Tag Archives: irish times

Full page ad in this morning’s Irish Times

How much?

€34,000.

Thud.

*full body spasm*

Meanwhile…

The first cases of a new Covid-19 variant of concern have been detected in the Republic.

Two cases of BA.4, a sublineage of the currently dominant Omicron Covid-19 variant, were detected earlier this month, according to chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan.

…Dr Holohan says the two strains have a growth advantage most likely because they can evade immunity provided by prior infection and vaccination, particularly as this wanes over time.

Covid: New variant of concern detected in Republic  (Paul Cullen, Irish Times)

This morning.

You think it’s all over?

Via The Irish Times:

With 95 per cent of adults in Ireland having received two Covid-19 vaccine doses, and more than two-thirds having had a booster, the flow of people passing through the country’s vaccination centres has slowed to a trickle. A system that had built up enough capacity to provide more than 500,000 jabs in one week in December is now called on to administer just a few thousand every week.

The success of that programme, which gave Ireland one of the world’s highest vaccination rates, has saved many lives, spared countless others from serious illness and was a key factor in enabling the Government to lift most public health restrictions last month.

Yet, at home and abroad, it is vital that the focus remain on vaccines. The potential for the emergence of new Covid variants and the likelihood that further boosters may be required means that states must maintain stocks and rollout infrastructure for rapid use.

Efforts to reach communities that have so far resisted vaccination must continue, and the misinformation spread by Covid deniers and conspiracy theorists must be fought with facts, reassurance and scientific rigour.

Seem to be taking it well.

Maintaining Momentum (Irish Times)

Rollingnews

 Frank McDonald, former Environment Correspondent for The Irish Times

This morning’s Irish Times Letters

Oh.

This morning.

ESB writes:

If that’s not an Irish Times decision to publish an ad hominem attack on Frank because of bad blood, what is? Can you imagine if Una Mullally was targeted like that?

Anyone?

Rollingnews

This morning’s Irish Times editorial.

Forgive them.

They know not what they do.

*squints*

FIGHT!

Doses Going To Waste (Irish Times)

Meanwhile…

Last of the booosters.

From top; Irish Times’ Consumer Affairs correspondent Conor Pope and his tweet that prompted online derision

This afternoon.

Via Irish Times:

“Good man,” another user said. “Thumbs up Virtue signalling to the max and adding to the mass, accepted discrimination of your fellow man at the sane time. Pathetic.”

Then there was the person who said “Enjoy your slavery” and the other who simply said “twat”.

Several people suggested that the Covid Cert was a “leper pass” while one person confidently told me that my “tweet won’t age well.”

Their assessment was echoed by a person who said they had taken “a screen shot for when you delete this tweet, and you will”.

Someone else urged their followers to remember my name and the names of others who have ever voiced their support for a vaccination programme “when the kids start dying”.

…My innocuous tweet lost me at least one fan. “I actually thought this guy had a brain but just another zombie sleep walking us into a totalitarian facist (sic) state,” he said.

Another user wondered “how Conor Pope or anyone who uses this track & trace can look their children in the eye is beyond me given what it means for their future”.

Firm but fair?

Only you can decide.

Conor Pope: I told the world about my vaccine cert. It wasn’t long before the abuse started (Irish Times)

Meanwhile…

In fairness.

Graffiti outside the Freemason’s Hall, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2 on New Year’s Eve morning (above). The scene on New Years’ Eve night (top)

The Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Ireland grand secretary Philip Daley described the attack as “very serious” and “completely out of the blue”.

However, he said there had been previous demonstrations outside the hall and other Masonic halls in Ireland by anti-vaccination campaigners.

“The view is that we created the virus and we are part of the new world order and we have to be stopped. It’s ridiculous stuff,” he said.

Meanwhile…

Hmmm.

Anyone?

Anti-vaccination graffiti found after suspected arson at Masonic Hall (Irish Times)

RollingNews

This morning.

Further to Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole’s categorisation of those opposed to the covid vaccine as ‘egoists, paranoiacs or fascists’…

…via Irish Times Letters:

Deep analysis of statistical data and ethical questions regarding vaccine mandates are not being addressed by mainstream media. This lack of good journalism, I believe, is forcing many questioning people to turn to alternative platforms for information. This is indeed a very dangerous situation as it is polarising two extreme positions.

Not everyone who asks legitimate questions is a conspiracy theorist.

People who have been injured by vaccinations deserve not to be isolated and judged. Those who have concerns are regularly deemed to be selfish and uncaring of the general good by others who occupy the moral high ground. Relationships and even families are being divided by this vacuum.

When will media cease to only echo the groupthink which seems to have emerged since March 2020? The constant catastrophic predictions, whipping up incredible levels of fear and anxiety, are in themselves very toxic – maybe even more harmful than Covid. I look forward to seeing a change in this situation.

Anna Condren, county Wicklow.

Meanwhile….

Earlier this year (April 7th), The Irish Times editorial view on Covid stated that the issue of Covid passports is “fraught with problems, including potential breaches of human rights, so any system must be carefully calibrated to balance individual rights – including the rights to privacy and bodily integrity – with society’s wish to reopen. That means, for example, not allowing vaccine certs to become a route to de facto mandatory vaccination.”

Less than a year later (December 22nd), the editorial stance of the liberal paper of record paper appears diametrically opposed to the initial view adopted.

Specifically, are we to take it that The Irish Times now supports vaccine certs as a route to de facto mandatory vaccination: “The need for measures to encourage vaccinations is more essential than ever – vaccine sceptics, of whatever persuasion, need to understand that there will be consequences as a result of non-vaccination, whether only denial of access to a concert or hospitality venue. Such restrictions are as much about driving the vaccination campaign as immediate safety at these venues”.

What a difference a year makes.

Colm O’Connor, Dublin

Irish Times Letters

Previously: We Don;t Know Ourselves

RollingNews

Today’s Irish Times

ESB writes:

The Irish Times View on Getting on the Property Ladder. We don’t know how well off we are. Part 2. Today: Get lost in the bed-office-pub triangle on Grand Canal Street for €875k… Renovated four-bed near Dublin’s Silicon Docks has potential rent of €57k a year.

Get lost in the bed-office-pub triangle on Grand Canal Street for €875k (Irish Times)

Londis in Dublin City University has joined a campus-wide boycott of The Irish Times

This afternoon.

Londis, DCU, Glasnevin, Dublin.

‘Karl Popper’ writes:

‘This is going to sound extraordinary, unbelievable even, but I went to buy a newspaper in the Londis the other day on the DCU Glasnevin campus only to learn that there is a campus-wide “boycott” of the Irish Times over their alleged “transphobic editorial policy”. The commercial companies on campus obviously kowtowed to a student union motion.

‘The country’s de facto paper of record is de facto banned in one of the main higher learning centres, itself home to the leading journalism school. I imagine in a ‘history of journalism’ lecture there they would teach about freedom of the important of press under authoritarian regimes. Well they have a contemporaneous example in their midst. How embarrassing.’

Anyone?

Pic: Londis Ireland