This afternoon.
Newbridge, County Kildare
Friscondo writes:
Communist China and capitalist US flags fly side by side outside Newbridge Silverware on 4th of July. Sweet!
Author Archives: Admin
Hot Wheels
at
Concept designs for the officially unannounced (but apparently due for release in 2019) Tesla Roadster Y by Brazilian designer Vinicius Buch.
Founder Elon Musk has hinted that the successor to the original Model S P100D roadster (which ceased production in 2012) will have an even more impressive sub-2 second 0-100km/h time.
And some kind of windscreen/roof combination, presumably.
From top: Then Minister for Housing Simon Coveney following his meeting with Apollo House activists, including top from left: Brendan Ogle and Terry McMahon; Terry Mcmahon
Filmmaker Terry McMahon was among a group of Apollo House activists who met then Minister for Housing Simon Coveney at the Housing Agency offices in Dublin on January 6, 2017.
Terry McMahon writes:
It was late at government buildings. Rain threatened as exhausted press photographers peered up at sparsely lit windows. A cynical RTE reporter sat in his expensive car hating the dumb do-gooders that had lately hogged his headlines. The streets were empty.
Minister for Housing, Simon Coveney sat across from us. Frustration on both sides. Trying to break a deadlock. We were ‘Home Sweet Home’ and Coveney and his cohorts were the government.
We were in lengthy negotiations to secure basic rights for some of society’s most vulnerable. They were complex and difficult but Coveney reiterated the brilliantly bold statement that he would have every family out of emergency hotels by July 1st 2017.
He gave his word on it. He was staking his reputation on it. This was going to happen. This was irrefutable. This was fact.
Our side of the long negotiating table was a motley crew. Brendan Ogle and Dave Gibney were the main negotiators. Brilliant men both. Union leaders. Fighters. Then there was Jim Sheridan, the multiple Oscar nominated genius in fiction and in life; Glen Hansard, the Oscar winning giant with a heart as big as his magnificent voice; the relentlessly brave saints of The Irish Housing Network, Aisling Hedderman and Oisin Fagan; and Dean Scurry, the visionary working class hero who started the whole damn thing.
And me, the dumb fuck hack-whore who’d never be normally let in the building. On the government’s side there were men and women who led us to believe they wanted to do the right thing. And we believed them. We had to.
The final part of Jeff Wysaski’s canine nomenclature trilogy.
Previously: Know Your Dog Breeds (medium and small)
Meet Your Maker.
An inventive new podcast from face-painted broadcaster Liam Geraghty (top).
Liam writes:
Its been a long time coming but I’m thrilled to finally announce Meet Your Maker – a new podcast about the people who make the things we love, hosted by myself.
The first episode launches on July 31. Subscribe now on iTunes / Apple Podcasts and Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can listen to the teaser trailer (…origin story!) above and please spread the word to the podcast loving people in your life
Pic: Ruth Medjber
‘sup?
Frank O’Dea writes:
The new season of Game of Thrones is set to start again on July 17 on Sky Atlantic. Here’s a little poser on the Game of Thrones chair that went on display at MCM Comic Con Convention at RDS Ballsbridge at the weekend….
Craptastic
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Moment of laughter at the Disclosures Tribunal when Supreme Court judge Peter Charleton stopped proceedings as a woman attempted to leave the hall but couldn’t open the door.
As he stopped the proceedings to draw attention to her plight, he said he didn’t want to be accused of false imprisonment.
FIGHT!
Rollingnews
Luke Brennan writes:
Strange bird on the bank of the Grand Canal today, anyone know what it is?
Anyone?
Mary Higgins, of Caranua
Ellen Coyne, in today’s Times Ireland edition, reports:
Caranua spent hundreds of thousands of euros from a fund for survivors of institutional abuse without permission, the Department of Education has confirmed.
Mary Higgins, the chief executive of Caranua, had suggested that figures relating to the contracts were not “up to date” after The Times reported them.
Yesterday a spokesman for the department said that The Times story was accurate. “There was no issue with the original information,” he said.
Caranua administers a €110 million fund set up to pay for the health, housing and educational needs of survivors. The state agency’s only function is to divide the money between applicants and its own administrative costs also come from the fund.
… There is no record of the Department of Education approving any spending for Caranua for the past two years despite some board members saying that lists of administrative contracts about to be entered into were discussed at meetings in the past 24 months.
In an interview last month on Newstalk Ms Higgins rejected criticism of her agency spending money without permission and claimed that the department records were not up to date.
Caranua spent funds without permission, officials confirm (The Times, Ireland edition)