On the Great Blasket Island, Co Kerry
Great Blasket Island tweetz:
** Job Vacancy **
A unique position required – looking for long-term management of Island Accommodation and Coffee Shop.
Couple or two friends. 1st April 2020 – October 2020 accommodation and food provided. Email Alice on info@greatblasketisland.net for more information.
Go on.
Do it!
Time lapse featuring @CyclingBusLmk. They are coming from the Shannon Bridge, coming across over into Limerick city. Can this incoming way be a dedicated two way cycle lanes to schools and work, as well as a dedicated motor vehicle lane? pic.twitter.com/SOYGzNH6tW
— Eoin Ó Conchúir (@eoinoc333) January 10, 2020
Adds Eoin:
“What if we also reimagined this junction to maximise mobility of the city’s residents in sustainable leverageable ways?
Many residents of the city are driving here. It could be normal to get these people in and out by bike and walking if the environment wasn’t optimised to be hostile for them.
Others live outside the city and are driving into the city and onto Raheen along the Dock Road. To get to Raheen, many of these people could take the tunnel which we built under the Shannon. The tunnel costs money, though.
Well done to the city’s engineers. The junction is flowing quite well from a car perspective.
The trouble with that choice of two-lane 50km/h is that it comes at the cost of other possible ways to cross the Shannon in the city.”
FIGHT?
College Green, Dublin 2.
The question of Luashenge’s origin has baffled the public imagination and scientists for years. Despite hours of archaeological research, very little is known about who erected the cabinet formation and for what purpose.
Journalist (and founder of Noteworthy) Ken Foxe provides below a visual guide to this beloved visitor attraction…
‘Here is a wide view of the famous monument on College Green. An interesting feature of Luashenge is the mystery that surrounds some elements of its classical design. The left-most item is classified as an “unknown cabinet”. Nobody knows who put it there. It could have been aliens, the Russians, or indeed Telecom Éireann….
…Like the great passage tomb at Newgrange, Luashenge is actually not just a single isolated heritage site. There is an associated monument nearby on the wall (above) outside the Provost’s house at Trinity College.
This associated Provosthenge monument also has a mysterious “unknown cabinet” (above top right third down). It’s “not Luas-related” but once must surely have served a very important purpose, perhaps relating to prayer or direct communication with the gods…
…Sadly, the Provosthenge monument has suffered some damage in recent times as this image (above) shows. The right-most cabinet, entitled “road traffic controller” has been removed. It was considered “redundant”. Hopefully, a new home has been found for it in the National Museum…
…above is the most striking parts of the complex. It is described by historians as: “A single cabinet near the pedestrian crossing to Trinity. It has a power supply but unknown feed.”
You can even take a virtual tour of the famous site here on Google Maps. That way, you can say you knew all about #Luashenge long before UNESCO finally list it as a world heritage site.’
Supporters of a protest against homelessness in Dublin city on December 5, 2019
Tomorrow.
A protest against homelessness will be held in Dublin city with supporters meeting at the Garden of Remembrance at 1pm.
Leah Catherine Daly writez:
“We will march down O’Connell Street and assemble at [O’Connell] bridge.
“There is a plan for on the day so I would ask that you assemble in an orderly fashion and listen to the instruction of the stewards or it won’t work. We are far more organised for Saturday than we were for December 5th.
“There will be people speaking so I would ask that during that time people stay quiet and listen to them.
“There will be manned voting help desks set up from 12pm at the GPO until 3pm where you can get all the information you need and access to RFA2 [register of elector forms] and help to fill them out should you struggle with reading or writing.
“Please bring your banners. Anyone with tents and sleeping bags to donate, please bring them and non-perishable food items.”
Protest against Homelessness in Ireland, Less Talk More Action! (Facebook)
Previously: All This Aggravation Ain’t Satisfactioning Me [Updated]
Starbucks paper cup
As an occasional customer of Starbucks, I’m frustrated by its policy of automatically giving customers a paper cup over a ceramic mug when sitting in. Recently in one of their cafes, I asked everyone sitting in (all of whom had paper cups) if they were given the option of a ceramic mug. Not one person had been.
This directly contradicts Starbucks policy (as received by me in an email from it following a complaint about this) that its customers have a choice when ordering coffee and ideally it wants them to use ceramic but it cannot enforce that.
This is incredibly wasteful in the context of a climate emergency, particularly considering that there are 49 outlets in the greater Dublin area alone.
Starbucks is in a unique position to take a public stand and action in this space that would have a huge ripple effect on other retailers and customer behaviour.
It would seem that a change in training in Starbucks with the addition of one simple question and the resulting actions by baristas would make all the difference.
Sara Dennedy,
Dublin 3.
PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne
This morning.
Further to last night’s publication of New Decade, New Approach – the text of a deal to restore devolved government in Northern Ireland – by Tánaiste Simon Coveney and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Julian Smith.
PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne has released a statement saying:
“There is much in this document which is good for policing and I welcome its publication.
“Clearly the support for boosting the strength of the PSNI to 7,500 police officers will be at the heart of our aspiration to invest significantly in community policing across Northern Ireland in the months ahead.
“We welcome plans to reform and streamline our outdated criminal justice processes and also address the issue of legacy investigations which drain our focus on policing the issues of here and now.”
“A fresh emphasis on tackling the scourge of paramilitary crime and intimidation, supported by legislation to tackle unexplained wealth, sits four square with our operational priorities.”
Statement from Chief Constable on the publication of ‘New Decade, New Approach’ document (PSNI)
Last night: Meanwhile In Stormont
This morning.
Met Éireann issued a Status Yellow rain and wind warning.
The rain warning pertains to Donegal, Galway, Mayo and Kerry and is valid from 3pm today until 11am tomorrow.
The wind warning affects Connacht and Donegal and is valid from 3pm today until 3pm tomorrow.
Via Met Éireann
This week’s Limerick Leader
David Raleigh, in The Irish Times, reports:
An investigation has begun into the death of a man in University Hospital Limerick last month, who was found on the floor next to his trolley.
The middle-aged male patient, who had been kept away from other patients because of an infection risk, was discovered by an emergency department nurse in an isolation cubicle [in mid-December], sources confirmed.
…The hospital did not comment on claims in a report in the Limerick Leader, by a “high-ranking medical source” that the patient suffered a broken neck.
It is not known whether the patient had sustained the alleged injury before or after he was admitted to the emergency department.
Investigation into death of man in Limerick hospital begins (David Raleigh, The Irish Times)
From top: Ned Kelly; Actor George MacKay as Ned Kelly in The True History of The Kelly Family
This morning.
Via The Age (Australia)
George MacKay – a Brit (with an Australian father), who stars in the film, True History of the Kelly Gang – portrays Ned with a mainstream Australian accent.
It won’t please Keith Warren, an education officer in the Beechworth historic precinct who helps re-enact scenes from Kelly’s life every day.
He reckons Ned had ‘‘a very strong Irish accent’’ and that to give him an Aussie accent would be ‘‘historically ridiculous’’.
‘‘His dad was from Tipperary and his mum was from County Antrim. They wouldn’t have got rid of the Irish in the family. He was very Irish. The Irish brogue they used to call it. Apples don’t fall far from the tree.’’
But Dr Bruce Moore, visiting fellow at the Australian National University school of literature, languages and linguistics, says Kelly probably had an Australian accent.
Fight!
Stone the crows: Ned Kelly may have spoken Strine after all (The Age)
Thanks Mark Geary
Last night.
On Dublin’s O’Connell Street.
Three voluntary homeless outreach groups reportedly responded to the needs of an 81-year-old homeless woman who was “bedding down in a distressed state”.
Dublin City Councillor Christy Burke last night wrote on Facebook that when he was contacted about the woman, he, in turn, contacted Dublin City Council’s homeless services and that a bed for last night was booked for the woman within minutes.
Damien Farrell, of one of the groups who attended the woman D8HAC Altogether Now, writes:
“The woman is registered with the DRHE (Dublin Region Homeless Executive) homeless services and had been under hospital treatment.
“The woman has in the past experienced bullying and threatening behaviour in DRHE-registered hostels and was discharged from hospital into homelessness, apparently despite DRHE-registered key workers engaging with her during her hospital treatment.
“The occurance of hospital patient discharges into homelessness knowingly is far too common, as too is the failings of DRHE-registered services to establish and maintain a link of continuity between homeless services, hospital management and homeless patients or attendees.
“We call upon the Dublin Region Homeless Executive to examine this particular case as an example of a serious lapse in duty of care and to implement an immediate protocal across all associated services that will address the matter of people being discharged from hospital treatment into homelessness.
“We would also like to recognoise the efforts and work carried out by Housing First and Parkgate Hall in this particular case.”
