From top: For Ava, by Vera Twomey, published by Mercier Press; Garret O’Callaghan

Free Thursday?

At Eason’s on Patrick Street in Cork city, from 6pm.

Former radio and TV presenter Gareth O’Callaghan will launch For Ava – a book by Vera Twomey about her daughter Ava, who lives with Dravet Syndrome, and their fight to obtain medicinal cannabis in Ireland.

Ahead of the launch, Gareth writes:

….I first heard of Vera Twomey in early 2016 when she spoke on a radio chat show about her daughter’s chronic illness and how, despite repeated efforts to get her the medication she desperately needed to help Ava stay alive, the doors of power and authority continued to slam in her face.

But Vera refused to give up.

Her beautiful book, For Ava, has just been published and it’s in all of your favourite bookshops around Ireland right now.

If they tell you they don’t have it in stock, ask them to order it for you. You can go online and order of from a variety of websites including Eason.

Vera has paved the way for so many who will benefit from her heroic struggle. Her point-blank refusal to shut up and go away, like so many others would do and have done, has meant that her daughter is now seizure free and attending school each day, and engaging in many other activities that any nine-year old child would regard as normal.

Her book is filled with stories that will make you laugh and cry. The background to her story is also an accurate reflection of the daily struggles that so many of the frontline staff within the HSE have to endure: paramedics, junior doctors, nurses, and carers.

On one particular night, an ambulance had to be dispatched from Kilkenny in order that Ava could be taken to hospital in Cork following one of her worst seizures ever. That’s a 140-mile journey that took the paramedics almost three hours!

This is a book about a mother’s love and devotion to her daughter, and it’s also a book about a small child’s terrible illness and her family’s fight for medical justice.

It is beautifully written with tenderness and compassion, but the warmhearted anecdotes are never far from the ruthless, innate determination of one woman who refused to go away and accept that the health and wellbeing of her daughter Ava would or could ever be silenced by those in the corridors of power.

If there was only one book I would recommend you to buy this year, it would be this one; and if you happen to be passing Eason’s in Patrick Street in Cork this coming Thursday evening around 6.15pm, please drop in and say hello.

It will be my honour to launch this epic book, and to introduce Vera Twomey.

Cork Book Launch For Ava by Vera Twomey With Guest Gareth O’Callaghan (Eventbrite)

For Ava (Mercier Press)


Two years ago, Lego builder The Brick Wall created a fully functioning Lego Technic hay baler.

This year he  upgraded his design to produce neatly squared-off bales and also built a wagon to stack and transport them.

In fairness.

awesomer

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson

RTÉ reports:

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has no meeting scheduled with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to discuss Brexit, Mr Johnson’s spokesman said.

A report in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph said an offer to meet the Taoiseach to talk about the backstop had been accepted and dates were being discussed.

The spokesman also said Mr Johnson had been clear he still wanted to get a Brexit deal but hoped the European Union understood the British government’s determination to leave the bloc on 31 October, “no ifs or buts”.

Johnson has no meeting scheduled with Vardakar – spokesman (RTE)

Boris Johnson accepted an offer from Irish premier Leo Varadkar to meet to try to break the Brexit deadlock (Sunday Telegraph, August 11, 2019)

Varadkar and Johnson to meet for talks on Brexit (RTE, August 11, 2019)

Earlier: Bryan Wall: Madman Johnson

From top: Boris Johnson, then UK Foreign Secretary and Simon Coveney at the Department of Foreign Affairs in 2017; Bryan Wall

With the ascension of Boris Johnson to the prime minister’s office in the UK the prospect of a disastrous Brexit draws ever closers. Johnson is the epitome of the arrogance and lack of concern shown by many of the conservative Brexiters. It has to happen no matter the consequences.

Part of the reason for this is the incessant need for the powerful to demonstrate just how powerful they are. Johnson is no different.

Like our own Leo Varadkar, he’s not a bumbling idiot with a consistent case of foot in mouth syndrome. His worldview is tempered by privilege and the idea, inculcated from an early age, that the Britain of old was the peak of western civilisation.

Everything Johnson says and does is filtered through this particularistic and outdated mode of thought. It’s a signal to others, both the elite and the wider population of Brexiters, that the dream of Britannia can be realised once again. And all it takes is to cut ties with the EU no matter the outcome.

In any functioning society the idea of a hard Brexit should cause widespread panic among everyone from the heads of government down to the local shopkeepers. Instead, it’s seen as the top priority by a large portion of the population.

Johnson has played a large role in fomenting this view of Brexit as one of the UK regaining its former independence and prestige. And he’s been wildly successful at it too. Johnson is no idiot.

Given this, he likely believes he has the upper hand. Varadkar and Ireland have been largely dependent on the backing of the EU in its support of the Irish position regarding Brexit.

Everyone knows this, including Johnson. And everyone also knows that the EU has been more than willing to sacrifice Ireland on the altar of the perceived greater good in the past.

This is a vulnerability that it seems not many are willing to talk about. Considering Johnson’s apparent madman international relations policy, it’s a sizeable blind spot.

Thus far the EU has stood firm. But the premise of the madman theory is that Johnson is irrational and cannot be reasoned with. And with his insistence that a Brexit is coming one way or another we can see the theory in action.

Of course, this is a calculated move on Johnson’s part. But it should make people wary of placing all of our bets on EU support.

Plus, regardless of who blinks first, or who doesn’t, the effects on Ireland will be large. One report found that no matter what shape Brexit takes the economy will be negatively affected.

The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) looked at what effect three different kinds of Brexit would have on Ireland: A “Deal scenario”, a “No-Deal” situation, and finally a “Disorderly No-Deal” Brexit.

It found that:

the level of real output in the Irish economy would be 2.6 per cent, 4.8 per cent and 5.0 per cent lower in the Deal, No-Deal and Disorderly No-Deal scenarios, respectively, compared to a situation where the UK stays in the EU.

Unemployment will rise and tax revenues fall. For Ireland alone, a lot hangs in the balance. For Johnson and friends all they see is the possibility of a newly independent UK. Any side effects such as shortages of food and medicines are worth it for the chance to stick it to the Irish and reinvigorate Britannia.

Another side effect of Brexit and the rhetoric surrounding it has been its utilisation by the far right and extreme nationalists. For them Brexit is a way to stop what they see as the erasure of British culture and values.

Like Johnson, they are blinkered but for very different reasons. Johnson wants an independent Britain. The far right want an end to immigration and to anyone or anything non-white. And in both cases the wider consequences don’t matter. To not want Brexit is to be a traitor.

The situation is not pretty. No matter what happens, if somehow Brexit is averted or postponed, or if Johnson ploughs ahead with a hard Brexit, the division and hatred that’s been already whipped up will reach even greater heights.

As things currently stand hate crimes have increased. Now imagine if the far right and those who pander to them don’t get their way. This is not to be scoffed at or seen as scaremongering.

For now though, the entire situation lies in the hands of Johnson and those closest to him. If his madman tactics are played out to the full, then we can indeed expect a hard Brexit and all the negative consequences that will come with it.

But maybe it’s all about posturing. Remember, Johnson is no fool. Maybe he’ll finally be convinced that there’s a way other than a hard Brexit.

But if the madman theory holds true don’t expect any course correction, if any, until the last second.

Bryan Wall is an independent journalist based in Cork. His column usually appears here every Monday. Read more of Bryan’s work here and follow on Twitter:  @Bryan_Wall

Rollingnews

On Saturday.

Supporters of Dublin Says No To Hate – including Izzy Kamikaze (top) – gathered outside Irishtown Garda Station on Irishtown Road in Dublin 4 to protest “the gardai’s inaction” toward what organisers allege as “the ongoing open incitement to hatred taking place on the streets of Dublin”.

This group – including Green Party councillor Hazel Chu (second pic, addressing those gathered) – then walked to the headquarters of Google on Barrow Street, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2 – where a separate protest was being held.

Daily protests led by Anti Corruption Ireland founder Gemma O’Doherty, who was de-platformed by Google-owned YouTube, have been taking place outside the tech giant’s Dublin HQ for the past number of weeks.

Dublin Says No To Hate regard Anti-Corruption Ireland as ‘anti-immigrant’ (a charge ACI deny) are seeking YOUTUBE and other tech giants to deplatform and censor those they consider to be ‘far right’.

Meanwhile…

Heil-o you.

Video footage from the anti-protest protest outside Google’s HQ, taken by Mark Malone, shows a man seemingly make a Nazi salute during the protests.

Video: Sound Migration

Update:

Meanwhile…

Meanwhile…

Former High Court, European Court of Human Rights and Court of Appeal judge Mr Justice John Hedigan, now chair of the National Archives; yesterday’s Irish Mail on Sunday

Yesterday, Anne Sheridan, in the Irish Mail on Sunday, reported that records obtained under Freedom of Information show retired judge John Hedigan, chair of the National Archives, wanted the State to seal child abuse documents for 100 years.

Ms Sheridan reported:

The National Archives has urged the State to seal child abuse documents for 100 years, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.

That is even longer than the 75 years proposed in controversial legislation, which has been much criticised by abuse victims and by historian Catherine Corless.

Previously: Conflating And Confusing Privacy And Secrecy

Pic: Mick Caul

From top: Yesterday’s New York Post’ Britain’s Queen Elzabeth and her son Prince Andrew in Balmoral, Scotland yesterday

Jeffrey Epstein kept “meticulously detailed” diaries of his friendships which could come back to haunt his powerful pals, reports claim.

The billionaire paedo, who died from an apparent suicide on Saturday, was once friends with Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.

He is understood to have kept a secret diary detailing his friendships with the rich and famous as an “insurance policy”.

Meanwhile….

Meanwhile, as this tumultuous news cycle began for Andrew, he was tucked safely away at Balmoral, Queen Elizabeth’s residence in the Scottish Highlands, according to reports from The Sun, The Daily Mail and the Express. He and Ferguson presumably got word of Epstein’s suicide while at Balmoral, The Daily Mail said.

The Queen chose to sit beside the Duke of York in a car, accompanied by his daughter Princess Beatrice, on the way to church at Balmoral, Scotland, on Sunday morning. All three could be seen smiling inside the vehicle.

Jeffrey Epstein kept ‘meticulously detailed’ diaries which could come back to haunt his powerful pals including Prince Andrew (The Sun)

Jeffrey Epstein: Who is embroiled in sex scandal – and why are there conspiracy theories over his death? (Telegraph)

Meanwhile…..

Pic: Getty

Every Child Is Your Child is a Limerick-based community group which aims to raise funds for parents living in Direct Provision.

They’re currently running a backpack drive across Ireland to collect school items for children living in Direct Provision.

They write:

“This is a backpack drive for young school goers living in direct provision. We are collecting stationery items, copies, uniform items for all ages (white / blue shirts, black / grey / navy trousers, white/red/ blue golf t-shirts, shoes / runners, gift cards ( One4All, Tesco, Dunnes, etc), new backpacks/school bags, lunch bags, boxes, reusable water/juice bottles.

“There are currently over 2000 children living in the direct provision system in Ireland. Parents struggle to meet the expenses associated with back to school expenses as majority have been excluded from availing of the right to work permit therefore forced to try to make ends meet on €38.80 per week.”

Every Child Is Your Child (Facebook)

Behold: a rather extraordinary image of the star cluster of Messier 16, aka NGC 6611, aka ‘The Eagle Nebula’, surrounded by natal clouds of dust and glowing gas. To wit:

This beautifully detailed image of the region adopts the colourful Hubble palette and includes cosmic sculptures made famous in Hubble Space Telescope close-ups of the star-forming complex. Described as ‘elephant trunks’ or ‘Pillars of Creation’, dense, dusty columns rising near the centre are light years in length but are gravitationally contracting to form stars. Energetic radiation from the cluster stars erodes material near the tips, eventually exposing the embedded new stars. Extending from the ridge of bright emission left of centre is another dusty star-forming column known as the Fairy of Eagle Nebula. M16 lies about 7,000 light-years away, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (‘the tail of the snake’).

(Image: Ignacio Diaz Bobillo)

apod

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