If you’re young and unmarried and Swiss,
And looking for work, perhaps this,
Papal job may appeal,
That is, if you feel,
In the mood for a clerical kiss.
John Moynes
(Getty)
Bord Bia writes:
“The value of Irish food and drink exports has approached €10billion for the first time in 2013, according to new figures released by Bord Bia today. This represents an increase of 9% on the previous year and 40% in the last four years with revenues almost €3 billion higher than in 2009. Export values for dairy product and ingredients exceeded €3 billion for the first time and strong performances for meat and livestock (€3.3billion) and prepared foods (€1.65 billion) all contributed to the positive outcome.”
“The UK remains the largest export destination for Irish food and drink with 42% of exports worth an estimated €4.1 billion reaching that market in 2013. Exports of food and drink to other EU markets increased by 11% in 2013 reaching €3.2 billion with the key markets of Germany, France and the Netherlands all recording double digit growth. Strong exports to Asia, and to a lesser extent Russia, contributed positively toward an increase of 6% in the value of trade to international markets, which exceeded €2.6 billion in the period.”
“Exports to China grew by over 40%, with values trebling over the last three years to reach €390 million in 2013. It is now Ireland’s sixth largest market overall, driven in particular by strong dairy and pork exports.”
Bord Bia reports increase of 40% in export values since 2009
“After a marathon meeting that took place over three days and three nights, with a total of 21 adjournments, a vote was finally held just after midnight last night.”
“The budget was voted down by 15 votes to 12 as Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein and Independent Cllr John Campbell voted against. At this stage everyone present in the chamber believed that was the end of the body.”
“But Cllrs where then made aware by the County Secretary 15 minutes later that in the event of the budget being rejected, then Cllrs can meet again at a later date to try and pass the budget.”
Audio update – Donegal County Council still intact as budget meeting adjourns (Highland Radio)
[Tom Parlon of the Construction Industry Federation]
The head of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) says house prices need to increase in order for the building of residential properties to become more cost effective.
Tom Parlon says it’s currently not viable to build a house for the price they are selling at.
The comments come following the release of figures today which show that the number of planning applications and new builds are down on 2013 levels.
House prices ‘need to increase’, says CIF head (Breaking News)
Previously: The Minsky Cycle And You
Gary Ó’Nualláin tweetz:
€3.05 single fare for this? Dublin Bus really is a disgrace. This is what happens when you allow one company a monopoly.
UPDATE: Photograph was posted on Spotted On Dublin Bus Facebook page yesterday.
Bad G’day
at
Aldi’s Australian t-shirt range.
Mark Geary writes:
Australia Day is on January 26th each year, the date in 1788, when the ‘First Fleet”” arrived in Sydney. Aldi has been forced to pull a T-shirt which says Australia was “established” in 1788…
[Pat Cox, Chairman of Limerick City of Culture with former CEO Patricia Ryan]
Fintan O’Toole writes:
The City of Culture process has been casually insulting to artists. The 10-person board has just one professional artist – and, incidentally, just one woman – on it.
I can think offhand of a long list of really interesting artists who are either from Limerick or have worked in the city – Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Mary Nunan, Mel Mercier, Michael Curtin, Clairr O’Connor, Gerard Stembridge, Darren Shan, Gabriel Rosenstock, John Liddy, Marian Keyes, Mary Coll, Amanda Coogan and many more. If some time had been spent talking to them, they might have pointed out that they do not wish to be called (as the official City of Culture “vision” calls artists) “cultural providers” who “export Limerick Cultural Product” as if it were bacon.
“…we now have a perfect warning of what happens when politicians and bureaucrats try to use the arts without respecting them. Irish artists are much better at doing their jobs than Irish politicians and administrators are at doing theirs. If they spent more time with books, music and performances, politicians might learn something about rigorous thinking.”
Previously: Cultured Question
(RTE)
[Mary McAleese at the launch of Quo Vadis, in 2012]
“I don’t like my Church’s attitude to gay people. I don’t like ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’. If you are the so-called sinner, who likes to be called that? We also know that within the priesthood a very large number of priests are gay.”
[ Speaking during a lecture at the Royal Society of Edinburgh] Mrs McAleese said she studied suicide among young Irish males, many of them gay Catholics who grew up being told their sexuality was “intrinsically disordered” and “evil”.
When she took this research to the new papal nuncio in Dublin she was surprised by his response.
She said she was asked: “What do you want me to do? Do you want us to turn our back on tradition?” Her answer was: “Yes, if it’s wrong.”
“Things written by [former Pope] Benedict, for example, were completely contradictory to modern science and to modern understanding, and to the understanding of most Catholics nowadays in relation to homosexuality.”
“Nowadays, it is not something that is perceived as something that is intrinsically disordered. Homosexual conduct is not seen as evil.”
Mrs McAleese drew a comparison with the Church’s attitude to Jews. It took almost two millennia formally to revise the “Christ-killer” slander which had been repeated down the decades.
FIGHT!
Shamed Cardinal urged to tell life story by former Irish leader (Glasgow Herald)
(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)
