The launch of TradFest [March 18-21] with, top from left: Felispeaks, harpist Brídín and actor Stephen Rea, who will be part of a tribute to the late poet Derek Mahon streamed from March 18 .
Tradfest will also stream a celebration of the songs of Ronnie Drew & The Dubliners performed by his son Phelim Drew and The Drew House Band, and a trad session with Frankie Gavin, Edel Fox, Catherine McHugh & Sibéal Ní Chasaide.
Cork’s finest, John Spillane (top), is back with a fine new single from his new album 100 Snow White Horses, due on April 2.
The atmospheric ballad features ethereal backing vocals from Pauline Scanlon and was produced by John Reynolds.
The press blurb says:
“We Come In The Wind’ is based on the 3 Imramma or Wonder Voyages of Irish literature: The Voyage of Bran; The Voyage of Maeldun; and The Voyage of St. Brendan. It’s a fairytale dream journey inspired by some of John’s favourite old Irish stories.”
From top: Mary Robinson on this week’s Panorama documentary about captive Saudi Princess Latifa on BBC 1; Grace Garvey
Mary Robinson’s brief appearance in Tuesday’s BBC Panorama documentary about missing Emirati Princess Latifa has raised more questions than it answers.
Robinson claims to have been misled by the princess’s family and says she felt ‘horribly tricked’ when photos of a private lunch she attended at the royal household were released to the world.
However, in a prior interview with BBC Radio 4′s Today programme less than two weeks after that lunch in December 2018, Robinson spoke about having filed a report on the visit to Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, saying:
” I sent her the three photographs that I was happy would be released to help the family to allow it to be understood that this is a family matter now and that she is in the loving care of her family.”
Furthermore, she managed to set aside her feelings at being a dupe to reiterate the official family line, that Latifa was troubled, vulnerable and receiving appropriate psychiatric care.
Mrs Robinson’s refusal to answer any further questions on the matter since then, until this week’s Panorama documentary, leaves us wondering what exactly caused her to feel hoodwinked.
She had agreed to the photographs being taken as proof of life – unlike Latifa who was a reluctant participant in the photo op; she had agreed to the photographs being released by the UN to show to the world that Latifa was still alive.
Presumably, her misgivings were caused by the photos being released by the UAE foreign ministry, and a mere nine days after the lunch.
Was she, on some level, feeling sheepish about accepting free flights and accommodation to the Arab state? Was she embarrassed to be seen cosying up to an obscenely wealthy regime with poor human rights record? Or did she feel she had abused her former office as UN High Commissioner for human rights? We can but speculate.
Speaking to the Panorama team, Robinson said she had been misled by her friend Princess Haya, Latifa’s stepmother and sixth wife of the ruler of Dubai, who in turn had herself been misled.
It is worth bearing in mind, however, that Princess Haya is neither a trained lawyer nor human rights activist. She is the sixth wife of the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, whom Latifa accuses of snatching her from international waters in March 2018 and falsely imprisoning her since. In other words, Princess Haya had skin in the game.
Lawyers are trained to be objective, told that objectivity is a professional value, and praised for their objectivity. Robinson owed Latifa – and the world – a higher duty of care than to be fobbed off with the ‘troubled young woman’ proposition. This is after all how families got rid of their headstrong daughters in bygone times. They were locked up and died in asylums. Or Magdalene laundries.
FreeLatifa is an international movement based around securing freedom for Latifa. It was set up by a Finnish national Tiina Jauhiainen, a close friend of Latifa’s who helped orchestrate her escape from Dubai in February 2018. She was on the ill-fated yacht when it was stormed by Emirati and Indian troops off the coast of India, kidnapping Latifa and bringing her back to Dubai.
The group feels that Robinson’s intervention – in a matter that was the subject of live legal proceedings at the UN – undermined the work of Michelle Bachelet.
They are at a loss to know why anyone familiar with UN human rights protocols in cases of enforced disappearances would pay a personal visit that could be used to manipulate media perception. They go so far as to question her bona fides, claiming:
‘Mary Robinson’s unwillingness to help Latifa raises questions about how much was she paid for participating in this Dubai government propaganda and about her role in supporting Latifa’s abductors.’
Criticisms levelled at Mary Robinson over the years centre on her apparent fascination with wealth, power and privilege, her need to keep the hoi polloi at bay, her lack of ‘the common touch’. Can she really have been so bedazzled by the oil billionaires’ bling that years of learning and experience went out the window?
Only one woman can answer that.
Grace Garvey is a Communications and Content Marketing Strategist. She is a former student of Mary Robinson’s at Trinity College.
Further to the decision by NatWest, the parent of Ulster Bank, to exit the Irish market…
…Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath has said customers ‘should not panic’, adding:
“The immediate priorities now are to ensure the staff are treated fairly and that the interests of their customers are protected.
“I welcome the fact that other Irish banks [AIB and TSB Permanant] are seriously examining the possibility of purchasing loan portfolios and other products from Ulster Bank. It is encouraging that the emphasis is being placed on engaging with institutions who can provide customers with full banking services in the Irish market.”
He added that Ulster Bank customers with tracker mortgage should be particularly careful when considering moving to another bank, as this could impact the terms they are entitled to.
Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman has said he is “not accepting” the statement by the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Home that they do not believe deleted audio testimonies from survivors are retrievable.
This morning.
Further to the decision to delete audio recordings of witnesses who gave evidence to the Mother and Baby Homes inquiry…
…the recordings were made when former residents were invited to tell their personal stories to the inquiry. Its final report said people were informed before they gave evidence that the recordings would be destroyed. But some witnesses dispute that and the Data Protection Commissioner has questioned the legal basis for the deletion.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Philip Boucher Hayes, Minister O’Gorman said:
“It responded to me on Tuesday saying they believe the audio files weren’t retrievable. I’m not accepting it. We all know how difficult it is to permanently destroy electronic information.
“So I’m going to be continuing to engage with the commission on that to see if there is any technical solution available to the retrieval of those files.”
.@SocDems are bringing a motion to the floor of the Dail next week to extend the #MotherandBabyHomes Commission for 1 year. Survivors needs answers as to why their files were destroyed & they need time to do that. pic.twitter.com/sPqVFNnV8v
Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore will next week introduce a Dáil motion to extend the timeframe of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission by one year. The commission is scheduled to be dissolved on February 28.
Deputy Whitmore, Soc Dem spokesperson for Children, said:
“We in the Social Democrats have a real concern that there is no legal basis for what the Commission has done here. We have written to the Office of the Data Protection Commission seeking an investigation into the circumstances surrounding this and the legality of such destruction under Article 6 and 9 of the GDPR legislation.
“Pending all the questioning and potential investigations into this act, we are calling for an extension to the Mother and Baby Homes Commission. There are concerns that if it does wind down, investigations cannot be fully carried out and questions will remain unanswered as a result.
“Our Dáil motion is a call to buy more time for survivors in their search for truth and justice.”
Available as a One production model and a limited edition ‘Founders’ variant celebrating the maker’s 115th anniversary, ‘The One’ has a slim, aircraft inspired, machined aluminium monocoque chassis, which – combined with 87bhp and 163Nm of torque – would tend to make it somewhat nippy.
Yours for €64,000 (+shipping), or €95,000 for the Founder’s Edition.
Host William Campbell (right) meets Eoin Ó Broin (left), Sinn Féin housing spokesman and TD for the Dublin Mid-West constituency since 2016.
William writes:
Fianna Fáil’s housing policies defy basic laws of economics, as exposed by FoI requests from Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin, but what about the rationality of Ó Broin’s own policies – the Here’s How podcast gives him a grilling.
