Mary Coughlan – Family Life
Now this is something special.
National treasure Mary Coughlan conjures a deeply felt cover of The Blue Nile‘s heartbreaking Christmas ballad Family Life from her new album Life Stories.
Mary says:
“The track ‘Family Life’ is deeply personal to me, I think it will resonate with people this Christmas in particular.”
Ain’t that the truth.
And here‘s the original version.
Nick says: Happy Christmas, Mary.
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe
This Morning/afternoon.
Via RTE:
“Intense discussions” on how the country will exit Level 5 restrictions are “necessary” and are under way, the Finance Minister has said, describing it as a “decision of magnitude”.
Paschal Donohoe said the Government is hearing assessments from NPHET, adding it is important to acknowledge that the country is making progress on beating the virus.
“If you are looking at all indicators where we were a few weeks ago we are in a better place but not as good a place as we would like to be,” Mr Donohoe stated.
Intense.
‘Intense discussions’ on exiting Level 5 under way – Donohoe (RTÉ)
Meanwhile…
Ireland's Prime Minister was correct many weeks ago – Level 5 Lockdown would backfire and was not scientific
– rather it was anti-science from hardcore NPHET "Zero Covid" delusionistsShocking damage they've created though.
Shocking.https://t.co/LRN2KiYbU8
— Ivor Cummins (@FatEmperor) November 20, 2020
In fairness.
HOWEVER…
…He walked this back last Monday.
FIGHT!
Last Sunday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from from Kennedy Space Centre’s Launch Complex 39A. It would be back. To wit:
This 3 minute 20 second exposure traces the launch streak as seen over watery reflections from Port Canaveral, about 15 miles south of the launch. The rocket carried four astronauts en route to the International Space Station on the first flight of a NASA-certified commercial human spacecraft system. Dubbed Resilience, the astronauts’ Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the orbital outpost one day later, on Monday, November 16. At the conclusion of their six-month stay on the ISS, the Crew-1 astronauts will use their spacecraft to return to Earth. Of course about 9 minutes after launch the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage returned to Earth, landing in the Atlantic Ocean on autonomous spaceport drone ship Just Read The Instructions.
(Image: Jen Scott)
This morning.
Three launched its horrifically manipulative emotive Christmas campaign entitled ‘Everyone’s a kid at Christmas’ which “shows us that no matter where you are this Christmas, you can still share those special moments and traditions with family and friends”.
Where’s dad?
Anyone?
From top: Palace Street, Dublin 2 (pics 1 and 2); Dean Street and Kevin Street Cross, both Dublin 8
On Dublin’s shortest streets….
…Harry Warren writes:
Just before one of the last lockdowns, I was happily enjoying a coffee outside of the lovely French restaurant Chez Max on Palace Street, Dublin 2. An American gent at the table beside me, in all seriousness said to his lady friend, “so what do they have to be indignant about? “Maybe the name is Olde English”, she replied”.
I couldn’t resist joining in the conversation. “Are you admiring the building? The Sick and Indigent Roomkeepers Society was a charity and its now a listed building”. “Were they indignant because they were poor?”, he replied. Then badly paraphrasing G.B. Shaw, I offered “two nations divided by a common language”, gently advising that “indigent” now a rarely used word meant “poor”.
The penny finally dropped, we laughed and we had an enjoyable conversation about the locale and Palace Street. They were quiet taken with Palace Street and said it was the smallest street they had ever seen.
Palace Street. is one of the shortest streets in Dublin, it links Dame Street to one of the entrances to Dublin Castle. One side of the street has a fine elegantly designed building now an AIB bank. On the opposite side at number one is Chez Max and number two was the home of Dublin’s oldest charity, The Sick and Indigent Roomkeepers Society. It was founded in 1790 “for the relief of the poor without religious discrimination.”
Number three is a hideous Lego block lump of architecture, oversized, grimly designed and lacking in any finesse, popularly known as Robocop on Dame Street.
Palace Street. is one of the shortest streets in Dublin, followed by Dean Street in the Liberties [Dublin 8] but I would argue that Kevin Street Cross has to be the shortest of them all. Kevin Street Cross joins Bride Street. with New Bride Street on the way to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Other short streets in Dublin? There is a hint in my name of my favourite one. I am sure there are more.
If any Broadsheet readers know of any shorter street or road in Dublin than Kevin Street Cross, I would love to read a comment in the Reply section.
Anyone?
Pics by Harry Warren
Meeting TikTok today. 1,100 new hires this year is very deserving of my first attempt I think! Go easy pic.twitter.com/6lGhX1UYwp
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) November 20, 2020
This morning.
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar celebrates new hires for Chinese-owned video app TikTok, facing the ongoing threat of a US ban, at its European data centre in Ireland.
Um.
Meanwhile…
Here, @LeoVaradkar I fixed that #TikTok for ya, so now your down with da kidz. CC @broadsheet_ie pic.twitter.com/KGc382UBpS
— Con Kennedy (@ConKennedy) November 20, 2020
Ah here.
