A twisting reflective kinetic sculpture of the head of legendary surrealist writer Franz Kafka located at a busy shopping mall in Prague.
Created in 2014 by Czech artist David Cerny, the 45 tonne piece consists of 42 individually driven stainless steel elements.
Slomatics – Electric Breath
What you may need to know
1. Belfast doom-metal monoliths Slomatics have a new album, Future Echo Returns, enroute and available for pre-order via Black Bow Records.
2. Their fifth full-length sees them place continued emphasis on songwriting over heft for its own sake, as detailed in this interview with Stereogum.
3. Streaming above is lead-off single Electric Breath, accompanied by a mad 3D-animated piece from editor Dermot Faloon.
4. Live excursions to launch the record are likely for later this year, but until those announcements, here’s a look at the limited, gatefold, purple-and-green splatter edition of the LP.
Verdict: Fiiiiilthy tones and massive riffs at a (relatively) glacial pace. Perfect for summer barbecues and family gatherings.
Above from left: Chairman of the IIEA Brendan Halligan, Minister for Foreign Affairs Charles Flanagan TD, Chair and Managing Partner with McCann Fitzgerald Barry Devereux and Director General of the IIEA Tom Arnold.
This morning.
Aviva Lansdowne Road Nua, Dublin
Minister for Foreign Affairs Charles Flanagan at a Brexit Conference hosted by the Institute of International And European Affairs (IIEA) and solicitors McCann Fitzgerald.
On June 23 the United Kingdom electorate will be asked whether they want to leave the European Union which Mr Flanagan believes has serious implications, to Irish business and security.
FIGHT!
Previously: Fexit
Sam Boal/Rollingnews
From top: Sgt Maurice McCabe; Former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan and Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan
I’ve spoken to several people who were in attendance throughout, if not the entirety, most of the days that the Commission took evidence and they say that it was if Sgt McCabe was on trial. He said as much when he was under cross examination on several occasions and a serving member of the Gardai – that I’ve spoken to – who was present at several days of proceedings has told me:
‘They tried to blame Maurice for everything and it was bullshit.’
The ‘they’ in this case is the Garda HQ, and what that member of the force was referring to was either individual Gardaí or An Garda Siochana corporately claiming that Sgt McCabe was actually the person at fault in each of the cases that he blew the malpractice whistle on. When of course the judge found out that he wasn’t blamed at all.
You’re not going to find much reference to this in the completed report. Much of the process, the business of the commission revolved around Maurice McCabe having to prove that he wasn’t guilty of the very malpractices that he had highlighted in the first place by bringing them to the attention of the Confidential Recipient [Oliver Connolly] and to [Fianna Fáil leader] Micheál Martin.
In one case, to give example, he was accused by gardai of having given an instruction that was central to one of the cases of malpractice but, after scrutinising his diary from many, many years earlier, McCabe was actually able to offer the watertight alibi that he wasn’t on duty that particular day that he was accused of having done something because he was actually present at the birth of one of his children.
…Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan and many of the individual senior officers – be they retired or serving – were all represented by the Chief State Solicitor’s Office and acted for, at the commission, by Colm Smyth, senior counsel. So the legal strategy was, in most cases, centralised. The line of attack on McCabe was organised.
RTÉ’s Philip Boucher Hayes speaking on Drivetime last night.
Listen back to his report in full here
Earlier: Who is Misleading Whom
Previously: ‘Something For Everyone’
Rollingnews
From top: Gerry Adams and Micheal Martin; Dan Boyle
Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin.
They were made for each other.
Dan Boyle writes:
I think we may have been putting Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil under too much pressure to consummate their relationship. Fianna Fáil could have a more obvious suitor in Sinn Féin.
Think of it. Two parties on similar trajectories. Each claiming to itself the republican mantle. A more recent split than that of the treaty/anti-treaty conflict, and one which is capable of more obvious repair.
This requires a slight imaginative leap.
The self titled Sinn Féin of today is not the Sinn Féin of 1926 from which De Valera took its brightest and best, as well as the bulk of its political infrastructure, when he was founding Fianna Fáil.
Present day Sinn Féin is a breakaway from the rump that De Valera left behind.
That collective grouping in claiming a Sinn Féin nomenclature caused upset among the majority from the first Dáil, that had subsequently supported the Anglo Irish treaty.
So the Sinn Féin of 2016 is a breakaway from a rump of a minority that had lost the essential argument on the founding of this State.
But fair dues to the party that should be more rightly known the H-Block party, they have assumed and rebranded the title well.
The party has copied the Fianna Fáil playbook just as well. Like FF, in it is beginnings, its leader presents himself as statesmanlike and distant from violent activity. His chief lieutenant, like Sean Lemass of FF, is more candid and open about his use of violence.
The Sinn Féin of today, like the FIanna Fáil of then, saw the need to establish a strong local political infrastructure.
Both parties, as they sought to establish themselves, have experienced irritation on their left flanks from those seeking to keep them in a philosophical cul de sac, away from their more comfortable political destination of populism.
Although it can’t be stressed enough that Paul Murphy, the 21st century irritant, is no Peadar O’Donnell, a far more authentic socialist of the 1930s.
Given these symmetries why shouldn’t we ask why FF and SF are two separate parties?
Together they would be thirteen seats short of a being a single party government we thought would never again be possible.
It wouldn’t be without difficulties. Who would be the leader? Policies would be far less of a problem as they could be constantly adaptable.
The synergies would be obvious and immediate. There would be no need to hold parallel Easter, Arbour Hill or Bodenstown commemorations.
There may be a fear that merging might give an opportunity to the next largest opposition group – The Labour Party. Okay that’s not really a risk, just thought I would mention it.
The real problem would be what the name of this new merged party should be. Here I think I might be able to help. It has to be a name that looks towards the future whilst building on the past.
The new party should be called ‘Sinn Fáil – Our Destiny’. It is the party Irish politics has been crying out for.
Dan Boyle is a former Green Party TD and Senator. Follow Dan on Twitter: @sendboyle
Related: Frilly Keane: I Predict A Republican Government
Rollingnews
From top: Doughmore beach in Co. Clare and Donald Trump
In April, the proposed wall on the coastline of Donald Trump’s Doonbeg golf resort in Co. Clare was refused designation as a ”strategic infrastructure development‘.
An Bord Pleanála ruled that the wall wouldn’t be of strategic economic or social importance to the State or the region.
Now the US Presidential hopeful must apply for planning permission like any normal person.
Which he has done.
A Facebook group called Save Doughmore – Doonbeg Beach write:
It’s with great disappointment and concern that we have to inform you that Mr Trump has applied to Clare County Council to build a 5m high 20m wide 200,000 tonnes wall on the state land of Doughmore Beach.
The window for objections to this shortsighted destruction of an Irish beach is now open but will close Monday, June 13, 2016. We strongly urge you to file a submission/objection. More individual and varied objections will have a greater impact.
All submissions/observations must be made in writing to the Planning Section, Clare County Council, New Road, Ennis and must include the following:
– the name of the person or body making the submission/objection
– the planning reference number of the application concerned (16371)
– the address to which any correspondence relating to the application may be sent (your address)
– a fee of €20 which can be payable by cheque or cash (we understand that this is your hard earned money, but €20 will be long forgotten in hundred years, the wall won’t be)It is more effective if many and varied objections are made. So us providing you with a template is not the best. You will need to write a letter detailing why you feel it is inappropriate to grant permission for 200,000 tonnes of rock to be dumped onto a public beach.
… Simply objecting to something out of principal is not usually sufficient to affect action. It is therefore important to provide as much evidence as possible to back up your argument. Be formal and polite. Writing an angry and emotional letter will work against you, particularly in legal matters, where all that is important are facts.
… Please please take the time and effort to try to stop this environmental crime. It will be the future generations that judge us, please act now.
(Thanks John Joyce)
