An Garda Siochana tweetz:

Dublin Traffic: There is currently a skip in the middle lanes of the M50 Northbound at J4 Ballymun. Emergency services are currently en route. Please approach with extreme care.

Jay.

Kers.

UPDATE:

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaks to journalists ahead of the UN Summit on Climate Change in New York

Meanwhile…

Varadkar to tell UN that carbon tax revenue will be ring-fenced for climate action (RTE)

Previously: Religious Fervour

Pic: Cormac Quinn

Behold: the Sinot Aqua – an ultra luxury conceptual super yacht with a nod to environmental responsibility. Powered by PEM fuel cells fed by liquid hydrogen, the only by product of propulsion is water.

Stealthy, on account of its electric drive, the ship has a 3,750 nautical mile range at a speed of 17 knots.

The impressive 112m length provides for a wide beam pavilion on the upper level, beach deck, VIP staterooms, a large pool and the usual slew of sunpads, ‘wellness zones’ and outdoor dining areas.

No, it wouldn’t fit in Bray harbour or hook up nice behind a 1998 Subaru Forester.

uncrate

The Wha – Innocents

Introducing the bright young things of the Marble City.

Kilkenny city newcomers The Wha are cut from the same stone as Arctic Monkeys and Elvis Costello.

Led by dual songwriters Finn Cusack and Sam Cullen with the line-up completed by Marek Lech on bass and Abe G Harris on drums, the group have the classic rock gang look to complement the spitfire melodic guitar riffs.

The video was directed by Conor Dockery at Dock Visual.

Nick says: Kilkenny calling.

The Wha

The Today Show’s Maura Derrane and Dáithí O’Sé

They’re back.

Sinead Harrington writes:

Ireland’s most watched daytime show  – Today with Maura and Dáithí, which is broadcast live from RTÉ Cork, returns this afternoon for a brand new season.

Presenters Maura Derrane and Dáithí O’ Sé will bring their infectious blend of fun to brighten everyone’s afternoon and …as well as a brand new set this season there will be new roving reporters as part of the team.

Presenter Bláthnaid Treacy will join Pat Fitzpatrick on the couch each Thursday to discuss all the latest entertainment news. Other new reporters include Keith Walsh and Ciara King as well as returning reporters Brenda Donohue, James Patrice and Trishauna Archer…

Today with Maura Derrane and Dáithí airs Monday to Friday at 3.30pm on RTÉ One.

Ah here.

Rugby World Cup: England, Ireland and Italy all win on day three – video highlights (The Guardian)

Paul Graham, 80, (right and above) met his brother Rodney Whittaker, 75, for the first time on Saturday

Via BBC:

A survivor of an Irish mother and baby home has said he is “at peace with the world” after meeting his elderly brother for the first time.

Paul Graham, 80, travelled to London from Australia to meet his half brother Rodney Whittaker, 75, on Saturday.

He said meeting his first blood relative was almost indescribable.

Mr Graham spent his early years at the Bethany Home in Dublin, which was a place for unmarried Protestant mothers and their children.

“I held his hand for nearly half an hour. It was like holding the hand of the one you love,” he told BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday News.

“He turned around and smiled at me, it broke my heart.

“We just connected and that was just wonderful. I always wanted to belong.”

Mr Graham was adopted by a wealthy family in Belfast in 1944, but ran away from his home at the age of 14 to join the Royal Marines. He later emigrated to Australia with his young family.

He only recently realised he had a brother after discovering Mr Whittaker’s signature on his mother’s death certificate.

He said the meeting allowed him to forgive his mother, from Castlederg in County Tyrone, for leaving him as an infant in Bethany Home, which closed in the 1960s.

Bethany Home survivor meets elderly brother for the first time (BBC)

Pics: Paul Graham

Thanks Derek Linster

previously: Bethany Home on broadsheet

Public Services Card; Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection Regina Doherty

Further to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and Minister Regina Doherty publishing the Report of the Data Protection Commission on the Public Services Card last week…

And her department’s intention to challenge the DPC’s findings on the card based on “incredibly strong legal” advice…

Dr Eoin O’Dell, a Fellow and Associate Professor at the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin, wrote in yesterday’s Sunday Business Post:

The government’s misguided approach has the capacity to do great damage to Ireland’s reputation as a good location for international tech companies to establish their European headquarters.

A government in such open conflict with the DPC [Data Protection Commission] can have no credibility in seeking to ensure that such companies comply with the commission’s decisions.

Worse, it risks fostering the view that a company unhappy with an unfavourable DPC decision could seek government help to resist that decision.

…This is not the first time that government departments have run afoul of data protection laws.

In 2011, the commission found that blood samples from babies’ heel-prick tests were being unlawfully retained, but in 2013 the Minister for Health ordered the HSE not to comply with the commission’s determination.

The Department of Education has continued with its controversial plans, unveiled in 2014, to collect extensive profiles of all children in education and store that data until they turn 30, notwithstanding the commission’s misgivings.

Dealing from bottom of the deck on the Public Services Card (Eoin O’Dell, The Sunday Business Post)

Previously: The Regina Monologues

Rollingnews

Broadsheet.ie