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He ran out on the rent.

But is he worth a public shaming?

Only YOU can decide.

‘Reluctant Landlord’ writes:

So being landlord was never really part of the plan but current circumstances warranted I should consider the option, and after 7 years of living on my own I thought it would be a welcome change.

With the help of a friend I published an advertisement on Daft.ie and before long I had a number of people over to view a room I had to rent. I settled on a person ill refer to as Martin – he was young, friendly and seemed easy going.

Everything was good a for a time. He had his parents and son over and I arranged spare beds for them – all seemed to be good.

Come the New Year things changed and bills/ rent were becoming late and he mentioned to me he was having financial difficulties but promised he would sort me out so trusting as I am I allow him some grace .

Two weeks passed and he told me the money was sent – again I trusted him at his word – a week later I check my account see the funds had not arrived so I contact him and he sends me
the transaction ID and confirmation of it being sent but I confirmed it had not arrived – he responded that he would look in to it.

I then did not see him for a few weeks and I came home mid-March and noticed his room was somewhat cleared out – he had left a note on the bed which indicated his financial troubles had taken a real turn and he had to move back to England .

The note stated he lost his job, his girlfriend and his life had pretty much fallen apart – he promised he would pay what he owed. I contacted the email address he left and advised him of my concern and was happy to discuss an installment plan for reimbursement.

As most of you reading this will not be surprised I heard nothing from him. I tried again to no avail. I was however during this time periodically checking his Facebook for updates to see where he was then out of the blue could not access his page so I assumed it was deleted.

However I randomly decided to search him while on a friend’s computer and the page was still live in which he recently posted a celebration post about being with his girlfriend for year and I also noticed he had updated his job to a company in North Dublin and was working there since March 1.

I’m now left with a dilemma while I was going to write off the amount (€1100) as a bad debt and put it down to the lessons of being a landlord.

However learning that he lied in almost every aspect of the note he left has me re-thinking things – while I accept I may not be able to get the money back – I am somewhat peeved knowing what happened and why I’m writing the article to as for you advise on what I should do.

Do I show up outside his workplace and ask for it on front of his employers? Do I ask his girlfriend? Do I message his father?

He had one months deposit which covered one months rent but he still owes me for two months and I’m short of cash as it stands. There is no way I can take him to the small claims court even and not even the RTB. What else can I do?

Anyone?

Pic: Shutterstock

Mary Mitchell O’Connor

This lunchtime.

On RTÉ One’s News at One.

Fine Gael TD Mary Mitchell O’Connor was interviewed by Keelin Shanley.

Readers may recall how Taoiseach Leo Varadkar reshuffled the Cabinet in June.

As part of this, Mr Varadkar appointed Ms O’Connor, the former Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, to the position of Minister of State with Responsibility for Higher Education – a super junior ministry.

The appointment reportedly followed Ms O’Connor turning down an offer of a junior ministry in the Department of Justice.

At the time there were two super junior ministers – Fine Gael TD Paul Kehoe, Minister of State for Defence, and Independent TD Finian McGrath, who is Minister of State for Disability.

They both receive an extra €16,288-a-year allowance on top of their salary for the super junior position.

It was also reported at the time that the Dail would have to pass legislation to create the position for Ms O’Connor because existing legislation states the Taoiseach can appoint a maximum of two super junior ministers who can sit at the Cabinet table.

Further to this..

Ms Shanley asked Ms O’Connor about the matter and she said:

“I’m delighted to be at that Cabinet table. Money has never really been the biggest issue for me. Am I going out searching for it and shouting and roaring? No.

“And I want to have the same wages as, you know, as my counterparts. But, to be honest, out there, I’m just saying it to the listeners, it’s not the be all for me.

“It’s really important that I do the job that I’m asked and tasked to do.”

Listen back in full here

Previously: Priceless

Marie O’Halloran, in The Irish Times, reports:

A family who say they are unable to cope with a 16-year-old son with Asperger’s and Autism Spectrum Disorder have complained that the authorities have placed him in a homeless hostel rather than an appropriate care setting.

Tom, not his real name, said his son had a breakdown, and that the homeless shelter in Dublin city centre was not the appropriate place for him.

“He is kicked out at 9am and cannot go back in until 5pm,” said Tom, who is concerned about his son mixing with drug addicts.

… Their son was suffering from such bad anxiety and bullying that he did not go back into secondary school last year for transition year. About three weeks ago, while living with his mother “he went really bad, he just lost it”.

Tom describes his son’s anxiety attacks as “horrific”.

“It’s like dealing with Jekyll and Hyde. He was roaring and shouting and kicking walls and he didn’t know why. My son has a psychiatric problem. He needs help, and there is no help out there.”

Gardaí were called, and John was arrested. He was then placed in the homeless shelter on July 24th, and has been there since apart from one night when he went back to his mother’s house but again “lost it”.

‘My child is invisible to the HSE as his problems are mental’ (The Irish Times)

Breathe from James Doherty on Vimeo.

The award-winning Irish short called Breathe, starring John Connors and Lee O’Donoghue.

It premiered on RTÉ Two last night and today has been chosen as a Vimeo staff pick.

Producer Peter Frankie Brennan writes:

“Just felt like this may be something your readers would enjoy.”

Ibrahim Halawa

Aaron Rogan, of The Times Ireland edition, reports:

The process of returning Ibrahim Halawa to Ireland after four years in an Egyptian prison will start next week following the conclusion of his trial.

The judge in the case announced yesterday that he would deliver his verdict on Monday. Regardless of the ruling, Mr Halawa’s return home is expected to be secured.

President Sisi of Egypt has promised the Irish government that he will grant Mr Halawa clemency and allow him to leave if he is convicted.

Irish officials in Cairo will seek to have that process started as soon as a verdict is delivered. Mr Halawa, 21, from Firhouse in south Dublin, has been in prison in Cairo since 2013.

Halawa’s return home to be confirmed by Egypt within day (Aaron Rogan, The Times Ireland edition)

Members of the Citizens Assembly vote on the Eighth Amendment in April

Yesterday.

In The Times Ireland edition.

Ellen Coyne wrote about how a woman, referred to as Niamh, wanted an abortion in Ireland 16 years ago but was warned by a counsellor she might go to jail if she did so.

She was told this by a counsellor working for Life pregnancy counselling service in Cork city.

Ms Coyne explained how Life changed its name to Anew in 2015 and how it receives annual funding from the HSE.

From Ms Coyne’s report:

“I sat down and [the counsellor] said, ‘well you do know now, your baby has a heartbeat’. And, ‘you can’t even think about an abortion, that would be murder’. And she said, ‘I understand you’ve talked to loads of people, and one of those people now could go to the gardaí and tell them that you’ve had an abortion. And if they find out, you’ll spend years in prison’,” Niamh said.

She was so scared of being arrested and not being able to get a job that she continued the pregnancy. “I was forced into it. It was horrible.”

Life changed its name to Anew in 2015. Like Cura, it receives annual funding from the HSE crisis pregnancy programme. Niamh said that there was Southern Health Board literature on the tables and walls. Both Anew and Cura are anti-abortion, but do not clearly advertise their ethos. Cura also receives funding from the Catholic Church.

“I remember going to them and thinking they were funded by the HSE so they must be legit,” Niamh said. “Now I can see it clearly, I am so, so angry about it.”

…Niamh’s story was featured as part of the citizens’ assembly review of abortion laws this year. She said she was conscious that there were anti-abortion extremists who argue that if the counsellor had not deceived her, she would not have her eldest son.

“But I’m lucky, because I love my son,” she said. “There are other women out there that do not love their children. Some women look at a child that they didn’t want, and that’s not OK.

“And it’s also not OK for a child to grow up in a relationship where they are not wanted. That harms society. It’s just about indentured servitude at the end of the day, creating this class system of vulnerable people having children early.”

…Niamh’s son is 16 years old and understands what happened to his mother when she was pregnant with him. “He has said that he understands my decisions. He also feels very angry. It makes him panic thinking that that could happen to him and his girlfriend or friend even now,” she said. “And I am very angry. Nothing has changed. It’s the same shit over and over again.”

Crisis pregnancy counsellor told Irish student abortion would lead to years in jail (The Times Ireland edition, Ellen Coyne)

Rollingnews

History is being forgotten.

David Wall writes:

As the Irish education system is revamped and modernised an issue that slipped below the radar was the relegation of History to being an option subject.

Students will no longer have to learn about The Age of Exploration (slavery and empire) The Reformation (religious intolerance) Victorian child labour (the creation of workers’ rights) or World War II (the dangers of a democratically elected demagogue who builds a platform built on intolerance and hate…)

At junior cert we learn about Celts right up to modern-day Europe and Ireland. We are given a grounding, thin as it may be, in how the world has become what it is. We develop a sense of self and begin to question why things are as they are.

The junior cert might not allow for depth of study but it grants us with an understanding of who and what we are. It provides us with opportunities to question and challenge the structures of the world, it allows us to form our own identity and it provides the capacity to realise that marching under the swastika possibly isn’t the best way to present an argument.

Students are armed with the skills of considering fact vs fiction. They focus what propaganda is and how to question sources. They are introduced to the skills necessary to combat lies and hate and develop the capacity to think for themselves.

They no longer have to do this.

The protests and counter-protests in America have served to scratch at the thin skin of social inclusivity within America. If the images from recent weeks of young white men with neatly parted hair illuminated by flaming torches were in black and white we could have safely assumed they were of rallies and marches in 1930s Germany.

They weren’t. This is America; Land of the Brave and Home of the Free, 2017.The anger and hate contorting the faces of these young men beneath the swastika encapsulates a damaged society. That the violence and hate is so closely linked to events in living memory is frightening.

A rudimentary Junior Cert education tells us what dangers to expect.

A combination of historical amnesia, willful ignorance and blatant hate has bloomed within American society in recent weeks. This is not an earth-shattering revelation, accepted, but it is a moment of truth.

The speed with which history repeats itself is terrifying. We are teetering on an abyss as the ground fragments beneath our scrabbling feet. Whether this is overly dramatic or not, the sentiment is clear: the study and understanding of our history is not an option.

David Wall is a freelance writer

Pic: Amazon

 

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