Author Archives: Bodger

From top: ‘Star Gazing’; Lough Tay, county Wicklow; picnic with dog; ‘Homebound’, ‘goose’ and the Sugar Loaf, county Wicklow

‘sup?

There’s a goose-painting Moose loose about this hoose.

Mark, at Jam Art Prints, writes:

To celebrate the long Autumnal nights coming in, we’ve an A3 signed print by Wicklow artist, Maiden Moose to giveaway. Maiden Moose is inspired by the colours and moodiness of the Irish countryside, especially Wicklow, and her faithful dogs that always seem to make an appearance in her work.

For your chance to win an A3 signed print, just tell us your favourite thing about Autumn.

Lines MUST close at 10.45pm.

Jam Art Prints

The Jam Art Prints competition runs here every second Thursday. Latest winner here

This afternoon.

Anyone?

Bun’ fight!

Fine Gael leader WT Cosgrave (in white tie and tails) salutes The Blueshirts in the Mansion House, 1934 colourised from a black and white print in Old Ireland In Colour 2 (top)

Innocent wave?

Heil no.

Sarah Mulhern writes:

I got a copy of Old Ireland in Color II and was really enjoying it until I came to a picture of the Blueshirts. The caption states that the Blueshirts are giving the ‘Roman salute.’ For some time now the far-right and far-right apologists have taken to using the term ‘Roman salute’ to rehabilitate the memory of those who took the side of fascism in 1930s Europe. I was rather taken aback to see the term ‘Roman salute’ in an Irish book that’s published in the 21st century. WTAF. The Irish Times review has the picture and caption too.

Anyone?/Fight!

Old Ireland In Colour 2

Gulp.

This afternoon.

Meanwhile…

…via Irish Times:

The man arrested on Wednesday is a former senior officer in the force who moved up the ranks very quickly and was well-known and well-liked. He was regarded as a rising star of the Garda and secured repeated promotions.

He now stands accused of aiding a crime gang by supplying information to them, though no findings have been made against him and the allegations are not proven. The Garda investigation that resulted in his arrest is now closely examining his recent activities to determine what serving Garda members he has been in contact with.

Sources stressed the arrested man had many friends and contacts in the Garda as he served in the force from the time he was a very young man until he was middle aged, adding only a very small number of those contacts were now under suspicion. No serving member of the force has been arrested as part of the investigation but serving members are now under suspicion, Garda sources said.

Serving gardaí are suspects in drugs trade investigation (Irish Times)

Yesterday: Retired senior garda arrested on suspicion of assisting drugs gang (Irish Times)

RollingNews

This morning.

The Ink Factory, Wellington Quay, Dublin.

You might regret that when you get, never mind.

Sharon Bannerton writes:

Rita Fitzpatrick of Delgany, County Wicklow, celebrated her 85th birthday this week by becoming the first tattoo recipient in the annual Tattoo-Drive for Irish mental-health promoters, JC Foundation.

The grandmother was joined by daughter, Sam Donohoe (above left), and granddaughter Hazel Donohoe (above right) who each had a simple love-heart tattoo applied, the design selected for this year’s fundraiser.

The official Tattoo-Drive takes place on Saturday next, at The Ink Factory on 15 Wellington Quay and at 19 Parliament Street, in Dublin’s Temple Bar.

On the day, a volunteer team of fifteen tattoo artists will tattoo the love-heart design, in return for a €50 donation to the foundation.  It is hoped the campaign will raise €20,000 to fund 365 free therapy sessions for young adults.

The Ink Factory

JC Foundation

NUI Galway

This morning/afternoon.

Via RTÉ News

NUI Galway has disabled internet access for all staff and students, following an attempted cyber attack on the university’s IT systems.

Initial indications are that no data has been compromised.

The university said the situation is being monitored by IT, cyber security and data protection specialists.

In a statement, it said efforts are underway to restore normal access as soon as is possible.

“As a precautionary measure, the university has disabled access between the campus network and the wider internet, impacting all users, including students and staff.”

Hmm.

NUIG disables internet after attempted cyber attack (RTÉ)

Thanks Bebe

Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall

This afternoon.

Via RTÉ:

Social Democrat co-leader Róisín Shortall described the fact that the Attorney General was carrying out private legal work as a “conflict of interest”, adding it was “just stunning and multi-layered“.

She contended that Mr Gallagher could not “take off his hat as Attorney General” and then act has a different persona. She asked: “On what planet was it felt appropriate to do so?”

Deputy Shortall said the situation was “totally inappropriate”, “bizarre” and “quite extraordinary”.

Mr Varadkar said that Mr Gallagher is a “man of the highest integrity” and he was “absolutely certain” that the Attorney General would be “very careful” to avoid any perception of any conflict of interest.

AG ‘finishing out’ number of prior cases – Tánaiste (RTÉ)

Earlier…

Attorney General Paul Gallagher speaking to Minister for Justice Helen McEntee at Dublin Castle in July

This morning.

Via The Irish Times:

The Attorney General is acting in a private capacity for former directors of Independent News & Media in their dealings with High Court inspectors who are investigating the company’s affairs.

….Following questions on Wednesday from The Irish Times, it emerged that the Attorney General, Paul Gallagher, was granted permission by the Government to deal with a number of outstanding cases after his appointment.

Asked about Mr Gallagher’s continuing work on the INM case, the Government’s spokesman said: “Prior to his appointment in June 2020, the Attorney General disclosed that he had a few existing litigation commitments to complete and received the Government’s permission.”

Mr Gallagher is understood to be acting for a number of former directors in INM including one, Dr Len O’Hagan, who remains on the board of Mediahuis Ireland [current owners].

Audacious, in fairness.

AG aiding former INM directors in private capacity with High Court (Irish Times)

RollingNews

This morning/afternoon.

Paul Callan (above), of global strategic consultancy firm Dalberg,  writes in today’s Irish Times:

…The official number of deaths from the virus in the Republic was 5,209 up to September 22nd, 2021. At 104 deaths per 100,000 people, this mortality rate is the sixth lowest among the 27 EU member states and 12th lowest among the 38 OECD countries.

Estimates by the Economist show, however, that only about 1,400 to 2,250 extra people have died since the start of 2020, compared with the numbers of deaths that would have been expected based on mortality trends before the pandemic.

This estimate of “excess deaths” corresponds to only 28 to 45 deaths per 100,000 people.

There are three possible explanations for why excess deaths could be much lower than reported deaths from Covid-19 – each of which likely contributed to the difference.

First, measures taken to control the spread of the disease are likely to have reduced deaths from other causes.

Registered deaths for the year from April 1st. 2020, to March 31st, 2021, as reported by the Central Statistics Office, were lower than in the previous 12 months for the most common causes – cancers (by 228 deaths), heart and circulatory system diseases (by 381 deaths) and respiratory conditions (by 974 deaths). Suicides declined by 27 per cent (111 deaths), deaths in transport accidents by 22 per cent (19 deaths) and deaths from influenza by 87 per cent (90 deaths).

Second, some people who died from the virus may have otherwise died from other causes. This could account for some of the reductions in deaths from cancer, heart disease and respiratory conditions – but only some, since fewer people died from these causes in countries, such as New Zealand and Iceland, that largely kept the disease out.

Third, deaths from the virus may have been overstated. Per World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, Covid-19 statistics include “probable or possible deaths” – some of which may actually have a different primary cause. Among death registrations, which attribute each death to one underlying cause, only 3,518 deaths were counted as due to the disease between April 1st, 2020, and March 31st, 2021, which is only about three-quarters of the 4,599 reported Covid-19 deaths during the same period.

Furthermore, deaths from respiratory system diseases showed the largest declines compared with the previous 12 months, suggesting that even registered Covid-19 deaths may include some that were incorrectly attributed as primarily due to the virus or at least that would have happened anyway without a Covid-19 infection…[more at link below]

Anyone?

Have we really done better than other countries over the pandemic? (Paul Callan, Irish Times)

Previously: Underlying

Not Quite The Same Thing

Meanwhile….