Orla Dwyer, in Dublin People, reports:

“A maypole that hasn’t been seen in Finglas for 175 years is returning this weekend at a fun-filled festival this weekend thanks to the dedication of a group of historical volunteers.

“The Finglas Maypole Festival has been planned for over two years, and the committee members feel 2019 is the perfect year for it to take place.”

Maypole returns to Finglas (Dublin People)

The Finglas Maypole Festival (Facebook)

Thanks Tony

Meanwhile…

Last night.

At the Clayton Hotel in Cork city.

Fine Gael adjourned a public meeting it was holding about directly elected mayors in Cork, Limerick and Waterford for 15 minutes before resuming.

This was due to members of the Connolly Movement Branch protesting at the meeting.

Their protest began with a member calling for a minute’s silence for two homeless men who died in Cork recently.

The action follows the most recent figures from the Department of Housing showing that 10,305 people accessed emergency accommodation in the final week of March.

Homeless charities have put the true homeless figure at 15,000 while Fr Peter McVerry told the Women in Media conference in Ballybunion, Co Kerry last weekend that he believes 500,000 people in Ireland are in a “housing situation causing them serious distress” while 40,000 mortgages are in arrears.

Jennifer Bray, in The Irish Times, who was at last night’s meeting in Cork, reported that, after it resumed, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told those present:

“I think no matter what political party you come from or what your political views, we should all be committed to democracy and freedom of speech and trying to shout other people down and trying to shut down their meetings is profoundly anti-democratic.”

“It goes against the basic principle of free speech and is untrue to what happened in 1916 when people fought for our freedom and independence and it is untrue to all of the efforts of our founding fathers. We are a democracy and that allows people to speak freely.”

Meanwhile…

Fiachra Ó Cionnaith, of The Irish Examiner, reports:

“Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his Cabinet will undoubtedly have expected some soft focus PR during their trip to Cork City, with political strategists eyeing up the chance to win over some badly needed rural support when the visit plans were first unveiled.

“But, despite their best intentions, the day-long journey to the rebel county has if anything provided ministers with a short, sharp slap in the face reality check of the problems facing the coalition as they bid to keep voter support in place nationwide in the weeks – and months – to come.”

Varadkar calls protesters who halted Fine Gael meeting ‘anti-democratic’ (Jennifery Bray, The Irish Times)

Taoiseach brands Cork protest ‘profoundly undemocratic’ (Fiachra Ó Cionnaith, The Irish Examiner)

Previously: ‘A Time To Be Disruptive’

Pic: Jennifer Bray

Behold: NGC 6543 – the brightest and most detailed known planetary nebula, from our perspective at least. The Cat’s Eye Nebula is composed of gas expelled in the death throes of a Sun-like star. To wit:

This nebula‘s dying central star may have produced the outer circular concentric shells by shrugging off outer layers in a series of regular convulsions. The formation of the beautiful, complex-yet-symmetric inner structures, however, is not well understood. The featured image is a composite of a digitally sharpened Hubble Space Telescope image with X-ray light captured by the orbiting Chandra Observatory. The exquisite floating space statue spans over half a light-year across. Of course, gazing into this Cat’s Eye, humanity may well be seeing the fate of our sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of evolution … in about 5 billion years.

(Image: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Chandra X-ray Obs.; Rudy Pohl)

apod

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=44&v=rKQeDO4WqRc

Last night.

The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on CBS NBC.

Dublin’s Fontaines DC perform an intense bonus rendition of Liberty Belle – provoking an almost universal response…

No playsin’ some people.

Previously:  You May Like This

Darren Skelton, of the Waterford News and Star with Taoisech Leo Varadkar; a letter sent by four consultant pathologists to the CEO of the South/South West Hospital Group  Gerry O’Dwyer last October (click to enlarge)

This morning.

Waterford News and Star journalist Darren Skelton published the letter sent by four pathologists to the CEO of the South/South West Hospital Group Gerry O’Dwyer last October – in which they raised serious concerns about the mortuary in University Hospital Waterford.

Mr Skelton was denied access to the letter when he sought under the Freedom of Information Act but sourced it by other means.

Since he reported on the letter last week, the hospital group has issued a statement to say, among other things, that there is “no evidence” to support the claims made by the pathologists and that no staff member ever made any complaint about the mortuary’s conditions.

Not long after this, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said “no evidence has been brought forward to support” the claims, before adding “certainly those who made them [the claims] haven’t put forward any evidence”.

Mr Skelton had the opportunity to question and challenge the Taoiseach directly about this assertion on Tuesday and Mr Varadkar told him “without me knowing all the facts, or you knowing all the facts, it would be incorrect to come to a judgement”.

Yesterday, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association released a statement saying it was “alarmed” by the Government’s response to the pathologists’ concerns.

They also said the response from the health service management was “disappointing”.

The pathologists “repeatedly” raised their concerns to management “over a lengthy period”, the group said.

Specifically, the IHCA said: “The response by Government to question the validity of these concerns rather than tackling the issue in a much more timely manner is disappointing.”

Mr Skelton explains his reasons for publishing the letters in full below…

Previously: Dying On Air

‘Ill-Judged And Inaccurate’

The Dead Can Wait

UPDATE:

Venezuela president Nicolás Maduro

Putsch?

Pfft.

President Maduro stays in office despite large May day protests in Venezuela (EuroNews)

Meanwhile…

Alice writes:

Did you hear Sean O’Rourke Show [RTÉ Radio One] yesterday discussing Venezuela? The two panelists are well known to be pro-US. Not that Sean O’Rourke told the listeners. Rory Carroll (Guardian Ireland correspondent) is married to Ligimat Perez Garcia, who happens to be extremely anti-Maduro. Carroll himself wrote a book lamenting the fact that Chavez got elected. The other panelist Eileen Gavin works for Global Risk Consultancy Verisk Maplecroft (which is pretty much a neo-conservative consultancy agency).

Previously: Escalating

Pic: AFP

Above from top: Jamie Carroll Comiskey from Homeless Mobile Run; Garda Eimear Cantwell; Ann Birney from Inner City Helping Homeless; performer Paul Ryder and (bottom pic) the four nominees with 98FM presenters Adrian Kennedy and Jeremy Dixon.

This morning.

Sandymount Strand, Dublin 4.

Nominees in 98FM’s Best of Dublin 2019 – unsung heroes who are “the ultimate celebration of the best our city has to offer”.

In fairness.

Vote here

PhotocallIreland

Save Poolbeg

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