Category Archives: Misc

Miss Peregrine

What you may need to know:

1. C’est le nouveau Tim Burton.

2. Adapted from Ransom Riggs’ best-selling children’s book.

3. Is it too late for Burton to produce something truly original again?

4. Probably… next on the director’s plate is a live action remake of Dumbo.

5. Samuel L. Jackson’’s look has been lifted straight from The Omega Man.

6.   With Batman v Superman out next week, it’s a good opportunity to remember Burton’s ill-fated attempt to put Nicholas Cage into the blue onesie. Check out Jon Schnepp’s utterly bonkers The Death of Superman Lives for the whole story.

7.We didn’t mention Johnny Depp or Helena Bonham Carter once.

8. Broadsheet prognosis: The unbearable Burton of quirkiness.

Release Date: September 30.

(Mark writes about film, TV and other stuff at WhyBother.ie)

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Dr Gerald Mills, of UCD’s School of Geography, writes:

A common phrase that conveys affluence in Dublin is ‘leafy suburb’, which describes parts of the city that are relatively wealthy and endowed with luxuriant vegetation. Does, the phrase have any basis in fact?

I have plotted the tree canopy cover of Dublin alongside a map showing the price paid for residential property sold in Dublin during 2015.

The latter information was retrieved from the Property Price Register that provides the address and the price; it does not tell you the size of the dwelling or whether it is a house or an apartment or even whether the property has a number of dwellings.

There were over 15,000 properties sold with Dublin addresses in 2015; Google Earth Pro was used to locate many (about 66%) these properties in geographic coordinates. This sample of properties is shown here with each property colour-coded according to its sale value.

I chose to divide the data into quantiles as price values are positively skewed; the greenest properties fall into the top 20% and the reddest fall into the bottom 20% in terms of price.

The patterns for canopy cover and property value show a strong correspondence; overall, it is true to say that the ‘leafiest’ suburbs are also the most valuable from the perspective of property value.

UCD School of Geography (Facebook)

Previously: Streets Full Of Trees

Thanks Reppy

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From top: Results of a Red C poll; Independent TDs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly (centre), with Dr John Lannon (left) and Ed Horgan (right), of Shannonwatch at a press conference in Buswells Hotel, Dublin earlier today 

Independent TDs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly released the results of a Red C poll earlier today, which show over half the population don’t agree with Ireland’s current military relationship with the United States – which uses Shannon Airport to refuel.

Some 55% of those polled say they don’t believe that the Irish Government should allow the US to use the Limerick airport for military purposes.

Mr Wallace and Ms Daly held a press conference earlier today with Dr John Lannon and Ed Horgan, of Shannonwatch, at the Buswells Hotel, Dublin, to discuss the poll’s results.

Clare Daly said:

“A country with a policy of positive neutrality would not facilitate the massive, devastating displacement of tens of millions of people through wars whose only purpose is to keep the gears of the military-industrial complex oiled.”

“It would not find itself in a state of absolute moral abjection when it agreed to accept only the tiniest fraction of those made homeless and stateless by wars it had abetted. We need to put meat on the bones of our neutrality, to actively and vigorously work against war and destruction, against the arms trade, against the absolute devastation of so many lives in pursuit of imperial power and wealth?”

“Until we enshrine a policy of neutrality in our Constitution, and make it so that our neutrality is something that is real, positive, and active, we cannot and will not play that role”.

Mick Wallace said:

“Since 2001, the US Military and their allies have been responsible for the deaths of over 2 million citizens in Afghanistan and Iraq alone. Mindless destruction of the Middle East region & beyond has seen the displacement of over 30 million people and an unprecedented refugee crisis in Europe today.

“It’s long past time that Ireland stopped facilitating this horror by refusing to allow Shannon Airport to be used for any military purposes. We need a change of direction – It should start with the new Government. It’s time for Ireland to work for peace, not war.”

Ed Horgan of Shannonwatch said:

“Shannon airport has been used, or misused by the US military, with the approval of successive Irish Government’s since October 2001. In the meantime over three million armed US troops have transited through Shannon on their way to and from wars and military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria and elsewhere.”

“In addition US military aircraft have transported unknown quantities of munitions and other war materials through Shannon airport but the Irish Government has been repeatedly denying that these aircraft are carrying weapons and munitions. Irish neutrality needs to be urgently restored to prevent Irish complicity in crimes against humanity”.

Dr John Lannon of the University of Limerick and Shannonwatch, said:

“Ireland’s failure to uphold national and international law at Shannon is shameful. The routine transit of armed troops to and from war zones is in contravention of the Hague Convention on Neutrality.”

“The authorities have failed in their responsibilities under the Convention Against Torture by not investigating rendition planes at Shannon. And they also turn a blind eye to the fact that the US military aircraft landing at Shannon are likely to be carrying people who are guilty of war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Under the principle of international jurisdiction, these should be investigated and prosecuted.”

Earlier: Five Years

Previously: For The Record

Pic: Ailbhe Conneely

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Edwards

From top: Patrick Pearse; The Triumph of Failure

Controversial Patrick Pearse biographer Ruth Dudley Edwards appeared on RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Sean O’Rourke this morning (presented by Keelin Shanley) to discuss Pearse’s life in the run up to the Easter Rising.

A quick tay.

Keelin Shanley: “It’s also been mentioned around Pearse, I mean he was a schoolteacher, he ran a school for young boys, but there had been questions written around the poetry he has written about young boys. Was he in love with his students? And was that also an issue that drove Pearse into revolution if you like…to suppress himself?”

Ruth Dudley Edwards: “I think he was enormously repressed. I have not yet got to understand that family [The Pearse family].  I don’t understand why there were four of them and none of them seems to have had a normal relationship of any kind sexually. Willie was in love with an eight year old girl. Now he never did anything wrong. He didn’t  She was his model…”

Shanley: “This is [Patrick’s] brother Willie [a sculptor]?”

Dudley Edwards: “She was his model. He used to buy her lots of gifts. She died at 14 of consumption or something but that was the only recorded person that he is attached to.
Patrick Pearse was unquestionably in love with his pupils, some of his pupils, and he was known to have favourites.
It has come out from letters that were hidden for a very long time from pupils just saying he used to kiss boys on the lips and ‘some of us wouldn’t and some laughed and called him Kiss me Hardy and we knew it was really Frank that he was mad about’ but there’s no evidence. I would be astounded if ever there was a moment when he did anything you could regard as abusive to a child. I really think.”

Shanley: “Was this maybe part of his death wish?”

Dudley Edwards: “I think he was tormented by desires and it’s in some of the poems. ‘Why do you torture me oh desires of my heart’. I think he was utterly tortured and confused. He was a tremendous innocent in all sorts of ways..
He was terrified of women. Tom Macdonagh who is a very attractive character in this, he had a great sense of humour. he was very good for Pearse. He was probably Pearse’s best friend. They used to pull his leg all the time. There’s one occasion when some women, some nice looking women, came up to see St Enda’s [Pearse’s school] and they’re in the library. Pearse, McDonagh and the two women. McDonagh says to one of the girls ‘come outside‘ and then he says ‘just wait, it’ll take 60 seconds…’. And after 60 seconds Pearse is out of the room, shooting down the corridor…terrified of being left alone in a room with a woman.”

Listen back here

The Triumph of Failure (Irish Academic Press)

Previously: Pearse And His Little Lad of Tricks