February 3
February 9
February 25
Three weeks of snow in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Documented by realPoliticks.
He writes:
I thought I’d give yiz a little update on the snow situation here in Brookline, MA. With a couple of inches of snow overnight we officially passed the 100 inch mark. Another 5 or 6 more inches and we will break the previous record winter snowfall. I’m not sure how I feel about that.
Previously: How Many Inches?
Designer jim jams?
Rod Stewart ‘s 1978 leggings?
‘B&B wallpaper’ a-line skirts?
Neon knitwear?
Flowers in our hair?
Models Sarah Morrissey (above left) and Lynn sporting the Clery’s Spring Summer 2015 designer range featuring garments from East, Sisley, Warehouse and others of that dashing ilk.
Damn hippies.
(Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland)
Paradise by Rural Savage
You may recall this Galway-based punk trio’s gnarl-stuffed video for Up In Donegal.
Mosey writes:
A new track off the album ‘It’s Not Your Wadi…It’s Rural Savage’ called ‘Paradise’ it’s a bit more light hearted/take-the-piss than ‘Up In Donegal’.
Made at Hob Junker Studio.
Naturally.
‘sup?
This afternoon.
Ciara writes:
Spotted this fella off the Samuel Beckett Bridge [Dublin] moments ago…
Today’s irish Daily Ray Butler TD (top) and Fiona Lloyd
You may recall the claims made by Fiona Lloyd that Fine Gael TD Ray Butler hit her with his car outside his constituency office in Trim, Co Meath, and Mr Butler’s denial of same.
Today’s Irish Daily Mail reveals details of a 10-year-old ‘intimate’ toy gathering ‘fracas’ involving Ms Lloyd while columnist Matt Cooper warns of the ‘mob’ and Leo lambasts ‘lefties’.
Crikey.
Ms Lloyd released the following statement late last night:
“In response to the incident outside the constituency office of Ray Butler TD in Trim, Co. Meath on Tuesday 23rd of February 2015. At this early juncture it is important to state that I am restricted in the amount of detail I can make in this statement as I may be progressing these matters legally in the near future, however this does not restrict me from responding to inaccurate media reports.”
“A number of inaccuracies were reported in a statement by Mr Ray Butler on Morning Ireland and on local radio stations. These inaccuracies were repeated in national newspapers. I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.”
“I attended a silent candlelit vigil at the home of Mr Butler which was organised by the Meath branch of the National Land League of Ireland to highlight the fact that he signed the Land and Conveyancing Reform Bill which has given the banks a green light to evict families from their homes, up to 50,000 in 2015 alone.”
“The vigil lasted approximately 20 to 25 minutes. I want to be very clear that there was no violence or intimidation perpetrated by any of the protesters either at Mr Butler’s home or office. There was no one wearing hoods or had faces covered, as reported in the media. Mr Butler’s brother-in-law informed us he was at a meeting in his constituency office, we then went to his office where a meeting was in fact taking place. I rang the buzzer of his office asking to speak to Mr Butler as I know him personally, as we are both from Kells.”
“I wanted to ask Mr Butler to his face why he voted to allow the banks evict families from their homes. I, myself and my family faced eviction last month so we know what it’s like to be terrorised in our home waiting for the sheriff to evict us. At this stage two men came down from the office and answered the door, they informed me that Mr Butler would not come down to talk to me. I must state at this stage that the other women present detected a strong smell of alcohol from these two men and one of these men was very abusive and aggressive to the women present.”
“They then locked the door, most of the other people present returned to an adjoining hotel for coffee. I waited for another couple of minutes with the 15-year-old daughter of my friend. As we were just about to leave I noticed Mr Butler coming out of his office and, as I know him from childhood, I approached him to ask the question I had waited for all night. He refused to talk to me and told me to make an appointment if I wishes to speak to him.”
“I told him I was blue in the [face] trying to contact him over the years. He then got into his car and locked the door. At this stage the aggressive man who clearly seemed to be under the influence of alcohol came right up into my face, I felt very intimidated at this stage. He grabbed my wrists and pushed me forward into the path of Mr Butler’s car as he reversed out of a parking spot, at this time I was hit by the car and I was knocked backwards.”
“I grabbed hold of my friend’s daughter Molly to save myself from falling over, the man then grabbed Molly by both shoulders and shook her violently. Molly cried out to this man to release her saying, ‘stop stop stop leave me alone I’m only 15 ‘.”
“Mr Butler then drove away passing an oncoming Garda car. An ambulance was called by the guards, within minutes a paramedic arrived and began to assess my injuries. I was then removed to Connolly Memorial Hospital were I spent the night. The doctors examined me and told me that my hip has been compressed into my pelvis and I suffered soft tissue damage and bruising. They also informed me that I will have a long road ahead with physiotherapy. I would like to thank the paramedics and in particular the management and staff of the Trim Castle Hotel for their professionalism and kindness on the night.”
Previously: ‘I Could See Her In The Rearview Mirror’
Campaign ‘literature’ for the No side in a recent water charges referendum
in Trinity College Dublin
Two weeks ago, a water charges referendum was held in Trinity College Dublin in order to give the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) an official position on the introduction of water charges.
The students were asked if they should campaign to abolish water charges.
Of the 4,619 who voted, 2,110 students (46%) voted ‘Yes’.
Further to this…
Liam Crowley writes in Trinity News:
“On the point of the referendum campaign, it must be pointed out that the ‘No’ side engaged in misleading and disingenuous tactics. The leaflets and posters issued by the ‘No’ campaign were designed along a myth/fact type of structure. It was presented as being a myth that ‘Irish water will be privatised’. The corresponding ‘fact’ was that ‘only the Irish people can decide to privatise Irish Water through a referendum.’ This is far removed from the truth.”
“The government has forcefully resisted all demands that the semi-state company ‘Irish Water’ be protected from privatisation by ensuring a referendum is provided in the case of any government wanting to sell the company. The Oireachtas, where a government majority is in-built, will be the place where any decision to privatise our water is taken.”
“Irish people could not have less control over our water than as it stands with the current formation of water charges. If privatisation of our water was not on the agenda, then a referendum would have been guaranteed in the event of possible water privatisation. The blatant untruth that currently a referendum is necessary for water privatisation should not have escaped college media scrutiny and the SU’s Electoral Commission should have acted decisively to stop the dissemination of false information.”
FIGHT!
Pic: Trinity News
The cover of the latest issue of The Phoenix, on shelves now.
Thanks Bewildered Student
The surrealist work of Shanghai based artist Jie Ma.
The lineup for this years Reading Leeds Festival adjusted for bands that have a woman in them.
(via Helen Lewis)
(Thanks GK)
Above: Sunday Times journalist Justine McCarthy (above) on Tonight With Vincent Browne last night and (centre) former Children’s Ombudsman Emily Logan
You may recall a post from last September regarding a report by the Children’s Ombudsman into allegations of physical and sexual at an unidentified primary school in Co. Kilkenny.
The school’s child-abuse prevention policy which applied at the time of the alleged abuse states:
“The Stay Safe programme has been approved by the board of management as a teacher’s aid to be used in accordance with the Catholic ethos which demands that the law of God and of the church, and not the child’s feelings, be the guiding principle.”.”
Further to this, Ms McCarthy spoke about the case on Tonight With Vincent Browne last night.
Her appearance followed Fianna Fáil leader Mícheal Martin raising the matter with Taoiseach Enda Kenny during Leaders’ Questions yesterday in which he claimed the Education Minister and the Department of Education have refused to meet with the parents of the children concerned.
Ms McCarthy told viewers:
“In 2006, a child came home from her rural school in Co. Kilkenny and she had a bruise on her arm and when her parents asked, ‘what had happened?’, she said that, ‘a teacher had done it’.
This was the start of what turned out to be a series of disclosures by children, 10 children, aged mostly 5 and 6, who were in a national school, against 3 female teachers in their school.
They alleged that all three had been physically abusive and that two of the teachers had been sexually abusive. The parents contacted the school and, to this day, they really have got no proper response.”
The allegations were investigated by the guards and the HSE and the Board of Management in the school also investigated them. The Children’s Ombudsman, Emily Logan, the first Children’s Ombudsman, she never actually published this report.
She released it to the relevant parties on the day that she left the job as Children’s Ombudsman. The reason it took five years to complete that report is that it was blighted by legal considerations. First of all, the need to keep the identities of children private. But, secondly, because there are serious issues about people’s reputations. And I have to make it clear that these are just allegations.
But the Children’s Ombudsman found very serious, made very serious findings in relation to the HSE and the school found that these allegations were never, in effect, investigated because they were never properly investigated.
Now the report was released to the school, to the Department of Education and to [child and family agency] Tusla and they were all given time to respond to it. That time is up. I believe that the Tusla and the department have responded.
I wrote a story myself some time ago that the chairman of the board of management, who is a priest, held a meeting with the parents of the children who are currently in the school and told them that the report [Children’s Ombudsman’s report] is riddled with errors, he wants it withdrawn and an apology made.
Since this all happened, new complainants and new allegations emerged. These are now being investigated by the guards on Harcourt Square in Dublin. There’s a more serious attitude being taken this time.
That means you have guards investigating this at the moment, Tusla has also appointed a child law solicitor to do a review of how the original allegations were handled.
And that’s probably a good sign that the solicitor I believe is Catherine Ghent, who has a very good reputation. I don’t think she would have taken this on if she felt she wasn’t going to be able to do a proper review.
The teachers against whom the complaints were made are still teaching in the school, even as these two investigations are going on and I think, most significantly, one of the teachers against whom allegations were made, is the principal of the school.
She’s the designated recipient of complaints of child abuse for the school and she continued to sit on the board of management when the board of management was handling these complaints. So there are a lot of questions to be asked about the whole process and about the fairness of the procedures”
[Later]
“When Louise O’Keeffe met the Taoiseach, and I think it was the Minister for Children and the Minister for Education, before Christmas…you remember she came to meet them to discuss how the Government was going to respond to the European Court judgement.
She actually brought a letter with her that was written by that first child, who came home with the bruise on her arm and that child wrote that letter to Enda Kenny, asking him to do something about this.
And I think it’s very interesting that, in fact, the Government’s response to the judgement in the Louise O’Keeffe case is to exclude anybody who was abused in school where no previous complaint had been made.
Now, if you were to apply that to this current case, and to think these are still children, they would not qualify because there had been no, that I know of, no complaint made before that child came home in 2006 with the bruise on her arm.
Watch in full here
Previously: ‘Any Minister In that Cabinet Meeting Should Be Ashamed’
The ‘Law of God Not the Child’s Feelings Is The Guiding Principle’
