Pickles the Pug modelling headgear in consistently morose style for Etsy seller Sweethoots (currently on leave of absence but taking orders from next month).
Born Ready
at
Scenes by Random Irish Photos from yesterday (day two) and today, the final day of the National Ploughing Championship in Stradbally, Co Laois attended by Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney [pics 5 and 6] yesterday and Enda Kenny [pics 2, 15 and 16] today.
‘Random’ writes:
“So this year’s National Ploughing Championships? Record crowds, the weather was great (except for the drizzle this morning), getting there was a bit of nightmare but getting out was a pretty slick affair (thanks to the Gardai Traffic Corps) and – by the eavesdropped sounds of things – there weren’t that many ‘freebies’ as last year. If you had stood by any junction in the vast site long enough, you would have heard someone ask: ‘Did you get any freebies?’ (And the answer would invariably be ‘no’).
What else? People moaned a lot, laughed a lot, learned something new about something, bumped into folk they hadn’t seen in ‘aaaaaaaages’ and a shed load of burgers (Pure Irish beef, mind) was sold – even at breakfast. Oh, yes – and horse and tractor ploughers (male AND female) competed against each other (the guy who always wins won this year, by the way) and Simon Coveney got heckled (briefly). He was rushed by his aides through the crowds so fast that all most had time to ask in his wake was (as the dust settled) ‘Who WAS that?’. His earnest little group – who seemed ill at ease with both press and public attention – dashed from stall to stall and barely had time to chat with the small coterie of star-struck admiring females keen to press the flesh with their Agriculture Minister before he was ushered to the next hand shake, or supermarket tent (he notably made a bee-line for Tesco and Supervalu, apparently). And then he was gone. Today the taoiseach arrived and Enda wooed the crowd – as only Enda does (i.e. a whole lot better than his agriculture minister) and,despite rumblings among various groups of farmers who vowed to give the Taoiseach a piece of their mind (or an auld egg or two), most people who came in contact with him seemed genuinely pleased to see him. And then he was gone (after lunch), in a very presidential-style – and quite bizarre – cavalcade, which some found odd given that he’d arrived at the event in a . . .jeep.”
What do mean you’ve ‘forgotten her number’?
Liam Phelan writes:
“A listener to the Ray Darcy show on Today FM wrote to the show describing how their mother has only a few months to live and was looking for advice on how best to spend this precious time with her….No, I just have something in my eye.”
Warning: contains synth music and tender stock imagery some readers might find overly ‘new age-y’.
We’re so there.
Spotted in Santry Demense [North Dublin] this evening.
(Thanks Babs Leonard)
Fine Gael’s John McNulty (top) and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Kilmainham, Dublin
Further to the appointment (and resignation) of John McNulty of Fine Gael to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art to apparently bulk up his CV before being nominated for the senate.
This is not just classic cronyism, argues former IMMA board member Eamon Delaney, but a powerful demonstration of Fine Gael’s ‘commitment’ the arts.
He writes:
“At a time when our cultural institutions need all the help and expertise they can get, McNulty is quite clearly not a suitable candidate. I speak with some authority here, as I was on the board of IMMA myself for many years. And from my own time, it was clear that the board was crying out for persons with a background in the visual arts, which this man doesn’t have. His appointment is pure politics and cronyism.
[Arts] Minister [Heather] Humphreys defended his appointment by saying that McNulty was ‘a self-employed businessman who brings 15 years’ business experience to the IMMA board. He is involved in the local Tourism and Cultural committee in Kilcar, Co Donegal, and has a track record in promoting culture, heritage, the GAA and the Irish language.” She added, robotically, that ‘he has been involved in heritage restoration project, and festivals such as the Fleadh Ceol, and was currently driving a three-year Irish language development plan for the area.’
But these are not the qualities needed for a modern art museum. Indeed, they could describe any ambitious local politician. IMMA is a cutting-edge national gallery, tracking international trends in avant-garde contemporary visual art. It does a valiant job in this, in the face of an often indifferent public, and with little resources. In all of these efforts, the board needs to strongly support the Chairman and director.
In my own time, the IMMA board acted as such and was strengthened by the inclusion of persons such as the art historian Dr Eimear O’Connor, sculptor Rowan Gillespie and Mary McCarthy of the National Sculpture Factory in Cork. We also had board members with a strong business or public sector experience, such as Julie O’Neill, now on the board of Ryanair. But these were senior business and corporate figures, not a local FG politician with a small business background.
…There are so many depressing aspects to the McNulty ‘double appointment’. It shows the casual, almost derisive treatment of arts institutions and especially visual arts institutions, by the political culture. When I was on the IMMA board, we tried to fight a pointless forced merger of IMMA with the National Gallery but we got little support from the philistines down in the Dail or Senate.
In this regard, Fine Gael is actually the worst offender. Fianna Fail has at least shown strong support for the arts over the years, especially (but not only) under Charlie Haughey who founded the artist’s body, Aosdana, and introduced tax exemption for artists. By contrast, Fine Gael, perhaps of its austere historic and social background, has usually shown little interest in cultural matters. And this is typified now by Enda Kenny’s bone-headed appointment of a local politician and Seanad candidate to the board of our modern art museum!
But the wider picture here is of a political system that is still about perks, cronyism and a scrambling for personal and political ambition. And if this means that they have to ride roughshod over our esteemed cultural institutions then so be it. Nothing has changed.
More here: Art Museum appointment shows political cronyism has not changed (Eamon Delaney)
Enda Kenny Denies ordering Minister To Account Seanad Nominee To IMMA Board (Independent.ie)
(IMMA)
A small, very last minute change to the cover, thanks to @grahnort pic.twitter.com/sKuhA9Gtl2
— Panti Bliss (@PantiBliss) September 25, 2014
Out on October 16.
It’s reported that Major Mariam Al Mansouri, 35, an F-16 pilot, led the air strike missions on ISIS.
Fox News had its own take on the fact that a woman led the attack.
Meanwhile….
Simples.
Pic: AFP
