Category Archives: News

news as it is happening-ish

THE JUDGES of The Irish Times Best Place to Live in Ireland competition have narrowed their search to just five places which are in the running for the overall award.

They include one village, one small town, one large town, one city, and one suburb or urban village.

They are: Ardara, Co Donegal; Westport, Co Mayo; Killarney, Co Kerry; Cork city; and Rathmines in Dublin.

They’re announcing the winner next Monday.

Meanwhile, where do you and yours flourish currently?

‘Best place is where you and your family flourish’ (Irish Times)

INDEPENDENT TD Mick Wallace will put half his €92,000 Dáil salary towards repaying the €2.1 million Revenue debt of his construction firm MJ Wallace Ltd.

In an emotional personal statement to the Dáil about his tax affairs and under-declaration of VAT, the Wexford TD apologised for “an error of judgment” and said he would “not defend the indefensible. The company understated its VAT liability and we were wrong to do so.”

Penitent mode offline…

Engaging passive aggressive mode…

Mr Wallace also apologised “to the members of this Dáil for bringing any dishonour on a profession which hardly needed it”.

Zing!

Previously: Mick Wallace’s Statement

Wallace to pay half Dáil salary to Revenue (Irish Times)

(Photocall Ireland)


THE ULSTER Unionist Party has stated remarks by party member Lord (Ken) Maginnis about the “deviant” practice of homosexuality do not reflect party policy.

Lord Maginnis, the former MP for Fermanagh-South Tyrone triggered calls that he should be censured after he commented on BBC Radio Ulster’s Stephen Nolan Show about proposals to legislate for gay marriage in Britain.

Lord Maginnis said he opposed gay marriage because it was “unnatural” and he did not believe society should “have imposed on it something that is unnatural”.

Pink is the new orange.

Fabulous.

Maginnis remarks on gay people ‘not UUP policy’ (Irish Times)

pic

Henry Hill, the mafia ‘rat’ immortalised in Scorsese’s Goodfellas has died in LA, aged 69.

Hill was born to an Irish father and Sicilian mother in New York in 1943 and joined the Lucchese crime family, one of the city’s Five Families. He excelled at his chosen profession, hijacking trucks, fixing basketball games, collecting gambling debts, dealing drugs and “breaking heads”.

Goodfellas, based on Nicholas Pileggi’s book “Wiseguy”, details how following the 1978 Lufthansa heist at JFK airport, then the largest cash robbery on US soil, he “turned rat” and sent a string of Mafia figures to jail.

And he got to live out the rest of his life like a schnook.

Goodfellas Inspiration Henry Hill Dies (Telegraph)

(Hat tip: Aaron Macallorum)

In a front-page piece headlined “Irish Euro greetings to the chancellor”, Germany’s mass-market paper told its eight million readers the Irish were “pulling the chancellor’s leg”.

*snigger*

“Merkel has the reputation in Europe of being a tough-as-nails defender of saving, who doesn’t accept a lack of willingness to suffer. That’s something the Irish see humorously.”

*chortle*

“For their Euro aid package, they promised to work hard. Which they do. Except when it’s the European Championships.”

Oh.

Irish Merkel banner makes cover of ‘Bild’ (Irish Times)

Above: symphysiotomy survivor Marin O’Moore, with her daughter last March prior to the first Dail debate about the procedure.

A DRAFT report commissioned by the Government into the use of a controversial childbirth operation says one of the reasons it was used was to obey laws influenced by the Catholic Church that banned contraception and sterilisation.

It is estimated up to 1,500 women underwent symphysiotomies – an operation to widen the pelvis – between the mid-1940s and mid-1980s. The procedure has since been linked with lifelong health problems such as incontinence, chronic pain and mobility problems.

The use of symphysiotomy began to decline from the late 1950s as a result of increased confidence in the safety of repeated Caesarean sections. However, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital continued with the procedure until 1984.

Presumably not a hot topic at the Eucharistic Congress.

Church influenced birth procedure, says report (Irish Times)

Previously: Meet Marin

(Photocall Ireland)

Euro zone finance ministers resolved at the weekend to respond favourably to Spain’s request for up to €100 billion in emergency aid to rescue its crippled financial sector.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said it would provide “much-needed confidence and stability in the euro zone” and was particularly important for Ireland’s economy.

In the same way that our crushing defeat by Croatia is ‘particularly important’ for Ireland’s Euro 2012 hopes.

Spanish bailout conditions setback for Irish hopes (Irish Times)

(Photocall Ireland)

“And they all moved away from me on the bench
there, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things…”
(Alice’s Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie)

 

INDEPENDENT TD Mick Wallace is facing censure by his Dáil colleagues and a possible criminal prosecution over his admitted under-declaration of VAT payments by his construction firm.

Fellow members of the Dáil technical group last night joined in the condemnation of his €2.1 million settlement with the Revenue Commissioners, while Fine Gael and Labour TDs called on him to consider his position.

Mr Wallace faces up to five years’ imprisonment if prosecuted and convicted over his under-declaration of VAT over a two-year period.

Wallace Faces Dáil Censure After Admitting VAT Offence (Irish Times)

(Photocall Ireland)

THE CONSTRUCTION firm of Independent TD Mick Wallace has made a €2.1 million settlement with the Revenue Commissioners for under-payment of VAT.

The settlement, which arises from the failure of MJ Wallace Ltd to make full tax returns on apartment sales over a two-year period, will be published on the Revenue’s next quarterly list of tax defaulters next week.

The Wexford TD believes that none of the money will be paid to Revenue because his company is insolvent and he is not personally liable.

Regrets? He’s had a few…

“I’m going to get hammered anyway. This kind of thing is happening to builders every day of the week but I’m different because I’m in the Dáil.” What he did was wrong but he wasn’t in a position to undo it now, he said.

Mick Wallace makes €2.1m Revenue Settlement (Irish Times)

(Photocall Ireland)