Author Archives: Bodger

This afternoon.

Watch live here.

More as we get it.

Previously: Left To Die: Nursing Home Timeline

RollingNews

T

 HSE’s National Lead for testing and tracing, Niamh O’Beirne this afternoon

This afternoon.

Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin.

HSE weekly briefing

Niamh O’Beirne [HSE National Lead for testing and tracing] said “we are in surge, exceeding 20,000 tests per day.”

She said the positivity rate over the last week was 5.9% across community test centres. Yesterday it was 7.8%, she added.

Ms O’Beirne said “at some sites it’s as high as 15%”.

She said the number of close contacts is “around four per person”.

She urged people to “take the calls from contact tracers and give all of your contacts”.

You need to give all of the names so that we can text them regularly and so that they can be referred for testing.”

Covid-19: ‘Vulnerability’ to Delta reduced by vaccines (RTÉ)

Leah Farrell/Photocall ireland

This morning.

Iveagh House, Dublin  2.

Simon Coveney, Minister for Foreign Affairs, with Belarusian democratic opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is challenging President Alexander Lukashenko for power in Belarus.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya, who spent her younger Summers in Roscrea, county Tipperary on a programme for children affected by the Chernobyl disaster, will address the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs later.

Meanwhile…

This morning.

Iveagh House, Dublin 2.

Simon Coveney, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, with his Slovenian counterpart, Foreign Minister, Dr. Anže Logar, during an official visit.

Slovenia has supported sanctions against Belarus following the forced landing of a Ryanair Lithuania-bound flight to Minsk and the arrest of an opposition activist and blogger critical of President Lukashenko.

Julien Behal Photograph/RollingNews

This morning.

Government Press Centre, Dublin 2.

Minister for Public Expenditure & Reform, Michael McGrath (left) and Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe at the launch of  the Government’s Summer Economic Statement 2021. To wit:

Despite needing to borrow nearly €19bn more than expected to balance the country’s books for this year, Paschal Donohoe intends to keep the purse strings loose for the lifetime of this Government.

The Finance Minister is looking at €2bn of tax cuts by the end of its term in 2025, while at the same time ramping up non-Covid spending.

We’re back, baby.

Rarr.

Post-pandemic boom to fund four years of tax cuts as Donohoe loosens purse strings (Independent.ie)

Meanwhile…

Seems legit.

Leah Farrell/RollingNews

Free tonight?

DON’T sign, Miggeldy, headbutt their kneecaps.

Fight!

Last night: Not In Our Name

From top: Dublin Dublin District Coroners Court, Store Street; Section 40 of the Births, Deaths Registration Act

Peter Keating, a Dublin-born writer now living in Munster, writes:

In June 2021, the Coroner’s Society of Ireland rightly called for a “wide-ranging inquiry” into all covid-related nursing home deaths.

This call was backed by Mayo County Coroner, Mr. Patrick O’Connor, who had previously also publicly questioned the recording of covid deaths in Ireland.

This issue seems to have been shelved by the Irish media, but it should not be allowed to go quietly into the night. It is not merely an issue of public confidence in the government, the health service, and the medical profession; it may also be a criminal matter.

On 3rd July 2020 the Tánaiste made a statement to the following effect on social media:

“…In Ireland we counted all deaths, in all settings, suspected cases even when no lab test was done, and included people with underlying terminal illnesses who died with Covid but not of it.”

It beggars belief that such recording practices could be a matter of policy. Was there a direction to adopt such recording practices, and from whom did it originate? It would surely have to originate at government level, and then be transmitted via the HSE for implementation by hospital staff at local level.

This is a serious matter for the State, and warrants investigation to determine whether offences have been committed, and by whom, under Section 40 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1874, which still provides for a penalty of up to seven years penal servitude upon conviction on indictment for any person who wilfully gives to a registrar any false information concerning the cause of any death.

How did it happen that death certificates were falsified on such a scale?  Where is the investigation and the outrage?

Anyone?

Previously: Covid death numbers on Broadsheet

RollingNews

From top: King Ivor’s throne (estimate €300-500) and  Aslaug’s boat chair (est €200-400), both  from ‘Vikings’; ‘Game of Thrones’ candelabra (est €400-€800); King Alfred’s throne in ‘Vikings’ (€300-500)

Need furnishings?

Forget IKEA.

Yvonne writes:

Laois’s auctioneer to Hollywood, Sean Eacrett will be bringing the gavel down on his latest celluloid props collection, with ‘Vikings’ and Game Of Thrones’ on Monday next.

The auction will feature thrones and costumes props primarily from the six Vikings series filmed in County Wicklow, and two items of interest from Game Of Thrones (see above).

Vikings ran for six series, which were filmed in Ashford County Wicklow on a set which included an entire mock village called ‘Kattegat’.

The props up for auction online at Sean Eacrett might suit a Vikings buff, a movie fan or collector or even a commercial buyer in the hospitality industry….

Sean Eacrett Auctioneers

‘David Attenborough, Fossils and Friends’ by Homebound

Enjoy art?

Like wildlife telly?

Intrigued by fossils?

Read on.

Mark at Jam Art Factory writes:

We’ve a new “David Attenborough, Fossils and Friends” print in by Dublin designer, Homebound. For a chance to win this signed print in A3 size, tell us your best anecdote involving an animal and yourself. Best answer wins.

Lines MUST close at 1pm 4.15pm.

Jam Art Factory

The Jam Art competition appears here with new prints every second Thursday.