Author Archives: Bodger

Yesterday.

Eric Clapton (top right) name checks Ivor Cummins (left) during an interview about his experiences with the Covid jab and his collaboration with Van Morrison.

Meanwhile…

Slowhand & Van – The Rebels (Eric Clapton, Van Morrison)

A new single from Eric Clapton and Van Morrison.

Proceeds will go to The Van Morrison Rhythm & Blues Foundation assisting out-of-work musicians.

“Republican house members had invited Sherri Tenpenny to testify in support of a bill that would weaken our state’s vaccination laws. She is a licensed doctor who is carving out quite the career for herself defying science and spreading lies about Covid-19 vaccines.

“I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures all over the internet of people who have had these shots and now they’re magnetized,” she said, out loud. “You can put a key on their forehead, it sticks. You can put spoons and forks all over and they can stick because now we think there is a metal piece to that.”

Hours later, there’s CNN’s Jake Tapper, smacking that pen to his brow.

“Nope,” he said as the pen tumbled onto his desk. “Not magnetic.”

Magnets, vaccines and the toll the conspiracy of misinformation takes on our ability to protect ourselves (Connie Schulz, USA Today)

Alternatively….

Gulp.

Dr T offers an alternative, less light-hearted hypothesis.

Yesterday: El Trabajo Del Diablo

This afternoon.

Swords. north county Dublin.

Members of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) take part in a nationwide rally to highlight the ‘importance of commercial farming to the rural economy’.

It was the first large scale demonstration by IFA since the pandemic began, as farmers gathered in county towns across the country to warn against the dangers in the current CAP proposals and the Climate Action Bill.

Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews

A worker using one of the controversial portaloos in Portobello, Dublin today, as temporary fencing has been removed from Portobello Plaza ahead of the weekend. Local residents have asked the Council to remove the facilities

This afternoon.

It’s a mobile jacks stand off.

FIGHT!

RollingNews

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation committee, from left: Mary Daly, Yvonne Murphy and Bill Duncan, at its founding in 2015

This afternoon.

Commissions of Investigation, the three members declared in a letter, are required to be independent and “do not follow a popular or political narrative or agenda” and seek “to establish the truth as best it can”.

The report’s findings, and the Commission’s interim reports could be “put in peril by an appearance before some of the Committee’s members whose rush to judgment without due process, is already a matter of record”.

Former members of Mother and Baby Homes Commission refuse to appear before Oireachtas (Irish Times)

Yesterday: To Mangle, Misquote And Misrepresent

Meanwhile…

The chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Children has said she has not yet seen a letter from former members of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation reportedly refusing an invitation to appear before the committee.

She said the clerk of the committee received a “one line email” from Commission Director Ita Mangan on behalf of its members at 11.25am, stating that a letter had been hand delivered to the Oireachtas.

Committee members are still trying to establish the whereabouts of the letter.

Sinn Féin TD Kathleen Funchion said the first she heard about this was in a report on The Irish Times website this afternoon.

Committee chair has not seen invitation refusal letter from mother-and-baby home commission members (RTÉ)

This morning/afternoon.

Meanwhile…

Meanwhile…

It comes as former taoiseach Bertie Ahern contradicted his successor Micheál Martin, who had said prior to 2007 Fianna Fáil members undertook polling while pretending to be market researchers. “To be honest I don’t think that’s correct,” Mr [Bertie] Ahern said.

Leo Varadkar campaign used students as fake pollsters in 2011 Dáil re-election bid (Independent.ie)

RollingNews

The votes are in.

Reader Feargus has won the beautiful set of new Irish Walk prints by Offaly-born, Dublin-based graphic designer Emily McKeagney (available at Jam Art Prints).

We asked for your favourite walk.

Feargus replied:

My favourite walk – especially in lockdown – has been the short but steep climb up Croghan Hill in Emily McKeagney’s native Offaly. It may only be a little over 200m high but the panoramic views are amazing at that elevation; across the local bogs and meadows; over to the Hill of Uisneach and down to the Slieve Blooms; and further afield to Wicklow, Down, Tipperary and Galway.  Catch it on a day of scudding clouds and the play of light across the landscape is mesmerizing. The beautiful carvings and haiku engravings at the summit are an intriguing interpretation of the hill’s volcanic origins and its folklore. A plaque at St Patrick’s Well commemorates the time pope John Paul II flew over the Croghan Hill on his way to Clonmacnoise, although it doesn’t mention that he was in a helicopter at the time. Hopefully Emily will be inspired to add it to her series.

Thanks all.

Previously: Walk This Way

Meanwhile…

The Creation of Pints by Fuchsia Macaree

With Fuschia Macaree‘s Michelangelo-inspired print on offer, we asked for your best pun of a famous painting that includes some sort of alcoholic beverage in the title. Moira Cardiff wins the print with her suggestion: Salvador Dali’s The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory loss (after a night on the tear). Thanks all

Jam Art Prints

Jam Art Factory

This afternoon.

Earlier…

This morning.

Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile…

Last night

Splutter!

This morning.

Fenian Street, Dublin.

A mural by street artist Shane Ha of footballers Jack Grealish and Declan Rice, who represented Ireland in the past but now play for England. Paddy Power will pay a €20k ‘backstabber bonus’  should either Grealish or Rice manage to score during the Euro 2020 tournament kicking off on Sunday.

Fight!