Members and supporters of the irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) march in Dublin on Saturday

This morning.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation is due to hold three consecutive days of strike action from Tuesday to Thursday. It has already held three 24-hour strikes in its row over pay and recruitment and retention of nurses.

The talks broke up at 3.30am and by that stage the unions, health management, and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform had briefed the court on their positions for three days.

Labour Court to decide on nurses’ strike intervention (RTÉ)

Meanwhile…

Sinn Féin Deputy Mary Lou McDonald and Minister for Health Simon Harris

Sinn Féin Party leader Mary Lou McDonald confirmed this morning that the party will publish a no confidence motion in Harris, after the party strongly hinted that it would do so over the weekend.

Sinn Féin to table no confidence motion in Simon Harris (Breakingnews.ie)

Yesterday: Meanwhile, In Wicklow

The Meaning Of Trapped

Saturday: Marching With Nurses And Midwives


A bizarre phenomenon observed by Andrew Sietsema at a frozen orchard in Western Michigan this month. Sietsema sez of it:

I guess it was just cold enough that the ice covering the apple hadn’t melted yet, but it was warm enough that the apple inside turned to complete mush (apples have a lower freezing point than water). And when I pruned a tree it would be shaken in the process, and the mush would slip out of the bottom of the ‘ghost apple.’

thisisnthappiness

Former UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has called for a multi-billion-pound cut in the UK’s overseas aid budget

The Tories are casting some shade
At foreign development aid
For when Brexit kicks in
Their reserves will be thin
They’ll have less cash than if they had stayed

John Moynes

Pic: RAF/flickr

Yesterday morning.

St James’ Hospital, Dublin 8

Evelyn Gaynor writes:

I can’t find the right words to express how I feel right now, so I will be very mild, I’m so angry, frustrated, hungry and tired.

It’s been 20 hours since I arrived at St James hospital travelling from the doctors in Kildare with my son.

He saw a nurse at 2.30pm on Friday, he then saw another nurse at 9pm and was told a surgeon would be down to see him in 20 minutes.

It’s now nearly 9.40am on Saturday morning and this (above) is how he’s ended up, on the floor with mine and his dad’s jacket under him to help him get some sleep and to also try help him with the pain.

No trolley, not even a proper chair to sit on. I won’t mention a bed because that would be totally out of the question. Nowhere to even get a coffee or a sandwich, not even a coffee machine.

He eventually got a trolley at 7.30am this morning and at 9.45am he was given a prescription for antibiotics and told to go home and come back on Monday.

This government is an absolute disgrace, we are living in third world conditions. What have we become to allow this Government to treat us in such a demeaning way, what happened to us to have allowed them get away with this.

I pay my taxes and this is certainly not value for money. Such a shame how they have ruined a nation and turned our health system into this. This is certainly a wake up call … what a shambles.

Evelyn Gaynor (Facebook)

Thanks Ron

Earlier: Meanwhile, In Wicklow

This afternoon.

Members of ‘Fingal Battalion Direct Action’ stage a small protest outside the County Wicklow home of Minister for Health Simon Harris before being peacefully moved on by two members of An Garda Síochána.

Polite, respectful and good humoured.

Meanwhile…

Meanwhile…

TRAPPED?

New-born BABY!

Did they miss MASS?

Film at 11.

Fingal Direct Action (Facebook)

Thanks Vanessa

This afternoon in Dublin.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s Stand With Nurses and Midwives’ Rally is taking place with supporters marching from the Garden of Remembrance to Government Buildings.

It follows three days of strike action and three more days of strikes scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

Talks on the dispute are to resume in the Labour Court this afternoon after they were adjourned last night after nine hours.

Pics: Rollingnews; INMO and Mick Caul

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