The location of a supermarket in Vincennes, eastern Paris, where hostages are being held
#BREAKING At least two killed in hostage drama east of Paris: source
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) January 9, 2015
Charlie Hebdo attack: new hostage situation at Paris grocery – live updates (The Guardian)
Pic: Guardian
This morning.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny with the French Ambassador to Ireland, Jean-Pierre Thebault, at the French Embassy, Ailesbury Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 to express condolences for the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris.
(Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland)
Meanwhile…
Cakes at Chez Max, Baggott Street, Dublin 2.
Via Chez Max
After a dramatic car chase, casualties, and gun fire, police in Paris have cornered the suspects in Wednesday’s Charlie Hebdo magazine attack near Charles-de-Gaulle Airport. Amidst efforts to “neutralize the perpetrators,” a hostage crisis rages on.
[French Interior Minister Bernard] Cazeneuve confirmed that an operation to “neutralize the perpetrators” of the attack against the Charlie Hebdo magazine is underway and that the kidnappers are the Kouachi brothers
.Reports are coming in from French media about shots fired in the Seine-et-Marne area in northeastern France, and also a hostage situation and a car chase. RTL reports that at least two people have been seriously injured during or before the hostage-taking in Dammartin-en-Goele.
Gunshots, car chase, hostage situation northeast of Paris (RTL)
Pic Oliver Ceru
Place de la République, Paris, France last night
Further to the Charlie Hebdo shootings.
Irish expat David Burns writes:
As an Irish person living here, now is not the time to express anything but your deepest sympathies for the families of those involved. Charlie Hebdo is an institution here. The attack yesterday was an affront on France and on the French love for a bon mot, for satire and for freedom of speech. 35,000 Parisians gathered at Place de la République last night in a defiant response to this act of terror. Over 100,000 people across France came together in similar, spontaneous shows of strength and unity. The entire nation today pays its respects. It would be indecorous in the extreme for an outsider to do anything else but bow his head in condolence.
Not that the people who worked at Charlie Hebdo would have cared much for decorum. They didn’t give a fig for it. They defied decorum and other people’s notions of it. But I wouldn’t have it in me to start a debate today. The defiance of Cabu and Charb was born of love for debate, for discussion and out of a complete disregard for polite silence. But I don’t have it in me to start that conversation right now.
Not that I can stop thinking about the students I taught at la Sorbonne Nouvelle or their own views on some of Charlie Hebdo’s more provocative cartoons. I keep hoping they’ll keep quiet on Twitter, Facebook and, above all, I hope they don’t say anything in real life. Charlie Hebdo was not always universally popular. I keep hoping that they’ll shut up about that today.
I keep thinking about the 1980s too — about all the Irish in the UK at the time of the Brighton bombing. I keep thinking about what happened in Hyde Park, in Regent’s Park and about what happened at Birmingham in 1974. My parents lived in London back then. I remember my Dad telling me how he felt ashamed to have an Irish accent after what the IRA did, especially when he would meet new people or people who didn’t know him from work. I remember he said it used to be awkward being a crowd of Irish in the pubs. When he wore a suit, there would never be a problem. It was after-hours drinking or at football matches that his accent would attract looks.
It’s not the time for it but the thought keeps niggling at me as to whether he ever apologised for the IRA bombings. That part of the story evades me. Had anyone ever asked him to come out and publically condemn the IRA for it? I can’t recall. It seems doubtful. My Dad is a proud man with a quick temper. Anyone who’d have known him in London would have known where he stood and would never have questioned it. But strangers? Would someone he didn’t know from Adam have asked him to prove his position by writing it down or saying it out loud? I don’t know if that ever happened.
I can’t imagine having the guts to broach all this at work. We normally talk everything over lunch – about racism against Roma people, about the rise of the National Front, about religion. Normally there aren’t no taboos. But the carnage yesterday. The fact it isn’t over. The rumors online. It doesn’t seem appropriate to argue today. Only a respectful silence.
Earlier: Drawn Together
Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile…
From top: the French Embassy, Paschal Donohue and Jean-Pierre Thebault
This afternoon.
Minister for Tourism Paschal Donohoe joined French Ambassador to Ireland Jean-Pierre Thebault at the French Embassy, Ailesbury Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 paying respects to the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris yesterday.
(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)
Irish Times cartoonist Martyn Turner’s tribute to ‘Charlie Hebdo’ in today’s paper.
Mr Turner writes:
“When I am in France,Charlie Hebdo is my weekly of choice. It is far livelier thanCanard Enchaîné and far less intimidating than Sine Hebdo (itself a breakaway from Charlie Hebdo). In France they take satire very seriously. They are devoutly anti-clerical in the broadest sense and have been for a century or so. The fight for the freedom of the press was fought against the church and against the political classes in France long ago and was won.”
“Charlie and the other magazines see it as their mission in life to exploit the boundaries of taste and freedom as much as they can. So when Islam came into this culture it was treated by the satirists in exactly the same way they had been treating other religions for decades. When you add to this a large dollop of the French cartoonists’ love of the scatological and gynaecological, you get something that can probably only be sold in the presse tabacs of France. Charlie Hebdo would not survive too long in a Dublin newsagent without being hauled before the beak for blasphemy, indecency and anything else they could think of.”
Martyn Turner: ‘Charlie Hebdo fought extremism with laughter, satire and free speech (IrishTimes)
Previously: Act Of Contrition
Meanwhile, newsrooms across the country observed a minute’s silence this morning…
A rare moment of silence in Marconi House #JeSuisCharlie pic.twitter.com/NsZ7jJyvOI
— Today FM News (@TodayFMNews) January 8, 2015
Marconi House on Digges Lane, Dublin 2 is home to Communicorp’s Newstalk, Today FM and TXFM.
In the Independent News and Media offices in Dublin…
Via The Herald
In the Irish Times office…
Via The Irish Times
And at Annie West’s home in Sligo…
Via Annie West
Dr Ali Selim (above) and ‘Charlie Hebdo’ (top)
Dr Ali Selim, of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland has threatened legal action against any Irish media outlet which chooses to publish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed which had been published by Charlie Hebdo.
Eoin O’Dell, an Associate Professor in Trinity’s Law School, writes:
Under section 36 [of the Defamation Act, 2009], there are three main issues to be considered. First, it would be necessary to establish that the publication of the cartoons is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by Islam. Since many Muslims believe that visual depictions of the Prophet should be prohibited, satirical cartoons of the Prophet are very likely to meet that standard.
Second, it would be necessary to establish that the publisher “intends” to cause outrage among a substantial number of Muslims. This would be hard to establish where the intention behind the publication is to illustrate a major news item.
Third, even if that is established, it is a defence for the publisher to prove that “a reasonable person would find genuine literary, artistic, political, scientific, or academic value” in the publication, a rubric which would be easily satisfied by a major news story.
Finally, even if the terms of the offence are made out, the question would arise as to how the offence could be prosecuted. Dr Selim might make a complaint to the Gardaí and, even if they investigate, it would be a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) whether to prosecute or not. And although, at common law, any individual has the right to initiate a private criminal prosecution, the DPP can decide to discontinue it.
That there is some superficial plausibility to Dr Selim’s misconceived claim demonstrates just how unwise the blasphemy provisions of section 36 the Defamation Act, 2009 actually are. A referendum to remove the reference to blasphemy from the Constitution is promised for this year. If it succeeds, section 36 should be immediately repealed. Thereafter, we should be able to discuss and debate issues of faith and politics, rather than seek to have the law come down on one side or the other of such intractable issues. That is what democracy is all about. And, in that way, we honour the memories of those who died in the attack on Charlie Hebdo.
Earlier tonight.
Members of the French community and Irish friends gathered at the Spire on O’Connell Street to mark the deaths at the raid on Charlie Hebdo magazine Paris today.
Pics via Flavienp, Stephen M Sabat Fabien, Brian McDonagh, LeslieBou
Truly.
Ciaran writes:
In other words: we’ll promote it, describe it, & post a picture from it. But you won’t find it on irishtimes.com because something.
Earlier: Meanwhile, In Paris.