Via LBC

A Remain-backing caller stunned LBC listeners when he said the answer to the Irish border question was to invade the Republic of Ireland.

Steve was repeatedly branded “stupid” for his suggestion by fellow caller Peter who was on the line at the same time.

“We could invade [Ireland],” Steve said during his call to [presenter] Tom Swarbrick (above).

“We’ve invaded Iraq, we’ve invaded Afghanistan, why not Ireland?”

Caller’s Solution To Post-Brexit Irish Border Problem? Invade Ireland…(LBC)

From top: Schoolchildren at the climate strike in Dublin city last week; Dan Boyle

As I turned into Emmet Place it wasn’t as I expected it to be. The scale of the number of students there had surprised me. I ruefully thought of protests I had attended in the past, where a few dozen of us would march to highlight some political or environmental wrong.

Outside the Crawford Gallery I met an old friend. Over thirty years we had campaigned together on various causes. We played different roles. I chose the route of public meetings/gatherings, then trying to articulate wrongs through various media. He chose to be more anonymous. Doing research, producing reports, using science, law and logic to far better articulate what was wrong and why.

He was as pleased as I was at the strength of the gathering. He wondered out loud if we had failed over the previous generations.

Here I partly diverged from his thesis. We had failed to make progress, failed to reverse the damage, but we did to some extent stem the poisonous flow. A generational finger in the dyke exercise.

Years of seemingly futile flag waving exercises at least seemed to have kept the narrative alive. The indignity of being so long ignored, so long derided, before acceptance of the reality of environmental crisis has become mainstream.

The sight of so many young people embracing the challenge that preceding generations had failed, has warmed the cockles of an ageing man’s heart.

And they are doing so with an emotional maturity that I have yet to manage. They are earnest but without the air of preachy seriousness in which many of us had indulged. Indulgences that discouraged many climate change waverers from becoming convinced.

This generation is more inclined to use derision as a better method of displaying two fingers towards the ignorant and the inept.

It has been dawning on them that the ultimate responsibility for clearing up this mess lies with them. They are eschewing the ostrich head in the sand approach of their predecessors. They are recognising that life as we’ve known it isn’t worth living, unless we right these wrongs.

It wasn’t only the emotional maturity and environmental nous that impressed me. These young people are coming through life with none of the stereotypical hangups that blighted my generation.

How they related to each other was a source of wonderment to me. Most exuded a this is who I am, this is what I am attitude, deal with it defiance, that I wish I had during my adolescence.

I did not witness a docile and brain dead generation laid waste by video games and the internet. I saw young people able to interact with each other in an almost gender free way. The emotionally hamstrung me of thirty years ago cried out why couldn’t I be like that?

They will learn their own lessons. They will make as many mistakes as we have made, but they will be starting from a better place.

They will be deeper in the mire, though no longer indifferent to the challenges they face. They will fight in a way we didn’t, nor probably couldn’t.

Our generation may have removed some barriers, cleared some ignorance, but theirs remains the harder task.

Theirs is the shorter time span caused by our frittering of the time of knowing what was known.

I had bought into the myth of of a millennial generation that was spoilt, indulged and cosseted from the real world. Seeing what I’ve seen this week I realise how wrong and unfair that portrayal is.

A future is possible. It will be thanks to them.

Dan Boyle is a former Green Party TD and Senator. He is running in the local elections in Cork in May  for the Green Party.  His column appears here every Thursday. Follow Dan on Twitter: @sendboyle

Rollingnews

The latest iteration of a project begun in 2015 by Lithuanian photographer Andrius Burba – cats (on glass beneath coloured backgrounds) shot from below, in this case, competitors at the International Cat Show in Kaunas.

More at his website.

Previously: Flat Cats

colossal

Gulp.

The How To be Sound podcast.

Host Rosemary McCabe writes:

Lynn Enright’s first book, Vagina: A Re-Education, has just been published – she sat down with me to talk about why we need to talk about our vaginas more, the importance of knowing the right words for the right bits and why we still prioritise male pleasure in heterosexual sex. Plus: what her dad thought about her VAGINA tote bag….

‘Fannypack’ surely?

FIGHT!

How To be Sound

The sister of Icelander Jón Jonnson, who has been missing since attending a poker tournament in Dublin last month, makes a renewed appeal for information about his whereabouts.

Anyone who has seen Jón or who can assist in locating him is asked to contact Ballymun Garda Station on 01 6664400 or the Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800 666 111.

Previously: Search For Jón

Football Association of Ireland’s Annual Report 2017/18; John Delaney; Vanessa Foran

Ridiculous.

That was my first impression of the FAI Annual Report (year ending 2017).

It’s a healthy 137 pages, and shares news and updates from all their activities, from U-15 Internationals, to Child Welfare to the Defence Forces. It’s glossy, shiny, and loud, like the Green Army on tour, only on paper.

While it might be nice to flick through, most of that update stuff can be easily shared via the internet.

The Financial Statements you’ve all heard about start with the Financial Overview on page 93. and are  completed by page 120, so there isn’t too much distraction from the fixtures and action shots. On a side note, I have never seen such small print in an annual report – I had to go to 130%.

The top line: Turnover – what is interesting is that they had a trading surplus of €2,758,063.00. This is very nice, given the size and obvious limitations of their market; and even nicer is that it sits on top of a previous year surplus of €2,344,291.00.

Both figures accumulating into reserves of €22,323,111.00 (page 104), which definitely drives the questions – why is the League of Ireland prize pot so small and why were they so miserable stumping up for our women’s sides?

A big red flag for me is their Short-Term Creditors – less than 12 months – which is basic day-to-day working capital. Cash, and the cost of it. Year end 2017 introduces a current account Bank Overdraft – €1,363,107.00.

This is a movement from a cash on hand balance at year end 2016 of €937,447.00 to a cash crunch position, and that swing is not explained sufficiently in the promised note 11; cash and cash equivalents.

This €2.3-ish million run happened over a very short period and demonstrates some really poor financial control; and this information was only extracted from the notes, not from the balance sheet.

So, it might be worth looking into the minutes of meetings during the period to see if there were any comments on the month-on-month management accounts to board. That’s where these loans to and from the FAI might be found.

Also interesting is the role, or more accurately, roles, of Deloitte.

Their fees are up from €102,772.00 to €134,554.00; this might not sound like a lot of money but it’s a 24 per cent increase and contains €26,180 for other assurance services – which is worth exploring because also in the €134,554.00 is €44,285 for fees other than audit.

So what other services do we think Deloitte are providing (and if it’s any help, it’s not tax and it’s not internal audit.)

Another thing that doesn’t seem healthy or efficient is that there seems to be loads and loads of personnel rowing in an out of the FAI at strategic level. There is a board of management of 11, which includes John Delaney, and a national council of 58, along with circa 180 staff members around the country.

But, for the life of me, I can’t find the list of directors of the company.

There is a Hon. Treasurer Eddie Murray; and an audit committee; maybe someone credentialed might be in a position to ask for the minutes of this audit committee too, because they would be the principle liaison with Deloitte.

Worth a mention, the old reliable here, is that John Delaney’s salary is the only one itemised; and that doesn’t make sense to me; in Related Party Transactions? If he’s a director, it is in Directors Emoluments €360,000 (and that’s what’s there.)

So did the FAI loan or borrow €360,000 from a Related Party?

Officers Emoluments are recorded as €70,000; naturally these wouldn’t be day-to-day expenses claimed from  staff attending meetings and events as these would naturally be charged to overheads. Again, these are items within the monthly reports to board, which is where most of the intrigue could be unravelled.

I would love to explore the relationship Deloitte have with the FAI and an FAI “Donor” a bit more, o if anyone is available for some digging and drilling, please do reach out.

Also, if someone can explain the software licencing to me – as in what software licensing they have acquired – as it seems very extravagant to me.

Additionally, it’s worth noting that of the total income for the year that was 2017; 12.5% of it came from grants. So sometimes it’s worth noting that for the large part of the year, they were doing something right.

Vanessa Foran is a principal at Recovery Partners.

Previously: For The Last Time, It Was A BRIDGING Loan

Rollingnews

UPDATE:

From top: Scenes from the Kights of Campanile ceremony under the campanile (bell tower) in the Library Square of Trinity College; the Knights of Campanile society president Ben Arrowsmith; tweet this afternoon from The University Times

On March 15, student journalists Edmund Heaphy, Eleanor O’Mahony and Donal MacNamee reported in The University Times, published from Trinity College Dublin, about an initiation ceremony on February 27 for what they termed an “elite, invite-only Trinity sporting society”, called the Knights of the Campanile.

The society, a sporting fraternity, is described as an “all-male society with over 1,200 members” while “a maximum of 50 students members are allowed at any one time”.

They reported that they could hear members being told to “bend over”, “get in the shower” and “start whispering insults in each other’s ears”, while they could hear “groaning, gagging and retching sounds” all coming from a second-floor apartment where an initiation ceremony was apparently taking place.

The journalists had left a recording device outside the apartment but this was later found by the members.

The following day, according to the journalists, the society’s president Ben Arrowsmith brought the recording device to the office of the University Times and threatened legal action.

They reported:

Arrowsmith called the Editor of the newspaper, Eleanor O’Mahony, a “stupid bitch”, and said he would hand over the recording device once he had deleted the recording of his “pre-drinks”.

Yesterday, the newspaper released a statement defending their use of a recording device.

Further to this…

Cormac Watson, in The University Times, is today reporting that a petition is now circulating calling for the removal of the newspaper editor’s salary and on-campus accommodation from 2020/2021.

Mr Watson reports:

The petition to change the constitution of the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) would also see the paper get just €3,000 a year to go towards publishing in print – this would cover just one issue.

If the petition is signed by more than 500 people, a student-wide referendum will be triggered.

Knights of the Campanile Implicated in On-Campus Hazing Evening (University Times)

A Note to Our Readers Regarding Our Knights of Campanile Reporting (University Times)

Petition Launched to Remove Funding of The University Times (The University Times)

Campanile pic: Eleanor O’Mahony (The University Times)

Broadsheet.ie