A statement released by Sinn Féin Cork city councillor Stephen Cunningham this afternoon.
Previously: Have You Seen Stephen?
Via Eoin English
Author Archives: Admin
Dirtballs
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Behold: artist Bruce Gardner – a master of the meditative Japanese art of hikaru dorodango (lit. ‘mud dumpling’) wherein ordinary dirt is meticulously crafted layer by layer over hours into perfect, but fragile, polished spheres.
Behold the deep neat of Washington’s National Museum Of Natural History: 126 million plant, animal, fossil, mineral and miscellaneous specimens, meticulously organised, labelled and catalogued.
Photos by Chip Clark.
The noble art of fencing excellently shenaniganised with motion capture by Fencing Visualised Project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN7gpZXrTXk
A Nationwide-esque promotional video for Mossy Nolan’s new EP, The Exile – out on April 5.
Fair play, in fairness.
Thanks Ruairi
Ronnie Corbett (right) and his comedy partner Ronnie Barker (who died in 2005), pictured in the 1970s.
Ronnie Corbett, best known for The Two Ronnies, dies aged 85 (BBC News)
BBC
Meanwhile…
A Ronnie wordplay tribute.
(Thanks Robert Boyle)
From top: People at Moria detention centre in Lesbos; acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Brussels for a meeting between Turkey and the EU heads of government on March 7
Further to the EU/Turkey deal…
On Tuesday, journalist Oscar Webb, from Lesbos island, reported:
Up to 190 shipping containers are on their way to Lesvos, Samos and Chios, to be used as offices by 600 EU asylum officials and 430 interpreters. According to the terms of the deal between the EU and Turkey that came into effect on 20 March, ‘all new irregular migrants crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands … will be returned to Turkey’.
Sixty judges will preside over appeals committees – also to take place in containers – for people who do not immediately accept deportation orders. And 2500 police, security and army personnel from Greece and other EU states, with eight ships and thirty coaches, will enforce the deportations. Until the material and manpower arrive, the refugees and asylum seekers are waiting in detention camps on the islands.
On Lesvos, close to a thousand refugees – the unlucky ones who arrived, in some cases only by minutes, after the 20 March deadline – have been placed in the island’s only detention centre, near the village of Moria.
They were met at sea and on the beaches by police who took their photos, gave them numbered wristbands, issued them with arrest papers (‘you have been legally arrested … currently you are being held here legally and temporarily … please be patient’) and took them to the camp. More arrive almost every day.
Conditions are bad in the Moria camp. The Greek authorities are struggling to look after the detainees without the help of charities and volunteers. Last week, the UNHCR, Médicins sans Frontières, the International Rescue Committee, Save the Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council all said they were pulling out.
Further to this…
The Department of Justice released a statement earlier this morning, saying:
Ireland will shortly be sending three international protection case work experts to the Greek Islands. The experts will come from the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner (ORAC) and the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS).
Ireland will also be offering the services of two members of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal to support the establishment of Appeals Committees. This is also being coordinated by EASO [European Asylum Support Office].
The agreement requires that the return of irregular migrants to Turkey will take place in full accordance with EU and international law. Furthermore, all migrants must be protected in accordance with the relevant international standards and in respect of the principle of non-refoulement.
This contribution will be on top of the four Irish experts sent earlier this year from the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service and the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner to Greece and Italy to support the relocation of asylum seekers under the EU Relocation Programme.
Ireland is also considering a request from Frontex to EU Member States for the deployment of border Guards to assist in the return of people from Greece to Turkey in compliance with international law. There are some limitations on what Ireland can do, given it is not a member of Frontex, but it would like to help where it can.
Meanwhile, Hannah Lucinda Smith, in The Times reports:
Turkish border forces are shooting refugees dead as they flee the civil war in Syria, The Times has learnt.
Sixteen migrants, including three children, were killed by guards as they crossed into Turkey over the past four months, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring organisation.
An officer in the British-backed Free Syrian Police and a Syrian smuggler living in Turkey said that the true number was higher.
The deaths cast further doubt on an EU migrant deal struck 11 days ago. It classes Turkey as a “safe third country”, meaning refugees can be returned there without fear of persecution.
Update on implementation of the EU – Turkey migration agreement (Department of Justice)
Waiting for the containers (LRB blog, Oscar Webb)
Turks shoot to kill as refugees cross border (The Times)
Previously: ‘Can Ireland Not Do Any More?’
Ireland And The Turkey Refugee Facility
Top pic: Oscar Webb
H/T: Subpri.me
From top: Acting Environment Minister Alan Kelly and from his speech at the Custom House this morning
This morning.
At a homeless and housing forum in Custom House in Dublin this morning.
Acting Environment Minister Alan Kelly tells those present that his efforts to find a solution to the housing problem were blocked by Article 43 the Constitution. to wit:
Article 43:
The State acknowledges that man, in virtue of his rational being, has the natural right, antecedent to positive law, to the private ownership of external goods.
The State accordingly guarantees to pass no law attempting to abolish the right of private ownership or the general right to transfer, bequeath, and inherit property.
The State recognises, however, that the exercise of the rights mentioned in the foregoing provisions of this Article ought, in civil society, to be regulated by the principles of social justice.
Hmm.
More as we get it.
Meanwhile,
last night, outside the GPO on O’Connell Street.
Darragh Doyle tweetz:
Dublin tonight. 2 queues outside the GPO. One for a play. The other for food and help for the homeless.
‘Get back over to the North Side’ guard tells guy he assumes is homeless just now. So segregation is official police policy? #guards
— Siobhán O’ Donoghue (@siobhwithafada) March 30, 2016
Top pics: Elaine Loughlin and Mark Coughlan
Ah Gawain
at
Chess Grand Master Gawain Jones
Further to last week’s call for young Irish chess players.
John McMorrow, chairman of the Irish Chess Union, writes:
The Espion Irish Junior Chess Championships [starting tomorrow at the Fitzpatrick Hotel, Killiney, Co Dublin] now has 140 confirmed junior entrants and we hope to see a final number of somewhere around 200 with entries on the day.
There’ll be events for all ages with competitions from Under 8s all the way up to under 19s as well as a competition for teachers and parents.
Games start at 7pm on Friday evening for the u12-u19s and will finish on Sunday alongside several one day rapid-play events for u8s-u12s.
As well as the main events, there will also be an outdoor plastic giant board and pieces available for fun games, lessons for beginners and a lecture/Q/A session from the parent of Grand Master Gawain Jones on the challenges and privilege of being the parent of a top chess player.
The Espion Irish Junior Championships 2016
Last Week: Bored?
Art And Film
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Filmmaker Vugar Efendi’s side-by-side comparison of film scenes and the artworks that inspired them.