Homeless people’s tents along the Royal Canal and an eviction notice served on a homeless person in August
Stephen McDermott, of Dublin Live, reports:
“Residents in Drumcondra have called for the removal of a number of tents along the Royal Canal, claiming the rough sleepers who are living in them are intimidating locals.
“And Dublin Live can exclusively reveal that Waterways Ireland has already asked those living in the tents to leave the area, as gardai continue to work on a plan to deal with the issue.”
And in relation to a residents meeting on November 7 about the matter…
“Fine Gael councillor for Dublin City Ray McAdam, who also attended the meeting, said that locals felt the site was becoming a “semi-permanent encampment”.
Mr McAdam added: “There would be a level of concern that the residents feel intimidation. Of course, everybody’s level of intimidation is different, but there’s an anxiousness about the potential for further anti-social behaviour.
“I’ve also heard that people who live there have seen an increase in behaviour, where ‘undesireables’ – to use the word of locals – are publicly drunk and inebriated, and the consequence of that is that it’s attracting similar activities into the area.
“My view is that there is a public order issue here and that the Gardai need to act.”
Fact: 147 people slept rough last night.
Fact: Beds were unavailable from 9pm last night.
Fact: The 200 promised beds are still not in the system
Fact: Enough is not being done, their will be more deaths. @ntlhomelessdemopic.twitter.com/au7wnZBD6P
Further to the Supreme Court’s unanimous finding in May that the ban preventing asylum seekers in Ireland for working is “in principle” unconstitutional…
Mary Carolan, in The Irish Times, reports:
“The Supreme Court has told the State it will make a formal declaration next February that the absolute ban preventing asylum seekers working here is unconstitutional.
“The five-judge court said on Thursday the declaration will be made on February 9th, irrespective of what progress the State has made towards addressing the court’s findings on the ban.
“…Nuala Butler SC, for the State, said the Government was in the process of opting into the EC Reception Directive, which contains a provision requiring member states to afford the right to work in certain circumstances, but the matter was complex with many issues requiring to be addressed.
She urged the court not to make a formal declaration of unconstitutionality today, saying it would lead to a “flood” of applications seeking permission to work.
“…Michael Lynn SC, for the Rohingya man who brought the successful challenge to the ban, said his side would prefer a declaration was made today but did not want to create “unnecessary obstacles” and the issue was for the court to decide.
“…The Rohingya man, aged in his thirties, spent eight years in direct provision before getting refugee status here last year. While offered work in his direct provision centre in 2013, he could not take that up due to the ban on seeking work.
“While in direct provision on a €19 weekly allowance, he suffered depression and “almost complete loss of autonomy”, he said. Being allowed to work was vital to his development, personal dignity and “sense of self worth”.”
Designer Fergus O’Neill, of Grand Grand Grand Grand, writes:
“The WANKER mug is printed NORTHSIDE WANKER one side and SOUTHSIDE WANKER the other.
“Depending in which hand you hold your beverage you can either proclaim your wankerness or preside in judgement over someone in your company from the wrong side of the compass. An inlaw or your spouse or fellow co-worker, etc.”
“The other mug ‘LETS KEEP THE RECOVERY GOING’ pays homage to the great diktat of our time. It gives you a big thumbs-up and a ‘bualadh bos’ on the other side so you know how great you’re doing.
“This is a mug for people that get up early in the morning even though they all partied and who don’t get anything for nothing.”
The third installment of an on ongoing series of digitally isolated building façades by French photographer Zacharie Gaudrillot-Roy: small homes, mansions and boutiques eerily lit at dusk.
A new music festival taking place in Trabolgan Holiday Village, Whitegate, east Cork, from April 13 to 15, 2018.
Des O’Driscoll, in the Irish Examiner, reports:
“We think that will create a really special atmosphere on the site,” said co-organiser Joe Kelly. “There are about 170 self-catering houses at Trabolgan, and there will also be space for some camper vans.
“The beauty of this setup is that, no matter what gig you’re at, you’re never more than a few minutes’ stroll from where you’re staying, with its bed and hot shower.”
Behind the scenes: @Briandeady rocking out in the empty swimming pool at Trabolgan during our live beroadcast announcement on @Nialler9 today. See you back here for the mother of all pool parties in April??? Oh.. there’s a wave pool and water slide too 👌🎉 pic.twitter.com/eogaaQJVyB
A woman tells how she was raped by former Irish swimming coach George Gibney during a swimming trip to Florida in 1991 (top) in a video by US journalist Irvin Muchnick which contains footage from a Prime Time episode on Gibney in 2006 (above)
Last night.
At 8pm Irish time.
US journalist Irvin Muchnick posted a video containing footage from an RTE Prime Time episode – originally broadcast on January 12, 2006 – in which then reporter Clare Murphy tracked down former Irish Olympic swim coach George Gibney in Calistoga, California and confronted him.
It also includes testimonies of some of Gibney’s victims.
Readers will recall Mr Muchnick’s ongoing efforts to secure Gibney’s immigration file from the Department of Homeland Security, under the Freedom of Information Act, in the US.
Gibney was charged with 27 counts of indecency against young swimmers and of carnal knowledge of girls under the age of 15 in April, 1993.
But he sought and won a High Court judicial review in 1994 which quashed all the charges against him.
The review was made possible after a Supreme Court decision that initiating the prosecution against Gibney infringed his right to a fair trial.
After this, Gibney left Ireland for Edinburgh, Scotland and then the US.
The swimming coach was granted a visa during a visit to the United States in 1992 – seemingly aided by a Garda character reference – a year after people who had been abused by him started to speak up and organise themselves.
In addition, a 2010 application by Gibney to obtain US citizenship – some months after Evin Daly, of the Florida-based advocacy group One Child International alerted the US government of Gibney’s past in Ireland – was rejected.
But he remains in the States.
The revelations about his 1992 visa and 2010 citizenship bid have previously been revealed by Mr Irvin.
In the Prime Time footage above, Ms Murphy stated:
“While George Gibney may be notorious at home, his US record is squeaky clean, however local police take his presence so seriously that the area’s FBI field office has been informed.”
Further to this…
Mr Irvin reports:
“Prime Time’s throwaway line that Gibney had a “squeaky clean” record in America is debatable.
In 2015 Commander Dave Pickett of the investigations bureau of the police department in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, gave us the following statement:
‘On September 20th, 2000, the Wheat Ridge Police Department was notified that an alleged sex offender named George Gibney was living within our jurisdiction. Detective Lila Cohen investigated the situation. Detective Cohen contacted the reporting party (RP) who was the president of an accounting company that employed Gibney. Detective Cohen was told that:
* The RP had fired Gibney the day prior
* The RP had discovered concerning information regarding Gibney on the Internet
* Gibney had gone to Peru on behalf of a children’s eye clinic
* Gibney was on an advisory board for the Department of Youth Corrections
* Gibney may be a coach for the North Jeffco Swim Club
Detective Cohen notified the Arvada Police Department where the North Jeffco Swim Club is located. Sergeant Rzappa advised Detective Cohen that she had already received information concerning Gibney. Detective Cohen found that Gibney was on the advisory board of the Metropolitan State College Lab School at Lookout Mountain. Detective Cohen advised the person in charge of the Lab School regarding the allegations that Gibney was a sex offender.
She also advised that the Wheat Ridge Police Department had no indications of specific allegations in Colorado.
Because there were no allegations regarding any crime in this jurisdiction, no investigation outside of notification was done.’
“Jill McGranahan of the Arvada police then told us of an incident from five years before Gibney’s employer reported him to the Wheat Ridge police:
‘In late October, 1995, the APD was notified by a citizen that Mr. Gibney was employed by the North Jeffco Parks and Recreation District, and that he had previously been accused of child abuse in Ireland. The APD confirmed that Mr. Gibney had been charged with child sexual abuse in Ireland, but that he was not convicted on any of the charges. During its investigation, the APD learned that Mr. Gibney was suspected of possibly pinching (or snapping the swimsuit of) a North Jeffco swimmer.
‘The APD investigated this allegation, but was unable to establish that a crime had occurred. Shortly thereafter, the APD learned that Mr. Gibney was no longer employed by North Jeffco. The APD had no other involvement in this matter.’
Mr Muchnick concludes:
“Many people, in and out of law enforcement, in Ireland and the U.S. alike, have had Gibney on watch lists, formal or otherwise, for a long time. The missing piece remains the revival of the 1990s prosecution of him in Ireland.
“The original prosecution collapsed thanks to a Supreme Court statute-of-limitations ruling that is not, to put it mildly, destined to go down in the annals of thoughtful jurisprudence: one of the sitting justices, Susan Denham (later the chief justice), did not recuse herself even though she was the sister of Gibney’s lawyer, Patrick Gageby.
“Nearly a quarter of a century later, it is time to bring the Gibney nightmare to a close. It is time for the Irish Garda’s Director of Public Prosecutions to move purposefully on the call of Maureen O’Sullivan, a Teachta Dála (member of Parliament), to reconsider both the old criminal charges against Gibney and the many new ones on which information has emerged since he first got off the hook.
“It is time for the American legislators most closely associated with awareness of sexual assault in general, and statutory solutions for the widespread problem of amateur sports coach sex abuse in particular, to step up to the plate and assist TD O’Sullivan in these efforts.
“The legislators I have in mind include Senator Dianne Feinstein and Congresswoman Jackie Speier.
“Finally, it is time to hold accountable whoever in the American swimming establishment might have been responsible for enabling Gibney’s long safe harbor here.
“The ugly truth is that George Gibney is no longer just another name in the half-buried history of the dark side of youth sports. He is, officially, a two-nation affair of state.”
From left: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Heather Humphries, new Minister for Business, Enterprise & Innovation, Josepha Madigan, new Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and new Tanáiste Simon Coveney, who also remains as Minister for Foreign Affairs
The Dáil has officially voted in Josepha Madigan as Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht with 52 votes for her, 39 against and 38 abstaining
