Oh.
You Decide
at
Oh.
Yearly Archives: 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-_GzbHDNz0
An anti-abortion protester has been convicted of harassing a Marie Stopes clinic director at her Belfast city centre offices.
Bernadette Smyth, who leads the anti-abortion group Precious Life, was warned she could face a jail sentence for her campaign against Dawn Purvis.
The judge said: “This case was run, no-holds barred, in a vicious and malicious fashion.”
He said an investigating police officer had been deliberately slandered.
Ms Purvis had been the victim of an unwarranted attack, the judge said.
Mrs Smyth was also told she will be ordered to pay compensation and would be restrained from the area around the clinic.
The 51-year-old had denied harassing Ms Purvis – a former Progressive Unionist Party assembly member – on two dates earlier this year.
With sentencing put back until next month, Mrs Smyth was told her potential punishment could be community service or prison.
The judge said anti-abortion campaigners stationed outside the clinic had been forcing any women of child-bearing age to identify their reasons for entering.
Because of that conduct, he said the range of possible sentencing may go from community service to imprisonment.
Mrs Smyth was told she will certainly have some form of restraining order imposed on her.
Although she left court without making comment, her solicitor described the verdict as “a disappointment for Christians worldwide“.
Anti-abortion protester Bernadette Smyth guilty of harassing Dawn Purvis (BBC News NI)
Previously: Bernie Smyth on Broadsheet
Last night on BBC One, Spotlight’s Mandy McAuley investigated the use of public money to pay the rent of constituency offices of MLAs including Arlene Foster (DUP), Ross Hussey (UUP) and Sinn Féin members Martin McGuinness, Francie Molloy, Mitchel McLaughlin and Daithí McKay.
If ye can’t beat them, rob them.
The second part of the two-part exposé continues next Tuesday.
Part one is repeated tonight on BBC Two NI at 11:20pm.
Spotlight: Sir Alistair Graham calls for probe into Northern Ireland MLAs’ rent money (BBC News NI)
Previously: Kerching Féin
Colin?
at
Ah here.
Thanks Kevin Whitty
Be Me
at
A mere circlet of the stunning finger candy on show at Bored Panda’s ongoing Greatest Rings submission post.
They put their left foot in.
In a provocative act of senseless dance thuggery.
The women of Donaghmede, Dublin 13 doing the Irish Water/GMC Sierra hokey cokey this morning.
More as we get it.
Via Cilian
Judge James O’Connor
When asked by Judge James O’Connor if she was pleading guilty or not guilty, Mary Bridget Sheehan, of Raheen, Caherciveen said she was pleading guilty.
Looks bad.
…He asked the Garda how he knew it was a phone, and said he passed a man driving the other day holding to his ear what could have been a small alarm clock.
Very good point.
… [He] said the charge of holding a mobile phone could have serious implications for the woman’s motor insurance, and struck out the case.
Huzzah!
Thanks Jerry O’Sullivan
To celebrate the series of FREE events at 42 Dawson Street, Dublin this week organised by event giants Event Brite [and with a €100 Music Voucher on offer] we asked: What was your worst Irish event experience?
You answered in your tens.
Runners up:
Peckerhead: ‘My worst Irish event experience was getting a brick thrown at me by an off-duty Garda during an anti-water charges protest’. And I have the photos to prove it….”
ZeligIsJaded: “My worst Irish event experience was Féile 1994. My first big concert. 16 years old and raring to go. Bought a bottle of vodka for the ‘weekend’, but like an idiot, managed to drink most of it on the train to Thurles. My partners in crime (let’s call them B & C) drank similar amounts. Upon exiting the train, we went about navigating our way to our B&B for the night. The rest in a bit of a blur, but by the time we got there, I’d managed to piss down the front of my trousers. B, who was 15 and a young 15 at that, had managed to slash his hand on broken glass, and was crying pretty loudly about it. C had acquired glow sticks from somewhere. Thinking it would be cool to open the sticks to spray the glow-in-the-dark liquid all over our clothes, he was biting the top off one stick when it sprayed into his mouth causing a fit of coughing that resulted in a bout of vomiting. So he had to proceed with puke covered clothes and a glow-in-the-dark face. I’m not 100% sure how long it took us to find the B&B (can’t have been more than 20 mins), but by the time we got there we looked worse than some of those I’ve seen returning from 3 days at EP. Fair play to the lady of the house for letting us in at all. We eventually made it to the gig and sat quietly. Too hungover and sick to do anything else.”
Mike Dublin: “My worst Irish experience ever is going to see the Pope when I was four. We were there FOREVER and my granny was sitting on the only deck chair we had. God, I wanted that chair. I was so jealous. There she was sitting smugly on that lovely light blue heavenly comfortable striped nylon chair surrounded by Moo mint wrappers……. God rest her.”
Shane: “My worst Irish event experience was my sister’s wedding. I passed out on top of the wedding cake and got sick on her dress.”
Roro Shabado: “My worst Irish event experience was having a very inebriated man expel urine upon my leg at a Metallica gig in the RDS. How very un-rock and roll.”
Scooperman: “My worst Irish event experience was at EP [Electric Picnic] a few years ago. I was rolling up a joint and a lovely looking young wan came over and started chatting to me. Turned out she was an undercover cop and I was nicked. Sh1t times.”
RoryG: “Oasis at Slane a few years back. We had to walk for miles with hundreds others past far too-few Dublin buses, which had frustrating amounts of room inside but were not letting any more people on. We were completely out of Cigarettes and Alcohol and Dublin seemed like Half the World Away. We were picked up at about 6am on a country road by a random passing bus. The driver took pity on us Crying our Hearts Out. Before our rescue we had soggy chips sold to us from a derelict boarded-up pub and rested in a ditch for a while. It took 9 hours to get from Slane to Dublin. I didn’t even live here at the time and had to sleep on a wooden floor in a mate’s house when we finally arrived. Haven’t been back to Slane since…I try not to look Back in Anger but to this day I still get the sweats whenever Wonderwall comes on the radio… D’You know what I mean?”
Pooter: “I went to all the Munster rugby matches. And I had a ticket for the match in Thomond Park on 31st October 1978. Against the All Blacks. However, as fate would have it, I had the flu and could not go…… What a match to miss. Definitely my worst ever event experience. Still have the ticket though.”
And the winner:
Robert: “My worst Irish event experience was the time I en[Comment Incomplete Due to Dropped Wifi Coverage At Technology Event. Systems Report: More Than Two People Using Wifi Simultaneously].”
Thanks all.
Previously: Do You Want A €100 Music Voucher
An improvised grenade launcher claimed by the ‘IRA’ to have been used to attack the PSNI in North Belfast
Police officers guarding a notorious interface say they have been left like “sitting ducks” following a surge in dissident republican attacks, including a recent rocket attack.
It is claimed the police presence between Ardoyne and Twaddell Avenue in north Belfast has been scaled back in recent months because of budget pressures on the PSNI.
One officer said while patrolling the area they feel their every move is being watched by dissidents and they fear further attempts on their lives.
A senior police officer said the PSNI was making every effort to protect both its officers and the public.
On Sunday evening a man ran out of Brompton Park with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher before firing it at a PSNI Land Rover close to the loyalist camp at Twaddell.
The lethal device passed through the vehicle’s outer skin but ricocheted off heavier armour on the driver’s side. The officers inside were badly shaken but uninjured.
It was the third attempt to murder police officers at the interface in the past year.
Police: we’re sitting ducks (Chris Kilpatrick, Belfast Telegraph) [not currently available online]