Yearly Archives: 2016

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This afternoon.

A Repeal The 8th banner on the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas in Galway.

Díobháil writes:

In the early morning hours of [today], feminist pro-choice activists Díobháil (Bíonn Díobháil a dhéanamh againn: We make mischief) struck again and dropped a banner from Galway Cathedral stating “Repeal the 8th – Free, Safe, Legal” demanding access to abortion.

For too long, the Church and the State have controlled our bodies and our choices. It is time to finally end the unholy alliance of Church and State.

While Díobháil respects peoples’ personal religious beliefs, these should not be imposed on others, and the vast majority of people in Ireland agree (Amnesty International’s Red C Poll found that ‘82% of people polled who describe themselves as religious believe their religious views should apply to them and not be imposed on other people).

Let us not forget, St. Brigid was our first abortionist, and this is why we demand “Take your rosaries off our ovaries!”.

We are not vessels, we are not incubators, we will not be silenced.

Thanks Díobháil

Meanwhile…

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This morning.

Belgard Luas station.

Thanks Reppy

Meanwhile…

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Dame Lane, Dublin 2

Thanks Barry H

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Every month, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), launched in 2005, sends images back to Earth.

A recent batch of more than 1,000 photographs coincided with the Martian equinox when the sun shone directly onto the planet’s equator, revealing clear views of a surprisingly diverse, multicoloured terrain normally shrouded in darkness.

View the complete image set here.

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Irish Water protesters outside the GPO in Dublin on June 20, 2015

This morning, the Irish Independent‘s environment editor Paul Melia reports that Irish Water will need approximately €300million from the State to make up the cost of suspending water charges.

He also reported that Irish Water is to rerun its public information campaign to “convince” people to pay.

Mr Melia spoke to Katie Hannon earlier on RTÉ’s Today with Seán O’Rourke show.

From their discussion.

Katie Hannon: “According to documents seen by the Irish Independent, as the phrase goes, the Government has been informed that Irish Water is going to require almost €300million to compensate for the suspension of water charges. The Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government said the shortfall would be made up for in 2016 but haven’t announced their intentions for the next two years. Additionally, Irish Water believes that it is going to have to launch an enormous and costly campaign to convince the public of the need to pay for water services if charges are re-introduced after March of next year when the current period of suspension will have run its course. Paul Melia, environment correspondent for the Irish Independent has been writing about this and he joins me on the line now. Paul, welcome.”

Paul Melia: “Thank you.”

Hannon: “Almost €300million is what you’re saying the cost will be upfront. Can you break that figure down for me?”

Melia: “Certainly, these are financial projections that were provided by Irish Water to the department in June and what they’re saying is that, for 2016, there’s going to be a revenue shortfall of €123million or so. Now this figure isn’t new, we know this figure and that’s basically because charges are going to be suspended, have been suspended for the second half of the year. So, Irish Water says this is the cash shortfall we’re going to have. Now, the Government has said that they will make up that difference and, you might recall, there was a water conservation grant last year which cost €110million. This shortfall of €123million – there’s a gap there of somewhere of €13million, up to €20million that the Exchequer will be able for this year. So that’s all been addressed and sorted out. There’s no funding issue for this year. Where it gets interesting is that Irish Water has come up with two scenarios. A scenario if billing returns next year and a scenario of no billing returns. And what they have said to the department is: if billing resumes from the second quarter of next year, which is expected, or sorry, that’s when a decision will be made, there will still be a revenue shortfall of about €125million now this is because there will be no billing for the first three months, so there’s about €65million or so missing there. And then, also, the balance is made up of they believe that people just won’t pay, that they’re going to have to go back and re-engage with householders and say to them: ‘look, we’re Irish Water, this is the job that we have to do and this is how we have to pay for it’. So, their public information campaign starts all over again.”

Hannon: “And tell me Paul, before I let you go any further, remind people how much has already been spent on convincing people that they need to pay for water?”

Melia: “Well I mean there’s been two, certainly in May, there was a report, Irish Water had spent about €350,000 on outside public relations, this was on top of their fully-staffed press office which I think has three people in it. And then there was an expensive advertising campaign last year as well which talked about basically how water came from the clouds to the tap essentially, that cost about €650,000 or so. So there’s about €1million all in, there’s probably more than that. But that’s certainly, more or less, what’s been spent to date. So, they’re talking about rerunning a lot of that stuff again. If the charges come back in…

Hannon: “Of course, just to stop you there again, ‘if’ is a very big if there, isn’t it? Because certainly the political temperature would indicate that that is a very big if.”

Melia: “It certainly is. I mean I think more than 100 TDs in the Dáil are opposed to water charges in any way shape or form and this expert commission that the Government has established, that’s meant to look at the long-term funding model for Irish Water, in other words, how will the day-to-day operations, which cost in or around €1billion a year, plus the capital expenditure programme be funded. They’re due to report back at the end of March of next year. And then they will recommendations with the Dáil committee. That Dáil committee then will examine that and it will make recommendations to the Dáil itself and it will be put to a vote. So TDs will ultimately decide whether or not domestic water charges are reintroduced or whether they’re abolished permanently. As you said, the political temperature at this stage certainly is that they’re not going to be reintroduced.

Listen back in full here

Irish Water needs €300m to make up for loss of charges (Irish Independent)

Rollingnews

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FONDA – New single and gigs this weekend

What you may need to know…

01. Galway/Limerick/Glasgow garage-rock trio FONDA have emerged as ones-to-watch in Irish music in recent times.

02. Specialising in a brittle, melancholic, but warm strain of croon-along, garage-rock-inflected pop, the band formed in January of last year, and got their debut EP, Social Services, out of their systems in June.

03. Streaming above is the video for new single Dreaming, described by The Thin Air as “probably our favourite Irish track of 2016 so far”. Produced by Bloom Media, it was shot in the none-more-Limerick location of Costello’s Tavern, once described perfectly by a friend of your writer’s as “Freakscene on Craggy Island”.

04. Playing tonight at the Bernard Shaw in Dublin with Shrug Life, and tomorrow night at Fred Zeppelin’s in Cork with Limrockers Slow Riot. Catch them supporting Gun Outfit upstairs in Dolan’s in Limerick on the 16th, also.

VERDICT: FONDA bring together the existential horrors and the warm-and-fuzzies. What’s not to like?

FONDA

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Emlyn Lewis writes:

You may have remembered last year and the year before sharing a video of me dressed as Sonic The Hedgehog…and MegaMan racing the Dublin Luas Tram [see links below]. I just finished a brand new one, where I’m dressed as Axel from Streets of Rage racing the Luas Tram…

Previously: Sonic Vs Luas

Mega Man Vs Luas

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Bride Street, Dublin 8

A ‘Shook Up Cyclist’ writes:

I know you don’t usually do this, but I would like to offer my apologies to another road user.

I was cycling down Bride Street [Dublin 8] this morning when a van started to overtake me with it’s left indicator on.

Very frustrating as a cyclist (are they going to slow down to let me go or are they going to cut across my path??).

But the van slowed to a stop a couple metres short of the turn so I thought that the driver wasn’t that inconsiderate after all. I continued on through the junction and quickly realised that he had not stopped to let me go but rather because there was a car in front turning left.

It was a very close miss and I was almost wiped out by the car that had been preparing to turn. I gave the driver stink for indicating at the last minute because in the heat of the moment I didn’t realise that my view had actually been blocked by the van until it was too late.

I would like to apologise to the driver of the red car and his passenger. It scared the sh** out of me and I know that it probably scared the sh** out of you too.

In fairness.

Pic: Google