Irish Customs seized 600 illegal weapons in 2012
Irish customs have seized almost 600 illegal weapons to date this year.
A haul of almost 600 illegal and dangerous weapons has been seized by Customs this year, with an AK-47, a sub-machine gun, ninja-style throwing stars and samurai swords among the most lethal.
The Revenue Commissioners revealed that officers made 165 seizures up to mid-December, with 596 weapons prevented from reaching the streets.
The most deadly haul was recovered in May and included the AK-47 assault rifle and sub-machine gun, an automatic rifle, a bolt-action rifle, a pistol and three magazines of ammunition.
Customs said the cache came into the country from Germany and was valued at €1,137.
The most expensive seizure was 61 weapons used by fans of the war games phenomenon — billed as the reality of war without the danger. The replica guns included 48 rifles and a dozen revolvers from Hong Kong valued at €6,000 with the Airsoft make. The guns are not illegal in Ireland but agents selling weapons have enforced a tagging system supported by Government to monitor the replica guns used.
The Customs report on illegal weapons also revealed 43 items of what officers classed as military memorabilia, but still illegal.
They included a Browning 50mm machine gun, rifles known as K-98, Ross and Valmet, a Mauser semi-automatic, a Webley and Scott revolver, a Webley MK1V and associated extras such as tripod stands. The weapons were given a nominal value of one euro.
There were a large number of unusual seizures, such as a sword concealed in a black walking stick, a modified silencer and a pair of sabre claws, as featured in The Chronicles of Riddick film starring Vin Diesel.
Many varieties of illegal knives, such as flick, stiletto and butterfly knives, machetes, samurai and katana swords and a Gurkha sword from India were seized.
The list also included 40 lasers, 20 Taser-style weapons, 37 stun guns and more than 30 signal and mobile phone jammers.
Two boxes of meat cleavers were impounded, the Customs review said.
We do not have enough Gardai? but they are using their resources much better
We don’t have enough Gardai in the force now to have the spread of yellow jackets we need to properly police our roads.
I am a huge believer, as most people are, in the presence of Gardai.
I am a great believer in the presence of those yellow jackets, whether they are on foot, on motorbikes, bicycles or in cars – not just in traffic enforcement, but in general enforcement everywhere.
The presence of a Garda has an effect on people.
Obviously it has a good effect if people feel safe and sound and it gives them a sense of security.
And if you are doing something wrong, it makes you feel uneasy.
The numbers of Gardai are way down in the Traffic Corps. We all know that. That is public knowledge.
Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan assures us that with changing shift arrangements and with the addition of the Go-Safe safety cameras and the activities of individual Gardai here, there and around the country, they are making up for that deficiency.
In other words, the Gardai are working harder with the resources they now have to bring it up to the resource they used to have.
Who is to blame for the big cutback in Garda numbers? The Government is of course.
We’re all going through the same thing. It’s called the bankrupt country, have you not heard? We’re short of money, and we’re short of money everywhere, and that’s the problem.
No matter where you advocate saving money to put into others areas, such as Garda recruitment, that quarter will resist and say: “No, you’re not taking it off us.”
I’m going to continue on in the role as RSA chairman for the moment and when the time comes to say “I’ve had enough”, I’ll say I’ve had enough.
I don’t know when that time will be.
The minister asked me last year to stay for another three years and I said I would and that’s the state of mind I’m in at the moment.
I think people are more and more getting the message about road safety. I know we had a bad, bad June, and we were very despondent because for some strange reason there was no pattern to it.
It was just one after another, a series of big happenings and we were very depressed and downhearted about that.
We thought that we had the problem licked as it were and we had no right to think that at any stage at all.
Since then things have remarkably improved and we now have 20 fewer deaths than this time last year.
But as I always say, the minute I mention a figure, it is already out of date because we don’t know at this instance what is happening somewhere around the country.
I think the reduction in road deaths is down to a combination of factors, and you cannot ascribe it to any one thing.
I think it is the cumulative effect of all the various measures we have taken, are taking and will be taking.
We knew they would have to have some effect along the way, and they are, apparently.
There will be a general shift of the Go-Safe vans around the country in January. That is part of the overt enforcement.
They will be changing locations, and they will be notifying motorists of the changed locations. That will mean that different parts of the country will now be tackled.
We hope that drivers are getting the message to slow down from the cameras.
Once they were established in an area, the word got around very quickly.
People were saying: “They are in our area, so we’d better watch out.”
The hope is that when they move to some other area, the feeling will be the same in that drivers will decide to keep under the limit.
Also new measures on penalty points and novice drivers will come into effect in the first quarter of 2013, according to Transport Minister Leo Varadkar.
These will put more restrictions on young drivers before they get their licence and for the first two years afterwards.
I think this will help because again and again and again this is one of the special problems we have – young male drivers. Not young female drivers.
We need to get them over that hump from the time they are 17 and start driving to around 22.
Presumably at that age they will have a little more maturity and a little more sense, and we think they will be safer.
Why Women live longer than men
Stress alone does not explain the longevity gap
If there are any men left who still believe that women are the weaker sex, it is long past time for them to think again. With respect to that most essential proof of robustness—the power to stay alive—women are tougher than men from birth through to extreme old age.
The average man may run a 100-meter race faster than the average woman and lift heavier weights. But nowadays women outlive men by about five to six years. By age 85 there are roughly six women to every four men. At age 100 the ratio is more than two to one. And by age 122—the current world record for human longevity—the score stands at one-nil in favour of women.
So why do women live longer than men? One idea is that men drive themselves to an early grave with all the hardship and stress of their working lives. If this were so, however, then in these days of greater gender equality, you might expect the mortality gap would vanish or at least diminish. Yet there is little evidence that this is happening. Women today still outlive men by about as much as their stay-at-home mothers outlived their office-going fathers a generation ago.
Furthermore, who truly believes that men’s work lives back then were so much more damaging to their health than women’s home lives? Just think about the stresses and strains that have always existed in the traditional roles of women: a woman’s life in a typical household can be just as hard as a man’s. Indeed, statistically speaking, men get a much better deal out of marriage than their wives—married men tend to live many years longer than single men, whereas married women live only a little bit longer than single women. So who actually has the easier life?
It might be that women live longer because they develop healthier habits than men—for example, smoking and drinking less and choosing a better diet. But the number of women who smoke is growing and plenty of others drink and eat unhealthy foods. In any case, if women are so healthy, why is it that despite their longer lives, women spend more years of old age in poor health than men do? The lifestyle argument therefore does not answer the question either.
As an experimental gerontologist, I approach this issue from a wider biological perspective, by looking at other animals. It turns out that the females of most species live longer than the males. This phenomenon suggests that the explanation for the difference within humans might lie deep in our biology.
Many scientists believe that the aging process is caused by the gradual build-up of a huge number of individually tiny faults—some damage to a DNA strand here, a deranged protein molecule there, and so on. This degenerative build-up means that the length of our lives is regulated by the balance between how fast new damage strikes our cells and how efficiently this damage is corrected. The body’s mechanisms to maintain and repair our cells are wonderfully effective—which is why we live as long as we do—but these mechanisms are not perfect. Some of the damage passes unrepaired and accumulates as the days, months and years pass by. We age because our bodies keep making mistakes.
We might well ask why our bodies do not repair themselves better. Actually we probably could fix damage better than we do already. In theory at least, we might even do it well enough to live forever. The reason we do not, I believe, is because it would have cost more energy than it was worth when our aging process evolved long ago, when our hunter-gatherer ancestors faced a constant struggle against hunger.
Under the pressure of natural selection to make the best use of scarce energy supplies, our species gave higher priority to growing and reproducing than to living forever. Our genes treated the body as a short-term vehicle, to be maintained well enough to grow and reproduce, but not worth a greater investment in durability when the chance of dying an accidental death was so great. In other words, genes are immortal, but the body—what the Greeks called soma—is disposable.
Free Dublin bike passes available for EU delegates during Ireland’s presidency
Top brass European delegates will get free passes for Dublin’s rental bikes for travelling to major events during Ireland’s EU presidency.
Senior political figures such as European Council president Herman Van Rompuy could be among those given the special offer, as the Government attempts to cut costs during its six-month term.
Minister of state for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton said this was just one of a number of efforts to ensure value for money and sustainability.
“Delegates will be staying close to the city centre which will give them the opportunity to avail themselves of free access to Dublin Bikes,” said Ms Creighton.
“The proximity to the city will also allow visitors to experience Dublin city and I hope that most will avail themselves of that opportunity.”
Other belt-tightening measures will see tap water used instead of bottled water at meetings and a strict cut back in stationery and mementoes.
The majority of presidency-related events will take place at Dublin Castle, which will serve as headquarters.
All other venues that will be used are state-owned and operated by the Office of Public Works. Farmleigh will also be used.
The Dublin Bikes scheme was rolled out in 2009, bringing the city in line with other cycle-friendly cities, such as Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Berlin.
There are 44 rental stations dotted throughout the city, with a total 550 bikes available.
Offering delegates free passes for the bikes is a far cry from the chauffeur-driven luxury cars they were treated to during Ireland’s last presidency in 2004 as the Celtic Tiger began to roar.
The total cost of the last term was an estimated €110m. Ms Creighton said the State expects to spend around €60m this time round, with some additional security costs.
“Throughout our preparations we have striven for value for money and sustainability,” she said.
“Dublin Castle, also in the city centre, is set to be our presidency headquarters and is where the bulk of our events are set to take place.”
Organisers have also tried to ensure the six-month term is as paperless as possible – both to save money and reduce the presidency’s carbon footprint.
Video conferencing between Dublin and Brussels in the run-up to the term, which begins on January 1, has seen a reduction in files and documents.
And the host broadcaster has plans to transmit its footage digitally – to save on using tapes.
“Large volume handbooks will not be printed in hard copy, nor will the main presidency programme,” Ms Creighton added.
“All documents will be available for download on the presidency website.”
After Xmas Sales boom expected from Thursday in the North-West
The pre-Christmas boom in many retail outlets experienced throughout the county will receive yet another much needed cash injection as shoppers shake off the Christmas cobwebs and make a dash once again to the shops.
Retailers on Christmas Eve indicated that over the last few days before Christmas the tills simply never stopped ringing with customers snapping up every bargain they could lay their hands on.
Stephen Harron of Magee Donegal said trade has been steady the whole way through December but the last few days have been superb – people are spending but they are looking for both value and quality.
“We will be opening our doors this morning offering up to 75% of many items.”
In West Donegal, The Cope in Dungloe will also open its doors bright and early on Thursday morning with discounts of up on 50% on many items.
Emma McGarvey said, “People have stayed at home this Christmas and shopped local – this was not out of patriotism, it was because the value and selection at home was simply unbeatable this year with sterling being so strong against the Euro and retailers really being competitive.
Ramona Nicholas of Cara who is soon to start filming for Dragon’s Den, said, “This Christmas defies all logic – it has been simply unbelievable in both Cara and C2.
“Without exaggeration this Christmas has been even better than our experience in Celtic Tiger times.”
In Letterkenny major shopping outlets reported very strong pre-Christmas trade, bolstered by the favourable hig cost of sterling which saw many more Northern Ireand shoppers.
Local entertainment and food operators have been working very hard to offer excellent value for customers and reports suggest that trade in the hotel/food sector int he county was steady.
Throughout the county you will find all the major stores open and ready to do business so maybe getting up that little bit earlier on Thursday morning might be to your advantage this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment