Yearly Archives: 2014

 

Castlebar, County Mayo this evening.

Meanwhile, in Ballyhaunis

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Thanks Emmet Keane.

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Independent TD Shane Ross, staff member Claire Farrell, and other staff members at Mount Carmel Hospital earlier today, as 200 staff worked their last shift.

Another 128 will lose their jobs in the coming weeks.

Liquidators were appointed to the private hospital, which opened in 1949, last Friday.

Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland

UPDATE:

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Would you vote for Kenny Egan in the local elections in May?

RTÉ reports:

“Enda Kenny paid tribute to [Kenny Egan], who he described as “an outstanding athlete and ambassador for Ireland.”

“It is not concluded yet, but the party is talking to him,” Mr Kenny said.”

Taoiseach confirms Kenneth Egan considering standing for Fine Gael (RTÉ)

Pic: Irish Sports Council

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The Midnight Planetarium Timepiece (don’t call it a watch) by Van Cleef & Arpels and Christiaan Van Der Klaauw features six ‘planets’ made of semi-precious stones.

The ‘planets’ rotate according to their actual solar years: Mercury goes round every 88 days, Venus: every 224 days, Earth: every 365 days, Mars: every 687 days, Jupiter: every 12 years and Saturn: every 29 years.

Uranus and Neptune are excluded because they take so long (84 and 164 years respectively) to orbit the sun, they would appear stationary on the dial.

Choose your lucky day and the Earth will align with the painted star to signify it.

Unveiled at the annual Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva after three years of development, the timepiece is available to buy for a mere €180,000 and charge.

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Responding [to the apology and payment to John Waters and members of the Iona Institute by RTE] in a press release issued within the last hour, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte gave his two cents.

“Speaking personally, I have never used the term ‘homophobe’ to describe those who disagree with me on issues of gay equality in general or gay marriage in particular. It is too loaded a term to be used to categorise those who hold contrary views on what is a matter for legitimate public debate.

That said, I would also hope that people and institutions that hold themselves out as commentators on, or contributors to, public debate fully appreciate – as most politicians do – that debate can be robust, heated, personal and sometimes even hostile. If you enter the arena, you cannot expect that the Queensbury Rules will always apply.

It would be a matter of serious concern if recourse to our defamation laws was to have a chilling effect on the conduct of public debate on this issue, in the lead-in to the forthcoming referendum on gay marriage.

I have no intention of interfering in RTÉ’s management of the litigation claims against it. But I do expect that RTÉ remains fully committed to its chief obligation as a public service broadcaster – to ensure the full and free exchange of information and opinion on all matters of legitimate public interest.”

Defamation law must not have chilling effect on legitimate public debate – Rabbitte (Dept of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources)

Queensbury Rules?

Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland