Author Archives: Bodger

Londis in Dublin City University has joined a campus-wide boycott of The Irish Times

This afternoon.

Londis, DCU, Glasnevin, Dublin.

‘Karl Popper’ writes:

‘This is going to sound extraordinary, unbelievable even, but I went to buy a newspaper in the Londis the other day on the DCU Glasnevin campus only to learn that there is a campus-wide “boycott” of the Irish Times over their alleged “transphobic editorial policy”. The commercial companies on campus obviously kowtowed to a student union motion.

‘The country’s de facto paper of record is de facto banned in one of the main higher learning centres, itself home to the leading journalism school. I imagine in a ‘history of journalism’ lecture there they would teach about freedom of the important of press under authoritarian regimes. Well they have a contemporaneous example in their midst. How embarrassing.’

Anyone?

Pic: Londis Ireland

This afternoon.

Leinster House, Kildare Styreet, Dublin 2

The launch of a Focus Ireland campaign for UN World Children’s Day (tomorrow) calling for an end to child homelessness as a ‘first step in delivering the Government commitment to end homelessness by 2030’.

A petition has been set up here.

Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

Eunice Power (top) uses an old family recipe for her Christmas pudding

Peckish?

Read on.

Isobelle O’Regan writes:

Of all the things that make us nostalgic for home, food, particularly at Christmas, has the power to transport us to a time and place we love or miss. The smell of roast turkey, stuffing or mince pies can switch on all the festive feelings.

‘To Be Irish At Christmas’ has collated a host of nostalgic Christmas recipes from Irish chefs near and far revealing them on ToBeIrish.ie/feastivities over the coming weeks beginning this ‘Stir Up this Sunday’ with Eunice Power’s family pudding recipe.

Curated by Ali Dunworth, it is the ultimate nostalgic Irish Christmas recipe ‘book’ (online) full of classic dishes and some more modern twists including Mark Moriarty’s kitsch prawn cocktail, Clodagh McKenna’s fool-proof roast turkey, Anna Haugh’s favourite seasonal starter, Graham Herterich show-stopping chocolate orange pavlova and many more.

Meanwhile…

 

Eunice Power’s Christmas Pudding

Eunice writes:

Traditionally, Christmas puddings are made on the Sunday before Advent, which this year falls on November 21st and is known as Stir-up-Sunday. Making your pudding or cake early means it really does benefit from time to mature. The flavour of the spices mellows and deepens, and the fruits plump up and soften. This recipe was given to me by my Auntie Joan. She has been making pudding for 40 years. The recipe has been handed down by her mother before her, and her mother before that. You will need pudding bowls with lids to make these. This recipe makes 2.25kg (6lbs) of pudding mix. I like to make 2 x 2lb puddings (they will each serve 6 people) and 2 x 1lb puddings (they are enough for 3-4 people) as that suits my Christmas plans and the pudding bowls I have! But you may prefer to make 2 large 3lb puddings. The size of your pudding will determine your cooking time so 1lb puddings need 3 hours in the oven and 2lb puddings needs 5 hours. I have been using Blackrock Irish Stout from Dungarvan Brewing Company for the past few years, with great results but you could use any stout you wish.

Ingredients

300g raisins
300g sultanas
200g currants
500ml bottle of stout
100g mixed peel
100g glace cherries
50g ground almonds
150g chopped almonds
50g chopped walnuts
400g fresh breadcrumbs
100g self-raising flour, sieved
200g brown sugar

1 tsp each of ground cinnamon, mixed spice

Half a nutmeg, grated

200g melted butter

5 eggs

4 tbsp brandy

1 cooking apple, peeled and grated

Juice and rind of an orange and a lemon

Method

‘Soak the sultanas, raisins, currants and cherries in the brandy and stout overnight; give them a good stir now and then.

Prepare your pudding bowls, with buttered greaseproof paper, large enough to cover the top of each pudding, with a single pleat down the centre.

When you are ready to make your pudding mix your soaked fruit well and add all the rest of the ingredients. Mix together until well combined.

Divide the mixture between the pudding bowls and pack it in. Cover with the greaseproof paper, folded, with a pleat in the centre, as the puddings will expand slightly as they cook, and then cover in tin foil. Christmas puddings are quite dense because of all the fruit and nuts they contain.

Preheat your oven to 120ºc.

Place the puddings in deep roasting tins. Pour boiling water into the tin – the water should come almost halfway up the pudding bowl and then cover the, wrap the entire tin in tinfoil to make an airtight parcel– and cook the 1lb puddings for 3 hours and the 2lb buddings for 5 hours in the oven at 120ºc.

When the cooking time is up, allow to cool and store in a cool dry place.

When you want to eat the puddings, steam them for a further one hour. Turn them out and flame with brandy.’

To Be Irish

Durham Cathedral, Durham, England

This afternoon.

Durham Cathedral is the only cathedral in England (so far) to make attendance at a public act of Christmas worship contingent on the production of an NHS Covid pass, under the pretext of ‘Keeping everybody safe‘.  By introducing this requirement, the Dean is ignoring the Church of England’s official guidance:

‘The Church’s position has been a clear policy of encouraging people to be vaccinated, but, other than in very exceptional circumstances, opposition to limiting access to church services or organisations on the basis of vaccine certification (also referred to as vaccine passports).

Such an approach would run contrary to the principle of the Church being a home and a refuge for all. Similarly, only in exceptional circumstances is the Church likely to utilise vaccine certification in order to facilitate additional services to its members or to the wider community, preferring to continue to emphasise existing mitigations.’

Couldn’t happen here.

*sparks up Friday fattie*

Or could it?

*releases smoke plume*

Fight!

Durham Cathedral demands Covid passports for Christmas worship (Archbishop Cranmer)

This afternoon.

Andrew Marr quits BBC after 21 years: ‘I leave behind happy memories’ (Metro)

Getty

Patrick Kielty on the Late Late Show 50th anniversary in 2012

On Angela Scanlon’s Ask Me Anything….

…Rayna Connery writes:

Fade Street graduate, fake tan aficionado, podcaster and wannabe royal-in-waiting Vogue Williams chats to Angela about her pregnancy morning/all day sickness; deep fake porn; coping with unsolicited judgement on her parenting decisions and the top baby names that are currently in the running for her third child with her very posh hubby Spencer Matthews.

Best-selling author, social activist and Rialto fashionista Emma Dabiri speaks to Angela about one of her super fans – President Michael D. Higgins; sleep deprivation; the politicization of armpit hair and scaling clothes mountains at rag yards to help her mum out when she was a kid.

Stand-up comedian and proud husband Patrick Kielty tells Angela how he was mistaken for Italian secret service at the Pope’s funeral; the comedic tips he got from his hero Billy Connolly and how he wooed his wife Cat Deeley with a Bevery Hills brunch love story worthy of a rom com!

Angela Scanlon’s Ask Me Anything on RTÉ One at 9:50pm.

Photocall Ireland

From top: Fine Gael’s Bernard Durkan: Ronan Collins presenting the National Lottery in the early 1990s

This afternoon.

Via RTÉ News

A Fine Gael TD has called on the operator of the National Lottery to make the draw more “winnable”.

Deputy Bernard Durkan said there should be an investigation after no winner of the top lotto jackpot in almost six months.

The twice weekly National Lottery draw has rolled over 46 times since it was last won on 6 June.

Mr Durkan said: “This didn’t happen in Ronan Collins’ day. The jackpot has been stuck on €19m since September. What’s going on?

“We need a full investigation and audit into the draw.”

He added: “I’m not saying anything odd has happened, but it’s the longest run in the history of the game so we need a bit of reassurance.”

Fine Gael TD calls for Lotto to be more ‘winnable’ (RTÉ)

RollingNews/RTÉ

Last night.

BBC Question Time.

Via The National:

The outrage focused on a discussion around the experiences of racism described to MPs by former Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq.

When talking about the issue on the BBC, Peterson twice used “air quotes” around the word “racism” – a choice questioned by SNP MP Stephen Flynn.

Peterson said: “‘Racism’ is a global and vague term.”

He was then interrupted by Flynn, who asked what he’d meant by the use of the air quotes around the term racism.

“Why would you possibly do that? What did that mean?” Flynn asked, adding: “The inverted commas as if it’s not a real thing?”

Peterson answered: “That isn’t what it meant. It meant that it’s indicative of low-resolution thinking.”

BBC: Jordan Peterson questioned after Question Time ‘racism’ discussion (The National)

Meanwhile…

This morning/afternoon.

Dublin city centre.

Black Friday is next Friday.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Or is it?

Via Irish Times Letters:

Black Friday originated in the US as the day following Thanksgiving, which is always on the fourth Thursday in November. For US citizens it is one of the few times in the year when they can have four whole days off work. With the result, shopping malls are overcrowded and the traffic jams have to be seen to be believed. As a result, the shops have sales with hyped-up advertising leading to the actual day.

In Ireland, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving; it is an American celebration, one which we observe from afar.

So how on earth can we have “Black Friday” sales here for most of November when we don’t have Thanksgiving or a four-day holiday? Is it just an opportunity for shops to off-load out-of-date stock?

Or are the shops covering their rear ends in case there is a Covid lockdown in December?

Tony Corcoran,

Rathfarnham.

Irish Times Letters

RollingNews