This evening.
Luke Brennan writes:
Not sure what they are making in the Google building this evening. Antimatter? Cold fusion? Ghostbusters 3?
We may never know.
Category Archives: Misc
From top: Dubai and Dublin
Anon writes:
August 2007: Started as engineer with current employer (various role changes and small promotions followed over the years).
April 2016: Decided I would leave to pursue a different (dream) career by doing a two-year full-time course that begins in Dublin in September. Would remain in job until then.
May 2016: Applied, interviewed, and got accepted for above course.
9am, end June 2016: At work, was asked to apply for a lucrative role, large promotion in Middle East as I had the most suitable knowledge base in the company.
9:02am, end June 2016: Head in spin.
Mid-July 2016: Decided to go for promotion and put off the dream job prospect.
Every day since: Changed mind.
Mid-July 2016: Interviewed for promotion
Last 24 hours: Decided finally on the course in Dublin.
9am, this morning: Informed boss.
9:30am: Received meeting invite from HR in Middle East to congratulate me on being the successful candidate and would like to discuss packages, etc.
9:33am to present: Head in spin again.
I’ve stuck with my decision and have since informed the hiring manager in the Middle East and HR manager here. I’m 32 next month, no kids and no mortgage. I’m leaving a well-paid role in an industry I really don’t care about to probably make a net personal loss over the next five years, in pursuit of my dream career – moving from engineering to creative – moving to Dublin, rather than Dubai, from somewhere else in Ireland.
Am I crazy?
Can your balanced and considered readers please inform me if I am crazy? Any advice or experiences to share now that I’ve made the decision?
Anyone?
It’s Too Big
at
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform,Paschal Donohoe, TD,
This afternoon
The Public Services Card Centre, D’Olier House, Dublin.
Pascahl Donohoe ‘registers’ for a comedy-sized Public Services Card (PSC) with the Department of Social Protection.
Mr Donohoe called on all those over age 18 “who have not yet signed up for a PSC to do so at their earliest convenience”.
He said
“The PSC is designed to assist people in accessing a range of government services. Initially, this will be focused on social welfare payments such as child and jobseekerss’ benefits, as well as the free travel pass and state pensions….”
Hmm.
FIGHT!
Leah Farrell/Rollingnews
Blasket Case
at
This morning.
Blasket Island Ferries wrote:
This genius decided to drive down to the pier in Dunquin which is a pedestrian-only walkway! He wedged the jeep at the corner which means no one can access the pier this morning. Apologies for any inconvenience caused. He’s been in the jeep all night!
In an update, in the past hour….
The car has been freed, thank god. Thanks to Kerry Council Council for all their help.
Sources Said
at
A statement issued by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission yesterday – appealing for witnesses to a ‘public order incident’ in Temple Bar, Dublin 2
The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission yesterday issued a statement in which it appealed for witnesses of an incident in Temple Bar, Dublin, to come forward.
This morning, the Irish Sun reported:
A Garda is being investigated after he was allegedly caught on CCTV hitting an elderly woman with a bottle he threw.
The Garda Ombudsman has launched an investigation into the incident in Temple Bar, Dublin, which also involved a pal of the cop being struck with a bottle.
The off-duty officer was with two colleagues at 1.30am on Sunday when the incident happened.
It is understood the three were play-acting on the street when the garda at the centre of the probe fell and banged his head.
It is alleged he got up and walked on alone, followed by his colleagues, when he was captured on CCTV crossing the street and shouldering a man who was standing with another lad.
A source said: “A row ensued, the cop in question picked up a bottle and fired it at one of the men. He missed and hit the elderly woman. He was also seen punching another fellow.
“One of the people who was with the garda ended up being struck with a bottle and suffered a broken eye socket . . . The incident is deeply disturbing and shocking.”
Garda being probed after CCTV ‘shows officer punching Temple Bar reveller’ (Irish Sun)
Meanwhile…
The Herald reported:
An investigation is under way into a violent incident in which a garda suffered serious facial injuries.
The Dublin-based officer, who was off-duty at the time, had a bottle smashed over his head.
GSOC, the Garda Siochana Ombudsman, is investigating the incident which happened in Temple Bar shortly before 1.30am on Sunday.
The garda suffered a fractured eye socket as well as injuries to his head and arm tendons during the incident on Fleet Street and needed hospital treatment.
Five men including the injured officer were allegedly involved in a confrontation that happened when a night out turned sour.
Two north inner city Dublin men were arrested at the scene, outside Gallagher’s Boxty House.
They are aged in their late 20s and early 30s and both are well-known to gardai.
Sources said that during the course of the incident, a bottle was thrown by one of the men involved.
Anyone?
GSOC to probe Temple Bar ‘fight’ as garda’s eye socket is smashed (Independent.ie)
Previously: We Need To Talk About The Guards
Gay Byrne
GAY Byrne has revealed that he used to dread going to school – as he was assaulted by Christian Brothers daily.
The broadcaster, 82, was a student at Synge Street in Dublin, where he finished top of his class in Irish and Latin.
In new programme Last Orders,, Gay returns to his old school to examine the history of religious orders and their role in educating us.
He said: “Many is the time of I would turn that corner from the South Circular Road with the most awful feelings of foreboding, fright and anxiety.
“I knew I would be physically hurt that day. I was going to be belted, I was going to be thumped, for some reason or another.”
Brothers Beat Up Gaybo (The Irish Sun)
Alternatively…
Chat show king Gay Byrne yesterday leapt to the defence of Christian Brother Schools – despite being disciplined as a schoolboy.
The 71-year-old said he would never have learned to read or write had it not been for the religious order schools.
And Gay admitted many of the hidings he got at CBS Synge Street in Dublin were because the Brothers “probably had no option“.
He added: “I believe they gave us a fantastic education, an amazingly well -rounded education in so many ways.”
Gaybo believes the Church-run schools were not equipped to deal with the students because of massive overcrowding.
In an interview with Catholic magazine The Voice Today, he claimed many of the Brothers were extremely nice to students and some never used physical punishment.
Gay said the media had been responsible for much of the Church-bashing that has occurred in recent years.
He claimed many of those now teaching journalism attended a CBS and their anti-Church attitude has filtered down to the students they are sending out to work in the media.
Gaybo: CBS Gave Us The Best Education (The Mirror, April 21, 2006)
There you go now.
Also:
But the star said the first time he realised – along with the rest of the country – that shocking secrets were being hidden in Catholic Ireland was in 1984 with the tragic death of Ann Lovett, who gave birth to a stillborn baby boy at a grotto in Granard, Co Longford, and died shortly afterwards.
Alternatively
Gay Byrne dismisses Sunday Tribbune coverage of Ann Lovett’s death on the Late Late Show in 1984,from the opening minutes of a Scannell documentery on Ann Lovett.
Good times.
Previously: Christian Brothers Stories
From top: Part of a letter sent from the Office of the Information Commissioner to Ken Foxe and Mr Foxe
You may recall how, back in December 2014, journalist and Dublin Institute of Technology lecturer Ken Foxe’s attempted, via Freedom of Information requests, to get the invoices and receipts submitted by 22 TDs and Senators.
Every year, accountancy firm Mazars randomly audits 10% of national politicians’ expense claims and these were the 22 politicians Mr Foxe wished to focus on for his investigation.
However, on January 16, 2015, this request was refused with the Oireachtas claiming it never physically held the records. It claimed the records passed from the politicians to Mazars.
On February 9, 2015, Mr Foxe sought an internal review of this refusal.
But, on February 25, 2015, the Oireachtas again refused claiming, under section 42(l) of the FOI Act, that the records Mr Foxe was seeking were considered to be the politicians’ ‘private papers’.
In turn, solicitor Fred Logue helped Mr Foxe put together a new appeal for the information, to the Information Commissioner Peter Tyndall.
But Mr Tyndall refused, highlighting the new FOI Act 2014, and in particular Section 42(l), which, he said: “affords a more significant protection for private papers of members of the Houses than previously existed.”
This section was introduced by the then Minister of Public Expenditure and Reform and Labour TD Brendan Howlin, on November 13, 2013.
Mr Foxe has since asked the Information Commissioner to reconsider his decision.
Further to this.
Mr Foxe writes:
Unfortunately, the battle to have the receipts and invoices of TDs and Senators made public has hit another brick wall and the Information Commissioner has said he will not reconsider his original decision.
Despite what we thought was a strong case put together by myself and with enormous assistance from Fred Logue, the case has been “discontinued”.
…In a letter explaining why they were discontinuing the case, the Office of the Information Commissioner said none of the arguments we made “would result in [them] … reversing [their original] decision”.
That now leaves realistically two options: a judicial review, or the possibility that politicians might reform the system themselves.
With the chances of politicians fixing something that benefits only themselves so remote, that leaves only a judicial review.
And that obviously is under consideration … with the reality that it would have to be paid for somehow.
For those who are interested in such things, a copy of the letter of discontinuation from the Office of the Information Commissioner, the original letter seeking review, and a copy of the final email pleading not to discontinue (with some personal details removed) are [here].
I would urge all readers again to support Right to Know and the work we are trying to do to pursue transparency in our unnecessarily secretive country.
Previously: How They Took Back Your Freedom
Oh.
Stephen Hennelly writes:
I was at the Singapore National Orchid Garden last week and spotted this (above). Didn’t appear to be in bloom unfortunately.
John and Louise Wills and their late daughter Eibhlín
Sheila Gahan writes:
John and Louise Wills, whose baby daughter Eibhlín died aged just 12 days from the common cold sore virus, have called for increased awareness and policy changes to prevent such a tragic and devastating experience happening to other parents.
“We are sharing our story in Eibhlín’s memory so we can create awareness about the dangers of cold sores and newborn babies. We want all parents, parents-to-be and any medical staff working with them to be made aware of the risks so no one else ever has to face what we have gone through” said John.
John and Louise have created a website in Eibhlín’s memory which they are asking the public to support and share.
Born in November 2015, by an emergency C-Section in The National Maternity Hospital, Eibhlín weighed a healthy 7lb 11oz. After birth she was sent to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit as a precautionary measure, as she had become a little distressed prior to delivery but, after five nights in hospital, she came home.
Initially, all appeared well and she had a high level of alertness for a young baby.
A few days later, she was a little out of sorts but by the following morning she was back sleeping well.
As that day went on, she seemed a bit congested but there was no cause for alarm until 11pm that night, when her colour suddenly changed and she became listless.
John and Louise headed frantically to Tallaght A&E where, upon arrival, Eibhlín was immediately taken in and a crash team called.
Tragically, Eibhlín was pronounced dead at 1:09am a week to the day since she had come home from hospital.
Following a post-mortem, the cause of death was identified as the Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (HSV-1) which is more commonly known as the Cold Sore Virus.
In Eibhlín’s case it was Disseminated Neonatal Herpes Simplex Virus 1, which incubates for a time and results in multiple organ failure but there are no symptoms until it is too late.
While this type of death is rare it is even rarer in Eibhlín’s case as 90% of these infections come from the mother. Louise has been tested and found not to have carried the virus.
“Eibhlín contracted the virus postnatally and, although we may never know from whom or exactly when it happened, we know from tests that the virus was already in her system when she came home from the maternity hospital with us,” said Louise.
Since Eibhlín’s death, John and Louise have discovered that acquiring accurate statistics on newborn babies with the cold sore virus in Ireland is difficult.
This is, in part, due to the fact that neonatal herpes is not a notifiable disease in this country. They hope this will change in the future and will be calling for the Minister for Health to make this a reality.
Louise recalls that she and John were in total shock when they realised that such a common virus as a cold sore caused their daughter’s death, and horrified at the lack of information available.
“In Eibhlín’s legacy we now want to ensure the general public is aware how lethal a cold sore can be to a newborn baby,” she said.
In order to create greater public and professional awareness and education John and Louise’s aims are as follows:
· To provide an information leaflet with Eibhlín’s story and website details in the welcome packs issued to mothers-to-be in Ireland’s maternity hospitals
· To ensure that Eibhlín’s story is mentioned in the ante natal classes
· To place information posters in clinics
· To remind visitors to mums and babies not to visit if they have a current cold sore
· To provide more information to student midwives/ nurses/ healthcare workers
· To ensure consultants include Herpes Simplex Virus and Eibhlín’s story in lectures/ educational forums
· To encourage GPs to discuss the virus with expectant mothers, and after the birth of their baby, to be mindful if they or close family and friends suffer from cold sores.
· To place posters and/or leaflets in GP surgeries
They also aim to encourage maternity hospitals to include a specific infection protocol that applies to any staff member with active Herpes Simplex Virus working with newborn babies and to ensure Infection Control sections of maternity hospital websites provide relevant information for patients and visitors.
In addition, John and Louise spoke to Keelin Shanley on RTÉ’s Today with Seán O’Rourke about what happened to Eibhlín.
Listen back to the interview in full here
Thanks Sheila