It’s Bowno!

Bono/bow.

Suit yourselves.

Meanwhile…

Joe Duffy and Oprah Winfrey

This afternoon.

725,000.

Oh.

Feminism Backwards by Rosita Sweetman (Mercier Press)

The votes are in.

Yesterday, to celebrate International Women’s Day and with a signed copy of Rosita Sweetman’s Feminism Backwards  (Mercier Press) on offer, we asked you to describe your most UNFEMINIST moment.

You entered in your dozens.

There could be only one winner:

D writes:  ‘Was locked out of my house at 3am in the morning when 8 months pregnant and begged the man that put me out there from my bed to let me back in cause I loved him!! Fear more like, but that was a long time ago now and I’m a very different person thankfully.’

Rosita explains:

It had to go to D. Shivers just thinking of the bastard who did it. The guys answers are funny but they are so dedicated to being smart Alecs it’s off-putting. I liked the one who silenced a friend who asked when he was going to have kids by telling him about recent miscarriage – he def gets a virtual hug.

Fight!

Yesterday: Unchained Melody

Feminism Backwards by Rosita Sweetman (Mercier Press)

Peter Doran – Nothing New Under The Sun

Paradise in the picturehouse.

Peter Doran‘s new promo is an object lesson in how you don’t need a mega budget to make a memorable and affecting music video.

The singer/songwriter (top) from Mullingar, County Westmeath, has a new album Voices due later this year. You can hear echoes of The Blue Nile and Radiohead in his soulful voice.

The video was directed by Lucy Jones and John Hennessy of Kerbute Productions.

Peter writes:

“One small idea led to another until before I knew it I was standing in the cavernous space of an unused cinema in my Mullingar hometown with the camera rolling.

“I was a boy the Ritz cinema was coming to the end of its era but I did catch a few blockbusters there in my time. Before my time, my parents courted in the glow of the enormous screen. I’m told that space was used regularly for live music too and that in the ’50s and ’60s there was a stipulation that there had to be an interval in every feature where musicians would take to the stage and perform. I believe the great Joe Dolan was a regular performer here.

“All this is to say that the building is filled with a great history of film, music, community and young love.”

Nick says: Lights, camera, music!

Peter Doran

Religious services are not covered by the lockdown regulations, says Professor Oran Doyle (above)

This afternoon.

Oran Doyle, a professor in law at Trinity College Dublin and director of the COVID-19 Law and Human Rights Observatory writes (full article at link below):

Last Friday, RTÉ reported that the Archdiocese of Dublin had advised priests not to give communion to parishioners after Mass, either inside or outside churches.

The Archdiocese is entitled to give such advice, as indeed would be the Government. But the advice appears to have followed pressure from the gardaí.

The Archdiocese stated:

‘Drive-in masses are not permitted as no gatherings of people outdoors or indoors are permitted.’

If this is intended to be a statement of the legal position—and it is difficult to read it any other way—it is categorically incorrect.

…This echoes a previous controversy from last November—when the relevant law was the same—in which the gardaí threatened to prosecute a priest in Cavan for saying Mass. The Irish Times reported:

‘Fr Hughes confirmed that the gardaí had told him this was his last warning and if he was caught celebrating Mass again with people in the church, a file would be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions and he would be prosecuted. He said gardaí had told him the penalty was a fine of up to €2,500 or six months in jail.’

Again, this statement of the legal position was categorically incorrect.

…In the Dáil debate on the extension of the 2020 Act, Michael MacNamara TD stated that priests would be committing a criminal offence if they opened the doors of their churches for Mass.

The Minister for Health assured the house that religious services were non-penal and there was no penalty attached to them.

Deputy MacNamara responded that this was untrue.

The Minister responded that he had signed the regulations the previous night and could assure the House that it was a non-penal provision and would remain thus.

Both Deputy MacNamara and the Minister were incorrect.

Conducting religious services was not a criminal offence, but this was simply because it was not covered by the Regulations at all, whether as a penal or non-penal provision. [More below]

Religious Services and the Rule of Law: Authority and Coercion (COVID-19 Law and Human Rights Observatory)

This afternoon.

Dublin Airport.

The number of passengers travelling through Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Knock airports in January of this year is 91.3% lower than January 2020.

The total number of passengers handled by those airports in January fell from 2,366,805 to 205,803…

It also said the number of passengers travelling through Dublin airport in January was down by 82,196 – a fall of 29.2% on December.

Car traffic volumes increasing slowly during February – CSO (RTÉ)

RollingNews

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