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Anne Ferris TD at Leinster House this evening.

“I feel bad having voted against my own party and the government on this but it’s an issue very close to my heart and I could not but have supported Clare Daly’s bill [allowing abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormalities].

“We are forcing people to go to England to have terminations of a much wanted and much loved baby. I think that is really, really wrong. That service should be available in this country.

I wanted to vote for the bill to go to the next stage, which is only committee stage so that the medical experts, the legal experts can come in and have a look at it and go through it line by line.

“If we were told after that definitively it is unconstitutional, then we wouldn’t have been able to vote for it. But I am not sure it is unconstitutional.”

Wicklow TD Anne Ferris after her expulsion from the Labour Party for opposing the party whip.

 Earlier: Sent Away

Anne Ferris is kicked out of Labour Party for voting to allow abortion for babies with fatal abnormalities (irish Mirror)

(Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland)

hop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idAl6XCnUTE

Hop House 13 lager.

From Guinness.

On tap today.

‘Named after an early 1900’s hop store building at St. James’s Gate where hops are still stored, Hop House 13 is a double-hopped lager made with Irish barley and aromatic hops and continues the 256 years of heritage and brewing excellence at St. James’s Gate.’

FIGHT!

tallyvoting

G’wan Anne.

Update:

Labour TD Anne Ferris set to be expelled from party after voting in favour of abortion bill (Niall O’Connor, Independent.ie)

Earlier: Above Politics

gigoftheweek

Saturday February 14: Retro Revival Indie Club @ Sweeney’s, Dame Street, Dublin (9pm, €5)

Nialler9 writes:

There’s plenty of Valentine’s-themed nights out there that look like fun depending on what your (non)partner and you enjoy – from a free DCC gig with Ham Sandwich and Cathy Davey to BYOB secret location DJ-lead parties {see link below for details]. For something different, Retro Revival is putting on some top-notch garage and rock in Sweeney’s including sets from Squarehead [above the video for their ‘2025’], Sissy, Cruising, GMG and DJ Michael Chill. Only a sexy fiver in too…

Nialler9’s Gig Guide February 10-16 Valentine Special (Nialler9)

yaltaWinston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at Yalta, Crimea February 1945

The Yalta Conference.

Seventy years ago this week.

Ironically, one of the main aims of the Yalta conference got turned on its head and has shown the extraordinary turns of history. This was the aim of all the participants to punish Germany and split it into four military zones and possibly into two or three separate ‘agricultural’ Germanies, to prevent it ever coming back as one big power again, to dominate and disrupt the world.

However, with a Cold War growing, the West realised that it needed a strong Germany, and the Soviets followed suit by building up Eastern Germany. Seventy years later, and with the two Germanies united, the country is at the absolute centre of Europe, running the EU and acting as economic powerhouse for the entire continent.

…many Poles never forgave the way that they were sold into Communism by the British, having seen Britain enter the war to save them from Hitler. It is interesting that Churchill, who made much of Chamberlain’s appeasement and trust in Hitler, should himself suffer the same with the Soviet leader.

The port of Yalta and the great global carve-up (Eamon Delaney, Independent.ie)

Broadsheet.ie