Good times

This afternoon.

Merrion Hotel, Dublin 2

A press conference for Nurses and Midwives 4 Life addressed by pro life independent TD Michael Healy Rae.

Above left Nurses and Midwives 4Life Vice ChairMargret McGovern, RGN, PRO Fiona McHugh, a clinical paediatric nurse specialist and Lecturer in Nursing Mary E. Fitzgibbon

The group claim 350 nurses and midwives on the NMBI Register have signed a petition asking the Minister for Health “to protect freedom of conscience in not forcing us to participate in abortions”.

Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

As the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018 enters Report Stage, the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) has said the Bill needs significant amendment if it is to fulfil the promise of the Yes vote in the May referendum. Parliamentarians must take the criminal law out of medical consulting rooms and replace it with a provision guaranteeing access to abortion care.

IFPA Chief Executive Niall Behan said: “This legislation needs to facilitate access to quality abortion care. But instead of supporting doctors to provide best practice care, the Bill criminalises abortion and leaves healthcare providers vulnerable to vexatious allegations by those who oppose abortion. These criminal sanctions are already having a chilling effect on doctors.”

Mr Behan continued: “Continued criminalisation means the threat of sanctions – including a possible 14-year prison sentence – will be hanging over doctors, affecting the care they provide to women and girls. And some may decide not to provide abortion care at all.”

The IFPA says there are multiple provisions in the Bill which serve only to act as barriers to abortion access.

Irish Family Planning Association


This morning.

Hueston Station, Dublin

Members of CÓRus choir fundraising for Focus Ireland who have teamed up with Iarnród Éireann to launch a new campaign to raise vital funds “to help more people to make it #HomeForChristmas”.

The campaign will see Iarnród Éireann provideonline option for the tens of thousands people a week buying a rail ticket to donate €2 to Focus Ireland.

Iarnród Éireann will also provide free advertising at stations nationwide for Focus Ireland along with allowing Christmas choirs to fundraise for the charity at a number of stations nationwide.

Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

Last week, with a Golden Discs voucher worth Twenty Five  Euros to giveaway, we asked you to name the best thing you’ve heard all year.

You answered in your tens.

But there could be only one winner

In reverse order then…

Dub Spot writes:

The best thing I head all year is Shallow by Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (from a Star is Born movie) owing to it being a power-ballad for our age, brilliantly performed from the heart from an unlikely pairing that really made sense. His croak; her colour. Perfect production.

An Madra Uisce writes:

The very best thing I’ve heard all year is Total Football, the first track from Parquet Courts album Wide Awake, owing to its message of collectivism and critique of modern america. It’s a banger of a tune with great pacing, some good shouty bits and one of the all time great closing lyrics. Nice Panini style vidjo too.

Fez writes:

The very best thing I’ve heard all year is KCTMO by Pozi owing to the lyrics blaming the Grenfell tower fire on the management company (KCTMO) while mourning the victims, backed by a Sleaford mods style bassline and eerie violins. A bold start to a new London band’s career.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4qAPlDYFU8

f_lawless writes:

‘The very best thing I’ve heard all year is Rad Planet’s ‘Outdoors’ owing to its combination of velvety, melancholic vocals over infectious indie beat. Definite future indie-pop classic contender in my book

Bertie Blenkinsop writes:

Arctic Monkeys – American Sports I played this song to death all year, I think the album is some of their finest work surprised that it got a mixed reaction “I lost the money, lost the keys But I’m still handcuffed to the briefcase” is a brilliant line imo :)

Winner

Paddy writes:

The very best thing I’ve heard all year is IDLES’ album, Joy As An Act Of Resistance owing to the fact that it confronts racism, hypermasculinity and homophobia. The loud punk pandemonium of the band combined with the very masculine lead singer Joe Talbot proudly roaring ‘I kissed a boy and I liked it!’ on the song Samaritans is one fabulous juxtaposition.

The song Danny Nedelko (above) opens with the line ‘my blood brother is an immigrant, a beautiful immigrant/my blood brother is Freddie Mercury, a Nigerian mother of three’. Then there’s the brilliant Never Fight A Man With A Perm. There’s humour, confrontation, anger and love all rolled in to one great album by a fantastically energetic band.

Thanks all

Last weeK: The Best Thing You’ve Heard All Year

Behold: the 2019 Bentley Continental GT Convertible – a technology-packed symphony in ultra luxurious veneer and leather hurtling from 0 to 100km/h in 3.8 seconds with a terrifying top speed of 333km/h.

All the usual Bentleyfications, along with a z-fold top that retracts in 19 seconds at speeds up to 50km/h while warm air circulates the driver’s neck from concealed vents.

Prices unannounced as yet but likely somewhere north of the GT’s predecessor, which started around €212,000.

uncrate

Film director Nicolas Roeg (1928-2018)

There’s a generation out there that probably don’t know who Nicolas Roeg is. Yet, to some of us, this beautiful bastard is as important as Stravinsky, Picasso or Joyce.

Among the many movies he made, some are good, some are stone-cold classics, and some are one-of-a-kind masterpieces.

There are few things more tiresome than some fool making the death of an icon somehow be about them but…a financier of one of my little films, (there are only two, for Christ’s sake), knew Roeg and passed that film onto him.

The financier had no idea if Roeg would even watch it. But Roeg did. Three times, he said. And Roeg imparted a scene-by-scene breakdown detailing the most profoundly personal reactions and insights.

I nervously asked the financier if Roeg might be willing to give a short, single-line quote for the poster. The financier had no idea how Roeg would respond. No idea if he had stepped over the line. No idea if I had gotten him into a world of shit.

Roeg responded immediately and this is the single line he sent: “A stunning and shattering piece of work with a profound sense of truth.”

It was like a student monk doubting his faith receiving a telegram from God. Or a piece of music from Stravinsky. Or a sketch from Picasso. Or the address of the best whorehouse in the Monto from Joyce.

We used to repeatedly watch his films. When nothing else compares, you often find yourself returning to your first love. It’s why we listen to an album for decades. Or study a painting for centuries. Or build a culture around a reinventor of language. Just like Stravinsky, Picasso and Joyce, every time you return to a Nicolas Roeg film, some new and astonishing human truth is revealed to you. Or about you.

There’s no point in listing his movies. The people who know Roeg already know his legacy. As for the people who don’t know him, I envy you. You are virgins in one of the greatest orgies in cinema.

His last breakout movie was ‘Witches (1990) Some producer had the insane idea of offering Roeg a movie based on Roald Dahl’s book written for kids. That’s like offering a hotel management position to Norman Bates. It became one of the scariest kids movies ever made and one of the most brilliant.

There was nothing Roeg couldn’t do. Except be ordinary.

RIP #NicolasRoeg

Terry McMahon is a filmmaker and can be found on Twitter @terrymcmahon69

Previously: Terry McMahon on Broadsheet

Nicolas Roeg Obituary (The Guardian)

Pic: Getty

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