The deeply personal implications of China’s One Child Policy (1979 – 2015) from the perspective of a family that conceived two children during this time, explored in a powerful, award-winning short by animator Siqi Song.
A short film by cinematographer Chris Bryan, who worked on BBC’s ‘Blue Planet II’, showing the mesmerising crash and surge of ocean waves in slow motion. Sez he:
I love filming in the ocean more than anything, its not just a job, its a passion. And sometimes its nice just to document waves without surfers riding them. The feeling of jumping off the rocks in the dark by myself just to capture the very first rays of light hitting the ocean without another sole in sight is unexplainable, its one of the most amazing feelings ever, its like my own personal therapy.
Rat Race
at
The tough listen to the Operation: Project podcast.
The podcast about the art of actually finishing creative stuff.
Hosted by Caroline Swords (above), who writes:
Over the years, I’ve started a bunch of creative projects I’ve failed to finish. So I wanted to talk to creative people – writers, filmmakers, comedians, photographers, musicians, and more – about how they work, and what they do when things get tough – learn the secrets of finishing.
My first guest is Emily O’Callaghan comedy promoter, event organiser, journalist, photographer.
She constantly gets creative things done, and I wanted to to know how. We talk about getting over your fear of trying, why it’s important to have a few failures behind you, and how to pack out the first night of your new comedy club!
Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify here: – new episodes weekly.
Galway-based Iasc Design.
Handmade jewellery in a variety of man-made materiels.
Including vinyl!
Amy Houlihan at Iasc Designs writes:
Iasc Designs is a self-taught jeweller with a range of modern jewellery designed and handmade in Galway from a variety of natural and man-made materials.
The vinyl collection (above) features eye-catching pieces individually hand cut from vinyl records with a focus on simple geometric shapes which highlight the beautiful textures of the vinyl itself.
More intricate bone-carved jewellery is also available featuring unique, made-to-order pieces. Carved ogham necklaces are a definite bestseller and make an amazing personalised Christmas gift!
Irish Made stocking fillers to Broadsheet@broadsheet.ie marked ‘Irish-Made Stocking Fillers’. No fee.
From top: Peter Finnegan, Clerk of the Dáil; A Komori offset printer
This morning.
RTÉ News has learned Clerk of the Dáil Peter Finnegan will hold a fast-track inquiry into the spending controversy and update the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee on its findings by the end of this week – despite previously failing to tell TDs what happened during an autumn financial meeting.
Over the weekend it emerged Oireachtas officials spent €808,000 on a state-of-the-art printer for the campus plus costly structural works to accommodate the new equipment.
Internal e-mails confirmed the price of the Komori printer in addition to €236,000 worth of structural works to fit it into the building, due to the need to tear down walls and embed structural steel to give it the height clearance needed to operate.
However, when the printer arrived at the Oireachtas on 5 December last year, it became apparent the printer, which is 2.1 metres high and 1.9 metres wide, would not fit into the space.
Dáil’s most senior official to investigate €1m overall spend on printer (RTÉ)
Yesterday: Million Euro Question
Top pic: Oireachtas.ie
Tonight at 7pm.
At The Fumbally, Merchants Quay, Dublin.
The magazine Totally Dublin will be hosting Totally Dublin Live to “revisit content and people featured in the magazine, celebrating the best of the city and beyond”.
Totally Dublin write:
Joining us on our third edition of Totally Dublin Live are The Mary Wallopers, the trad offshoot of Dundalk hip-hop duo TPM who were our July cover stars.
We’ll also be in conversation with Barry Delaney about his most recent photographic publication – Stars and Souls of the Liffey: Dublin 2006-2016.
We’ll also be joined by the team behind Native Denim who are creating customised jeans in the heart of the city. We hope you can come join us for a celebration of talent which enhances our lives.
Tickets are €6 and can be bought here
Wellington Street Lower, Dublin 7, in 2009 (top) and yesterday (above)
Yesterday.
Wellington Street Lower, Dublin 7.
Dublin Civic Trust tweetz:
What a difference a decade makes – contrast the same view in 2009.
Decent urban design elements here: quality brick, jazzy railed frontage, miraculously matured birch trees, matching tree guards, residential respect.
In fairness.
This morning.
At 10am on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour…
The Irish government is proposing that important documents about industrial schools should be sealed for 75 years. But some women who stayed in them, like Rosemary [Adaser], pictured above when she was a baby, say they don’t want the files and testimonies to be kept secret.
They say they’re crucial, historical documents. The government disagrees, believing it’s about confidentiality and preservation. We hear from Rosemary and Elizabeth, women in their 60s and 70s, who describe what it was like living in these places.
Listen live here
Meanwhile at 11am…
This morning.
The Retention of Records Bill 2019 will be discussed at a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Skills.
The draft of this bill proposes to seal millions of abuse records from survivors and the public for at least 75 years.
These records include every document gathered or made by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, Residential Institutions Redress Board and Residential Institutions Redress Review Committee.
The Minister for Education Joe McHugh asked the committee to examine the issue.
Those attending today’s meeting include survivors, lawyers, historians and archivists including Carmel McDonnell-Byrne, Eileen Molloy, Dr Mary Lodato, Catriona Crowe, Dr Fred Logue, from FP Logue Solicitors; Dr Maeve O’Rourke, lecturer in human rights law at NUI Galway; and Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley, lecturer in history at NUI Galway.
The meeting will get under way at 11am (see link above).
After the meeting, there will be a press conference at 1pm in The Gandon Boardroom at The Davenport Hotel, 8 – 10 Merrion Street Lower, Dublin 2.
The written submissions made to the committee by those taking part can be read here
Among those written submissions are two from members A.P and E.A., of the Association of Mixed Race Irish.
A.P. wrote:
“I made a special trip to London to give my submission to the Committee in person. I did not do this for the State to lock my testimony away for 75 years. I am now left wondering what it was all for and what is the State trying to hide.
When such a Bill is put in place it is usually to protect the State. Locking away our records is most certainly not for benefit or the protection of survivors.
My submission was given in good faith. As my submission is my own “words” I do not give the Irish State permission to lock away my ‘words’ for 75 years or any records related to either to my submission or my time spent in institutional care.
This move will always leave the State open to criticism and conspiracy theories as to why the need for such a veil of secrecy that the State really shouldn’t be so comfortable with.”
E.A. wrote:
“I wrote two statements touching on some of my experiences in state institutions and enormous suffering and unhappiness.
Before submitting statements I was never informed that my testimonies would be kept secret for any number of years, or that by submitting I had given copyright of my testimonies away.
I am a victim of institutional abuse afforded to me by state institutes, a state initiative. Those experiences were endured and issued through religious silence.
Shame needs exposure, yet another blanket of silence is now being proposed.
I am present, living alongside those experiences. In order to heal, and heal I must, I need my experiences aired, shared, scrutinised and acknowledged in my lifetime!
Knowledge will help ensure those atrocities are never again repeated. Besides, I’m not history, yet.”
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (centre) and Fine Gael by-election candidate Verona Murphy (left) canvassing in Wexford town yesterday
Yesterday.
Main Street, Wexford.
…It was unusual when it comes to a canvas in a county town four days before a by-election, that publicity opportunities would be shunned, but it’s been an unusual campaign for Fine Gael in Wexford.
They [Varadkar and candidate Murphy) largely received a positive reception, with smiles and banter a-plenty between the public and the politicians, although one man in The Book Centre, when asked if he would like to be introduced to the visitors, confided that he would not be seen in such company…
Smiles and banter from Varadkar in Wexford but no time for the waiting press (RTÉ)
Previously: Due Diligence
Pic: RTÉ