Author Archives: Bodger

From top: Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly, Labour TD Aodhán Ó Riordan, Independent TD Mattie McGrath; Dáil vote

Tonight.

At the Dáil sitting in the Convention Centre in Dublin.

Fianna Fáil TD Jack Chambers put forward the proposal that the Dáil adjourn this evening and return on September 15.

Before the vote, Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly proposed that the Dáil convene next Tuesday to facilitate questions and answers to and from Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and the Minister for Employment and Social Protection Heather Humphreys about the PUP/social welfare controversy and the statement made by the Data Protection Commissioner in respect of the gathering of data by social welfare inspectors and gardai at airports and ports.

Ms O’Reilly also said the Dáil doesn’t need a six-week holiday and that deputies should return on September 1.

Labour TD Aodhán Ó Riordan said Labour was supporting Sinn Féin’s proposal but added that another item needed to be resolved before the Dáil took its summer recess – specifically: “The issue of pandemic unemployment payments for those who are self-employed and those who are in receipt of employee wages and self-employed wages who are now going to be put on a lower schedule of payment.”

He added:

“Now we can only resolve this issue if the Dáil is in sitting and we can’t have a six-week recess for those who are in receipt of this payment. So it would be very simple for us to return here on Tuesday, have questions over and back on this issue and come to a resolution on the issue that has been outlined by Deputy O’Reilly and also the issue that has been outlined by myself.” 

Independent TD Mattie McGrath also called for the Dáil to return next week.

In the end, TDs voted 81-44 to return to the Dáil on September 15.

Meanwhile, earlier…

Watch live here

Earlier: Departure From The Norm

Reasonable Question

Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan

This afternoon.

Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan voted against her party for a Labour Party motion to extend eviction and rent protection to all tenants and just those affected by Covid.

It’s OK.

She’s only the party’s chief whip.

Meanwhile…

More political upheaval: Green TD Neasa Hourigan quits as party whip and votes against government (Independent.ie)

Rollingnews

This article (at link below) suggests that the use of menstrual blood in resisting the state is an act so subversive that it effectively disrupted staunchly entrenched gender norms in Northern Irish society prior to the height of the conflict. This in turn provoked the rise of a distinct form of feminism rooted within the republican movement.

Menstrual Blood as a Weapon of Resistance (Therese O’Keefe)

Yesterday: Complaints over ‘offensive’ Tampax tampon advert upheld (Irish Times)

From left Professor Denis Cusack, Director of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety; Assistant Commissioner, Paula Hilman, Roads Policing Unit, An Garda Síochána; and Liz O’Donnell, Chairperson, RSA, as the Road Safety Authority (RSA)

Oh.

Low road it is so.

This afternoon.

Essex Quay, Dublin 1.

An Garda Síochána help launch the Road Safety Authority’s August Bank Holiday road safety appeal with the theme: ‘There’s No Hiding From Drug Driving’.

To wit:

Do not inhale.

Actor Mark Mannion, who is not tripping, poses for a test swab, on Essex Quay.

Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews

Ah now.

This morning.

Seapoint, County Dublin.

COM writes:

Another morning of antisocial parking & blocking the footpath for this elderly gentleman.

Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council can you step up enforcement at Seapoint as this is an ongoing problem.

Fight.

This afternoon.

Did the state act unlawfully when departing passengers at Dublin Airport were approached and questioned by social welfare inspectors and gardai…

Via The Irish Times:

Under 2012 legislation, Social Welfare inspectors can question people at ports and airports, but only when they have “reasonable grounds” to believe there is a contravention of the Act.

However, according to multiple reports on social media and elsewhere this week, checking and questioning of people at airports has been widespread.

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) wrote to the Department of Social Protection in recent days asking it on what basis their inspectors had stopped and questioned people at airports, including asking them for personal information and personal public service numbers (PPSNs).

Meanwhile…

….The watchdog also said it is following up on queries made by individuals about whether the DEASP sourced information from passengers from other sources that allowed targeting of individuals for payment cancellation without any interaction with an inspector at a port or airport.

Data watchdog: ‘Serious doubts’ over whether social welfare inspectors acted lawfully at airports (Irish Times)

Yesterday: Reasonable Question

Rollingnews

The Shelbourne Hotel this morning

This afternoon.

Further to the removal of four statues depicting Nubian Princesses and their ‘slaves’ outside the Shelbourne Hotel…

…One can only imagine the reference to Nubia arose from the fact that the hotel’s owners and architect would have been aware that many of ancient Egypt’s luxury commodities were sourced in the Nubia region – today divided between southern Egypt and Sudan – and that Nubian princesses had several times married into the Egyptian royal family.

In this context, the four statues in fact represented royal ladies, two from Egypt and two from Nubia, hinting at the lavish luxuries that awaited patrons within the new hotel.

It seems it is this reference to “Nubia” which has misled popular thought. The “nubian slave” is, indeed, a widely fetishised Orientalist visual trope of the 19th century.

The Nubian Slave by Antonio Rossetti, circa 1850

However, she differs from the Shelbourne statue in one important aspect: she is almost invariably (and with some degree of historic authenticity) represented nude….

One of the statues now removed from the Shelbourne Hotel

The lavish draping and jewellery of the Shelbourne statue clearly demonstrate it is not, nor was it ever intended to be read as a slave.

It is only to be hoped that those wishing in future to act – with the very best of intentions – in solidarity with positive societal movements might take a moment to ensure that their actions have basis in sound research. [More at link below]

Kyle Leyden.

London, UK.

Removal of statues from the Shelbourne (Irish Times Letters)

Yesterday: Slaves To Political Correctness

Rollingnews

The Hashido Code.

Yesterday.

Killarney, County Kerry

Gardai seized two swords, a literal key ‘cutter’ (see below), pocket-sized digital weighing scale, €6,325 and £340 in cash, €230 in counterfeit €10 notes, €800 of lethal green herb, heroin, Xanax and MDMA during four searches of properties in Killarney town.

Meanwhile….

Ah now.

Rollingnews/Gardainfo