Yearly Archives: 2016

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Brian writes:

Hey, I know you normally don’t do this but its worth a shot.. Was at Castlepalooza for the first time.. Had a good time, lovely festival but on Sunday we returned to our tent and the front flap had been slashed .. There were some valuable items in the tent that could have been taken, but instead a bag with some t shirts and phone chargers was taken out and kicked around the campsite.. mindless stuff.. managed to recover a couple of things from the ground and the lost and found but the bag is missing.. so if you happened to ‘find’ a black CabinZero 44L bag (above) with a Ryanair tag on the top handle and think that it might have rained bags (!),  it would be nice if you could return it.. we’re going to have to replace the borrowed tent, so bit of a disappointment for what was otherwise a lovely experience.. Thanks campers.

aer lingus

Hello you.

Brian Carey writes:

I realise you don’t normally do this but I’ve had no luck anywhere else so I thought your readers might be of assistance.

I flew with Aer Lingus on Sunday last ( July 3) from Toulouse to Dublin and left my phone in the seat pocket of seat 7B.

When we contacted Aer Lingus, they were ‘unable’ to ask either the flight crews on the plane or the cleaning crews to see if the phone is still in the pocket.

It has to be found by someone and then logged as lost. So far, no luck, so I would greatly appreciate if you could ask any broadsheet readers who are flying Aer Lingus to check seat pocket 7B (and 7A & 7C just in case), or even better, if anybody knows they are on Aer Lingus plane St Mel, EI-DER, to check the seat pocket.

We know the plane was in Verona today and is going to Pula this evening. Many thanks.

Anyone?

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From top: Joe O’Toole; Xavier Leflaive, Gritta Nottelman and Peter Peacock of the government’s expert commission on water charges.

“People voted a certain way, Leinster House is not prepared to grasp that particular nettle, so we have to find a solution that will have enough sugar on it to make the medicine go down easily.”

Joe O’Toole on Newstalk Breakfast, June 30, 2016

Paul Murphy TD writes:

Joe O’Toole has been forced to resign as chair of the supposedly neutral expert commission not because he believed its job was to add enough sugar to make water charges, but because he gave the game away.

In his resignation statement, he declared:

“I am comfortable with the fact that I put my views honestly and transparently on the record. It is regrettable that my straight-talking has caused difficulties for others but in that regard I am unlikely to change anytime soon.”

Anybody who pays attention to politics will know that the establishment of ‘independent’ commissions to look into things is the oldest trick in the book. The aim is usually to take heat out of an issue in order to be able to return later to it.

The issue of the expert commission on water charges is no different. The government has faced a mass movement of opposition on water charges – with significant protests, a mass boycott and that reflected in the general election.

The result is a Dail where about 70% of TDs have a mandate to end water charges and abolish Irish Water.

Yet, Fine Gael in particular remains committed to bringing water charges back and Fianna Fáil is far from committed to really oppose them.

So between them, they agreed the proposal of suspension of water charges and the establishment of this water commission to ‘look into it’.

It, as Joe O’Toole let slip, has a predetermined outcome, which will be some form of water charges.

The ‘experts’ will have spoken and we will be told by large sections of the media that it is deeply irresponsible not to go along with water charges.

Who are those experts?

Well many of them are connected to water privatisation.

That includes Xavier Leflaive of the OECD who has previously written that

“Water pricing can be used to signal scarcity and to create incentives for efficient water use in all sectors (e.g. agriculture, industry, domestic)”,

Peter Peacock who is chair of the Customer Forum for Water Scotland, and Gritta Nottelman who works for a private Dutch water company.

This elevation of supposedly neutral experts is of course a part of the technocratisation of politics, what Peter Mair described as the “hollowing of western democracy”.

We have had a thorough debate on water charges over the past years. People engaged in street meetings, in mass protests, in campaigning organisations.

They then spoke – decisively, in protest, in a majority of people boycotting and in the general election.

The problem the government has is that they spoke the wrong way and therefore a way has to be found around them.

Right2Water has agreed a further major national protest on Saturday,  September 17.

This will be an opportunity for a renewed call for the attempts to subvert the wishes of people to end. The so-called expert commission should go.

The bullying from the European Commission should not be heeded.

The Dáil should simply act to abolish water charges and Irish Water and provide for the necessary substantial investment in water infrastructure paid for through progressive taxation.

Paul Murphy is a TD Anti Austerity Alliance. Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulmurphy/AAA

Earlier: Glug

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This afternoon.

Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2

The Pro life Campaign protesting Mick Wallace’s fatal foetal abnormalities private members bill on abortion.

They claim those supporting the bill are doing a “real disservice to families of babies with life limiting condition, particularly those who have been pressured to abort their child”.

Top from left: Aifric Ni Fhloinn, Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Cora Sherlock, Emma Sisk and Lorraine Mc Mahon.

Earlier: Unconstitutional Deference

Rollingnews

 

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Friday July 8: Zehr Gut presents: Sevensol (Kann), Sleep Thieves & Liza Flume @ Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Temple Bar, Dublin (€12/€15, 9pm)

Nialler9 writes:

Independent promoters HomeBeat and The Goethe-Institut Irland’s German-focused night featuring German house headliner Sevensol along with electro synth pop band Sleep Thieves and minimal pop songwriter Liza Flume in Temple Bar Gallery and Studios. It’s BYOB too.

Nialler9’s Gig Guide, July 5-July 10 (Nialler9)

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They’re still waiting.

Of these shots of Connolly Station, Dublin 1 from the late 1990s artist and photographer Thomas Fitzgerald writes:

“I wasn’t living in the city. I was working in Dublin, but still commuting from my home town of Wicklow. As such I spent a lot of time getting the train from Connolly station. While it was part of my daily routine at the time, I can’t believe how strange it looks now. Since these shots were taken the station has undergone a major refurbishment, and of course, the Luas tram system now stops there also.”

The Streets of Dublin Part 1 (StreetsofDublin)

Previously: The Specials in Connolly Station, 1979

Pics: Thomas Fitzgerald

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All the world’s a rabbit.

A new unhinged multiplication from UK animator Cyriak Harris, who says of it:

When I first had the idea for this video there were 7 billion people in the world, and I wanted to see what 7 billion of something actually looks like. I’m not entirely sure if I managed to create that many rabbits as I gave up counting them, and meanwhile 400 million new people appeared, so perhaps my work will never be done.

Previously: Cirrus By Bonobo By Cyriak