Author Archives: Bodger

Sinead McCarthy, of St Peter’s Cork, writes:

Today marks the centenary of Cork Lord Mayor Tomás Mac Curtáin’s death.

There were several events planned in Cork that have been postponed in line with Ireland’s #COVID19 measures. Instead, we remember him today with a short video (above)…

St Peter’s Cork

Tomás Mac Curtáin?

This afternoon.

During the debate on the emergency legislation The Health Preservation and other Emergency Measures Bill…

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan addressed the Dáil and spoke about “Temple Of The Bars”, Neil Diamond’s song Sweet Caroline, his mam, anti-viral Olympics, Chinese “limp wimps” and salads ‘to go’.

He said:

“Taoiseach, I would like to commend you for your speech the other night. I think it articulated the desire for our people, for us, to show solidarity and collective action in response to this unprecedented crisis.

“That sense really came home to me I think was it Friday night or Saturday, people watching online, there was that video from The Temple of the Bars, where a good-time crew was singing ‘Sweet Caroline’.

“Hands holding hands, touching me, touching you. Sweet Jesus, you could not make it up for being out of tune with where we all were.

“And in some ways, I felt at that moment, do you know the same way back in the Eighties when ever [inaudible] soccer supporters abroad, ‘well if other people are gonna be hooligans, we’re going to be the number one, best behaved people in the planet’ collectively.

“That same sense there, at that moment, we’re not gonna do that, hands touching hands, we’re going to look after each other. And I know there’s questions, people say ‘well, will we get fatigue’ in terms of our behavioural response.

“Anyone who thinks that, any scientist has yet to meet my mother, Mary Ryan who’s at home, I’m sure, watching this maybe like many a mother and father, grandfather out there.

“If there was an anti-viral Olympics, we’d win gold.”

“She’d make the Chinese communist government look like limp wimps when it comes to the measures that will be taken to hold this threat at bay.

“We’re going to be good at this, we’re gonna take it on. We’re gonna pull together as Taoiseach, you and others, have said.

“It’s interesting, we were chatting at one of our meetings, discussing, I hope I’m not breaking confidence, we’re not breaking confidence here, just this issue. We’re agreed that we’re gonna go the suppression route, not the mitigation. We have to, if things go wrong, we may have to go down the line in mitigation.

“But, for the moment, we’re going to take on the suppression route. Now how we do that, where we maintain the mental health of our people is important.

“And I was cited the example the other day, could be keep our hardware shops open. I know that’s not the most important thing, whatever, but if we kept our hardware shops open and if we have to work from home, or be at home for a period, well let’s paint the back of the house with the paint from that hardware shop.

“Or let’s get every south-facing windowsill in this country and let’s plant our seeds in the next week so that if there is any supply crisis and food in two or three months time when this really hits hard, we’ll have our salads ready to go.

“Everyone’s home, every windowsill. All of us being part of the solution.

“And equally Taoiseach, we were saying this to you yesterday, as leaders we agreed it, we need to come together and get more political involvement and the solutions are great.”

Um.

Anyone?

Earlier: Meanwhile, In The Dáil

Prince Albert of Monaco in Dublin in 2011

Hmm.

Earlier: Je Suis Infecté

Rollingnews

Ah.

Sebastian Stephenson writes:

 I made an infographic with this source to see how the virus has grown in Ireland so far. I plan to update it as new case are confirmed. It plots how fast the cases have grown and how many are new.

Confirmed Cases Of Covid19 In The Republic of ireland (Sebastian Stephenson, Visme)

 

In the Dáil this afternoon; Health Minister Simon Harris (above)

This afternoon.

A limited number of Dáil members observe “social distancing” as they congregate to debate and pass emergency legislation The Health Preservation and other Emergency Measures Bill introduced by Health Minister Simon Harris.

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy does not appear to be in attendance.

However Mr Harris said:

“At a time like this, we often rely on our country’s greats to motivate and inspire us. One such great, Séamus Heaney, said ‘hope is not optimism which expects things to turn out well but is something rooted in the conviction that there is a good worth working for’.

“Let us all here, in this Oireachtas, and all of us across this country work day and night to achieve that common good. Ceann Comhairle, I move that the The Health Preservation and Protections and other Emergency Measures Bill in the Public Interests Bill now be read a second time.

“I want to say at the outset, I see the sense in the amendments deputies have proposed with regard to a sunset clause and I’ll work with deputies on this when we get to later stages in this bill.

“I also know a number of deputies have expressed concerns in relation  to protecting and supporting renters at this difficult time and I know my colleague Minister [Eoghan] Murphy intends to bring forward legislation in that regard next week.”

Watch live here

Meanwhile…

Earlier: “Emergency Measures”

UPDATE:

From the Department of Housing website:

The Government has today (Thursday, 19th March) approved a series of emergency measures to protect tenants who have been impacted by Covid 19.

Moratoriums on evictions and rent increases are being introduced for the duration of the Covid 19 emergency, to ensure people can stay in their homes during this period. The notice period for tenancies of less than six months is also being increased from 28 to 90 days.

The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Eoghan Murphy TD, intends to publish legislation next week to amend the Residential Tenancies Act 2004-2019 to give effect to these changes.

The emergency measures being announced today complement those announced by the five main retail banks yesterday, in relation to the flexibility – such as 3 month mortgage breaks – which will be offered to those with buy-to-let mortgages whose tenants have been impacted by the virus.

It is the Government’s expectation that landlords will pass that flexibility on their tenants. Tenants are encouraged to engage with their landlords as quickly as possible if they are facing difficulties.

While tenants will be expected to pay rent during this period, income supports and Rent Supplement is available to those struggling to do so. These supports are provided by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

Any rent arrears built up will be payable, but landlords have been asked to show forbearance and reach local arrangements in such circumstances.

Government approves series of emergency measures to protect tenants (Department of Housing)

UPDATE:

Irish Plogging Divas write:

The next time they start the “OK Boomer” stuff. Contrast social distancing at Sandycove (left) this morning with a Main Street Blackrock queue for coffee (right).
.
Do people need flat whites so badly? The perennials in Sandycove are probably 3-4 times their age…

FIGHT!