From top: Former Minister for Health  Simon Harris outside a cabinet meeting last January; The first coronavirus briefings for Minister Simon Harris.

This afternoon.

Horribly optimistic.

Briefing documents in full here

Right To Know

Rollingnews

Thanks Ken

Behold: a vast hexagonal cloud formation over Saturn’s northern hemisphere. First discovered by Voyager in the 1980s and subsequently observed by Cassini, nothing like it has been found elsewhere in the solar system. To wit:

Acquiring its first sunlit views of far northern Saturn in late 2012, the Cassini spacecraft’s wide-angle camera recorded this stunning, false-colour image of the ringed planet’s north pole. The composite of near-infrared image data results in red hues for low clouds and green for high ones, giving the Saturnian cloudscape a vivid appearance. This and similar images show the stability of the hexagon even 20+ years after Voyager. Movies of Saturn’s North Pole show the cloud structure maintaining its hexagonal structure while rotating. Unlike individual clouds appearing like a hexagon on Earth, the Saturn cloud pattern appears to have six well defined sides of nearly equal length. Four Earths could fit inside the hexagon. Beyond the cloud tops at the upper right, arcs of the planet’s eye-catching rings appear bright blue.

(Image: NASA, ESA, JPL, SSI, Cassini Imaging Team)

apod

My Sweet Beloved – The Invitation

Who could refuse an offer like this?

Former Skindive singer Danielle Harrison Byrne (top) rises like a phoenix from the flames with her new band My Sweet Beloved.

Alongside band members Derek Byrne, Anton Hegarty and Dan Devlin, Danielle creates a haunting soundscape that grips the listener from the first note on this first single from their forthcoming self-titled album.

The atmospheric nocturnal video is by Laura Sheeran and Danielle.

Nick says: Invitation accepted.

My Sweet Beloved

[Sinn Fein’s Deputy First Minister] [Michelle] O’Neill insists the funeral broke neither the law nor her guidance.

However, at 5.45pm last Thursday – two days after Mr Storey’s funeral, and amid huge controversy over senior Sinn Fein figures’ attendance at that event – the Department of Health made The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Amendment No. 10) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020, the latest in multiple updates to the regulations as lockdown is eased.

That legislation removed regulation 5 (2) g of the original lockdown regulations in which the restriction on who can attend a funeral was contained.

However, while that means that the prohibition on most people attending funerals has now been removed, many people will be unaware of the change – because Stormont did not publicise it.

Good times.

Stormont quietly changed funeral law just 48 hours after Michelle O’Neill breach (Newsletter)

 Jack Teeling and Stephen Teeling toast five years of visitors to  Teeling Whiskey Distillery

Last month, we celebrated  the 5th anniversary of the opening of the Teeling Whiskey Distillery in The Liberties, Dublin 8  to  the public, with a dram good competition.

On offer was a Teeling Trinity Tasting Tour’ for 2 People AND a bottle of Teeling Small Batch to take home. We asked you to complete this rhyme.

There’s nothing like that feeling,

When you’re climbing the ceiling,

Sadly, in a controversial move, uncompromising Broadsheet laureate John Moynes ajudged all 49 entries as “terrible”.

Every single one of them.

Firmly obliged to choose a winner, John eventually conceded: “Adam’s entry is the least sh*t”.

To wit:

There’s nothing like that feeling,
When you’re climbing the ceiling,
I will arise and go now,
To the Lake Isle of Inishfree

Adam

Well done, Adam and thanks all.

Previously: That Birthday Teeling

Teeling Whiskey

Save Poolbeg.

Pic: David Costello

Roderic O’Gorman Minister Children, Disability, Equality and Integration

Last night/this morning.

Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration Roderic O’Gorman has said that, under a commitment in the Programme for Government, laws to make it easier for 16 and 17-year-olds to legally change their gender will be introduced by the new coalition.

Mr O’Gorman said a review group had carried out work on the Gender Recognition Act and have also recommended examining the arrangements for children under 16 who may want to change gender.

Mr O’Gorman told Independent.ie:

“They [expert group] brought forward proposals for children under 16. Right now, if [under 16s] want to initiate a gender change, they have to get kind of high-level medical consultants to actually sign off on that. Whereas the recommendation is to make that easier to allow a GP basically to sign off to say yes…. In an area like this, you should be led by expert advice.”

The expert group comprised Moninne Griffith, BeLonGTo (Chair); Dearbháil Nic Giolla Mhicíl, Department of Employment Affairs & Social Protection; Olive McGovern,Department of Children &Youth Affairs; Gráinne Morrissey,Department of Education & Science; Nuala Ní Mhuircheartaigh, Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade; Diane Nurse, Health Service Executive; Tracy O’Keeffe, Department of Justice & Equality (Civil Law Reform Division); Adam Egan, Department of Justice & Equality (Equality Division); Dr.Tanya Ní Mhuirthile, Dublin City University; Séamus Byrne, IndividualiTy; Sara Phillips,Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI); Michele Clarke, Chief Social Worker, Department of Children &Youth Affairs and Anne O’Donnell, Manager, Hub na nÓg – Young Voices in Decision-making.

New Children’s Minister to make it easier for under-16s to change their gender (Independent.ie)

Rollingnews

The brutalist kintsugi of artist Glen Taylor – broken porcelain ‘repaired’ with tarnished silverware, barbed wire, chains and paper mâché, contrasting the delicacy of the original piece with unwieldy mends in a celebration of imperfection.

Which is more worthy of celebration than perfection.

Discuss.

colossal

Broadsheet.ie