex with men) behaviour”.

Belfast Telegraph,. June 20, 2012

Meanwhile, today:

The ban on gay men giving blood in Northern Ireland is irrational, A High Court judge ruled today.
Mr Justice Treacy also held that health minister Edwin Poots breached the ministerial code by failing to take the issue before the Stormont Executive. His verdict in a challenge brought by an unidentified homosexual man represents a major victory for campaigners seeking equal status with the rest of the UK.
Mr Justice Treacy heard claims that the minister has displayed apparent bias which went beyond religious beliefs and into the realms of prejudice.

Oh.

Ban on gay men giving blood is irrational, NI court rules (irish Times)

Previously: James Reilly’s Letter About Gay Blood Donors

(James Horan/Photocall Ireland)

Thanks Brian

00143284(Ryanair directors James Osborne, left, and Kyran McLaughlin flank CEO Michael O’Leary at the airline’s AGM last month)

And then this goes and happens.

Anton writes:

My girlfriend and I were meant to be going to London to meet her family coming from Rome. She bought the tickets for her family to go back to Rome from London on the Sunday at 4:30pm at a very cheap price due to buying them well in advance.

Since then she got an email from Ryanair saying the flights were cancelled and that she could be refunded (even that process was overly complicated). So we booked the flights for the next morning meaning that we had to pay more money than the original flights and cover the costs of an extra night’s accommodation.

The most frustrating thing is what we found out in the meantime is that the flight on the Sunday was never cancelled, the only change was that the prices were double what we payed initially.

This seems highly illegal so we tried calling customer care only to realise that all the methods of contacting them on their website are not real.

You get an automated email response saying to call the customer care number if we want to resolve our issue and then the number doesn’t even exist.

I found a number for the Corporate office and after 1 hour on hold I got through to a receptionist who patched me through to some guy in Romania who once he heard our story offered us a full refund for the flights, then all of a sudden he retracted his offer and said he doesn’t have the authority and that we should also contact customer care.

SO… I called the receptionist again who basically called me a liar and said that my story was farce and once again told me to contact customer care.

I informed her that the number was not a real number so she told me that its not her concern and that she has my
number on caller ID so she will not be answering me should I call back.

Right now we are out a decent bit of money being that the prices of the tickets for the flight on the next day were more expensive and now we have to pay an extra night’s accommodation for 5 people yet there is no way of being heard. I need some guidance on this because surely they can’t get away with this?

 

Anyone?

We offer Ryanair a right of reply.

(We tried phoning them, but, you know…)

Update: “Ryanair is investigating the matter”, a spokesman said.

(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

42272508‘Sup?

The remarkable photograph of two chickens nesting on top of four newborn puppies was sent to the Limerick Leader by John Franklin from Ballyneety, Pallasgreen.

John says their Springer Spaniel called Sally had four pups around the same time that they bought 30 broilers.

After they were born whenever Sally used to leave them for a little while two hens would come in and lie down with the pups.

[Said John]: “It was almost like they were babysitting them – taking over from Sally to give her a break. The pups, they were only a few days old at the stage, would snuggle into the broilers.”

 

Feather-brained?

Blended family, dude.

Feather-brained chickens babysit puppies (Donal O’Regan, Limerick leader)
Thanks Niall O’M

90197784

During a recent post about the difficulties encountered by parents seeking a non-denominational school in Ireland to send their children.Bingo wrote:

It’s going to be tough decisions to be made in terms of choosing between the Catholic School next door that all your child’s friends are going to but which you don’t want to send them to because of your beliefs and the difficult to gain entry to Secular School 8 miles away…

To which ‘Teal’, a parent, has responded:

We made the ‘tough decision’ 4 weeks ago when our son’s two closest friends since birth went, respectively, to a Protestant primary school and a Catholic primary school.

Never mind that all three children are four years old (that is SO young to be going to school!) but my son was number 63 on the waiting list for our local Educate Together school. We had nowhere to send him, so he is being educated at home, for now.

I am not religious and it seemed hypocritical for me and my non-Catholic Irish partner to send our kid(s) to a Catholic school. While I am not a die-hard atheist, I am not a Catholic.

It makes as much sense for me to send my children to a Catholic school as it would for most of you to send your kids to a Muslim school. It wouldn’t do your kids any harm, but would it make sense if you never intended to practice the faith?

I was born and raised in Canada where freedom of conscience and religion is enshrined in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and where “no religious dogma or creed” can be taught in schools. It’s been this way for over 40 years.

I am also an Irish citizen and my partner and children were born in this country. Is the message that I should go back to where I came from if I don’t want my kids to go to a Catholic school?

I’ve lived here for 15 years and am quite shocked that anyone would see that as a solution to this dilemma. For those that don’t, thank you for thinking outside the box and for showing that your Catholic education did not shape you into a small minded bigot.

 

Previously: Finding A Non-Catholic School
(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)

 

 

 

Thanks Bonzor