Well done lads. Excellent performance. Played a lot of good football. Had them pinned into their half for long periods. Created clear-cut opportunities. When you consider the players who didn’t play there’s now cause for optimism. A WC is only 2 years away. #COYBIGhttps://t.co/NuxXn0No8B
The Republic of Ireland football team has missed out on a place in the European Championship finals….
Elimination was all the more agonising for Ireland because in the preceding 120 minutes they performed with a style that justified Kenny’s belief in their creative potential
Broadsheet on the Telly‘s Neil Curran shared a graph with viewers (see below) showing virus growth in Ireland with Dublin and Donegal singled out, prompted by an RTÉ article which Neil claims is untrue and generating fear.
Neil writes:
“Torture numbers, and they’ll confess to anything”
Gregg Easterbrook
The only people who like accountants are other accountants. But there is one attribute to accountants we can all take from; predictability.
Whether its good news or bad news, accountants like to be able to predict it. Otherwise, even if you are giving your investors sky high revenue and profit results, if you didn’t predict it then you’re not in control of your books.
The same can be said for viruses. The difference here is that unpredictability leads to uncertainty and leads to fear. Fear is a very powerful force.
On September 18, Dublin entered level 3+ on the government’ Covid-19 roadmap and on September 25, Donegal followed suit. Second waves, doom and gloom, shame and horror – we are back there again.
With Tony Holohan’s return last Sunday, it brought a further wave of anxiety as the Level 5 leak spread like wildfire (how many of you are receiving the WhatsApp messages already where someone’s Mammy’s Aunt is a teacher and heard level 5 kicks in on X date?). It’s now a media circus.
Yesterday, RTÉ ran a story with the headline, “Still ‘exponential growth’ in Dublin despite level 3 restrictions”. The first paragraph tells us how Associate Professor of Biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin, Tomás Ryan has said the situation in Dublin has got worse and we have what looks like exponential growth.
This is completely untrue…
Rona rates in Ireland, September 18-October 8
…as you can see from this graph (above) which captures daily case rates since September 18, Dublin is not experiencing exponential growth. If we were experiencing exponential growth than the virus would need to be doubling its presence over a specific period of time.
Taking the daily rates from September 18 to October 8, cases are currently trending downward. That’s not to say we are out of the woods yet, we will need to see if that trend continues over the next 5 days.
However one thing is for sure, Dublin is not experiencing exponential growth and there is nothing in the data from the past 7 days that would suggest that.
So why did RTÉ run that article and give column space to an associate professor that was claiming a false truth? Why didn’t RTÉ fact check his claim?
It is fair to say beyond Dublin and Donegal the rest of Ireland is deteriorating rapidly. However, based on the data for Dublin and to a lesser extent Donegal, there is evidence to suggest level 3 restrictions are working, even if they are working at a slower rate than desired.
Yesterday, NPHET recommended no changes to current guidelines of level 3 nationwide and the government heeded their advice. Reading between the lines would suggest they are monitoring progress accordingly.
Without suggesting any return of complacency, it would do us all a favour if the government could acknowledge that level 3 is having a positive impact in Dublin and they are hoping for a similar trend nationwide.
Otherwise the lack of clarity will continue to fuel fear, madness and false claims made by people in positions who should know better.
THE ULTIMATE LESSON from Sweden – short and sharp for sharing. It will help people to grasp the reality, in these strange, strange times.
Fight!
Meanwhile…
In follow up, here is a graph showing all CoViD-19 Cases and Deaths in Ireland. The graph is smoothed to the 7 day average. The cases, they are rising for sure but look at that death rate. So yet again we ask: #WhyAreTheyDoingThis and #WhyDoWeAcceptIt . #Casedemicpic.twitter.com/DRZP6NGObv
A report by the Special Dáil Committee on Covid-19 has recommended a public inquiry into each of the almost 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes.
Via RTÉ
The report notes how public health authorities “became overly focused on preparing acute hospitals for the ongoing pandemic in February and March” and that the State “failed to recognise the level of risk posed to those in nursing homes”.
Committee members also highlight the State’s “silo type approach…that did nothing to prevent the spread of the disease“.
…The committee recommends the public inquiry should examine the “large scale discharge of patients from acute hospitals to nursing homes at the beginning of March” as well as the response of the HSE, Department of Health, NPHET and Government to virus related difficulties in nursing homes.
The Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has consistently defended NPHET’s decision not to recommend visitor restrictions on 6 March – however the committee recommends a public inquiry should examine this decision further.
Meanwhile,
TDs say there should be greater transparency around the data used by NPHET to recommend restrictions- and the data should be peer reviewed by an Independent expert panel.
From top: Chief Justice Frank Clarke and Supreme Court Justice Séamus Woulfe; Anthony Sheridan
OK, let’s get the obvious truth out in the open – Séamus Woulfe is a dud judge. He’s not fit to judge a dog show never mind sit in judgement in the highest court in the land. [With sincere apologies to all dog show judges.]
We only have to look at some of his judgements surrounding Golfgate to see how unfit he is to hold such a high position. As a Supreme Court judge he felt it was acceptable to:
Party with politicians.
Break Covid 19 rules he had helped draw up.
Blame everybody else for the consequences of his bad judgements.
Furthermore, it is clear that his overweening arrogance has completely blinded him to the core reality surrounding his behaviour – the obvious requirement for his immediate resignation.
In addition to all this he has completely misread the clear signals encouraging him to take the honourable course of falling on his sword.
The first signal came from retired Supreme Court judge Susan Denham’s report when she found it would be unjust and disproportionate to call for his resignation. The key words here are ‘to call for’. Anyone not overwhelmed by their own self importance would have clearly understood the subtle message – wield the sword yourself.
Clearly, Judge Woulfe does not do subtlety so a second signal was necessary.
This occurred when the Judicial Council released the entire transcript of Woulfe’s first interview with Ms. justice Denham. This unprecedented public washing of judicial dirty laundry had many cringing in embarrassment at the bizarre and abject excuses proffered by justice Woulfe.
Everybody, that is, except Woulfe himself. He seems to be genuinely puzzled by the angry response of politicians, colleagues in the judiciary and the general public.
It was time to call in the heavy gang, so to speak. Three senior judges met with Mr. Justice Woulfe to discuss how the matter could be resolved. It has been reported that the meeting did not go well, that Woulfe was shocked by the proposals they were offering to resolve the matter.
Did not go well, is, without doubt, the understatement of the year.
It is highly likely that the judges [metaphorically of course] took Woulfe by the throat, pinned him up against a wall and shouted in his face: ‘Resign you fool before you do any more damage to our reputation.’
But still, the thickness of his skull prevented the message from getting through. Instead of recognising the brutal fact that his Supreme Court career is over, Woulfe decided to call in sick.
There is now no way back for justice Woulfe nor, indeed, the judiciary. All the dirty laundry is out there. If he is not removed or forced to resign the reputational damage to the judiciary will be enormous and permanent.
And Mr. Justice Woulfe will not primarily be responsible for that damage. His complete lack of understanding of the responsibilities and propriety expected of a Supreme Court judge has earned him a gold plated fool’s pass.
No, responsibility lies with the judiciary and the mainstream political parties who, over the decades, formed a relationship so close it left no room for the accountability that is the norm in other jurisdictions.
It was inevitable, sooner or later, that a Woulfe in judge’s clothing would gain entry and wreak the havoc we are now witnessing.
Anthony Sheridan is a freelance journalist and blogs at Public Enquiry.
Behold: the (figuratively) frosty expanse of Mare Frigoris in the far north of the Moon. To wit:
Also known as the Sea of Cold, it stretches across the familiar lunar nearside in this close up of the waxing gibbous Moon’s north polar region. Dark-floored, 95 kilometre wide crater Plato is just left of the centre. Sunlit peaks of the lunar Alps (Montes Alpes) are highlighted below and right of Plato, between the more southern Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) and Mare Frigoris. The prominent straight feature cutting through the mountains is the lunar Alpine Valley (Vallis Alpes). Joining the Mare Imbrium and Mare Frigoris, the lunar valley is about 160 kilometres long and up to 10 kilometres wide.
Yes, it does look a bit like Mike Pence’s head with a fly on it.
A treaty signed by England’s King Charles II granted 50 Flemish fishermen from Bruges “eternal rights” to English fishing waters.
It seems that an old English king
Passed a curious law allowing
The Flemish to fish
Off his coast as they wish
And some say that this right’s still a thing
