Author Archives: Bodger

The latest print edition of the Dublin Inquirer

By Dublin-based Designer and illustrator Karen Vaughan writes:

T his cover is the result of what we’re being forced to accept as the new normal.

Families pushed into tent towns and hostels when there are a huge number of vacant properties.

The absolute hideousness of an administration that seems to prefer that to building social housing.

What gives me hope is seeing ordinary people organising to help each other when they’ve been so utterly failed by their government.

With this illustration I hope to highlight and celebrate that.

Meanwhile, in other festive cover related news…

RTÉ Guide‘s Xmas edition.

In fairness.

Print Edition Cover (Dublin Inquirer)

Related: Taoiseach says ‘Santa will find’ homeless children (Irish Times)

Minster for Children Katherine Zappone

Yesterday evening.

Just after 5.30pm.

Minister for Children Katherine Zappone released a press statement saying the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill, 2016 will not allow for adoptees to automatically access their birth information.

In a footnote to editors, Ms Zappone’s press release states:

The Minister’s legal advice is that there must be some protection of birth parents’ constitutional right to privacy reflected in the legislation.

There are two rights at play, the right to identity and the right to privacy, and legislation must seek to harmonise these rights.

However, this advice is contrary to the desire of advocates for unrestricted access to identity information and to birth certificates.

In the accompanying press release, the minister is quoted as saying:

“I would like to sincerely thank those who have given me their views and opinions on this matter and who have supported me in my efforts to seek consensus to progress these matters.

“I am personally deeply disappointed that it has not proved possible to reach a consensus on the complex and emotive issue of the release of birth information and that this issue must be set aside for now.

I hope this can be progressed in the future, but my priority, for now, is to move forward with those issues on which there is general consensus.”

The press release can be read in full here

Previously: The Adoption Myth

‘To Ensure That It Can’t Be Found’

Related: “We Have The Right To Know The History Of Our Incarcerations”

From top: Chair of the Public Accounts Committee Seán Fleming; clerk of the Dáil Peter Finnegan, a Komori offset printer; live link to today’s Public Accounts Committee meeting

This morning.

The Public Accounts Committee asked the clerk of the Dáil Peter Finnegan and representatives of the OPW to appear before the committee at 3pm to answer questions about the controversial Oireachtas printer.

It follows reports last night that the total cost of the printer has reached around €1.8million, €200,000 more than the €1.6million outlined by the Oireachtas two weeks ago.

It also follows the publication of Mr Finnegan’s report on the purchase of the Komori printing press, which is located in the basement of Kildare House.

Previously: “I Was Advised That The Estimated Cost Was €230,000”

Meanwhile…

The meeting can be watched in the link above or here.

Former Irish Naval Service patrol shop LÉ Aisling; Its new owner, Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, who has renamed the vessel ‘Dignity’.

This morning.

Further to the Irish Naval Service suspending its rescue missions in the Mediterranean earlier this year…

And its involvement in training the Libyan coastguard for the EU’s Operation Sophia in which asylum seekers fleeing Libya were being intercepted in the Mediterranean and being brought back to detention centres in Libya...

Colm Keena, in The Irish Times, reports:

In 2017, the State sold the decomissioned LÉ Aisling to a Dutch shipping broker for €110,000.

A year later, the Dutch company sold it to a company in United Arab Emirates for €473,000.

Almost immediately, the UAE company sold it to a company in Libya for €1.3million.

The vessel is now called Al Karama (Dignity), it’s been refitted with weapons and belongs to a “warlord” Khalifa Haftar.

Good times.

Libyan warlord paid €1.35m for ex-Irish Naval vessel sold by Ireland for €100,000 (Colm Keena, The Irish Times)

Previously: Meanwhile, On The Liffey

Pics: GalwayShips/Getty

Last night.

Outside Dunnes Stores in Cornelscourt in Dublin 18.

Members of the Irish Farming Association hold a 24-hour protest over beef prices, following four similar 12-hour protests elsewhere in Ireland over the past week.

The protest outside the Dunnes Stores will end at 12 noon today.

IFA extends Dunnes depot demonstration to 24-hour blockade (Agriland)

Previously: For The Way We Live Today

Pic: IFA

Tega Agberhiere, 17, was one of three victims of the attack

Tega Agberhiere (17) was one of the three victims of the attack. He suffered horrific injuries to his face, eyesight and other parts of his body when a substance was thrown on him. He plays for Waterford FC’s under-17 side and has represented Ireland at underage level.

His mother Christie Agberhiere says her “heart is broken” after being informed the alleged perpetrators would not be charged. She was speaking following a meeting with Waterford gardaí on Wednesday afternoon.

She said gardaí explained that, due to the alleged perpetrators being underage, and due to them not coming to Garda attention before the incident last April, the two will instead receive juvenile cautions.

Gardaí also told her, she said, that the two boys would need to avoid coming to Garda attention over the coming year.

Alleged perpetrators of acid attack on teenagers will not be charged (Irish Times)




From top: Friends on My Mind – Signed A3 print by Tara O’Brien; The Bernard Shaw – A3 print by Maxi; Two for Joy – signed A3 archival print by Claudine O’ Sullivan; Stoneybatter – A3 print by Maxi; Five In A Row – A3 print by Maxi; Please Don’t Kill Me – signed print by Fuchsia Macaree; Planet Earth – signed A3 digital print by Jacob Stack; Dublin Lamps and Birds print on original 1880’s encyclopaedia page by Pat Byrne; Always Be Different A3 print By Mark Conlan and Dublin Pubs – A3 print by Maxi.

Prints from Irish artists at Dublin-based Jam Art Prints.

Perfect stocking fillers!

Mark at Jam Art writes:

We would like to give Broadsheet readers a chance to win a number of our pieces in a Jam Art giveaway

The winner will have the choice of picking 5 prints from the above selection!

To enter and to coincide with the Dublin Pubs print by Maxi (above), Broadsheet readers need to tell us the best boozer to spend a Christmas Eve and why?

Lines MUST close at 6am [Thursday].

Jam Art Prints

Irish-made stocking fillers to broadsheet@broadsheet.ie marked ‘Irish-Made Stocking Fillers’. No fee.

From top: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn on the campaign trail today; General Election poll tracker

This afternoon.

As Britain goes to the polls tomorrow….

The latest opinion polling average for the general election shows the Labour Party struggling to catch up to the Conservative Party, though a new forecast on Tuesday night suggested a hung parliament could still be on the cards.

Um.

General election polls: Tory lead cut as race enters final hours (Daily Telegraph)

Who is winning the race for 10 Downing Street? (The Economist)