Author Archives: Bodger

Tom Jones in Dublin in 2003

On The Late Late Show…

…Jennifer O’Brien writes:

Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister, makes her first visit to The Late Late Show…

Singing legend Tom Jones will be giving an exclusive performance with his take on a Bob Dylan classic One More Cup of Coffee

Jamie Wall, who in 2014 was a promising dual GAA star, will speak to Ryan about how he adjusted to paralysis and went on to manage his home club to victory.

Tolu Ibikunle, Susan Ilesanmi, and Okefe Afe, three of the Dubliners who shot to fame on TikTok with their viral accents video, will be joining us in studio.

Una Ring & Eve McDowell, who were both subjected to terrifying stalking ordeals, will speak about their campaign to have a specific offence of stalking introduced with longer sentences for the crime.

Plus Villagers will give an exclusive performance of brand-new single The First Day.

The Late Late Show, on RTÉ One tomorrow at 9.35pm.

RollingNews

A mapping expert with Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) says he believes a children’s burial ground associated with a mother and baby home in Cork is located on land now earmarked for apartments.

John Clarkin, who has worked with OSi for more than 46 years, and who has been an expert witness on boundary matters for over 30 years, made his comment during a detailed assessment of historic maps which were at the centre of the second day of An Bórd Pleanála’s oral hearing into plans for 179 apartments on a privately-owned site on the former Bessborough estate in Cork.

Part of the development site overlaps an area marked on historic maps as ‘children’s burial ground’.

Bessborough children’s burial ground on land earmarked for apartments, says expert (Irish Examiner)

Earlier…

From top: the former Mother and Baby Home at Bessborough, Cork; Professor Phil Scraton, whose report on the Irish coroner system was published yesterday by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties

“It is a remarkable coincidence that the submission that we made on the Mother and Baby Homes, the Magdalenes, two weeks ago coincides with the launch of this report [see below]. It’s quite difficult for me some days to disentangle the work I’m doing on both.

“But I do believe, very, very strongly that we have to listen to families in terms of the issue of dis-internment and re-internment. If this is a matter of simply dis-interning to re-intern then we are missing the most significant issue.

“The most significant issue for many families, certainly that I’ve spoken with, is that they want to actually have their story told. They want, if possible, through DNA, to be able to identify their loved one and they want an appropriate inquest in which at that inquest they can give evidence around the circumstances of death.

“When we think about what inquests are, they are there to establish how a person died. That means the circumstances of their death. This means that evidence, where it is at all possible, should be brought forward into an inquest of anyone who died in the Mother and Baby homes or as a consequence, they should be brought forward to an inquest into that death. And as far as is possible: the story told.

“Now not all families will want that and some will just simply want re-internment in appropriate burials sites. That is their choice. But I think that as a matter of real concern, this has to be done, for those cases where families wish that to happen.

“Now immediately the response is the coronial process in Ireland just couldn’t cope. Nor could it cope in the North either. I understand that. So that’s why one of the reasons we’re arguing for, in this particular case, specific coronial appointments to deal precisely with this issue.”

Phil Scraton, professor emeritus in the School of Law, Queen’s University.

Professor Scraton was speaking during a webinar yesterday on Death Investigation, Coroners’ Inquests and the Rights of the Bereaved, a report published by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and compiled by Professor Scraton – a key figure in the Hillsborough investigation, and Gillian McNaul, also of Queen’s University. The report looks at the Coroner system currently in place in Ireland.

Yesterday: Inquestigation

Meanwhile..

A forensic archaeologist who has helped to recover the remains of ‘the Disappeared’ in the North has recommended a new search for human remains on the grounds of a former mother and baby home in Cork.

Aidan Harte, a senior team member with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains, was senior archaeologist for site investigations at Tuam and at Sean Ross Abbey on behalf of the Mother and Baby Home Commission of Investigation.

He set out the approach for a new search of a 3.7-acre site on the former Bessborough estate during a Bord Pleanála online oral hearing yesterday into plans for 179 apartments on the sit

He suggested the deployment of ground-penetrating radar at specific locations on the site

If human remains are found, the excavation work should cease, the coroner and gardaí notified, and the site secured, he said.

Expert outlines new search for human remains at Bessborough (irish Examiner)

Getty

Emergency regulations introduced by Minister for Health Stephen Donnely on April 13

Anyone?

S.I. No. 168/2021 – Health Act 1947 (Section 31A – Temporary Restrictions) (Covid-19) Regulations 2021

This morning.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has found the use of a closed-circuit television camera in a resident’s bedroom at a designated centre for people with disabilities run by the Daughters of Charity Disability Support Services.

Via RTÉ News:

…the inspection identified a number of concerns [-at the north Dublin-based facility’ including the use of restrictive practices, the management of behaviours of concern, the manner in which residents were supported to exercise their personal rights and the management of risk.

The report notes the use of closed-circuit television cameras in resident apartments and in a resident’s bedroom.

…There was significant use of restrictive practices in the centre which primarily included “environmental restraints”.

HIQA finds use of CCTV in resident’s bedroom at centre (RTÉ)

RollingNews

This morning.

Via Irish Times Letters:

Just a few weeks ago, the Court of Session in Scotland ruled that government closure of houses of worship was unconstitutional and a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In essence, the court held that, while coronavirus restrictions are necessary, they must be proportionate.

This may not be the product of a court gone rogue.

Indeed, courts around the globe have reached similar conclusions. In the US, the Supreme Court has tossed out restrictions on religious worship in several recent cases (see, for example, Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v Cuomo).

Closer to home, last November the French Conseil d’État overturned limits on religious worship, calling them disproportionate and a “manifestly illegal attack” on freedom of religion.

It is important to add that judicial scrutiny of Covid-related laws has been more frequent internationally and not simply limited to religious rights.

Indeed, the Conseil d’État in France has been particularly hawk-eyed when it comes to restrictions. For instance, it ruled just over a month ago that a total ban on senior citizens leaving their nursing homes was “disproportionate” because it would, among other reasons, “alter their physical and psychological state”.

The global cases cited above should be food for thought for courts here, and especially for Irish citizens, whose physical and psychological states may be similarly “altered”.

If we are to live under changeable restrictions for the foreseeable future, more exacting scrutiny by the judicial branch could be brought to them, ensuring they are above all proportionate.

Irish Times Letters

Yesterday: Get Off Your Knees

RollingNews

Just ‘dropped’.

Episode 6 of Poxy Bleedin Shop.

Creator Thomas Quain writes:

As the long hangover sets in the characters are forced to attend an AA meeting where various secrets, stories and old grudges come out and Emily realizes the off license and its new “magic” vodka is to blame for all the chaos of the last few weeks. Meanwhile, in the shop, Gary begins to suspect somebody is watching him…

Starring Aidan J Collins, Bernard Casey, Colman Hayes, Emma Doran, Karl Spain, Owen Colgan, Tadhg Hickey and Valerie Ni Loinsigh

Poxy Bleedin Shop

This morning.

A police officer helping with Japan’s Olympic Torch relay has become the first participant in the event to be diagnosed with COVID-19…

…Organisers said an unnamed man in his 30s who had taken part in the relay in the western island of Shikoku had tested positive for the virus, without specifying his exact role.

They pledged to work with medical authorities to “take the precautions needed to put on a safe and secure torch relay”.

It was the first reported case related to the relay, which has been forced off public roads in some areas over fears it will spread the virus.

Hmm.

Tokyo Olympic torch staffer becomes event’s 1st COVID-19 infection (WHBL)

Pic: Tokyo 2021