Author Archives: Bodger

Yesterday.

Somewhere in West Cork.

Name those three open-top ‘jammers’ at the front, anyone?

From top-: Former Minister for Children Katherine Zappone with Pope Francis during his visit in 2018; Saturday’s Irish Daily Mail exclusive; Ireland’s Papal Nuncio Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo ; historian Catherine Corless; Letter to Ms Corless from the Papal Nuncio last week.

Saturday/This morning.

Historian Catherine Corless hailed as ‘uplifting’ support from the Vatican for the exhumation of remains of babies at the former Tuam mother and baby home.

Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, the Pope’s ambassador to Ireland, has backed the call for re-burial.

A 2017 report, commissioned by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, confirmed a significant quantity of human remains, aged ‘from 35 foetal weeks to two to three years,’ were discovered in a vault that had served as a sewage tank.

After several delays, the final report by the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes was postponed again in June and will not be ready until October.

Via The Irish Times

Ms Corless said: “It is really degrading for all survivors. They are being treated like they always were, as if they’re not important, they are second class citizens.

I hope this might make the Government aware that we are very much here and we haven’t gone away.

“It is heartbreaking to think that it doesn’t seem to matter, that hundreds of babies were disposed of in this manner. It is beyond my understanding how anyone can leave them there. It is a disgrace that this hasn’t been sorted long ago.”

Ms Corless said it “is a boost, now the Vatican is behind us.”

Ms Corless said the suggestion by Archbishop Neary that the Tuam site could be blessed if the Government objected to the exhumation of bodies was unacceptable.

“You can’t bless a septic tank and leave the remains there. That is out of the question,” she said.

Vatican backs campaign for reburial of Tuam babies’ remains (Brian Hutton, Irish Times)

Previously: A Further Delay

Rollingnews

Thanks Bebe

Meanwhile…

Voice by Majella Kelly.

Situated at the burial ground in Tuam.

Pics: Breeda Murphy

From top: Central Hotel on Exchequer Street, Dublin 2, The hotel’s Liubrary Bar, The Exchequer around the corner and the nearby The Globe

This morning.

Charlie Taylor, in The Irish Times, reports:

Some of Dublin’s most loved haunts could be about to disappear with planning permission being sought to partially demolish the Central Hotel on Exchequer Street and to the nearby Globe bar and associated Rí-Rá nightclub.

An application has been lodged for a major new development that consists of the reconfiguration, partial sundry demolition, and expansion of the Central Hotel into a new 6,554 sq m five storey hotel with 125 bedrooms and a rooftop extension.

Among the associated properties at risk because of the planned development include the Globe bar, sister establishment Rí-Rá and the Exchequer.

But look what you get.

A bigger hotel!

Central Hotel, Globe and Rí-Rá at risk under redevelopment plan (The Irish Times)

Rollingnews

Stop that!

Yesterday.

On the 3.05pm train from Galway to Dublin.

Holly Carpenter tweetz:

“50% of the seats are marked off so that people can socially distance – yet every carriage corridor looks like this. Impossible to get to the toilet without being on top of one & other. I don’t mean to sound negative – but this is not right.”

Anyone?

From top: An expert clinical panel, including Tony Holohan former chief medical officer at the department of health, addresses cerevicalcheck concerns in 2018; Ruth Morrissey and her husband Paul arriving at the High Court Dublin in the same year

Yesterday.

Limerick mum-of-one Ruth Morrissey died, at the age of 39, at Milford Hospice.

Before her death, Ms Morrissey sued the HSE, Quest Diagnostics Ireland and Medlab Pathology over the misreading of her smear test results and the failure to tell her about it.

In a statement issued through her solicitor Cian O’Carroll, Ruth’s husband Paul said:

“Ruth passed away this morning with her now grieving husband Paul by her side. She died in the care of the gifted staff at Milford Hospice where she has received such loving care over the past year or so.

“Though just 39 years old, Ruth achieve so much in her life and chief among those accomplishments is the love she and Paul shared and the wonderful daughter they brought into this world and raised with love.

“Ruth had a sparkle to her smile, her wit and her intelligence. That sparkle made her wonderful company and her friendship was a gift she gave generously to anyone who knew her.

“It was 2014 when Ruth found out she had cervical cancer and 2018 before she learned that there had been grievous mistakes in the screening programme that were to cost her life.

“Despite her time left being so short, the State and their lab chose her as the test case and she showed courage and determination throughout that 36-day marathon trial but she persevered and won her case proving that the State was responsible for the running of CervicalCheck and responsible for its failings just as their labs were.

“It was a terrible blow to her last year when the State joined again with those labs in appealing the High Court decision.

“By then very sick and weak, Ruth still made it to the Supreme Court hearings for one day. That was last December. In March the Supreme Court confirmed that the High Court was correct in holding the State and the HSE responsible for errors in the operation of CervicalCheck in a decision that establishes the test for the standard of care for all the other women and families similarly let down.

“Despite the magnitude of the harm caused to her by avoidable errors, despite the broken promise of a Taoiseach who said no other woman would have to go to trial, despite using Ruth as a test case through the final years and months of her life, neither the HSE nor the State has ever apologised to her, and now it is too late.

“The Morrissey and Moloney families, in their grief, wish to thank all those who have given help, support and medical care to Ruth over these past few difficult years.

“Ruth’s life was a very happy one and none of the hardships of recent years robbed her of her good cheer and positive spirit. She fought fiercely to stay alive for the family she adored.

“The example she set stands as an enduring inspiration of strength and determination that should help many others through difficult times in the future.”

Via Orla O’Donnell

Previously: ‘I Didn’t Think I’d Be In This Position’

‘If He Doesn’t, I Don’t Think He Should Be In The Position He’s In’

Rollingnews

Actor and activist John Connors at the ‘March for Innocence’ on July 11

Last night.

Previously: Innocence And Experience

Rollingnews

Update:

This morning.

This afternoon.

Houseboats moored on The Grand Canal at Robertstown, County Kildare.

Meanwhile…

A petition to allow a number of people to live permanently on their houseboats along the Grand Canal in Dublin has amassed almost 6,000 signatures.

Waterways Ireland had asked the owners to move their boats, as they had overstayed their allocated time and were breaking the rules.

The owners were told that their boats would be lifted out of the water, stored and could be later sold at auction, if they did not comply.

A bill for the cost of lifting the boats would also be sent to the owners.

However, after a meeting with Minister of State for Heritage Malcolm Noonan last week, Waterways Ireland agreed not to remove any liveaboard boats, for now.

Houseboat owners in limbo over lack of full-time permits (RTÉ)

Rollingnews

This afternoon

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney (above) has said the United States and probably the Britain will not be on a list of safe-travel countries due to be published Monday.

Via RTÉ

Mr Coveney said the list was not compiled based on politics, but on the “epidemiological data and numbers”.

He said countries that are included in the list “represent no higher risk than Ireland represents”.

“So in other words, travelling to one of these countries wouldn’t be any different than travelling to Kerry, Connemara or Donegal,” he said.

The minister said there is “no question” that the US will not be on the list, and added that it is “very unlikely” that Britain will make the cut either.

It’s “really unfortunate”, he said, because of the integration between Ireland’s economy and the US and UK.

….Mr Coveney added that they are looking at increasing safety measures in airports, including having testing available there.

US, Britain not expected to be on travel Green List (RTÉ)

Shutterstock/Rollingnews

Solicitor Simon McGarr

This afternoon.

The European Court of Justice yesterday ruled that Privacy Shield, the EU-US data protection agreement, is invalid.

The case was referred by  the Irish High Court after a 2015 complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner made by Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems.

Solicitor Simon McGarr, who represented Digital Rights Ireland in the early parts of Schrems case, writes:

The case resulted in a decision on two different legal mechanisms for sending personal data from the EU to the US – the EU-US Privacy Shield and the general-usage Standard Contractual Clauses.

Privacy Shield was always basically farcical and it’s an embarrassment that it was allowed to linger as long as it did.

But the Standard Contractual Clauses element of the case is where the long-term consequences are going to come into play.

Basically, now you can’t just sign a contract and have both sides promise to be good. Now, you have to look at the legal systems the parties live under to see if that contract can really be held to.

This is particularly significant for transfers of personal data to the US, which hasn’t followed the EU and a good chunk of the world in accepting that data protection is a human right, and whose hunger for mass-surveillance data from its tech companies was revealed by the Snowden revelations.

As the Irish DPC said after the ruling, utilising much of the nation’s store of understatement as they spoke, “it is clear that, in practice, the application of the SCCs transfer mechanism to transfers of personal data to the United States is now questionable.”

All of the bromides and reassurance statements coming from the US and the EU Commission during the day was the sound of losers, who had lost, not wanting to admit just how bad their loss was. [more at link below]

What is this Schrems judgment about? (Simon McGarr)

Yesterday: ‘This Is A Total Blow To The Irish DPC And Facebook’

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