This afternoon.

Via Landmark Media:

The Irish Times DAC and the owners of Landmark Media Investments have signed a share purchase agreement whereby The Irish Times will acquire all of the publishing and media interests of the Landmark Media group.

The transaction is subject to a number of conditions including receipt of regulatory approvals from The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and The Environment as well as The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. It is expected that these approvals could take at least 4 months to procure.

The employees of Landmark Media were apprised of the sale of the media group by management at meetings this afternoon.



LMI Group CEO, Tom Murphy, who will exit the business at legal completion of the transaction, said:

“Following a prolonged period of speculation today’s announcement brings clarity to the Group’s future. I would like to place on record my appreciation and the appreciation of the board of Landmark Media to all staff members for their support, understanding and particularly for their patience. We acknowledge that throughout this delicate and sometimes public process that it has been a difficult period for all staff members, reading and listening to commentary, much of it uninformed and speculative. For our part, we believe we have done everything possible to make and implement the right decisions in relation to the Landmark business and all of its stakeholders, particularly our very valued and loyal staff colleagues.

I believe that a sale of the Landmark Media business to The Irish Times is in the best interest of all of the stakeholders, including staff, in Landmark Media and that it is the correct outcome also for The Irish Times and the Newspaper and Media industry generally in Ireland. Consolidation within the industry is an inevitable outcome and both Irish-owned groups will be best positioned to survive and prosper as part of a larger, stronger and better resourced and unified entity.

The Irish Times has been in existence since 1859 and its Management, Board and Trust are well aware of and suitably resourced to enable them to meet and navigate the challenges of the industry today. Our Bank, AIB have been with us on this journey for some time now and I must acknowledge and thank them for their support, resourcefulness and patience in enabling us to pursue and achieve the outcome being announced today”.

Liam Kavanagh, Managing Director of The Irish Times DAC said:

”The opportunity to acquire Landmark Media is an important strategic decision for The Irish Times. It is the intention to retain the core identity and independence of the respective news publishing titles. Each will retain their editorial integrity. The overall increase in audience allows the group to build a digital platform with a strong reach, countrywide and internationally. The consolidation also presents the opportunity to strengthen and grow existing print advertising revenues and helps to secure contract print revenues. If the application to the CCPC and to the Minister is successful,

The Irish Times are fully committed to working with the respective Union groups in each company on any restructuring proposals that will need to be made. The Irish Times has a proven track record of achieving cost savings, maintaining quality content while also working with staff and their representatives in a consultative partnership model. The combination of the two groups brings together two organisations with a quality focus and strong ethos. The combined scale provides opportunities for consolidation, secures existing revenues and provides a platform to build and grow new digital readers and revenues. It is a positive step in the protection of two Irish-owned media organisations, and will help ensure their long term futures”.

1000 frame per second films of lightning strikes at various parts of the US (but mainly Arizona) captured in 4k by filmmaker Dustin Farrell using a Phantom Flex4K high-speed camera. The three minute film contains a total of three terabytes (3,000GB) of data. Farrell sez of it:

Lightning is like a snowflake. Every bolt is different. I learned that lightning varies greatly in speed. There are some incredible looking bolts that I captured that didn’t make the cut because even at 1000fps they only lasted for one frame during playback. I also captured some lightning that appear computer generated it lasted so long on the screen.

colossal

RTE reports:

Gardaí in Cork are investigating the death of a woman in her 40s whose body was found on a street in the city centre at around 11am this morning.

It is believed that the woman had been sleeping rough.

Gardaí do not believe at this stage that the cause of the woman’s death is suspicious.

Body of homeless woman found on street in Cork (RTE)

Previously: Seven Dead In 12 Weeks

Pic: Pierce Kennedy

In the past hour.

In the House of Commons in London.

Further to the Brexit deal-no-deal from the other day…

Britain’s Prime Minister and Tory leader Theresa May was questioned by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn about the ongoing Brexit negotiations.

They had this exchange:

Jeremy Corbyn: “The Prime Minister was unable to support her Brexit secretary when he tried to explain that a deal was supposed to be done in October but still hasn’t been done in December. The leader of the DUP [Arlene Foster] told Irish television she only got sight of the deal on Monday morning, five weeks after she first asked for it, two months after the original deadline for the first phase of talks and after Monday’s shambles. Is the Prime Minister now able to end the confusion and clearly outline what the Government’s position is now with regard to the Irish border?”

Theresa May: “I’m very happy to outline the position that I’ve taken on the Irish border with Northern Ireland. It’s exactly the same position that I took in the Lancaster House speech, that I took in the Florence speech, that we have taken consistently in the negotiations which is that we will ensure that there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.”

“We will do that while we respect the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom and while we respect the internal market and protect the internal market of the United Kingdom.

“And to those Labour members who shout ‘how?’, that’s the whole point of the second phase of the negotiations when we, because we will deliver, we aim to deliver this as part of our overall trade deal between the United Kingdom and the European Union and we can only talk about that when we get into phase two. We have a plan, he [Corbyn] has none.”

Later

May reconfirmed what the UK’s Brexit secretary David Davis told the UK’s Exiting the European Union Committee earlier this morning that there have been no sector-by-sector assessments carried out in relation to the impact of Brexit.

May: “The House requested, as I understand it, 58 sectoral impact assessments. There were no 58 sectoral impact assessments. There was sectoral analysis. Over 800 pages of sectoral analysis has been published and made available to the select committee and arrangements have been made available for members of this House to see it.

“We are very clear that we will not give a running commentary on negotiations. But what we will do, what we will do, is work for what this country wants. We will ensure we will leave the European Union in March 2019. We will leave the internal market, we will leave the customs union at the same time and we will ensure there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland when we do it.”

Corbyn: “Mr Speaker, this really is a shambles. All they’ve done, all they’ve done is offer a heavily redacted, abbreviated version that has not been widely shared. And the Brexit secretary said in September, Mr Speaker, that €50billion divorce payment was complete nonsense. The Foreign Secretary rejected any payment and said the EU could go whistle.

“So can the Prime Minister put before the House a fully itemised account that could be independently audited by the Office of Budget Responsibility and the National Audit Office on any proposed payment?”

May: “Because we haven’t actually, we’re at the point of progressing on to the next stage, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. So the final settlement won’t be agreed until we’ve actually got the whole of the deal agreed.

“But I have to say to the right honourable gentlemen, he asked me questions earlier about hard borders. You know, half the Labour Party wants stay in the single market, half of Labour Party wants to leave the single market, the only hard border is right down the middle of the Labour Party.”

Corbyn: “Mr Speaker, eighteen months since the referendum, no answers to the questions. Today they haven’t yet concluded phase one. No answers to the questions and the DUP appear to be ruling the roost and telling her what to do. Mr Speaker, whether it’s Brexit, the National Health Service, social care, our rip-off railways, rising child poverty, growing pensioner poverty, or universal credit, this government, this government is unable to solve important issues facing this country. In fact, it’s making them worse. The economy is slowing, more people are in poverty, Brexit negotiations in a shambles. This government is clearly not fit for the future. If they can’t negotiate a good deal, wouldn’t it be better if they just got out of the way.”

Previously:  ‘I Suspect It Will Look Very Like What It Looks Like Today’

From the third interim report from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission

Yesterday.

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission, which was set up in February 2015, published its third interim report.

It states:

“The Commission is continuing to make inquiries about burials and burial records but it appears that this is an area in which it will be difficult to establish the facts.“

It also says it has requested an extension of a year to carry out its work, which means its final report will not be published until February 2019, as opposed to the scheduled date of February 2018.

The four-page report can be read here

Further to this…

Paul Redmond, chairperson of Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors, said:

“This is yet another delaying tactic by the Government to deny survivors truth and justice. The current inquiry is already too limited and excludes many survivors and this delay will now enure that thousands more survivors are denied justice by death.”

Clodagh Malone, of Beyond Adoption Ireland, said:

“This is utterly shameful. Our community are heartbroken and devastated. Tears are flowing.”

Derek Leinster, of the Bethany Home Survivors’ Group, said:

“Living survivors must always take priority over inquiries and reports. We need an immediate and final result for the handful of elderly Bethany survivors who are left alive. There are 227 names on the Bethany Memorial in Mount Jerome cemetery and this Government have now added more names of victims to that Memorial by this disgusting delaying tactic.

Related: Difficult to establish facts’ on burials at homes (Conall Ó Fátharta, Irish Examiner)

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