Category Archives: Misc

watch

johnholland

From top: The Neonos Holland Watch; John P Holland

The HOLLAND//01 watch takes inspiration from the original Holland class submarines and military submarines of today. The design has subtle curves with sharp edges giving a stealth look while also incorporating blue highlights and a dial legible in darkness or light. The innovative U-shaped lugs hide the ends of the strap creating a unique design feature…

Phil Callaghan writes:

We’re a new company based in Dublin who have just Kickstarted our first watch, a tribute to Irish engineer John P Holland who developed the first submarine..

Over the last 18 months our team of 4 designers have created this watch. We’ve used high quality materials such as Forged Carbon and DLC (Diamond like Coating) stainless steel; this allows the watch to reach depths of 300m! .[more at link below]

Neonos Holland Dive Watch (Kickstarter)

Neonos Watches

Neonos Watches (Facebook)

edwarddaly

This afternoon.

Saint Eugene’s Cathedral, Derry.

A not-inconsiderable quantity of priests arrive at the funeral service for former Bishop of Derry Edward Daly who died on Monday aged 82.

A message of condolence from Pope Francis was read out during the mass for Dr Daly, who famously tended to the dying during Bloody Sunday,

Funeral hears Bishop Edward Daly dedicated his life to serving peace (RTÉ)

pathickeyoci

Pat Hickey, President of the Olympic Council of Ireland and a OCI statement this afternoon on the Rio ticket brouhaha.

“What I can tell you very clearly is that there is no impropriety whatsoever from anyone in the OCI or myself in the dealing of tickets and I want to reassure you on that 100%,” Pat Hickey said.

He fully expects that the OCI will come out of this with a clean bill of health.

“I would of course be very sorry for any embarrassment caused to Ireland in this issue. I intend to rectify it as soon as I can,” he added.

The OCI president said he had no advance knowledge of the controversy and found out about it from the media….

No impropriety in OCI regarding tickets – Hickey (RTÉ)

Updated Statement from OCI Re. Ticketing Issues – Thursday 11 August 2016 (OCI)

Previously: The Golden Tickets

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Stories from Irish National School children, 1930s

Mmf.

Harry Molloy writes:

Thought people might be interested in this from Duchas [a project to digitize the National Folklore Collection of Ireland], if not then I’m sure your windowless basement office will enjoy.

It’s stories by primary-aged schoolchildren transcribed from every National School in the 1930s.

Amazing hand writing and you might find a grandparent :-)

The Schools Collection (Duchas.ie)

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Paul Colgan, Economics Editor with UTV Ireland in a report broadcast yesterday

Paul Colgan, on UTV’s Ireland Live yesterday, reported the following:

If you’re not resident in Ireland and you have a lot of money on your hands, there’s all kinds of entirely legal ways of channeling your investment through Dublin and not paying tax.

One way is to put your money in an ICAV, short for Irish Collective Asset-Management Vehicle – it’s one of several special tax structures that were designed to bring investment jobs to Ireland by allowing investors to register their activities tax-free legally.

They were designed to help manage investments made elsewhere. However, over recent months, concerns have been raised that ICAVs are being used in investments made on Irish soil. Foreign investors are legally able use ICAVs on Irish proper and pay no tax.

The Minister for Finance said in April, that his department would examine their use of property deals and would seek to close any potential loopholes.

Ireland Live News has gone through the Central Bank’s register of ICAVs, to see what they’re being used for. We cross-checked the names that have been registered with the Central Bank with publicly available information, on those same investments.

And, it turns out, that over 10 per cent of over 200 registered ICAVs, set up to date, are being used to buy or develop property here in Ireland.

Big players, like the global real estate investment firm, Hines, is using an ICAV to invest in its significant Cherrywood development in south Dublin. And businessman Denis O’Brien transferred ownership of the LXV building on Dublin’s Stephen’s Green into an ICAV last year.

Even Nama, the State’s bad bank is using an ICAV, it’s using it to develop big chunks of Dublin’s docklands as it’s teamed up with a US investment firm called Oaktree and they’re redeveloping sites like this one into offices and apartments.

The ICAV is called Targeted Investment Opportunities and it’s registered with the Central Bank and when sites like this come on to the market, they’re expected to fetch hundreds of millions of euros.

A Nama spokesman said that this was entirely legitimate and any money that Nama might now save on tax will ultimately be returned to the taxpayer by way of surplus.

Efforts by Revenue and the Department of Finance, meanwhile, to close possible loopholes, in tax structures, are ongoing.

Watch the report in full here

Thanks Mark Malone

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‘sup?

Siobhán, from Dublin Zoo, writes:

Dublin Zoo is delighted to announce the birth of seven (!) African painted dogs. This brings the total number of African painted dogs at Dublin Zoo to eleven.

Dublin Zoo’s new arrivals were born five weeks ago. In preparing for the birth, the female excavated a deep burrow in the ground and, for weeks, the animal care team could only guess what was happening.

It is not until the newborns open their eyes, approximately three weeks after birth, that she brings them to surface to the sunlight.

…Also known as African wild or hunting dogs, African painted dogs have a unique coat pattern, making them easily identifiable. It is estimated that approximately only 6,000 African painted dogs remain in the wild today.

Mmf.

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Joey, from Culture Night, writes:

The Culture Night 2016 programme has been officially launched today, ahead of the main event on September 16.

There will be 3,000-plus events taking place across the island of Ireland, with over 40 towns and cities set to take part. Most of the events are unticketed, but others can be booked via the listings here.

Yay!

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This afternoon.

A Repeal The 8th banner on the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas in Galway.

Díobháil writes:

In the early morning hours of [today], feminist pro-choice activists Díobháil (Bíonn Díobháil a dhéanamh againn: We make mischief) struck again and dropped a banner from Galway Cathedral stating “Repeal the 8th – Free, Safe, Legal” demanding access to abortion.

For too long, the Church and the State have controlled our bodies and our choices. It is time to finally end the unholy alliance of Church and State.

While Díobháil respects peoples’ personal religious beliefs, these should not be imposed on others, and the vast majority of people in Ireland agree (Amnesty International’s Red C Poll found that ‘82% of people polled who describe themselves as religious believe their religious views should apply to them and not be imposed on other people).

Let us not forget, St. Brigid was our first abortionist, and this is why we demand “Take your rosaries off our ovaries!”.

We are not vessels, we are not incubators, we will not be silenced.

Thanks Díobháil

Meanwhile…

jess

This morning.

Belgard Luas station.

Thanks Reppy

Meanwhile…

ghostbusters

Dame Lane, Dublin 2

Thanks Barry H