Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Sinn Fein leader Adams may be charged in connection with 1972 murder of Jean McConville

  

Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, will learn later today whether he will be charged or released in connection with the abduction and murder of Jean McConville, a mother of 10, from her Belfast home in 1972. Mr Adams, 65, denies he was involved in the widow’s abduction and murder.

As detectives continued to question Mr Adams, Sinn Fein’s deputy leader, Martin McGuinness, claimed the arrest was politically motivated. Speaking in Belfast yesterday, he said that an “embittered rump of the old RUC” force were “cynically exploiting the awful killing” of Mrs McConville – accused by the IRA of collaborating with the British authorities in the early 1970s.

Mr Adams is alleged by former republican colleagues to have ordered Mrs McConville’s murder and secret burial in 1972. The IRA later admitted killing her and her body was found on a beach in County Louth in 2003.

Alex Maskey, a Sinn Fein Assembly member, said yesterday the party would not stop supporting the Northern Irish Police Service, but would “monitor and review” its relationship with the force.

Northern Ireland’s Justice minister, David Ford, called Mr Adams’s arrest “entirely appropriate”. “Given the scale of the concerns expressed, of the information – which I accept is not yet evidence – it was entirely appropriate that should be followed up.”

Thousands protest in Dublin against Ireland’s abortion law

 

Pro-Life Campaign aims to ‘dismantle’ legislation introduced by Government last year. 

About 4,500 people rallied in Dublin today at a Pro-Life Vigil, which organisers said would be “the first step in a campaign dismantle the abortion law”.

While gardaí on the scene put the crowd at what the organisers described as a ‘National Vigil For Life’ at about 3,000, the organisers said there were 15,000. The crowd filled about a third of one side of Merrion Square.

Organised by the Pro-Life Campaign, the rally heard recommendations that people should not vote for candidates from parties who had “broken their pro-life promise”.

There was also strong criticism of the media which, speakers said, had helped push the Protection of Life in Pregnancy Act through last summer without critically analysing it.

Cora Sherlock, deputy chairwoman of the Pro-Life Campaign, said the passage of the legislation last July was a “shocking example of the tragic breakdown in Irish politics”. There had been no honest debate about the legislation, she said.

“The politicians and the abortion lobby said there was a real need for abortion legislation to save women’s lives. We know there was never any need for this legislation. Essential life-saving medical treatment is there that was always legally available.

“The media failed abysmally to ensure the content of abortion law and the Government’s claims about it were critically examined. The media were pushing the law instead of critically examining it,” she said.

“Most seriously the tragic death of Savita Halappanavarwas misused by major players in politics and the media.”

She said they were more concerned with getting abortion legislation passed than accurate reporting.

Such journalists, she said, were more concerned with setting the agenda than reporting on it.

“There is something rotten at the heart of Irish public debate.” She said this was as a result of “corruption” and the pro-life movement could not “sit back and tolerate this any longer”.

It was important the pro-life electorate be “mindful” of the parties that had let the movement down when casting their votes, she said.

Caroline Simons, legal advisor to the Pro-Life Campaign, said after last year’s “setback”, they had no idea how many people would turnout today.

“We realise it’s going to be a difficult road back but we are massively encouraged that so many people are ready to get on board at this stage to help turn things around.

“Senior members of Fine Gael assured their backbench TDs that once the abortion bill passed through the Dáil they would have nothing to worry about because the pro-life movement would be crushed and beaten. How wrong they were.

“Your presence here today is proof that we are wasting no time in starting to rebuild. It’s going to take time, but when the public comes to realise the full horror of what the new legislation involves support for the repeal of the law will gather pace.”

Lynn Coles of the Women Hurt told the vigil that in recent weeks she had counselled a woman who had been considering an abortion. She decided to proceed with it.

“She took her own life on Tuesday. Abortion took not only her baby’s life but her own. She leaves behind a husband and grieving extended Irish family on both sides of the Irish Sea. The media will not cover her story. This is the reality of abortion.”

Over 160 new allegations of clerical sex abuse in last year

  

A total of 164 new allegations of sexual abuse were reported to the Catholic Church’s child protection watchdog between April last year and the end of March 2014.

This is according to the annual report of the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) which was published yesterday. The report notes that allegations of abuse are down from the 242 the previous year and most of the complaints relate to alleged abuse between the 1940s and 90s.

The biggest number of allegations relate to the 60s, 70s and 80s. The board said all of these complaints have also been passed to gardaí or the PSNI and where appropriate to the Child and Family Agency.

The watchdog has undertaken reviews of safeguarding practices in all 26 dioceses and initiated a three-year training programme, according to the annual report.

Teresa Devlin, who took over last year as CEO of NBSCCCI, said the board’s small team is committed to ensuring “past mistakes are not repeated”.

In its report, the board said the Church needs to have clear standards regarding support and supervision of priests and religious out of ministry.

“This means we need to develop a framework for assessment, clarity around canonical processes, good supervision, and support place so that we can reduce the likliehood of re-offending and therefore safeguard future children,” it said.

Ruairi Quinn Minister happy to take abuse from ignorant Irish teachers

  

Ruairi Quinn has criticised some teachers’ actions at the recent ASTI conference as “ignorant, ill-judged and bad-mannered”.

The Education Minister was commenting on the raucous reception he received at last week’s conference, and said certain members had done “a disservice” to their union as a result of their actions.

Mr Quinn was heckled and booed by a number of delegates throughout his speech at the event in Wexford, with some teachers shouting to drown out his speech.

One delegate even used a megaphone while the minister spoke, and others shouted “lies” and “rubbish”.

Mr Quinn admitted that such attacks were hurtful, but insisted it was all part of living in a democracy.

“It hurts, of course. Some people say you must have a very thick skin to which I say, yeah, but it’s still skin,” he told Galway Bay FM.

However, despite the reception he received, he insisted that the protests showed that true democracy is in place here and that everyone has a right to their voice.

THE PRICE OF DEMOCRACY?

Mr Quinn stressed that he had never thought of giving up politics as a result of the abuse, and that he was not facing a situation like politicians in Ukraine. “I live in a democracy,” he added.

“No matter how ignorant, ill-judged or bad mannered they were – and I think some of them were – I think that’s a price a democratic open society is prepared to pay.

“There are very few countries in the world where, not Ruairi Quinn but the Minister for Education will go to a conference where a minority of teachers in a very disrespectful way will express their anger and disgust.

“Nobody died, nobody got injured. It’s called democracy and I’m very happy to say that I live in this country.

“I’m proud to live in this Republic and I’m proud to think that citizens can come and say what they said and how they said it.”

China and US in crucial talks on cutting carbon dioxide emissions

 

TENTATIVE MOVES TO REDUCE POLLUTION COULD BE THE MOST HOPEFUL SINGLE DEVELOPMENT IN TACKLING GLOBAL WARMING FOR ALMOST 20 YEARS

“Just a patch of blue sky big enough “to make a sailor a pair of trousers”, my parents’ generation would say, may herald a break in dismal weather. Against all expectation, rather more than that seems to be opening up amid the dark clouds that have so far shrouded the prospects of the world agreeing a new treaty to combat climate change.

China and the United States – by far the world’s greatest emitters of carbon dioxide – have started far-reaching, if little-noticed, talks on how to cut the pollution, in what is being described as the most hopeful single development in tackling global warming for almost 20 years.

Both are accelerating their efforts to control their own emissions, a considerable change for the two nations, which together account for more than two in every five tons of the greenhouse gas spewed into the atmosphere worldwide each year. The US’s refusal to join the Kyoto Protocol was long the major obstacle to progress, while China – exempted from that limited treaty – has increased its emissions to exceed those of the US and the EU combined.

What’s more, it was a clash between the two countries that did more than anything to cause the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit to end in disappointment. So the prospect of them co-operating in paving the way to the next one, in Paris at the end of next year, is significant.

This week, moreover, another unexpected development brightened the skies even further. The conservative-majority US Supreme Court – which has generally opposed Barack Obama’s environmental policies – backed, by a surprisingly large 6-2 majority, his attempt to crack down on pollution from the power stations that emit 40 per cent of the nation’s greenhouse gases.

Chief Justice John Roberts and his fellow conservative, Anthony Kennedy, joined the court’s four liberals to reject a vigorous challenge by polluters to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations designed to clamp down on smog from coal-fired plants that drifts across state boundaries, helping to cause an estimated 34,000 deaths a year.

True, the measure does not directly address global warming. But it is expected to cause the closure of the most polluting plants, which are also the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide. And, much more importantly, the court’s decision appears to endorse Obama’s strategy of making combating climate change one of the main themes of his second term of office.

Frustrated by Congress in his attempt to introduce climate legislation, the President dropped his issue in his first four years, while privately regarding it as his biggest first-term failure. Now – partly at the prompting of his daughters – he is making a much more determined bid to tackle it, this time by trying to bypass Capitol Hill.

His strategy is to rely on executive presidential orders to reduce emissions, implemented by the EPA; next month he is due to issue some to cut carbon dioxide from power plants. His opponents have been hoping the courts would stop him, hence the significance of the Supreme Court’s decision. If it had ruled against Obama, his climate strategy would have seemed severely damaged; instead it appears to have cleared the path for it to progress.

In China, too, action against conventional pollution, largely from power plants, is presaging measures on climate change. So- called “airpocalypses” in Chinese cities, with concentrations of deadly particles up to 20 times higher than international safety limits, are causing the country increasingly to move away from coal, which provides 70 per cent of its electricity. Most of the new Chinese generating capacity installed last year relies on renewable energy; old coal plants are being closed, and some experts expect national carbon emissions to peak by the next decade.

A year ago China and the US agreed to phase out production and use of hydrofluorocarbons, potent greenhouse gases used in refrigeration, and the world’s fastest-growing climate threat. The hope was that this would presage wider co-operation, and the signs that this is beginning are being hailed as the most important development since the Kyoto Protocol was concluded in 1997.

It does, however, leave Europe – hitherto leading the attack on global warming – on the sidelines, perhaps deservedly so, as its leaders have grown increasingly timid since failing to make enough of a difference in Copenhagen.

David Cameron, however, has – since the winter floods – begun to re-emphasise the importance of what he initially made his trademark issue. This September he will have a chance to show whether he means it at a special summit called by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to try to put momentum behind a new international treaty. And, since voters formed their first impressions of him as environmentally concerned, crucial credibility – in an election year – may hang on his performance.       

Donie's all Ireland news Blog

Luxembourg Rose scoops the Rose of Tralee crown with three kisses  x x x

Representing Luxembourg Nicola McEvoy after she was announced the 2012 International Rose of Tralee last night.

The 26-year-old Luxembourg Rose Nicola McEvoy was crowned the 2012 Rose of Tralee. The previous night she’d greeted Dáithí Ó Sé with three continental kisses (“I’m not sure the wife liked that one!”) and sang a spirited version of La Vie en Rose.

Born and raised in Cork, McEvoy teaches history, human science and geography at the European School of Luxembourg and has wanted to teach, she told Dáithí, since setting some difficult exams for her teddy bears as a child.

Her prizes include a shiny Philip Treacy-designed tiara, a sash, jewellery, personalised cutlery, a car, a €25,000 tour of the world and an adventure break in Kerry (the latter gets as much space in the festival brochure as the tour of the world). She will represent Tralee and Ireland worldwide, and will, as I understand it, have the power to dissolve the Dáil, veto legislation and execute law breakers.

Okay, I may be getting a little caught up in the local enthusiasm. It’s hard to remain objective after three days watching charming, poised Roses constantly smiling, signing autographs and waving a special kind of wave that seems to require an extra joint in the wrist. The announcement of the winner concludes another night of televised knee-slapping helmed by Dáithí Ó Sé, a man who could, if he wanted to, annex Tralee and rename it Dáithí Ó Sé (his contract for the show is due for renewal, so he may well do this as a bargaining tactic).

After the previous evening’s bovine disappointment (the Ottawa Rose was meant to help Dáithí milk a cow, but the cow was “too lively”) no animal-related stunts were planned, but at one point Dáithí donned a pair of stilettos and flounced about like a bullock in spats (“We got the high heels in Ms Fantasia in Dublin!” he told me earlier. “They were the only shop that had my size!”). He did this to surprise Denver Rose Tiffany Antikainen who learned to wear high heels for this very competition.

Antikainen responded to this disturbing spectacle in the only way she knew how: by playing the bagpipes (At the rehearsal Dáithí wore the high heels for so long a suspicious Rose concluded: “He’s done this before”). There was also set dancing from Tyrone’s Catherine Sherry, wacky sorcery (a card trick) from South Australian Rose Sarah Doherty, an uncomfortable moment where Dáithí tried to engineer a proposal from the Waterford Rose’s boyfriend (he’s like a big rampaging cupid), and four bearded Roses playing indie music (apparently this was actually Dublin band The Coronas). Before the night was out, plucky Roses had recited poetry, explained nano-science and performed back-bending gymnastics, while overheated people in suits and evening dresses waved home-made banners and cheered.

This all seems completely normal to me now. I’ve been at the Dome in Tralee for several days and can’t really recall my life before. That said, I can dimly recall that some outside the Dome view the festival as a reactionary anachronism at worst and a silly lovely girls competition at best.

This feels like something that needs to be addressed. Yes, “Lovely” is one of the most commonly used words at the festival (“isn’t that a lovely dress” “the other Roses are so lovely”). The word is, after all, featured in the 19th century ballad that gives this 1950s competition its name (“she was lovely and fair as the Rose of the summer”). So the focus on the Roses’ physical appearance is hard to escape.

“I’ll have the Ottawa Rose please!” says one wag pointing at her picture in the brochure.

“You can’t order take-out!” scolds an organiser. “It’s not a menu.” Indeed, the original ballad also sees the writer declare that beauty isn’t enough. It wasn’t her loveliness but “the truth in her eyes ever dawning, that made me love Mary, the Rose of Tralee,” he wrote, a bit defensively (it sounds like a 19th century version of “I love you for your mind, baby”).

The selection panels and judges have always tried to focus on this “truth ever dawning” bit of the song, which they nowadays seem to associate with cosmopolitan life-experience, an uncontroversial social conscience and incredible levels of educational achievement. Dublin Rose and PhD researcher Arlene O’Neill, for example, is at the forefront of new developments in nanoscience. As a gift for Dáithí she used a special ion-firing microscope to engrave the names of 500 GAA medal winners on a Rose of Tralee pin.

“I’m a proud scientist and I proudly wear my lab coat, goggles and gloves,” she told me earlier. “I’d love to excite children about science… and to encourage more women out there to consider going into science.” O’Neill is, in fact, working on the technology that will soon be used to make futuristic televisions on which futuristic generations will watch futuristic Roses of Tralee. But the Dome was also filled with older notions of community, tradition and parental pride. Bernadette Ryan, the mother of Cork Rose Brid Ryan, is delighted with her daughter win or lose. “I’m so proud of her,” she said. “As a parent you look at your daughter up there and think ‘have I done something right?’”

Sean Quinn’s family ‘willing to meet journalists’ to clarify their position with the banks

 

Sean Quinn’s daughter Aoife (above) and with her father Sean at her wedding has said they are willing to meet any journalist to clarify their position.

She called in to Newstalk during a Right Hook interview with Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole.

The children of bankrupt businessman Sean Quinn last Friday condemned moves by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) to liquidate the Quinn Group.

The bankrupt businessman is locked in a legal dispute with the former Anglo Irish Bank over debts of over €2 billion.

It is reported that the receiver has taken steps to wind-up the company meaning the Quinn Group Limited will cease to exist.

In a statement last week Colette, Ciara, Aoife and Brenda Quinn claimed the move was part of a “calculated and sinister plan” to ensure they would not be in a position to regain control of their businesses.

The Quinn’s are challenging the legality of the takeover of the Quinn Group by the former Anglo Irish Bank.

Speaking on The Right Hook here on Newstalk Aoife Quinn disputed claims by journalist Fintan O’Toole over his claims of an interview.

Acupuncture to relieve pain and cheaper alternative to knee surgery

       

Acupuncture can relieve the pain of knee osteoarthritis and even offer a low cost alternative to surgery for the condition, according to new research in the UK.

A study was carried out on 90 patients with knee osteoarthritis, who underwent group acupuncture in two knee pain clinics in Hertfordshire in 2008.

The study participants, whose average age was 71, were monitored for two years.

The clinics were run in two GP practices by specially trained acupuncture nurses, to see whether this could improve care while reducing costs, and offer a viable alternative to referrals for expensive knee replacement surgery.

According to the experts, this type of surgery works well, and provides value for money. But it is not suitable for everyone, and as many as one in seven patients experience severe pain a few years after the procedure.

It also costs almost €6500 per operation, and knee osteoarthritis is common, causing significant pain in 17% of the UK population over the age of 50.

All the patients referred to the clinics had severe symptoms – constant pain, including at night, and inability to walk far – and would have been eligible for surgery.

Fifty patients said they would be prepared to have surgery; four said they would only have the operation as a last resort; and 29 said they did not want surgery.

They were given acupuncture once a week for a month after which the frequency was reduced to a session every six weeks.

Forty-one patients were still attending the clinics after a year, and 31 were still receiving treatment after two years. Each patient received an average of 16.5 treatments.

After one month of treatment, doctors measured symptom control, functional capacity, and wellbeing in the patients and discovered clinically significant improvements in pain levels, stiffness, and functional capacity.

These improvements continued throughout the two-year monitoring period, as assessed by a validated scoring system (MYMOP) at six monthly intervals.

Based on the assumption that only two thirds of patients would take up an offer of acupuncture, the authors calculate that the health service could over €100,000 a year.

Galway Turf cutters vow to continue fight until neighbours have fuel for winter

  

The turf cutters of Co Galway have vowed to continue to cut turf until everyone in their area without fuel is supplied, after they returned to Clonmoylan bog yesterday and defied an EU directive not to cut turf there.

Between 50 and 60 locals restarted their turf cutting yesterday morning as they claim “six or seven” local families do not have sufficient fuel to last the winter.

Already, enough turf for four or five of those families has been cut, and, according to Dermot Moran, spokesman for the Barroughter and Clonmoylan Bog Action Group, they will be back at the first chance to cut the remainder.

“As this week is heritage week, we were determined to mark our heritage by cutting this turf,” said Mr Moran.

Clonmoylan bog in south Galway, near the town of Woodford, is one of 53 raised bogs that was designated for protection under the EU habitats directive.

Already, more than 1,000 turf cutters nationwide have received compensation for the loss of their turf-cutting rights, but the Clonmoylan natives insist they are not breaking any laws.

Members of the Barroughter and Clonmoylan Bog Action Group were involved in an 18-hour stand-off with gardaí and the National Parks and Wildlife Services two months ago after a row over the seizure of turf-cutting machinery on the site.

A Garda spokesperson confirmed they are investigating reports of illegal turf cutting in the area.

University presidents advise Ruairi Quinn on new points system

  

The leaving cert exam and the CAO points system do not promote positive education values or personal development, university presidents have advised Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn.

In a report presented to the Minister yesterday, they argue the selection process for higher education is having “disproportionate and undesirable effects on student learning at second level”.

The presidents back a new ranking system for Leaving Cert scores, more common entry routes into college, a reduction in Leaving Cert grades and new efforts to “incentivise strategically important subjects”. However, they stress there is no perfect system and no perfect solution.

A taskforce chaired by NUI president Dr Philip Nolan will examine the proposals and report back before the end of the year.

“We do not wish to be prescriptive in regard to the issues to be addressed by the task force,” the report says. It backs away from awarding CAO points for absolute scores in the Leaving Cert and focusing on the relative performance in the subject. Essentially, it says, the highest points would be awarded to the students who perform best relative to their peers in the specific subject.

“The most obvious way to convert merit ranking into points is to use percentiles, with those in the top 1 per cent getting 100 points, those in the next 1 per cent getting 99 points and so on, with those in the bottom 1 per cent getting one point,” the report says.

“An advantage of this option is that it is independent of subject workload, marking differences, grade distribution etc. It could therefore be considered a fairer system of rewarding student effort and performance. It could incentivise students to take what are currently regarded as the ‘harder’ subjects.”

Other recommendations are:

* Wider availability of common entry courses to take some of the “heat” out of the points race: The heads acknowledge much of the pressure on points arises from those courses where places are most limited and points are highest.

* Incentivisation of strategically important subjects: With the exception of bonus points for maths, all subjects are currently treated equally for points purposes. There is scope to change this approach to create further incentives for students to study specific prioritised subjects.

* Revised Leaving Cert assessment methodologies: This, the report says, is a priority issue that will be addressed by the taskforce.

* More graduate-entry only for certain professional courses: These are the courses for which the competition is greatest and therefore have the highest points.

* Review of the timing of the Leaving results: Current arrangements, it says, allow little flexibility for learners, guidance counsellors or providers to ensure that final choices made by learners regarding post-secondary options are made based on the most complete information possible, including Leaving Cert results. This could ensure that students progress efficiently to their most suitable option, and that this transition is made in a way which enhances the learner’s chances of success.

* Introduction of a maths and Irish examination for matriculation purposes at end of fifth year: While bonus points for maths have assisted in addressing the issue of students dropping back from the honours course to the ordinary, there is potential to use additional approaches to address this phenomenon.