Samantha Barry tweetz:
I hate to break it to you TNT magazine but that’s Scotland not Ireland #epicmapfail
Any excuse
How Much?
at
(From top, accommodation at Mosney in Co. Meath and asylum seekers at the centre)
Carl O’Brien, of The Irish Times, reports this morning that the State has paid a total of €800million to private firms to provide accommodation to asylum seekers since the system was rolled out in 2000.
Mr O’Brien writes:
“Today, many of the companies providing shelter are large firms involved in the property, hospitality or catering business. Some have moved to re-register themselves as private unlimited companies in recent years, which means they have no obligation to file accounts. This shields their financial affairs from public scrutiny.”
“In addition, in some cases the beneficial owners or part-owners include companies in offshore jurisdictions such as the Isle of Man and the British Virgin Islands.”
He adds that the five top recipients of funding for direct provision are:
Mosney Accommodation Centre, Co. Meath: €101million.
Directors: Phelim McCloskey, Drogheda, Co Louth; Sarah Gates, Drogheda, Co Louth; Ruth Kierans, Drogheda, Co Louth.
East Coast Catering: €91.5million.
ECC provides accommodation at Baleskin Reception Centre, Co. Dublin; Hatch Hall, Dublin 2; Carroll Village, Dundalk, Co. Louth.
Directors: Dundalk businessmen Denis Williams and Brian Byrne; Canada-based businessmen Patrick O’Callaghan and Richard Sheppard.
Bridgestock: €66.7million.
Bridgestock provides accommodation at Globe House, Sligo, Lisbrook House, Galway, The Old Convent in Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo and Athlone Accommodation Centre, Co. Westmeath.
Directors: Séamus Gillen, Tullamore, Co Offaly; Eoghan McGinty, Galway; Michael Gillen, Sligo.
Millstreet Equestrian Services Ltd: €52.6million.
MES provides accommodation at Viking House, Waterford; Bridgewater House in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary and Drishane Castle, Millstreet, Co. Cork.
Directors: Noel C Duggan, Cork, and Thomas A Duggan.
Shaun Hennelly, Galway: €24.3million.
Mr Hennelly provides accommodation at Great Western House, Galway
Owners: Shaun and Kathleen Hennelly, Galway.
Meanwhile, way back at the beginning:
Excerpts from New Guests Of The Nation, by University College Dublin Professor Bryan Fanning. The pages are from chapter five, entitled The Politics of Racism.
Top five recipients of State funding (Carl O’Brien, Irish Times)
Asylum industry has become a cash cow for big business (Carl O’Brien, Irish Times)
New Guests Of The Irish Nation
Previously: “Issues Too Extensive To Catalogue Individually”
Pics: Catherine Reilly, Irish America
Every Autumn, after the rice harvest, Kagawa Prefecture and Niigata Prefecture in Japan host straw art festivals.
Taxidermy man’s gonna have a heart attack when he sees what I brung him..
And so forth.
MORE: Japan’s Straw Beasts Are Huge, Wonderful, and Highly Flammable (Kotaku)
We’ll soon know if there’s any cash,
Left to spend in the government stash,
Will they start a new boom,
Or is it our doom,
To be trapped in a permanent crash?
John Moynes
(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)
Pranksy
at
Banksy marked the 13th day of his Better Out Than In residency in New York by setting up an unannounced stall in Central Park staffed by a disinterested old gent apparently selling $60 Banksy knockoffs that were actually original signed canvasses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In the course of seven hours, just three people bought a total of seven canvasses with no idea they were real. One walked off with four pieces to decorate his new house, unwittingly landing the bargain of the decade..
The point having been made, the trolltastic stunt will not be repeated.
Previously: Meanwhile In New York
Put The Kettle On by Juanita Browne.
FINALLY.
A (non-fiction) book about Ireland’s pathetic addiction love affair with tea.
Hitting the shops this week.
It explores our “relationship with tea and how it plays such a fundamental part in our lives, from secondary school students to OAPs, from support groups to broadcasters and authors, from firemen to fishermen, teachers to toddlers, and everyone in between.”
It also includes the great debates: Barrys v Lyons, sugar or no sugar, strong versus weak and more pressingly, is herbal tea proper tay?
Fight!
Put the Kettle On The Irish Love Affair With Tea (Collins)
What you may need to know
1. Lance Armstrong is a big fat liar.
2. Thankfully, he hasn’t ruined Dodgeball (2004) for us.
3. Director Alex Gibney did Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room (2005), We Steal Secrets (2013) and Mea Maxima Culpa (2012).
4. Hollywood’s prepping several competing Armstrong projects – Bradley Cooper’s interested.
5. Best YouTube comment: ‘I would like to see the people who makes this film -and all the people who talks about a “lie” of Armstrong- cycling thousand miles a year and training hours and hours like Armstrong did for win the tour, and like all the cyclists do.’
Release Date: Winter
In Balgriffin, Fingal, Co. Dublin.
Mark Hennessey writes:
“So many typos it makes the head hurt.”