Yearly Archives: 2014

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Legislation to change radically Ireland’s direct provision system will be proposed today.

Independent Senator Rónán Mullen will call on the Government to establish female-only and family-only reception centres and grant the right to seek employment.

He said managing an asylum policy was never easy for any country but changes in the operation of the direct provision system were needed urgently.

Introduce female-only direct provision centres, says Senator (Mary Minihan, Irish Times)

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Lia Flattery, of Trinity News, writes:

Four Trinity medical students were refused entry to Palestine’s West Bank this summer…The two male and two female students, who have asked to remain anonymous, returned to Dublin in late June after being detained for questioning in Tel Aviv. They were due to travel to the West Bank with Medical Overseas Voluntary Electives (MOVE), a Trinity-based charity that facilitates third year students wishing to complete a one-month placement abroad during the summer...

…Arriving in Tel Aviv in the early hours of 1st July, the students were stopped by airport customs officers who queried the purpose of their trip. “We told the truth,” our source said. In a letter to the students, seen by Trinity News, the PCRF confirmed that they were coming as a  “non-political humanitarian relief group.”  According to our source, he and his fellow students believed this would be sufficient proof of their motives. He said that it was routine practice for the PCRF to have foreign surgeons or doctors visit the hospital to carry out procedures or train the local staff.

However, the letter “aroused suspicion” among the customs officers and the students were led away for questioning. “We were put into a side room,” he said. “We probably spent about an hour in there. And we were called one by one for five to 10 minutes each just to give our details, our name, address, phone numbers, what our purpose was, what our parents’ names were and then we were sent back to the room.”

The volunteers were then led into a second waiting room, where one of the male students was taken away and questioned individually for, our source estimated, “45 minutes to an hour.” According to our source, this student was seated in a room with a two-way mirror and was subject to aggressive questioning with “a camera in his face.” His interrogator identified himself as an employee of the Ministry of the Interior and told the student that he was a “human lie detector.”

The student was questioned extensively about how the members of the group knew each other, his personal views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, their purpose for travelling to the West Bank and why they had chosen to volunteer in Palestine instead of in an Israeli hospital. Our source said the interrogator “wanted to know everything about me… what my parents do, if I am a member of any anti-democratic groups, and whether I was politically active… what my hobbies were.” The official tried to “get us to admit that we were going to Gaza, which of course we weren’t. You can’t get into Gaza via Israel – the border’s closed. You’d have to go via Egypt. We’d no intention of going to Gaza… He was just trying to provoke us, just trying to make us say something incriminating so that he could deport us.”

Medical students denied entry into West Bank (Lia Flattery, Trinity News)

run

YOUR chance.

To represent YOUR county.

In Clapham, Sarf London.

Michael Bourke writes:

“All Ireland Run for your County (fun run – 5/10km) and it takes place in London, on Clapham Common on Oct 26. Registration fees will be split among two charities, our own (Irish in Britain) Cuimhne Dementia and memory loss campaign and Mind Yourself a London based charity that seeks to connect vulnerable Irish people to mental health services. £25 /10k, £20/5k and £5/kids 2k [includes medals and tea/bacon buttie afterwards]”

Register here: All Ireland Run For Your County

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What Goes Up writes:

Following on from the square Polaroid camera from yesterday [top pic]: the black version looked very familiar! With a little tweaking,  I present you – the Polaroid HAL9000 DSOTM model.

helmets

Gott im fuppin Himmel!

Louis Le Fronde writes:

“This is the IRISH army in the 1930s, wearing German-style helmets. Subsequent British anti-Irish propaganda focusing on the helmets was a bit unfair as they were in fact supplied by the firm of Vickers & Co in London who had been given custody of a German helmet press captured by the British.

“The Germans still retained a number of other helmet presses, but were banned from manufacturing helmets under the terms of the Versailles Treaty. When the Irish army changed its headgear, the Vickers’ helmets were buried in landfill sites. As far as I know, Irish army helmets are now manufactured in Israel.”

FIGHT!

Meanwhile…

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The badge on those helmets.

‘FF’ anyone?

Pics: WarRelics (top) and Auctivia (above)

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Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh and chairman Frank Daly at the launch of NAMA annual report 2013 in May

Donal O’Donovan, of the Irish Independent, reports:

NAMA is to invest up to €1.8bn to provide high end office space in the Dublin docklands area, the agency’s chief executive Brendan McDonagh said at an event in Dublin.
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Infrastructure required by “cash strapped local authorities” and Irish Water is also being paid for by the agency, he said.

In order to plan housing investment the agency, along with the IBF, paid for the ESRI to undertake “serious research” that has established real demand out to 2030, he said.

NAMA to invest up to €1.8bn in office space at Dublin Docklands (Independent.ie)

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Last night.

Irish supporters of a yes vote for an independent Scotland in tomorrow’s referendum at the statue of Edinburgh-born James Connolly outside Liberty Hall, Dublin.

Meanwhile….

“Who are you my friend? Who are you Scotland?
Are you A Brit or a Scot?
Can we move on from dated notions of Patriotism.
We are one Human race, so Look beyond my Face.
I am with you in Scotland, with your Natural Gas and Single Malt.
I am with you in Scotland with your deep fried Mars Bars and Irn-Bru
I am with you in Scotland, stand up and look at you.
I am with you in Scotland, this is no joke?
Let’s Burn the Empire, make it go down in smoke.
You’re a proud people, with a strong history.
So just think of what WIlliam Wallace or Robbie Burns would say.
I met a band in Armenia, they’re called the Bambir.
They make music to Rumi and Robbie Burns, two poets they love so well.
They also love Blake, who wrote Heaven and Hell.
Think of this Scotland, a rock band in Armenia play music to the words from your Man.
They toured around Ireland, I helped with my van.
They are an amazing people and they love the Celts.
In ancient Armenia they have Celtic Crosses too.
They love Scotland and Ireland now what will we do?
We are all distant cousins, if you go back far enough.
So forget about Cameron, no more of his GUFF.
I am with you in Scotland; who the feck are YE?
I am with you in Scotland; now what to do.
I am with you in Scotland, stand and fight,
Let’s build a Socialist Europe, WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!
I am with you in Scotland, from Iona to the Edinburgh Streets,
I am with you in Scotland, let’s move to the funky beat!
I am with you in Scotland, time to be free,
I am with you in Scotland, we share a common ancestry!
I am with you in scotland, last words to James Connolly.
Who was executed under the orders of Kind George, Easter 1916.
“Why should I murder a German worker for a British King, when I have more in common with my German Comrade…”
A Marxist from Glasgow, that’s not all that he said,
‘The Great only seem Great as we are on our knees, Rise Up’.
‘Sure that’s mad Mad Ted’.
(Needs a polish, and a nice heavy bass).”

By Rip Tides