odin's

Available at the link below

James Keating writes:

Today sees the release of ‘Odin’s Ode’, a song created using the heartbeat of Shauna Fowley and Alan Newman’s newborn son, Odin. Odin was born prematurely in May this year, and passed away after six weeks of battling for his life.All proceeds from the song will go toward the Irish Premature Babies (IPB) charity. IPB helped Shauna and Alan through the birth of Odin’s sister Lily Kate in 2012, who also passed away after being born prematurely.

Alan works as a music and video producer, and felt inspired by his son to create the song, which he hopes will now raise funds to help other families going through similar circumstances. Singer ‘Funzo’ added vocals to the song, working with Alan to make a heartfelt and hopeful piece of music, celebrating Odin.

Purchase here: Odin’s Ode (Amazon)

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Jack Leahy, in University Times, writes:

“The photography company hired by College for the graduation season has defended its decision to offer “facial slimming” editing for €30.”

“Students who have their official graduation portraits taken by Lafayette Photography have the option of requesting the service when ordering prints from the company’s website. At €30, the service is at a considerably higher price point than other similar services including teeth whitening and skin tone editing, which are available for €10.”

Seriously?

FIGHT!

Graduation Photographers Defend €30 “Facial Slimming” Service (University Times)

Pic: Lafayette Photography

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If you want to know how flimsy we hold women’s humanity, start by looking at the laws governing pregnancy. The 1967 Abortion Act is often claimed to have legalised “abortion on demand”. It didn’t. In practice, the 1967 Act modifies the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act sufficiently to allow most women who seek a termination to obtain one within the law under most circumstances – but to do so, a woman must convince two doctors that continuing the pregnancy would cause “grave permanent injury to [her] physical or mental health”. It’s not enough for her to simply say, “No, I do not want to have this baby”. Ever so subtly, our law starts from the position that the default outcome for all pregnant women should be motherhood: it’s left to each individual to persuade the medical authorities she is an exceptional case who should be allowed to determine the use of her own body.

Perhaps this doesn’t sound so terrible to you. Maybe you consider abortion a grave matter, one of such moral consequence that no woman alone should be able to make it for herself. After all, it is the end of human life – a foetus that would become a baby, then a child and then an adult before dying in its turn – and surely any decision that ends a human life is to be taken seriously. Except, all of us make decisions every day about whether or not to support other human lives with our own flesh, and most of us choose not to. For example: 96 per cent of us choose not to give blood even though we’re eligible to, and 68 per cent of us choose not to join the organ donor register. People die on waiting lists. And this is sad, but it’s also acceptable: no one is entitled to your blood or your organs unless you are generous enough to share them.

Read in full: My body, my choice: from now on, abortion rights must be fought for from first principles (Sarah Ditum, New Statesman)

Pic: sarahditum.com

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