Dr Millar & The Cute Hoors – Happy Can Be

Continuing our series of seriously underrated Irish music since 1960, prompted by the treasure unearthed during last week’s Golden Discs competition, reader Rosette Of Sirius plumped for cult Dublin singer/songwriter Seán Millar.

Rosette said:

“The supremely gifted songwriter Seán Milllar aka Dr Millar released an album called The Bitter Lie (top) in 1990. Almost every song tells a tale of growing up in the aftermath of Dev’s Ireland from the 60s to the 90s..

” The songs A Good Little Country and St Stephen make me rage ever so slightly. Alcohol Problem lives true even today and Your Not Paranoid speaks to his humour.

But Happy Can Be (above) is a quirky but gorgeous little love song that is so perfectly Irish. The fella should be a household name.”

Nick says: It’s Millar time.

Seán Millar

From top: Bryan Dobson; HSE Specialist in Public Health Medicine Dr Sarah Doyle 

This lunchtime.

On RTÉ Radio One’s News At One.

Dr Sarah Doyle, Specialist in Public Health Medicine, spoke to Bryan Dobson about the contact-tracing controversy.

Thousands of people, who have tested positive for Covid-19 have recieved texts today telling them to carry out their own contact-tracing.

From their conversation:

Bryan Dobson: “Is it inevitable that infections will be missed as a result?”

Dr Sarah Doyle: “Well, I think that, and you’ve just mentioned Bryan, that people who may receive potentially shocking news and I would acknowledge that this will come as a shock to some people and then some people may take it somewhat in their stride, and it might be more difficult for others. And what I would say is to people to draw a breath, sit down, maybe have a chat with a friend and just reflect on what we’re asking people to do in this, is to identify their close contacts.

“Obviously, if they’re unwell, they would still need to phone their GP and make contact with them. And I guess what this is about and what contact tracing is about, and it’s a part of a number of different public health measures, to manage this pandemic. What it is about is identifying as many people at risk of spreading infection as possible and ensuring that they do…”

Dobson: “Yes…”

Doyle: “…what is needed to prevent the spread of infection. So…”

Dobson: “But do you…”

Doyle: “…those people who have had positive test results they now get a text message as soon as we have that result, they get that result…”

Dobson: “Yeah…but can you…”

Doyle: “… and from that point they should be self-isolating….”

Dobson: “OK…”

Doyle: “….and cutting down claims of transmission…”

Dobson: “Are you….”

Doyle: “…and…identifying close contacts. Acknowledging that obviously it is not…”

Dobson: “Doctor Doyle, it’s a straightforward question. Do you accept that infections will be missed as a result of this?”

Silence.

Dobson: “And I think we seem to have lost our link to Dr Sarah Doyle, of the HSE. No, she’s gone? Ok, well we’ll continue on this….”

Earlier: Trace The Blame

RollingNews

From top: Elephant and Rabbit toy shelves available from Flying Elephant; founders Max Fox (left) and Michael Keelan and Milo (foreground)

This afternoon.

Irish event industry supplier Flying Elephant Productions was one of the first to be hit by Covid-19. Sixty commissions for stages and sets for exhibitions and concerts were cancelled overnight, and all of their employees were sent home…

…Helen O’Dwyer writes:

Founders Michael Keelan and Max Fox took a breath, reimagined their whole business and pivoted quickly to launch the first Flying Elephant desk as a solution to remote working.

A desk that could be assembled in a minute or less, easy to store, well made, stylish, affordable from €149 and ideal for people working from home. An idea was born and the business, along with 17 jobs, was saved.

Now Flying Elephant is ready to take off again with an exciting NEW range of Christmas toys, gifts and an extended ‘Work from Home’ range which have been 100% Irish made with their signature finish, creative flair and distinctive Flying Elephant motif.

The Flying Elephant Online Christmas Shop is now OPEN

In fairness.

Flying Elephant Online Christmas Shop

Irish-made stocking fillers toto broadsheet@broadsheet.ie marked ‘Irish-Made Xmas Stocking Fillers’. No fee.

From top: Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy; Taoiseach Micheál Martin this afternoon

This afternoon,

Further to the contact-tracing brouhaha…

Taoiseach Micheál Martin told Social Democrats co-founder Catherine Murphy in the Dail:

“I’ve been in touch with the people directly responsible and overseeing the whole testing and community testing within the HSE and this is…what I’m imparting here to you is I’ve been informed by the HSE in terms of this.

“There is no issue with resources, in terms of the government side, in terms of funding all of this because it has to happen.”

Ms Murphy responded:

“Taoiseach, we know that the public will play their part but the State has to play its part. We need absolute assurance that we’re going to have a system that’s going to be in place after this lockdown that we can feel confident about.

“Have you confidence in this recruitment company because I certainly have my doubts. Have you confidence that you’re being briefed in the way you need to be briefed in terms of when there’s a failure.

Two weeks ago, we heard a senior public health person having to take to the airwaves, saying just how under pressure they were. It was no surprise that what happened at the weekend happened.

“It was predicted by virtue of the fact that they were saying that they were nearing collapse. We can’t have a scenario then where we find out something, and you did find out when somebody texted you an article in The Irish Times, I would have thought that you be fully informed by the people who need to inform you of something that is going to be, that is a big problem.

That people are being asked to DIY contact tracing. Two thousand people are being asked, that’s not good enough, Taoiseach.

“Surely you don’t think that’s good enough….”

Meanwhile…

HSE National Lead for Testing and Tracing Niamh O’Beirne

This morning.

Niamh O’Beirne, National Lead for Testing and Tracing, told RTÉ, that more contact tracers are being hired but admitted:

“Over the summer, we had released back the staff from contact-tracing to frontline and very important frontline work and university work where people had been working or supporting our tracing….”

Ms O’Beirne added:

“Over the weekend we did not have enough staff to deal with demand and that’s what created the backlog of cases which we’re now trying to deal with.”

Listen back in full here.

 

A pair of defiant motorbike couriers speed though a near-future world of self-driving vehicles and state surveillance in a light-on-narrative but darkly atmospheric proof of concept showcase for a larger project by Joe Sill and Matisse Tolin. Sill sez of if:

We’ve had the story outline and bible for a long-format version of this project for some time now, and early in the pandemic we dusted it off and began to wonder what a short film excerpt of it would look like…

shortoftheweek

The Square Tallaght, under construction (above), was opened on October 23, 1990

Stop that.

This morning.

The Square, Tallaght, Dublin 24.

Security officer Jade Corrigan, Dustin the Turkey and the gentleman operating him (out of picture) celebrate The Square’s 30th birthday .

The country’s biggest shopping centre with 700,000 square feet of retail space, The Square has been an integral part of the Tallaght community and its environs since its launch in 1990 (in fairness).

The Square

From top: People with Covid positive tests will be notified by text today and asked to trace recent contacts; At the launch of the Department of Health and HSE COVID Tracker App is Stephen Donnelly Minister for Health (right), and Paul Reid, Chief Executive Officer, HSE, outside the Department of Health, Dublin last July

Ask them to sit down first.

Via Irish Times and RTÉ:

Between last Friday and Sunday, more than 3,000 Covid-19 cases were confirmed and people with a positive test result over the three days were notified by text.

Instead of the usual contact tracing involving phone calls, they will today receive a second text.

It will ask them to send on a message to their own close contacts – people they have spent more than 15 minutes with – alerting them to restrict their movements and to immediately contact their GP to arrange a test.

Meanwhile…

Via The Irish Examiner:

The Government have been accused of “dropping the ball” in not employing enough staff which has led to a “collapse” in the contact tracing system.

Serious delays in employing up to 1,500 qualified people who signed up to the ‘Be on Call for Ireland initiative’ have been blamed, with both GPs and opposition members hitting out at the breakdown in contact tracing in recent days.

Covid-19: Backlog forces HSE to skip calls to thousands of close contacts (Irish Times)

HSE asks people who tested positive at weekend to alert close contacts (RTÉ)

Government under fire over contact tracing ‘collapse’ (irish Examiner)

Getty/RollingNews

Looking for rubble, in fairness.

Meanwhile..

Broadsheet.ie