Category Archives: Misc

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Patsy McGarry, in The Irish Times, reports:

The Garda and child and family agency Tusla are investigating an alleged incident at a major Dublin boarding school, following a claim that a 13-year-old boy was sexually assaulted in a dormitory with a hockey stick by eight other pupils.

The incident is alleged to have taken place late last Thursday night at the 450-year-old Church of Ireland-governed King’s Hospital secondary school in Palmerstown

However, it was not reported to the Garda, Tusla, or the Church of Ireland authorities until Tuesday.

… In February 2008, King’s Hospital and Swim Ireland agreed to pay substantial damages after a 10-year dispute to 13 female victims of convicted sex abuser Derry O’Rourke, who had been employed by the school as a swimming coach.

Boy (13) allegedly sexually assaulted by pupils at boarding school (Irish Times)

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Bertie Ahern

On the possible return of Bertie Ahern to the political stage….

David Wall writes:

The Liberal Left: architects of the modern day malaise we find ourselves in, the ones to blame for the plight of the worker, the state of the country, the failure of multiculturalism. The lily livered left have much to answer for.

Yet this argument is baffling. I can understand the words, but not the logic. Surely for the left to be blamed for the current climate we find ourselves in the parties of the left must have been in power.

The media must be propagating a socialist policy whereby the right are victimised and we have been led blindly to our own social destruction by Trotskyites.

Who could forget those great liberal lefties Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair and David Cameron. Those soft hearted, socially pandering politicians have made left leaning decisions constantly at the expense of private industry and profit making.

These valiant champions of the working people have hindered the development of private wealth. These men and women who have consistently stripped a magnificent health service of public funding, given their schools to private companies and privatised their postal service at a loss must surely be left leaning. Somehow this is the logic that we meet.

That the left is to blame for modern problems and yet they have had no power (before people jump on the inclusion of Tony Blair I am aware he was a Labour P.M. however his actions outdid even the conservatives).

Let’s not forget our own social warriors like Charlie McCreevy, Phil Hogan and Charlie Haughey. All liberal lefties who have crippled our country through their socially minded inclusive policies.

How these men, representative of the political class, have brought the private sector to its knees is astounding. These Guevaras, these valiant men must be saluted as heroes of the left. Not to mention the left leaning media as owned by Denis O’ Brien and Rupert Murdoch.

Now, as we face crises both nationally and internationally our main opposition party, who are propping up a floundering government, are inviting back the architect of our travails. A man, who resigned rather than be banished, is being brought back as the great white hope.

Here is a man who knows how to win elections, knows his constituency inside out and knows exactly his own role in our plight. And here is a public being ridiculed again. The arrogance of both centre right parties is astonishing and would be hilarious if it wasn’t so insulting.

The reason I am writing this is because I am sick of hearing how the left are to blame, regardless of the problem. The left have not been in power to actually make any decisions in Ireland, England or the US. In fact there is no liberal left in Ireland. Both of our functioning parties are to the right of centre. This is indisputable.

The left is in disarray both here and in England while the middle class and working class get squeezed tighter and tighter. Of course nothing changes because there is no option. There is no alternative to politics of the right in Ireland.

The media dismisses the parties who try to take up the mantle of the left as being radical and loony. They are presented as being incapable and even to blame for where we are now.

All the while the established parties somehow are presented as the safe option. The parties who forced us into this crisis and who implemented a failed austerity policy are the ones to trust.

This leads me again back to where I started…the damn left have got us into this trouble. Let’s keep voting the same heroes back into power. If we do, maybe we can keep the housing crisis going, watch homelessness rise, see the privatisation of water we already pay for, watch hospital overcrowding reach record highs on a weekly basis and maybe see a rise in emigration again.

David Wall is a 31-year-old ‘sheet reader.

Potential Bertie Ahern return sets Fianna Fáil eyes rolling (Irish Times)

Previously: David Wall: The Product Of A Cultural Shift

Rollingnews

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This morning.

Hawkins House, Dublin 2

Members of Aids coalition Act Up picket the Department of Health about a crisis that has seen Ireland record the highest number of new HIV diagnoses ever last year.

Buzz writes:

On the eve of World AIDS Day, ACT UP Dublin is sounding an alarm to government, community stakeholders, and the public: Ireland is in the midst of an HIV crisis.

This morning in front of Department of Health Offices ACT UP installed an alarm clock to wake Ireland’s dormant institutions to the need for a renewed effort to address the expanding epidemic.

Thanks to advances in treatment and prevention, government has powerful new ways to reduce new HIV transmissions. ACT UP calls on authorities to do more than offer words. Government should devote greater resources, and take effective actions, to address the epidemic.

From top: HIV activist Robbie Lawlor; members of Act Up and artist Will Ledger.

Act Up

Pics; Press Association

Meanwhile…

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From top: Trevor Clarke MLA and Eamonn McCann MLA

A Northern Ireland politician has admitted he did not know heterosexual people could contract HIV until a charity explained the facts to him.

The DUP’s Trevor Clarke made the admission in a Stormont debate calling for a new HIV awareness campaign.

He was later accused of “unconscious homophobia” by Foyle MLA Eamonn McCann.

He said it was not so long ago that some politicians had proclaimed they would “Save Ulster From Sodomy” – referring to the campaign led by the DUP’s founder, the late Ian Paisley.

Mr McCann asked the assembly: “What’s wrong with sodomy anyway?”

The People Before Profit MLA also said he would have kissed more men in his life if it “hadn’t been for the stubble factor”.

DUP’s Clarke did not know heterosexuals could contract HIV (BBC)

Update:



Thanks Colm Dore

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This afternoon.

Central Bank, Dublin 2

Pro-life supporters, iocluding above from left: Emma Maloney, Rossa and Mary Kenny, launch the ‘Love Both’ project highlighting “all that’s positive about the Eighth Amendment“.

*deep breath*

FIGHT!

The Love Both Project (Facebook)

Meanwhile…

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Amanda Mellet and her husband James Burke

The Government has offered €30,000 in compensation to Amanda Mellet, the woman who successfully made a complaint to the United Nations about Ireland’s abortion laws.

…Ms Mellet was in her 21st week of pregnancy in November 2011 when she learned her foetus had congenital heart defects and would die in the uterus or shortly after birth…

The Rotunda Hospital, where Ms Mellet received her scan, acted in accordance with existing laws by informing her of her options, namely, to carry to term or to “travel”.

…The offer were made to Ms Mellet in a meeting with Minister for Health Simon Harris Tuesday night…just one week before a deadline imposed by the UN Human Rights Committee on Ireland

Woman harmed by abortion ban offered €30,000 (Pat Leahy, Irish Times)

Previously: ‘The Ashes Were Unexpectedly Delivered To Her Three Weeks Later By Courier’

Rollingnews

This afternoon.

Brown Thomas, Dublin 2

British model, Strictly Come Dancing star and Triumph UK and Ireland Brand Ambassador Daisy Lowe visited Brown Thomas Dublin to launch Triumph’s winter lingerie collection which is  “perfect for Christmas gifting”.

The collection of flimsy nether garments is available at The Lingerie Rooms in Brown Thomas Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway.

Harrumph.

Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland