Oil on canvas paintings by Italian artist Roberto Bernardi.
Sweet, sweet hyperrealism.
[Patrick Nulty]
Farewell, once again, to old Pat,
Who’s finally discovered that,
Online, without fail,
You will leave a trail,
When you’re sleazing about like a rat.
John Moynes
(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)
[Labour leader Eamon Gilmore at the publication of the Government’s programmes of Dáil Reform in Government Buildings last September]
Gilmore: It would be “helpful” if Alan Shatter were to withdraw his remarks about Garda Whistleblowers
— Today FM News (@TodayFMNews) March 24, 2014
Related: ‘Politcal faultlines have opened’ over Garda Commissioner statement (Irish Examiner)
Gilmore: Shatter should ‘clear up’ his remarks on whistleblowers (Independent.ie)
Astronomer Liz (there are no second names at this, the adorable level of learning) from the Royal Greenwich Observatory explains the scale of just about everything with the help of a nifty animation created for the Observatory’s educational programme by London studio Beakus.
Show it to a small child. Or revert to being one.
Graham Cashell tweetz:
Yesterday in Wicklow. Can’t beat Ireland in the sun.
UPDATE:
Atticus writes:
“This pic was taken almost to the day 2 years ago. It’s actually Lough Dan in the Wicklow Mountains. . Interesting the difference in plant life…”
Cruel World
at
[From yesterday’s Sunday Times]
You’ll recall two posts about allegations of Traveller children being placed on the PULSE system.
The first, from October last year, included a letter that former Garda John Wilson sent to his senior management in October 2011, alleging that many Traveller babies – one as young as 16 days old – had their names put on the PULSE system, with each child getting a criminal intelligence PULSE number. Mr Wilson has yet to receive a reply for this letter.
The second, earlier this month, detailed questions put to Justice Minister Alan Shatter in relation to the allegations by TDs Clare Daly, of United Left Alliance, and Padraig MachLochlainn, of Sinn Féin, and Mr Shatter’s response.
Essentially, the two TDs asked Minister Shatter to confirm the allegations.
Minister Shatter replied:
“I am informed by the Commissioner that PULSE does not solely capture information on offenders, but is also used to store information on Garda interactions with individuals, whether adults or children, such as victims of crime, persons injured in road traffic accidents and child welfare incidents.”
“All persons are subject to the same PULSE recording policy and procedures. I have also been assured by the Garda Commissioner that the Garda Síochána does not engage in ethnic profiling, and specifically that it does not engage in data gathering or data mining based upon discriminatory profiling in respect of race, colour, language, religion, nationality, national or ethnic origin, ethnicity or membership of the Traveller community.”
Well.
Yesterday, in the Sunday Times, above, former Irish Independent journalist Gemma O’Doherty wrote about Cork Traveller Caroline Dunne, whose son Francis and daughter Mary’s details were placed on PULSE after Ms Dunne went to a Garda station in 2011 to get passport forms for her children signed. The children were aged two and one at the time.
Ms O’Doherty reported [not online]:
“Printouts of her children’s entries on the Pulse system have been seen by The Sunday Times, and were shown to Dunne this weekend…The Pulse entry states that the reason for inputting the children’s UD and dates of birth was ‘intelligence’.
“Dunne said: ‘I can think of absolutely no reason why my two children should be put on the garda computer system and given criminal intelligence numbers. As a family we are in total shock. It feels like we are being spied on. I am appalled to think my children’s privacy has been breached in this way. It’s horrible to think a baby who can barely walk or talk would have their data recorded on Pulse. It’s been sitting on the garda computers for nearly three years without us knowing. How could that happen?”
Previously: Early Profiling
13,000 Files
at
[Philomena Lee and Jane Libberton at the launch of the Philomena Project in Dublin in January]
You’ll recall how Philomena, her daughter, Jane Libberton, and journalist Martin Sixsmith, launched the Philomena Project in Dublin last January.
The aim of the project is to help ensure every mother and child that wishes to be reunited can do so.
The Mail on Sunday reported yesterday [not online] that more than 13,000 files held by the Catholic adoption agency, St Patrick’s Guild, are to be handed over to the State by the end of December.
Alison O’Reilly wrote:
“More than 13,000 files held by a controversial Catholic-run adoption agency that has admitted organising illegal adoptions are to be handed over to the State in December. St Patrick’s Guild arranged thousands of adoptions between the 1940s and 1970s, including the secret export of 572 children to the US. It no longer arranges adoptions, although it still helps with search queries. But it has been criticised for stonewalling people who were adopted through it and who have spent decades trying to trace their birth families. The Child and Family Agency has now announced that the Guild will close at the end of the year.”
Mrs Lee was single and 18 when she was pregnant and sent to a Catholic residential home for unmarried mothers in Roscrea, County Tipperary. When her son was three, she was forced to give him up for adoption and her son was sent to the US. Even though they both searched for each other in subsequent years, he died before she ever saw him again.
Previously: Identities Withheld
(Mark Stedman/Photocall Irelan)
Splutter.
Stephen Ryan tweetz:
“Controversial Facebook cover photo by Cork’s 96FM. Ooh, this Cork radio war is going to be interesting.”
FIGHT!
Previously: That’s No Snake! Cork Shock Jock’s ‘No Jocks Just Cock’ Shock
Fr Peter McVerry, Brian O’Driscoll [both awarded the Freedom of Dublin City by the Lordl Mayor Oisin Quinn] and Amy Huberman at the Mansion House, Dublin on Saturday.
Mmf.
(Sam Boal/Photocall ireland)