Mmmm.
Splutter!
Who do all those legs, toned calf muscles, tense, firm buttockage and ‘bits’ belong to?
Aha.
SuperValu ambassadors The Happy Pear and The Gut Health Doctor, aka Dr Megan Rossi, announcing that SuperValu is returning for a third year as official food partner of WellFest, in Dublin’s Royal Hospital Kilmainham on May 11 and 12.
Can’t see them?
Happy now?
Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland
Limerick’s CCTV project has technology to record the registration of every passing car 24 hours a day
Jess Casey, in the Limerick Leader, reports:
“Serious questions” remain unanswered in relation to a controversial €500,000 smart CCTV project, that has the technology to record the registration of every passing car 24 hours a day, and is installed across 14 Limerick towns and villages.
Limerick City and County Council (LCCC) plans to shortly roll out its Smart CCTV scheme to 13 new locations, although it has yet to receive the findings of a special investigation by the Data Protection Commissioner into its use of the scheme.
…When contacted by the Limerick Leader, a LCCC spokesperson said that CCTV systems in all 14 towns are currently recording footage live in test mode.
An Garda Siochana can access and download this footage “for the purpose of securing public order”, the spokesperson added.
‘Serious questions’ hang over €500k smart CCTV scheme in Limerick (Limerick Leader)
Pic: Limerick.ie
Ladies, less flour you’ve outdone yourselves.
This morning.
The launch of this year’s National Brown Bread Baking Competition sponsored by Aldi with, above, from left: Josephine Helly (Irish Countrywomen’s Association President), Eileen Brennan (National Ploughing Association), Anna May McHugh (MD National Ploughing Association), Emma Ferguson (2018 winner) and Sile Seoige (competition MC).
The overall winner will see their bread on shelves in 137 Aldi stores nationwide and a share of the profits “guaranteed to be at least €15,000”.
A lot of bread.
(Pause).
I’ll get my housecoat.
Leon Farrell /Photocall Ireland
A vast bird sculpture sprawls on a mountaintop at the 65 acre environmental tourist destination of Jatayu Earth’s Centre at Kerala in India. The centre is a collaboration between the Tourism Department of Kerala and film director Rajiv Anchal. The bird is the stuff of legend.To wit:
Based on the epic story of Ramayana, Jatayu is a noble bird of divine origin who lost his wing and fell while fighting to protect a young woman named Sitha. The bird as recreated in concrete at the Center is 200 feet long, 150 feet wide, and 70 feet tall, with stylized feathers and enormous curled claws.
Counter Intelligence – Pounded
And now for something completely different.
Suggested to me by ‘sheet reader/contributor James M Chimney, this is the first single from a pioneering new Irish-Italian combo who sound a bit like The Specials on acid.
‘Pounded’ is culled from their upcoming debut album ‘Adapt And Evolve’ which is available from the usual online sources from May 5.
We’re digging the psychedelic trippy visuals too, courtesy of Linn Hansen.
The band members call themselves Major, Zar, Ghost and Mountain and have named their sound Transversal Rock.
Nick says: Beam me up, boys.
This afternoon.
In Buswells Hotel, Dublin 2.
The Solidarity-People Before Profit party launches their candidates for the European elections on May 24.
The candidates are Gillian Brien (Dublin), Adrienne Wallace (South), Cyril Brennan (Midlands North West) and Rita Harold (Dublin).
Fiach Kelly tweetz:
.@pb4p Euro election launch. Promises include joining a “movement of civil disobedience to remove border posts if they are imposed by either the UK government or the EU…peace in Ireland is more important than Tory nationalism or the EU single market”.
Meanwhile, last night…
My mum sounded a bit upset after I sent her this photo.
Me-It’s OK mum I was careful.
Mum-It’s not that. Just I came here with no English, no friends & no home 40 yrs, I never thought I’d see my kids election poster on a pole. I’m so proud.
(There’s something in my eye)#LE19 pic.twitter.com/iVdgEFBwxm
— Hazel Chu (@hazechu) April 24, 2019
UPDATE:
Update. I thought I’d make my mum even prouder by telling her my tweet was getting a lot of likes.
Her: Hazel, are ‘likes’ votes? Don’t think so. Go and get some actual votes. Shouldn’t you be canvassing?!
Ah, I love my tiger mom.
— Hazel Chu (@hazechu) April 24, 2019
From top: Showers in Carlow; satellite image of Ireland; Met Eireann’s weather warnings
Carlow Weather tweetz:
Weather warnings issued now by Met Eireann for #StormHannah includes Status Orange – Wind warning for Clare, Cork, Kerry and Limerick and Yellow for many other areas.
*Squelch.*
Outside the Direct Provision centre in Mosney, Co Meath
This afternoon.
Some residents of the Direct Provision centre at the former Mosney holiday camp in Co Meath are holding a protest.
It follows a single mother reportedly attempting suicide at the centre.
Yesterday, the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland posted the following on Facebook:
Not very long ago, a man living in the Hazel Hotel Direct Provision centre in Kildare died as a result of suicide.
His roommates and friends tried to get help for him and their attempts were met with a government that is uninterested in the wellbeing of people living in Direct Provision centre.
With a prevailing sense of hopelessness, the man took his life. He was not the first person to do so in a Direct Provision centre.
And considering that the State gives people antidepressants or sleeping pills instead of addressing the causality of untenable limbo in the system, it would be naive to think that he’d be the last person to do so.
A single mother who has only been in Ireland for a few weeks is in hospital after attempting suicide in the Mosney Direct Provision centre.
The mother arrived in Ireland with her 5 year old son. A few days ago, her other 2 children, a 16 year old boy and an 11 year girl joined her.
She was to remain in Mosney Direct Provision centre while her asylum claim is processed. However, she was advised by staff in Mosney that they do not have space to accommodate the family of 4 and so they were shipped off to a hotel in Cavan.
The hotel in Cavan gave the family a standard hotel room where all 4 were expected to live.
The teenage boy required medical attention and there was no assistance provided in the hotel.
Concerned for her child’s life, the single mother left the hotel in Cavan and went back to Mosney where she’d at least have staff assist with getting help.
Since international protection applicants are new to Ireland and as such are unfamiliar with how things work, staff in Direct Provision centres are to display all the relevant emergency contact details and call for emergency services when the need arises.
There was no one to point her in the right direction so she contacted the International Protection Office and informed them that she was returning to Mosney.
She was met with hostility from one staff member in the centre who shouted at her, telling that she needs to take her children and go. The mother did not leave.
The staff member then told her that she wouldn’t get food and care for her sick child. The distressed mother reported the matter to Tusla.
Other residents in the centre contacted a local councillor who spoke with management and a house that can accommodate the family magically appeared in the same Mosney they had claimed had no space for her. The mother is in hospital after attempting suicide.
When a child or resident in Reception and Integration (it should be incarceration) Agency accommodation needs medical attention, the staff are required to organise transport to a healthcare facility as most Direct Provision centres aren’t accessible by public transport.
Here you have a case of a family being shipped around without reason as means of punishment for complaining.
Other residents MASI spoke to are fearful and reluctant to raise issues they have with management because the minute a person complains, they are moved to another centre.
Such is the case of the man who was transferred from Mosney to Longford after an altercation in the centre.
Three children could’ve lost their mother to suicide because of staff in Direct Provision centres who treat people like a Yoyo, moving them around at will.
Other residents are terrified to raise any concerns they have because they could be uprooted anytime to a place that is worse than the one they are currently in.
MASI calls on the Department of Justice and Equality to abolish the abhorrent system of Direct Provision and treat people with dignity.
After 20 years and many suicides, we’re tired of mourning asylum seekers who are pushed to limits by staff who do not respect their right to dignity.
Ireland used to treat international protection applicants humanely. Surely someone in the Irish government knows how to vindicate fundamental human rights for everyone in Ireland. And we encourage Irish people to contact their elected representatives and tell them to #EndDirectProvision.
Residents may stage a protest and would welcome support from people living close to Mosney.
Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (Facebook)
UPDATE:
1/3 Mosney owner Phelim McCloskey tells women protesting their conditions in Direct Provision "this will have an impact on you". Mr. McCloskey is worth over €45m. The women are living in a very precarious situation as they await judgement on their asylum claims… pic.twitter.com/akHnw1ryBQ
— Sean McCabe – LE19 – Independent (@SeanMcCabe_Ind) April 25, 2019
