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[] | 2016-08-29T16:51:56 | null | 2016-08-29T17:09:00 | Dr Nina Byrnes to continue action against Pearl Health and director David Johnson | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Fhigh-court-proceedings-against-businessman-derek-richardson-dropped-1.2772156%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772154.1472488825!/image/image.jpg | en | null | High Court proceedings against businessman Derek Richardson dropped | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | High Court proceedings brought by TV doctor Dr Nina Byrnes against businessman Derek Richardson over a medical surgery she has been operating at a South Dublin shopping centre have been resolved.
While Dr Byrnes, who has presented the TV shows Health of the Nation for RTÉ and Doctor in the House for TV3, has brought her action against Mr Richard to an end her claim against other parties arising out the dispute over the surgery remains in being.
The case commenced earlier this month when Dr Byrnes secured a temporary High Court injunction restoring her to possession of the GP surgery, trading under the name Generation Health on the first floor of Glenageary Shopping Centre, Glenageary Road Upper, Co Dublin.
Evicted
She claimed she was evicted from the surgery by the landlords and owners of the property from where she has operated the surgery since June of last year. Her proceedings were against Pearl Health Ltd, its director David Johnson of Killiney Hill Upper, Killiney, Co Dublin, and the alleged owner of the building, Mr Richardson, who is the owner of English Rugby team Wasps.
The matter returned before Mr Justice Tony O’Connor at the High Court on Monday. Following talks between lawyers the court heard Dr Byrnes’s entire proceedings against Mr Richardson could be struck out and the injunction against him could be discharged.
The businessman’s lawyers said the dispute was between Dr Byrnes and Pearl Health and not Mr Richardson. Mr Richardson had described the injunction against him as being “oppressive and vexatious”. The court also heard the injunction against Mr Johnson and Pearl Health and Dr Byrnes could be struck out on terms. However her claim against Pearl and Mr Johnson is to proceed.
Her barrister, Luan Ó Braonain SC, said it had been agreed that the parties would take steps to expedite the full hearing of the dispute before the High Court. No details of the terms or any arrangements agreed between the parties were given in open court. The injunction restrained the defendants from interfering with Dr Byrnes’s operation of the surgery and the employees working at the the medical practice.
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The defendants were also ordered to surrender vacant possession of the property to her and were prohibited from trespassing on the property. The injunction also restrained the defendants from accessing interfering or removing patients’ records held at the GP clinic.
Clinic
In a sworn statement Dr Byrnes said that in 2015 she established a new GP clinic at Glenageary Shopping Centre. She did so after Pearl Health Ltd said its plan was to bring together dentists, physiotherapists and other related professionals at the shopping centre to create a medical centre.
She said it was agreed she would lease the property and would have exclusive rights to provide GP services under the “Generation Health” brand. She claimed in recent months there were incidents that amounted to an unlawful interference with her business.
Legal correspondence between the parties followed. Dr Byrnes said she was informed her agreement with the defendants had been terminated.
When she arrived for work on Friday, August 12th last, there was an attempt to lock her out of the premises. She claimed the actions of the respondents will cause irreparable damage to her medical and business reputations, as well as her standing in the community. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/high-court-proceedings-against-businessman-derek-richardson-dropped-1.2772156?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/2d45e756d7a4b53e2d6a62bb7906a7f3cc9bd68e494e29b10bea6a55155b4989.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:52:00 | null | 2016-08-30T01:00:00 | While Francois Hollande has yet to declare, there is little doubt he will seek re-election | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Ffrench-presidential-polls-to-be-battle-of-unpopularity-1.2772376%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772370.1472506330!/image/image.jpg | en | null | French presidential polls to be battle of unpopularity | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | With the end of the summer holidays, the 2017 French presidential race has started. The men considered most likely to represent the left and the conservative Les Républicains (LR) are the country’s last two presidents, François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.
They inspire widespread feelings of “anyone but Hollande” and “anyone but Sarkozy”. Like voters in the US, the French electorate will likely be forced to choose between two unpopular candidates and Marine Le Pen, the leader of the extreme right-wing National Front.
Le Pen, polls indicate, is likely to defeat Hollande in the first round but lose to the LR candidate in the run-off.
Hollande’s approval rating stands at an abysmal 16 per cent in a poll for the Journal du Dimanche. Although he will not declare his candidacy until December, few doubt Hollande will seek re-election.
Hollande is the first sitting French president to face the humiliation of a primary within his own camp. He is already challenged by three of his own former cabinet ministers, the ecologist Cécile Duflot and the socialist rebels, Benoit Hamon and Arnaud Montebourg. All three resigned on ideological grounds.
Hollande’s prime minister, Manuel Valls, and his economy minister, Emmanuel Macron, also harbour presidential ambitions. Valls continues to play the loyal servant, giving the closing speech at what was considered a first campaign rally on Hollande’s behalf in the southwestern French town of Colomiers last night. If, against all predictions, Hollande decided not to stand for re-election, Valls would be an obvious substitute.
The prime minister is increasingly popular with right-wing voters, but has no popular base on the left. He clashed with the health minister Marisol Touraine and education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, both of whom participated in the rally last night, over bans on the “burkini” swimsuit.
Burkini controversy
Typically, Hollande has refused to take a stand in the burkini controversy. But his former partner, the environment minister Ségolène Royal, has been criticised by Iranian campaigners for women’s rights for wearing a headscarf during her current visit to Iran.
Macron, who launched his own political movement called “En marche!” or “Forward” with an eye on the presidential contest last April, was called to order by Hollande in his televised Bastille Day interview.
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Hollande’s re-election strategy is basically to appear presidential. It is founded in part on advice from the former British prime minister Tony Blair’s erstwhile “spin doctor” Alastair Campbell, who was accused with Blair of falsifying evidence Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
As recounted in a book by Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme, Le Monde correspondents who interviewed Hollande 60 times, Campbell visited Hollande at the Élysée twice last year.
Campbell drew up a 10-page document for Hollande in which he told him to “highlight his fundamental qualities as a human being and in particular his goodness and humanity”.
On the right, the former prime minister Alain Juppé has led polls since he declared his candidacy in April 2014. But Sarkozy was strengthened by unrest sparked by the reform of the labour code last spring, and by fears of jihadist attacks, particularly since the July 14th massacre in Nice.
The assumption at the Élysée is that Sarkozy will win the LR primary in November. The former president caught up with Juppé in a poll published by Le Figaro on Monday. It showed them tied at 34 per cent of votes in the first round of the LR primary.
Hollande and Juppé both base their hopes on rejection of Sarkozy. It is important to warn of “the danger represented by Sarkozy if he were allowed to come back” and to “insist on the fact that he has learned nothing from his failure and his rejection by the people”, Campbell advised Hollande.
Hollande told Davet and Lhomme that the anti-Sarkozy argument would carry weight once he started his official campaign, not before.
Juppé sounded like Hollande when he told supporters at the weekend that he wants “to reassure the French, bring them together . . . Authority is not agitation.”
Marisol Touraine called last night’s pro-Hollande rally “a meeting of confidence in France. in a social Republic, a calming Republic”.
Sarkozy wants to legislate a ban on burkinis; Juppé said he preferred “dialogue” with Muslims. Sarkozy accuses Juppé of “being in denial”, while Juppé criticised Sarkozy, without naming him, for “fanning the flames”.
De Gaulle comparison
But it was François Fillon, Sarkozy’s prime minister for five years and another candidate in the LR primary, who made the most virulent attack on Sarkozy.
Sarkozy compares his hoped-for comeback to the return of Gen Charles de Gaulle in 1958. “Who imagines Gen de Gaulle under investigation?” Fillon asked, reminding his audience that Sarkozy is still under formal investigation for the financing of his 2012 campaign, and for allegedly corrupting a supreme court judge. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/french-presidential-polls-to-be-battle-of-unpopularity-1.2772376?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f5e44c8f931550946849dda51ca6c08501c23156c8bf3e33aa487ebe3142bb05.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T14:50:10 | null | 2016-08-26T15:34:00 | He will find it’s a competitive world out there | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia-and-marketing%2Fif-inm-is-to-buy-growth-former-tesco-executive-pitt-needs-to-go-shopping-1.2769523%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769521.1472222053!/image/image.jpg | en | null | If INM is to buy growth, former Tesco executive Pitt needs to go shopping | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Independent News & Media (INM) has reported relatively strong half year results in a challenged industry. But it needs to find suitable digital acquisition targets and execute buyouts, fast, if investors are to stay interested in its story.
Its results for the six months to the end of June show cash balances of €62.4 million, up by a whopping 76 per cent since this time last year. Fully one-third of its market value is attributable to cash, and at the current rate of generation, this could top 50 per cent early next year unless it finds buyout deals.
Challenges
Given the current challenges facing the newspaper industry, to be frantically looking for ways to spend your cash to drive future revenues is, in relative terms, a bit of a first world problem. But it is a still problem.
Stock market investors don’t buy into media companies to get a one-third slice of its bank account. That’s a boring story. They want a growth story instead, and INM needs digital acquisitions to deliver it.
But if INM appears too desperate to dig out suitable acquisitions and deploy its cash, it may end up overpaying on its targets.
It is a delicate balancing act for Robert Pitt, INM’s chief executive who joined the group from Tesco. He indicated on Friday it has now widened its search for digital acquisition targets beyond the UK. In Ireland, it also wants to mop up smaller print assets.
Competition
Pitt also provided some colour on the type of digital businesses it wants to buy: “We are not looking for small start ups. We are not looking for turnarounds. We want to buy businesses that will have a positive impact on the bottom line as well as the top. They must be well defined [BUT NOT NICHE].”
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In other words, Pitt is targeting, in the UK and elsewhere, the same sort of value-accretive digital media businesses that every other traditional publisher with an eye on the future wants to buy. INM has competition for those assets.
The longer the group sits on its hands waiting for the right type of acquisition target at the right price to present itself, the less bang it will get for its buck as other media companies swarm the same pool, driving up prices. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/if-inm-is-to-buy-growth-former-tesco-executive-pitt-needs-to-go-shopping-1.2769523?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4a1c7df18ae6e2d4de6b5482b4097d51849fa3cbd10b84ed8dfce0ef816c165b.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T00:50:21 | null | 2016-08-27T01:04:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Fsynge-street-memories-1.2769576%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | Synge Street memories | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sir, – At the close of his recent television documentary on Catholic education in Ireland, Last Orders, Gay Byrne visited the grave of Br “Bill” O’Leary, the only Christian Brother he recalled with affection and respect.
I went through “Synger” about 10 years later and had similar experiences. In my Leaving Cert year, on Friday afternoons, “Bill” would regularly eject me from his religious knowledge class for “Heresy, boy!”, and then call me back in for his last maths class of the week. The latter was always spent in groups of three or four boys, around small blackboards balanced on desks, arguing the toss about geometry “cuts”, simultaneous equations and such.
He was an enlightened and enlightening teacher in an unenlightened world. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN RYAN,
Ballinderreen,
Co Galway. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/synge-street-memories-1.2769576?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4f40fc832bfb7d8a64caed1af1a31785277af140e9366ec8ce2a37cca2562087.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T04:49:30 | null | 2016-08-31T05:30:00 | Fully-let offices at The Park are currently producing a rent roll of €2.75 million | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Fover-40m-for-four-carrickmines-blocks-1.2773111.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773109.1472568136!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Over €40m for four Carrickmines blocks | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The new commercial property season gets under way today with the planned sale of four rented office blocks at The Park in Carrickmines, Dublin 18, which are expected to make over €40 million. At that price Savills estimates the investment will show a net initial yield of 6.5 per cent.
Having achieved full occupancy of the four high-quality buildings which date back to 2007, Michael Cotter’s Park Developments is now preparing to begin construction on another five-storey block which will have a floor area of 5,300sq m (57,048sq ft) when completed in 2018.
It will be known as the Hamstead Building, and will incorporate the latest LEED gold standard designs and fit-out for energy efficiency. In the longer term, Park is also planning to build two further office blocks in the park.
The four blocks going for sale are opposite the Iveagh Building which was sold this year to the IPUT pension fund for €14.75 million, reflecting a net initial yield of 6.34 per cent and a overall valuation of €350 per sq ft. The four-storey block included seven retail units on the ground floor.
Park’s success is attracting a range of office tenants has been helped by its close proximity to the retail park, one of the busiest in the Dublin suburbs.
Marguerite Boyle of Savills is planning to sell the four blocks on an individual basis or in a single lot, and expects interest both from institutional and private investors.
Car parking
The overall rent roll is currently €2,725,000, while the weighted average lease term to run is 2.45 years. The development also includes 219 car parking spaces which are rented at €1,000 each.
The largest of the blocks, The Herbert, with a guide price of €24.5 million, will show a yield of 7 per cent and a valuation of €286 per sq ft The five-storey over-basement building extends to over 7,949sq m (85,564sq ft) and is fully let to six tenants including State Street’s international fund services. It is paying a rent of €710,967 for an office area of over 3,049sq m (32,828sq ft). Park Developments is also a tenant in the block, paying €391,825 for over 1,456sq m (15,673sq ft).
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The second lot involves 33 of the 40 self-contained office suites in the Hyde Building which are available at €10.5 million. At this price the investment will show an initial yield of 6.18 per cent and a valuation of €300 per sq ft. The suites are fitted with air conditioning, raised access floors, suspended ceilings and staff facilities.
Retail tenants
Lot number three, Holborne Building, is at the entrance to the park and has two retail tenants on the ground floor, TC Matthews and O’Briens Wines. An even larger space of 556sq m (5,984sq ft) overhead is due to be occupied shortly by a medical user. The overall rent is expected to be in the region of €320,000, reflecting a yield of over 7.6 per cent on the €4 million guide price.
The final lot going for sale is a single-storey building extending to over 167sq m (1,900sq ft) which is primarily let to AIB for a seven-day bank. The management of Park also occupies a small office suite, bringing the overall rent up to €70,768. The €1 million guide price will show a net initial yield of 6.77 per cent and a valuation of €523 per sq ft.
Ms Boyle said the planned sale was a rare opportunity to acquire a significant interest in what was a highly successful park with low vacancy rates. She said the future development of Q3 would further cement The Park as Ireland’s premier suburban retail and business location. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/over-40m-for-four-carrickmines-blocks-1.2773111 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/09eb3d27a4540b1a443c74c057674167b0f9111142acc82d2060ed59f3a2114f.json |
[
"Tom Moriarty"
] | 2016-08-26T16:49:53 | null | 2016-08-26T17:28:00 | Browser review | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fbooks%2Fthe-trout-by-peter-cunningham-1.2764759%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2764697.1471884102!/image/image.jpg | en | null | The Trout by Peter Cunningham | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Book Title:
The Trout ISBN-13:
978-1-910985-21-2 Author:
Peter Cunningham Publisher:
Sandstone Press Guideline Price:
£8.99
Like a trout returning across the ocean to breed in the river of its birth, Alex Smyth returns from Canada to Ireland to try to solve a childhood mystery. The eponymous fish is not merely metaphor; the plot hinges on dark events during fishing trips at night. The trout also inspires some of Cunningham’s finest descriptions: “the man with only the rod in his hand, his prey a thing of silver beauty in the water, the line of communication between man and fish as delicate as gossamer”.
This is a well-crafted crisply written, gripping story, its readability enhanced by the brevity of its sentences and chapters. The initial section, set in Canada’s Ontario province, is outstanding; Alex and his wife Kay’s peaceful existence is threatened by a frightening incursion from the past. Later, in tying up loose ends, some of the carefully built tension is lost but Cunningham excels at interweaving the murky events of 40 years ago with Alex’s present-day search for reconciliation. | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-trout-by-peter-cunningham-1.2764759?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/37f76ba0aa73a3331c1e431985e07b37207d3bf09e221365c534d7da4244cace.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:51:26 | null | 2016-08-29T01:01:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fan-irishman-s-diary-on-paul-von-lettow-vorbeck-and-germany-s-colonial-army-in-africa-during-the-first-world-war-1.2769840%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769838.1472238252!/image/image.jpg | en | null | An Irishman’s Diary on Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and Germany’s colonial army in Africa during the first World War | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Many years ago, when our passenger ship Amra anchored in the harbour of Dar es Salaam after the voyage across the Arabian Sea from Mumbai, I was taken by the sight of the city’s splendid waterfront. The long vista of white flat-roofed buildings gleamed under the tropic sun amidst palm trees and colourful shrubbery.
One building caught my attention, largely because it seemed out of character with the others. It looked like a church imported from Europe, with a tower, sloping red-tiled roofs and canopies. This indeed was a Lutheran church, established by German missionaries in 1898 when the city and area was under German colonial control. It was one of the few visible relicts of that era.
Later I worked with a man who at one time had been a Catholic lay missionary in Tanzania, Brendan Shortall. He had a remarkable linguistic ability and had developed his conversational German from talking to elderly veterans who had, many years before, served in the Schutztruppe, the German colonial army during the first World War.
Overwhelming odds
He told me about the exploits of the commander of the German forces, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, and his troops in holding out against overwhelming odds for the entire four years of the war. This was a minor theatre of war, in no way comparable to the apocalyptic conflict in Europe but it is a remarkable tale of African soldiery and astute generalship.
When the war broke out in 1914, the Germans found themselves isolated in their East African colony. Their forces consisted of some 200 German officers and 2,500 local African troops, called askaris. In addition there were some 2,500 volunteers from the German settler community. All were poorly equipped, many with outdated rifles and scattered about the vast territory of Tanganyika, as Tanzania was then known.
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The British sent an expeditionary force of 8000 from Mumbai in British India and assaulted the key port and railway terminus of Tanga. It was badly planned and executed. Von Lettow-Vorbeck used his thousand-man force shrewdly, and after four days of fighting the British retreated to their transport ships, leaving behind modern rifles and ammunition as well as field guns and food supplies, items badly needed by the Germans.
The German commander then led his troops in a series of raids into the British colony of Kenya and on into Uganda, attacking forts and the strategic railway line from the port of Mombasa to the eastern shores of Lake Victoria.
The askaris in the Schutztruppe were well trained, lean and athletic men who could walk long distances over unforgiving terrain. Von Lettow-Vorbeck, fluent in Swahili, admired their powers of endurance and their courage in combat.
He appointed some as officers, saying: “We are all Africans here.”
By 1916 the British felt it was time to bring the marauding Germans to heel. Gen JC Smuts and a force of 45,000 men took to the field. In addition, colonial troops from Rhodesia, Uganda and, most significantly, the Belgian Congo advanced into German territory.
The Germans were forced to retreat before the superior armies and adopt a type of hit-and-run warfare.
In one encounter, von Lettow-Vorbeck, at a place called Mahiwa, defeated an army of 4,900 with a force of 1,500 troops, inflicting serious casualties on them.
However, the victors suffered casualties too that were not easy to replace and used up most of their ammunition.
Von Lettow-Vorbeck relied on the bushcraft of his highly mobile askaris to find the best routes across difficult terrain as they retreated further south. New regiments of askaris were formed but they could never match the power and resources of the British, who were using their own askaris, including the King’s African Rifles.
The Germans crossed into Mozambique, the territory of another enemy, Portugal. They overcame the garrison of a key fort there and were able to replenish their meagre supplies of food, guns, ammunition and medicines.
In September 1918 they crossed back into the German colony, turned west, again evading larger British forces and began raiding in Rhodesia. Von Lettow-Vorbeck was heading towards the Belgian territory of Katanga when he was told of the Armistice. His depleted forces surrendered and were well treated by the British.
Von Lettow-Vorbeck and his remaining German officers were repatriated. They were feted as heroes in a country bitter in defeat.
Some years later, Smuts invited him to London and they became lifelong friends.
After the second World War, during which both von Lettow-Vorbeck’s sons were killed and his house in Bremen demolished by Allied bombing, Smuts and other officers arranged for food parcels to be sent to their former opponent, who was in difficult straits.
In much better circumstances, in 1953, von Lettow-Vorbeck visited Tanganyika, then under British control, where he had warm and emotional meetings with the remaining members of his African soldiers.
In 1964, the year of his death at the age of 94, the then West German government provided backdated pay and pensions to the 350 surviving members of the Schutzgruppe.
Today, the distinctive church in Dar es Salaam is both a tourist attraction and the centre of a thriving religious community. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irishman-s-diary-on-paul-von-lettow-vorbeck-and-germany-s-colonial-army-in-africa-during-the-first-world-war-1.2769840?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/919d435f867bbe733b994e39483273a314fad44b3cd04e89bf997e3f42e88868.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T04:49:38 | null | 2016-08-31T05:05:00 | ‘How could such vast sums of money not be subject to tax somewhere in the world?’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fopinion-apple-s-irish-sweetheart-deal-unfair-to-taxpayers-1.2773459.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773454.1472582343!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Opinion: Apple’s Irish ‘sweetheart’ deal unfair to taxpayers | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | To use a football analogy, the European Commission went in studs up with its ruling yesterday on Apple’s tax affairs in Ireland.
The Government has been ordered to recoup up to €13 billion in unpaid taxes, plus interest, on the basis that Apple had been given selective treatment by Ireland through two tax rulings in 1991 and 2007.
This was a landmark decision by the commission, and the potential bill is a multiple of what had been expected by the Irish authorities and tax experts here.
According to the commission, the arrangement allowed Apple to avoid taxation on almost all profits generated by sales of its products in the EU single market, because Apple recorded the sales in Ireland rather than where the products were sold.
This was achieved by funnelling sales through a “so-called” head office in Ireland with “no employees, no premises and no real activities,” said commissioner Margrethe Vestager. Its activities consisted solely of occasional board meetings.
Head office profits
Only a fraction of the profits of Apple Sales International (an Irish-registered company) were allocated to its Irish branch and subject to tax here. The “remaining vast majority of profits were allocated to the ‘head office’, where they remained untaxed”, according to the commission.
In effect, this money was paid to Apple in the US to fund research and development.
In 2011, according to figures released at US Senate public hearings, Apple Sales International recorded profits of $22 billion (€16 billion). But under the terms of the tax ruling, only about €50 million were considered taxable in Ireland, leaving the balance of profits untaxed.
As a result, Apple Sales International paid less than €10 million of corporate tax in Ireland in 2011 – an effective rate of about 0.05 per cent on its overall annual profits.
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The Apple tax ruling The EC issued a ruling on August 30th in relation to the tax arrangements of Apple in Ireland, where it has its European HQ. The EC said Apple had been granted selective treatment by Ireland through two tax rulings in 1991 and 2007. The EC has ordered Ireland to recover up to €13 billion from the tech giant. Minister for Finance Michael Noonan indicated Ireland would appeal the decision "to defend the integrity of our tax system; to provide tax certainty to business; and to challenge the encroachment of EU state aid rules into the sovereign member state competence of taxation”. Q&A: Cliff Taylor answers the key questions I found this helpful Yes No
“In subsequent years, Apple Sales International’s recorded profits continued to increase but the profits considered taxable in Ireland under the terms of the tax ruling did not,” said Vestager. “Thus this effective tax rate decreased further to only 0.005 per cent in 2014.”
This, obviously, not the standard corporation tax rate of 12.5 per cent that has been in place in Ireland since January 1st, 2003.
This “artificial internal allocation of profits” was endorsed by the authorities here but had “no factual or economic justification” and amounted to State aid, the commission decided following a three-year investigation.
This tax ruling here was terminated when Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe (another Irish entity used by the maker of iPhones and iPads) changed their structures in 2015, which might help to explain that 49 per cent spike in our corporation tax receipts last year, to just under €6.9 billion.
Apple said it would appeal the ruling and that it was confident the decision would be overturned.
The Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, will seek approval at an emergency Cabinet meeting on Wednesday to appeal the decision to the European courts.
Public opinion
Ireland has two months and 10 days to bring an appeal. By all accounts, Noonan wants to press the button immediately rather than chance other Ministers having their heads turned by public opinion or sniping from the Opposition.
“I disagree profoundly with the commission’s decision,” Noonan said. “Our tax system is founded on the strict application of the law, as enacted by the Oireachtas, without exception.”
In other circumstances, the Government would grab with both hands the opportunity to collect €13 billion in back taxes.
But such is the importance of foreign direct investment to the Irish economy that it doesn’t want to scare off existing or potential investors at a time when our recovery is still delicately poised. And it doesn’t want to give oxygen to calls from other member states for a harmonisation of corporate tax rates.
Both the Revenue Commissioners and the IDA were quick to issue statements in support of the positions taken by Apple and the Government.
Apple and Ireland might well be proved right in their assertions that the tax paid by the tech giant complied with the relevant tax laws, both here and in its home country.
But that really just makes the law, whether in Ireland, the US or elsewhere, an ass. How could such vast sums of money not be subject to tax somewhere in the world?
At a press conference to explain the commission ruling, Vestager made a common-sense point about Apple arrangements.
“I would have the feeling, if my effective tax rate would be 0.05 per cent falling to 0.005 per cent, I would have felt that maybe I should have a second look at my tax bill,” she said to much sniggering among the press corps.
She’s got a point. By accident or design, this was a sweetheart deal for Apple, the like of which wasn’t available to Irish SMEs or ordinary taxpayers.
Whether or not the arrangement was legal, it wasn’t fair to other taxpayers, be they Irish or American.
Twitter: @CiaranHancock1 | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/opinion-apple-s-irish-sweetheart-deal-unfair-to-taxpayers-1.2773459 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/62bc665a09168b1280bb3cd533ffae95f8098d69e8491c5d802475a53840e0f0.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:52:07 | null | 2016-08-30T15:35:00 | Meanwhile, there’s GUI and ILGU action in Colombia and Poland | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgolf%2Fshort-game-o-briain-captures-pga-southern-championship-in-play-off-1.2773167%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773166.1472567673!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Short Game: O’Briain captures PGA Southern Championship in play-off | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Neil O’Briain required a birdie on the third extra hole to finally get his hands on the PGA Southern Championship trophy at Powerscourt GC last week. The Old Conna professional, leading by one shot after an opening round 68, fired a second round 66 to reach 10 under par but found that total matched by Michael McGeady.
McGeady’s brilliant best of the tournament bogey-free eight under par 64 saw him leapfrog the overnight contenders to set up a play-off with O’Briain. The pair set off down the 10th again, halving the par four in pars. They moved on to the 18th and here O’Briain was out of position off the tee and couldn’t find the green in two. He pitched and putted for a par while McGeady missed a birdie chance to win.
They returned to the 10th and McGeady’s approach finished five feet away from the flag, while O'Briain’s from the left rough checked up two feet from the cup. On this occasion McGeady’s putt for birdie lipped out leaving O'Briain to hole his for victory.
Seniors hoping to repeat 2013 success
The ILGU Senior’s Team will be hoping for a repeat of their 2013 success when they tee-up in the European Team Championships at Sierra Golf Club, Poland this week. Irish Senior’s Close Champion for the second consecutive year, Gertie McMullen (The Island) will once again lead out the team as they hope to secure first place on the podium.
The Irish team is: Suzanne Corcoran (Portumna), Sheena McElroy (Grange), Gertie McMullen (The Island), Mary Sheehy (Tralee), Laura Webb (East Berkshire) and Carol Wickham (Laytown & Bettystown).
Corcoran, McElroy, McMullen, Webb and Wickham have been consistent members of the team over the past number of years while Mary Sheehy will join the team for the first time as a newly capped Senior International golfer. The Irish team have finished third for the past two years.
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Limerick ease to Fred Daly victory
Limerick won the Fred Daly Tropy with a convincing victory over Athenry in the final at Galway. Up against a formidable Kilkenny side in the semi final, Ivan Morris’ charges saw off the Leinster champions with ease. It was comfortable in the end with Ciaran Vaughan and Ross Fitzgerald running up 4 and 3 wins against Kevin Power and James Everard respectively. In the final the Limerick boys faced Connacht’s Athenry who pulled off a fantastic win against Holywood from Belfast. At one point in the match, Limerick were up in all five matches and ran out comfortable 4-1 winners, replicating the margin of victory from the semi final. There were wins for Sean Enright, Ciaran Vaughan and Luke O’Brien in the top three matches to ease the Munster champions to victory.
Wire-to-wire for Neil McKinstry
Cairndhu’s Neil McKinstry carded a final round 72 to complete a wire-to-wire victory in the Irish Youths Championship at Galway. McKinstry made a miraculous par at the penultimate hole and then birdied the last to clinch a three-shot victory. Home favourite Ronan Mullarney was second ahead of Maynooth University teammate Jordan Hood while Maynooth’s A team of Mullarney, Robin Dawson and Sean Flanagan won the Irish Colleges Invitational by three shots from McKinstry’s Ulster side. An opening round 66 put McKinstry two ahead on four under, he added a 72 to maintain his advantage going into the final round but the title was slipping from his grasp as he dropped four shots in three holes. Bogeys at nine and 11 came either side of a costly double at the 10th. McKinstry rallied with birdies at 12 and 13 and birdie from six feet at the 18th sealed the win.
Yates and Fairweather set for Colombia
Irish senior panellists Jonathan Yates from Naas and Colin Fairweather from Knock, travel to Colombia this week to represent the Golfing Union of Ireland at the Fedegolf 70 Years Cup. Los Lagartos golf club in the Colombian capital Bogota will host an international team championship as well as a 72-hole individual strokeplay tournament. Naas star Yates won the West of Ireland in March although it has been a relatively quiet season for Fairweather, whose best result was a top-10 finish at the South American Amateur in January. Both players will be competing for individual honours over four days at Los Lagartos as well as the team title. The opening round takes place on Thursday.
Killeen take home first Metropolitan Trophy
There was an exciting finish to the 2016 Metropolitan Trophy between Clontarf and Killen when Clontarf worked hard to win six and three and tie overall on aggregate in the second leg 9-9. After a three hole playoff got underway between Paul Magee (Killeen) and Gerard Keevey (Clontarf), both sides were still tied. The match then went to sudden death with Magee winning the title for Killeen on the fifth tie hole. The Metropolitan Trophy was first played in 1991 and won by Sutton and while Clontarf have won the title on four occasions, this is Killeen Golf Club’s first time to bring home the trophy.
Mount Wolseley ready for Challenge Tour
The European Challenge Tour returns to Ireland, for the second year in succession, with the Volopa Irish Challenge hosted by Mount Wolseley Hotel, Spa and Golf Resort, on September 8th-11th.
The best of Ireland’s promising young players will be teeing up at Mount Wolseley as they take on the finest young players from across the globe. With few opportunities left until the end of the season, the tournament represents one of the last chances for the players to ensure they finish the season in the top 15 of the Road to Oman Rankings and thereby earn graduation to the European Tour and the chance to fulfill lifelong ambitions.
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Working in partnership with the Confederation of Golf in Ireland and Sport Ireland, Tetrarch Capital, the owners of Mount Wolseley Hotel Spa & Golf Resort, have committed to host the Volopa Irish Challenge at Mount Wolseley over three consecutive years from 2015 - 2017. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/short-game-o-briain-captures-pga-southern-championship-in-play-off-1.2773167?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/5d50ce0e1d6cbb3c241d326bd94695b7ff728a2dfe33ddc2ca7dca2145798bec.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T04:52:40 | null | 2016-08-31T05:30:00 | Fully-let offices at The Park are currently producing a rent roll of €2.75 million | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Fover-40m-for-four-carrickmines-blocks-1.2773111%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773109.1472568136!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Over €40m for four Carrickmines blocks | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The new commercial property season gets under way today with the planned sale of four rented office blocks at The Park in Carrickmines, Dublin 18, which are expected to make over €40 million. At that price Savills estimates the investment will show a net initial yield of 6.5 per cent.
Having achieved full occupancy of the four high-quality buildings which date back to 2007, Michael Cotter’s Park Developments is now preparing to begin construction on another five-storey block which will have a floor area of 5,300sq m (57,048sq ft) when completed in 2018.
It will be known as the Hamstead Building, and will incorporate the latest LEED gold standard designs and fit-out for energy efficiency. In the longer term, Park is also planning to build two further office blocks in the park.
The four blocks going for sale are opposite the Iveagh Building which was sold this year to the IPUT pension fund for €14.75 million, reflecting a net initial yield of 6.34 per cent and a overall valuation of €350 per sq ft. The four-storey block included seven retail units on the ground floor.
Park’s success is attracting a range of office tenants has been helped by its close proximity to the retail park, one of the busiest in the Dublin suburbs.
Marguerite Boyle of Savills is planning to sell the four blocks on an individual basis or in a single lot, and expects interest both from institutional and private investors.
Car parking
The overall rent roll is currently €2,725,000, while the weighted average lease term to run is 2.45 years. The development also includes 219 car parking spaces which are rented at €1,000 each.
The largest of the blocks, The Herbert, with a guide price of €24.5 million, will show a yield of 7 per cent and a valuation of €286 per sq ft The five-storey over-basement building extends to over 7,949sq m (85,564sq ft) and is fully let to six tenants including State Street’s international fund services. It is paying a rent of €710,967 for an office area of over 3,049sq m (32,828sq ft). Park Developments is also a tenant in the block, paying €391,825 for over 1,456sq m (15,673sq ft).
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The second lot involves 33 of the 40 self-contained office suites in the Hyde Building which are available at €10.5 million. At this price the investment will show an initial yield of 6.18 per cent and a valuation of €300 per sq ft. The suites are fitted with air conditioning, raised access floors, suspended ceilings and staff facilities.
Retail tenants
Lot number three, Holborne Building, is at the entrance to the park and has two retail tenants on the ground floor, TC Matthews and O’Briens Wines. An even larger space of 556sq m (5,984sq ft) overhead is due to be occupied shortly by a medical user. The overall rent is expected to be in the region of €320,000, reflecting a yield of over 7.6 per cent on the €4 million guide price.
The final lot going for sale is a single-storey building extending to over 167sq m (1,900sq ft) which is primarily let to AIB for a seven-day bank. The management of Park also occupies a small office suite, bringing the overall rent up to €70,768. The €1 million guide price will show a net initial yield of 6.77 per cent and a valuation of €523 per sq ft.
Ms Boyle said the planned sale was a rare opportunity to acquire a significant interest in what was a highly successful park with low vacancy rates. She said the future development of Q3 would further cement The Park as Ireland’s premier suburban retail and business location. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/over-40m-for-four-carrickmines-blocks-1.2773111?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/dd3119e5b1f35767fd7a31e20858e168260a300e56a7c174c00611588fd9c495.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:49:27 | null | 2016-08-31T06:50:00 | New office will employ 50 people by the end of the year | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Ffitbit-opens-new-european-headquarters-in-dublin-1.2774069.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774068.1472622604!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Fitbit opens new European headquarters in Dublin | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Wearable technology firm Fitbit has opened its European headquarters in Dublin, aiming to employ 50 people by the end of the year.
The firm has appointed former Philips and Harman International executive Des Power as managing director to oversee the new office, which will include sales, marketing, operations, finance and customer support staff along with senior management roles, and will support the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The company said it has room for up to 100 staff by the end of 2017 based at its Baggot Street office.
“We’ve seen Dublin become a strategic hub for the technology industry as a centre for innovation and sourcing top talent in the region, and we look forward to building a strong team here to complement our offices around the world,” said Fitbit chief executive and cofounder, James Park. “I’m excited to welcome Des to the team and back to his native Ireland. I have great confidence in our ability to further expand our business and help people across EMEA lead healthier, more active lives.”
The decision to open the Dublin office came following significant growth in Europe, with revenue rising 150 per cent year on year in the second quarter of the year.
The news was welcomed by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell O’Connor.“Today’s announcement is a further recognition of Ireland’s appeal as an international hub for successful companies such as Fitbit,” she said. “Fitbit is one of the world’s most popular and fastest growing health and wellness companies, and I am delighted that they have selected Ireland as the location for their EMEA headquarters as it will provide exciting employment opportunities for our skilled workers.”
Fitbit was set up by James Park and Eric Friedman in 2007. The US based firm has since grown its fitness and sleep tracking devices to a global brand, with the most recent figures showing the company has shipped almost 49 million devices globally. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/fitbit-opens-new-european-headquarters-in-dublin-1.2774069 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/6cb0680d318c09f1163b827634cd0ed020d8c5625df6f4088f7f8297992e4921.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T00:50:36 | null | 2016-08-27T01:06:00 | Matteo Renzi government declares national day of mourning to be observed today | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Fitaly-in-mourning-as-scale-of-devastation-becomes-clear-1.2769951%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769949.1472252776!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Italy in mourning as scale of devastation becomes clear | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Three days after the violent earthquake that shook central Italy on Wednesday morning, the full picture of the devastation is becoming ever more clear. By yesterday evening, the death toll had risen to 278 while it is now estimated that 2,500 people have been left homeless.
Furthermore, some 238 people have now been rescued from collapsed buildings while 388 people have been hospitalised with serious injuries.
The Italian government declared today a national day of mourning, and a state funeral for some of the victims will be attended by Italian president Sergio Mattarella and prime minister Matteo Renzi, who declared a state of emergency , authorising an initial 1 50 million in aid and cancelling residents’ taxes.
Arts minister Dario Franceschini also said yesterday that 293 works of art and churches have been damaged.
Yesterday began literally with a bang as a 4.8-magnitude after-tremor struck at 6.20am, causing further damage to buildings but no loss of life. This was the 1,059th after-shock since Wednesday, one which further isolated Amatrice, where 218 of the 278 victims died. That tremor damaged a bridge on the road into Amatrice, leaving only one of the three access roads open.
Town mayor Sergio Perozzi asked people yesterday to stay clear of the “red zone”, the worst-affected area of the town, and to register with the civic authorities in the tented village of temporary accommodation. He also said that, at this point, there are still 15 citizens missing.
Illegal building
The mayor also said that Amatrice would file a lawsuit related to an investigation looking in to illegal building, and consequent manslaughter charges. One of the buildings in question is the Romolo Capranica primary school, built in 2012, allegedly in accordance with anti-seismic regulations.
While no one was killed at the school, which occurred at 3.36am, magistrates want to understand why the building did not withstand the earthquake.
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The obvious implication is that the school, and indeed many other modern buildings in Amatrice, have been illegally built, with builders claiming a “seismic-proof” prices but actually using non-seismic materials and methods.
In reality, correct seismic building increases a construction budget by 50 per cent, as compared to traditional non-seismic methods.
In the case of the Amatrice primary school, an extra 1 600,000 was spent just to meet anti-seismic regulations. Furthermore, upon completion the project was approved by a number of state-employed seismic experts.
Interior minister Angelino Alfano expressed his satisfaction with the overall rescue operations, pointing out that there are no more missing people in the region of Le Marche.
“This has been a lay miracle. [The rescue operation] has worked perfectly . . . In the battle between man and nature, nature will always win. Let us not be hypocrites, we are a seismic country. If we had anything to apologise for, we would . . . but the rescue machine was able to cope.”
If a town like Amatrice seems to be over-run by the 5,400-strong rescue service, just up the road in some of the smaller hamlets, things are much quieter.
In Accumoli, the epicentre of the quake, 11 out of its 150 inhabitants were killed while 22 of the 45 inhabitants in nearby Saletta also died.
Saletta is not so much a village as a line of houses. Walking up the road past the collapsed houses, I notice a whole extended family sitting around a long picnic table in a small field off the road.
Surreal image It is a surreal image, and I pause for a moment thinking that I might capture the image. This is intrusive but the image is too strong.
However, before I get to take any photograph, an angry young man runs at me with a dinner knife in his hand.
He makes it very clear that he does not want any pictures taken. People are distraught and that is more than understandable. This is a living nightmare.
When a CNN TV crew arrived here last Wednesday morning, having been blocked from travelling to Amatrice, they came across distraught residents, many of them still in their pyjamas, desperately trying to dig neighbour Andrea out of the rubble that was once his house.
They had identified where he was and were trying to dig him out, pulling bricks, chairs and even wardrobes off him.
As the slow digging went on, the neighbours continued to talk to Andrea, telling him to hold on, that they would get him out.
However, they had no lifting equipment and before the rescue workers and diggers arrived, Andrea’s body could take it no more and he stopped replying to his neighbours. Just one of the 22 dead in this short row of houses.
There were so many dead that Andrea’s orto, his fruit and vegetable patch, was turned into an open-air mortuary.
When you walk around the orto now, alongside Andrea’s splendid tomatoes there are little piles of rubber medical gloves, still there from the traumatic night.
Today, too, in Ascoli Piceno, there will be a state funeral for 46 victims, including many children. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/italy-in-mourning-as-scale-of-devastation-becomes-clear-1.2769951?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/974acfe68473f1503aea89997126571d4997213327af41cb1d7d2e3df76d299a.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:52:25 | null | 2016-08-30T16:41:00 | Move on Apple is new front in EU’s war on tax avoidance | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fhow-the-european-commission-calculated-13bn-tax-bill-1.2773254%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773252.1472571689!/image/image.jpg | en | null | How the European Commission calculated €13bn tax bill | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | As EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager took to the stage at the European Commission in Brussels just after midday it quickly became apparent that the final figure in the Apple case was well in excess of what even the most pessimistic Irish officials had expected.
While an adverse finding against Ireland had never really been in doubt, the figure of € 13 billion took even seasoned competition experts by surprise.
The ruling marks a new front in the EU’s battle against tax avoidance and presents a challenge to transatlantic relations. It is also a potential watershed moment for EU competition law.
The recent probes into Fiat, Amazon, Starbucks and Apple have seen the Commission’s competition division move away from its traditional territory of mergers, acquisitions and state aid to tackle the fiendishly complex world of corporate tax.
While technically the commission did look at the state aid implications of tax regimes when it took Belgium to task in the early 1990s, the recent cases against mostly US multinationals are on a much larger scale.
Appeals
The Irish government and Apple are set to launch legal appeals. The cases are likely to go before both the General Court and European Court of Justice, a process that could take five to six years. Competition experts and corporate lawyers will be closely watching the outcome of the case to ascertain its impact on the future of corporate taxation.
As well as the sheer size of the figure unveiled by Vestgaer, officials were caught offguard on the substance of the case.
While the initial preliminary finding two years ago focused on the specific tax agreements revealed in minutes from meetings between Apple and Revenue officials in 1990 and1991 – including a suggestion that Ireland promised a good deal for Apple in exchange for employment guarantees – this did not form the basis of Tuesday’s finding. While the Commission has not rowed back from this analysis, it does not form part of its investigation.
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The European Commission’s case set out on Tuesday is built around the activity of two companies – Apple Operations Europe (AOE) and Apple Sales International (ASI), subsidiaries of the US-based Apple Inc.
Both companies were incorporated in Ireland and were permitted to record profits in Ireland – in essence they were examples of the ‘Double Irish’ structures.
Crucially, both companies were constituted of two parts - a Head Office and an Irish branch. While the Irish branch had employees, the Head Office was a corporate entity with “no employees, no premises and no real activities,” to quote Ms Vestager.
Issues
Its sole activity, according to the commission, was board meetings which took place up to five or six times a year, usually over the phone, during which cash management, dividends and other financial issues were discussed. It was a so-called ‘stateless’ company.
The crux of the European Commission’s case against Ireland is that the vast majority of Apple’s profits were allocated to the Head Office part of the companies rather than the Irish branch, thereby avoiding tax.
They have cited the example of 2011 - the year discussed during the US senate hearings that prompted the EU’s investigation. During that year, ASI made a profit of €16 billion, but only €50 million of this was allocated to the Irish branch. The remainder was allocated to the so-called ‘Head Office’ where it remained untaxed. According to Ms Vestager, Apple’s effective tax rate in 2011 was 0.05 per cent.
“To put that in perspective, it means that for every million euros in profit, it paid just €500 in tax,” she declared on Tuesday.
Profit
By multiplying the commission’s estimate of the proper taxable profit – ie, the liability that would have been applicable if the profits had been allocated to the Irish branch of both companies - by Ireland’s corporate tax rate, the Commission has alighted on the figure of € 13 billion plus interest. This estimate also takes into account the not insignificant contributions both AOE and ASI made to Apple Inc for research and development (R & D) activity.
There are two ways Apple’s € 13 billion-plus repayment bill could be reduced according to the commission. The IRS, the US tax agency, could rule that the amount of R & D contributions Apple received from both subsidiaries should have been higher.
This would reduce the amount payable to Ireland and increase US tax revenue.Alternatively, other EU countries could conclude that Apple should have recorded its sales in their countries instead of Ireland, and insist that Apple paid more tax locally, again reducing the company’s exposure to Ireland. Neither outcome appears likely.
Answer
Ms Vestager said on Tuesday that the commission had concluded that the splitting of Apple’s profits between the two parts of the AOE and ASI companies “did not have any factual or economic justification.”
In short, the commission has concluded that Ireland gave illegal state aid to Apple, in breach of EU law.
It will now fall to lawyers for the accused to contest this.
The refrain from Government circles has long been that the EU may not have liked the tax structures that were in place at the time when the Apple deal was struck but that does not mean that they were illegal.
It may be some years before a definitive answer on this question will be reached. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/how-the-european-commission-calculated-13bn-tax-bill-1.2773254?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e747906ea5c7213555864b7544d41e6f6c84dd7f99446c3334467737565dbf01.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T14:50:30 | null | 2016-08-27T11:02:00 | It may lack glamour but the competition’s structure should ensure an exciting climax | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Frugby%2Fpro12%2Fgerry-thornley-pro12-crying-out-for-a-little-love-1.2769886%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769882.1472243494!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Gerry Thornley: Pro12 crying out for a little love | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Until such time as the Guinness Pro12 dips into the US gravy train, it’ll just have to make do with a cross-border competition from four different countries.
At last Tuesday’s seasonal launch in the Aviva Stadium, the ever-eloquent Gerald Davies, Pro12 Rugby chairman, called upon everyone to embrace the Pro12’s cross-border diversity, and having quoted William Shakespeare at last season’s launch, concluded his opening address by quoting Robert Browning this time.
“A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?”
It’s doubtful that many of those even competing in the Pro12 would be quite so moved, but then again on reflection, Connacht’s stirring and stunning triumph – along with the decision to have the final in Murrayfield – was something of a boon for the competition, even if Leinster might not have seen it that way.
Wearying effects
From the moment the two sides met a week after the Six Nations at the Sportsground, Connacht’s unlikely rise gave the Pro12 a climax it hasn’t known in years, which was all the more welcome given the wearying effects of a World Cup season.
The organisers have ensured a climactic ending to the regular 22-game campaign this season with a manufactured conclusion on May 6th, which has, all too predictably, been entitled Super Saturday.
All six matches will kick off at the same time and will be parochial affairs: two Welsh and Irish derbies, with Glasgow facing Edinburgh and Zebre taking on Treviso. The playoffs will take place a fortnight later, with the final at the Aviva Stadium on May 27th.
So an interesting, localised finale is seemingly assured, as is usually the case, for the Pro12 has historically been illuminated with high-quality semi-finals and finals.
Last year was no exception, with Leinster and Connacht producing their best performances of the campaign in their home semi-finals, and Connacht going better again in the final.
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The organisers’ decision in advance to have the final in Murrayfield was not without its bad planning – clashing as it did with the Edinburgh marathon – but on balance the sense of occasion and record attendance for a final proved a benchmark for the often troubled competition.
Having the final at the Aviva appears the likeliest way to replicate that sale of 35,000 tickets last May, while there remains the forlorn hope that Dublin hoteliers won’t rip off customers on the same scale.
There must also be the hope that the Welsh RFU will pitch their bid for the 2017 final at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
Whether the Italians are yet ready to host a final is a moot point, but rotating the final at the main stadia in each participating country would ensure the competition’s growth, and certainly Italy retains the most potential, as yet untapped, for the tournament’s further development.
Priority
Of course, the league remains a particularly hard competition to sell in Wales.
The Pro12 chief executive, Martin Anayi, has said increasing the tournament’s fan base is their priority and with disgruntled Welsh fans specifically in mind, have thus decided to abandon Sunday matches in Wales. This will be well received in the other countries as well.
Even so, the Welsh have always seemed like reluctant participants having lost their much cherished Anglo-Welsh League. The clear signals from the English clubs are that they are doing just dandy for themselves.
So too, of course, are the French, whose impending €98 million a year deal with Canal+ for rights to the Top 14 and Pro D2 dwarf the undisclosed but relatively modest combined rights for the Pro12 of around €11 million. Securing increased TV rights is paramount.
Whatever about a climactic run-in and final few weekends, where – or more accurately when – the league struggles is from the November window through to the end of the Six Nations in mid-March. What with the December and January rounds of European matches, the league is left sucking the hind tit of the season. It just becomes very staccato and the league’s leading lights rarely feature.
The World Cup pretty much had the same effect on the first three months of last season’s campaign, so it’s little wonder that the Pro12 only caught fire from mid-March onwards. This season, therefore – with teams and players wanting to make an impression both in the opening six rounds of the league and the first forays into Europe – should be different.
Another difference, of course, is that Connacht are reigning champions.
From their opening day joust with Glasgow, they will be a target now, as John Muldoon admits. “The surprise factor is gone. I would imagine there won’t be too many teams coming to the Sportsground and resting players or leaving some of their international contingent behind. That in itself will pose a big challenge for us. The key last year was that our away form was so good. It will be difficult. It is not a Wold Cup year so there will be a tighter focus and we are also involved in the Champions Cup. It is a huge challenge.”
Yet they were deserving champions, and are capable of making hay again through the November and Six Nations windows. They won five of the first six before and during the World Cup, and four from four from the week before the Six Nations until the end.
Gregor Townsend, who coached Glasgow to their first title two seasons ago before Connacht wrenched it from their grasp on successive days at the Sportsground, does not believe Connacht will fade away.
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“No, they’ve got a formula that worked for them. I’m sure they’ve been doing that in pre-season. They always had that aggression, that passion playing at home; what Pat [Lam] has done is make them more ambitious and certainly improve their skills.
“The final was a great example of taking on one of the best defences in Europe and finding gaps and running the ball from your own 22. I think they’ll have the same approach and will be very tough to beat.
“In the first half of the season no one was tipping them to get to the playoffs. They had to build their confidence through their performances, and they should start the season with that confidence. I genuinely mean this – any one of seven or eight teams could win.”
Competitive
Facing into his last season as the Glasgow head coach before succeeding Vern Cotter at Scotland, Townsend said: “I see this Pro12 being more competitive than the last two, which were already pretty competitive with four or five teams pushing right to the wire. I can see seven or eight teams this year in the mix. We’ve all got our players from the beginning of the season, so you should see teams really competitive right at the beginning.”
Ulster, boosted by the arrival of Charles Piutau to add to their attacking riches and with the Kingspan such a fortress, should be one of those contenders. Without the same potency, Rassie Eramus will assuredly need time at Munster, and akin to the Welsh, the league does not seem to do it for their supporter base.
Indeed, perhaps more than any of the Irish teams, Munster’s history dictates their fanbase will judge them more by what they do in Europe.
Asked if he was glad that there would be no World Cup this season, as there was in his first, trying campaign as Leinster head coach, Leo Cullen quipped that he’d miss watching such a high-quality tournament. But his answer was laden with sarcasm.
Leinster and Glasgow have been the league’s most consistent sides in recent years and having supplied over 20 players apiece to the World Cup, they were assuredly hardest hit last season and thus should be less affected this. Even then, they still finished first and third.
So by rights, they should be there or thereabouts again. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/pro12/gerry-thornley-pro12-crying-out-for-a-little-love-1.2769886?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f9c91911c85897b580feafbed16eba647193b68889dc671f76ba96f8abfd6012.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T18:51:49 | null | 2016-08-29T17:29:00 | Government to embark on aggressive campaign to rebut the Commission’s findings | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Feu-set-to-find-apple-owes-ireland-billions-in-back-taxes-1.2772178%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772249.1472494092!/image/image.jpg | en | null | EU set to find Apple owes Ireland billions in back taxes | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The European Commission will in the morning find that Apple owes the Irish state “billions of euros” in back taxes when it rules that the technology giant’s tax arrangements in Ireland constituted a form of illegal state aid.
The ruling, to be announced in Brussels on Tuesday morning, will not stipulate a figure for the amount of tax owed, but will lay out a process and a formula by which the unpaid tax should be calculated.
It is expected that an indicative figure will be supplied by the Commission later in the day. Sources who have been briefed on the matter say the amount of tax Apple will owe will be in the billions, rather than the hundreds of millions of euros that Dublin had hoped for.
However, the Government will appeal the Commission’s finding, and says the money will not be available to spend, either now or in the future, ministers have stressed. Depending on the terms of the decision, Apple may be required to pay the funds into an escrow account in the coming months.
Aggressive campaign
Government ministers will embark on an aggressive campaign to rebut the Commission’s findings. “They are making up new rules for international tax,” said one minister last night. “They are trying to make us tax Apple for stuff that doesn’t happen here. It’s nonsense.”
Apple is also certain to reject the finding and will launch a strong defence, while political sources said that they expect the US government to weigh in later in the week in support of Ireland and Apple.
The Apple tax ruling The European Commission is to issue a ruling in relation to the tax arrangements of Apple in Ireland, where the phone giant has its European HQ. It looks certain the EC will confirm a preliminary ruling that Ireland offers Apple illegal state aid in how it allows it to pay tax. It will then tell Ireland it must collect tax from Apple but Ireland is expected to appeal such a ruling fearing it will damage the drive to attract inward investment. Q&A: Cliff Taylor answers the key questions I found this helpful Yes No
However, the larger than expected size of the sum at stake will complicate the politics for the Irish Government, which is determined to avoid having to take the money.
Legal fees
While Fianna Fáil has supported the Government’s decision to appeal the decision, there was fierce criticism from other opposition parties.
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“The Government is wrong to say they will appeal the decision no matter what,” said Pearse Doherty, Sinn Fein’s finance spokesman.
“They’ve been saying it’s a reputational issue. I think it’s more damaging to continue a fight that we will ultimately lose,” he said. The Government should accept the Apple money, he insisted.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd-Barrett said it was “outrageous” that the Government had already spent hundreds of thousands of euros on legal fees fighting the case.
Deputy Boyd-Barrett discovered through a parliamentary question that the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Finance have already spent some €670,000 on legal fees fighting the case. The Government should accept the money as it would unpaid tax from any taxpayer, he said.
“This is money that could resolve our housing problems and the crisis in our hospitals,” he said.
Pay down debt
However, the Government insists that even if the money if eventually paid to the Irish authorities,they will not be able to use it to finance current or capital spending. Instead, under EU rules the money must be used to pay down debt.
The contentious investigation has been underway now for more than two years. It concerns two tax rulings which the Revenue gave to Apple in 1991 and 2007. Last week the US Treasury accused the European Commission of acting beyond its powers in its investigations of the tax affairs of US multinationals and in particular objected to the idea of tax being collected retrospectively.
However despite this the European Commission has pushed ahead with its final decision, which will be that Ireland offered illegal state aid to the US multinational.
Early estimates were that Apple could be asked to repay up to €19 billion in tax. While the final figure is expected to be substantially lower, sources say that there is no question but that it will be appealed by both sides.
The decision is expected to attract huge international attention. The Government is expected to immediately challenge the decision, saying that the reasoning used was unprecedented. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/eu-set-to-find-apple-owes-ireland-billions-in-back-taxes-1.2772178?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/a97df3b401081f322d8e35ec9c98f9f2fe25ad804c2df72763ac2b7fbdfab0c8.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T14:50:23 | null | 2016-08-27T14:05:00 | Willy Caballero is set to return in goal this weekend, Claudio Bravo is not yet available | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Fenglish-soccer%2Fpep-guardiola-players-need-time-to-adapt-but-results-expected-all-the-same-1.2770776%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770775.1472303101!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Pep Guardiola: Players need time to adapt - but results expected all the same | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Pep Guardiola expects his methods to take time to sink in at Manchester City — but in the meantime he just wants to win games.
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss has made a confident start as City’s new manager, winning his first four games.
Some of the Spaniard’s systems and tactics have been eye-catching, notably the fluid movement of defenders with full-backs pushing into central midfield and centre-backs moving wider.
Guardiola says the approach will be modified depending on opponents and he is not expecting his players to grasp everything immediately. For now he recognises the importance of merely winning games for confidence.
Reflecting on his first impressions of England, Guardiola said: “Congratulations to the Premier League because it is well organised with traditional stadiums. It’s very tough, so demanding.
“But I will try and implement our point of view, our way, to see our game here in England. I’m so excited to convince our players to play the way we like. Until now, of course results help.”
City host West Ham at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday looking to maintain their 100 per cent start in the Premier League.
Victory would give them three wins from three heading into the international break and set them up nicely for their next game, the derby against Manchester United at Old Trafford on September 10th.
Willy Caballero is expected to return in goal after Guardiola said on Friday that new signing Claudio Bravo is fit but not yet ready for action.
Caballero had been preferred this season to England number one Joe Hart until sitting out the formality of City’s Champions League play-off second leg against Steaua Bucharest in midweek.
Hart featured in that game — which City won 1-0 to complete a 6-0 aggregate success and qualify for the group stage — in what was widely perceived as a farewell appearance amid speculation over his future.
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It remains to be seen, however, whether Hart moves on before next week’s transfer deadline with potentially interested clubs such as Everton, Liverpool and Sevilla distancing themselves from the keeper. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/pep-guardiola-players-need-time-to-adapt-but-results-expected-all-the-same-1.2770776?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d66846f082eff4fc19c9916ca28fc5c4b6046598e2be0a15b3d79e67a1bfa874.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:54:59 | null | 2016-08-14T16:33:00 | As David Brent returns, his creator discusses the universality of the office existential crisis | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fwork%2Foffice-crisis-ricky-gervais-on-the-harsh-new-world-of-work-1.2756000%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2755999.1471189634!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Office crisis: Ricky Gervais on the harsh new world of work | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | In the middle of David Brent: Life on the Road, a new film following the fictional former middle manager-turned-salesman, one of the characters – Pauline from accounts – lashes out at the bully-boy alpha males humiliating Brent. “Before, David was the boss and worked with nice people and now the world’s worse!”
Her cri de coeur could well have come from Ricky Gervais himself, the comedy writer who co-created and starred as David Brent in the 2001-2003 mockumentary BBC TV series, The Office, later remade for US television. The series proved to be the goose that laid golden eggs for Mr Gervais and his former writing partner, Stephen Merchant.
The comedian hopes that after watching this film, which he also wrote and in which he also stars, people will like Brent a “little bit more because the world’s worse”. He wants people to hug the Brent in their office.
“In fiction we create our own heroes and villains as role-play for the soul,” says Mr Gervais, who shares the same penchant as his protagonist for putting his feet up on his desk. “Brent is basically a decent guy; he mistakes popularity for respect and we all want respect, we all want love, we all want to do the right thing.”
More than 12 years after the end of The Office, when he was made redundant as regional manager of Slough paper supplies company Wernham Hogg, the film finds Brent working as a travelling salesman at Lavichem, a toilet cleaning and feminine hygiene products company.
We learn that he has built himself up after a period of depression that led him to take Prozac, and his weight to balloon, earning him the nickname “Brentosaurus”. When he re-enters the workplace, he has slipped down the career ladder. The film follows 55-year-old Brent (Mr Gervais always plays his age) as he burns through pension savings to fund a tour with his band, Foregone Conclusion.
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Shot in a similar mockumentary style to The Office, the film will be released in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on Friday August 19th.
Brent’s new working life is shaky. Mr Gervais describes the character’s former employer as “a nice little paper merchants”. The cleaning company is far harsher. “Now he’s surrounded by alpha males, he’s almost bullied so he’s more tragic and he’s more likeable because he’s not like that – he can’t compete in this dog-eat-dog world any more.”
A mix of reality television competitions, such as The X Factor, and the perpetual cycle of outrage and trolling on social media, has created a shame culture that has tipped into the workplace, he says. “It’s become acceptable to be ruthless . . . We want to see [people] booed to death.” He is grateful he started writing in a pre-Twitter age.
When Brent arrived on our television screens, the middle manager who wanted to be seen as “a friend first and a boss second, probably an entertainer third” was so excruciating to watch because he was recognisable. He was middle everything – middle aged, middle England, middle management.
At one time, people would have aspired to Brent’s job. But after rounds of restructuring, middle managers are often stripped away as an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy. Take Zappos, the online shoe retailer, which declared in 2014 that it would eliminate managers. The Office reflected the zeitgeist.
As the television series developed, Brent became an increasingly pathetic figure – isolated and lacking self-awareness. His character is a sad rebuke to anyone who has over-identified with their job, such as in the scene when he was to be made redundant, only to stand up to reveal he was wearing an ostrich costume.
The world of work, Mr Gervais says, is fascinating. It is a theme he has taken up in other projects, such as Extras, the BBC television series following “background” performers. “We probably work more than anything else – even if that’s avoiding work, that’s sort of work,” he says. The Office was always, he says, about the minutiae of human behaviour, such as hypersensitivity to colleagues’ habits. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re the head of the mafia or Nasa, it’s ‘why has he got a bigger office than me?’ It’s human.”
There is a universality in existential crises, or as Mr Gervais puts it, “stifled dreams”, a theme that runs through the series and the film. Brent is delusional but he is trying, says Mr Gervais. “He wants to be a rock star but so what?”
The words of one song Brent sings read like a salesman’s lament: On the road again/A week in cheap motels, yeah/I’m earning my bread/As long as I’m back for the weekend,/Hey, I’ll sleep when I’m dead.
The reason, I suggest, the film’s plot has taken Brent on tour is that the office is a world that Mr Gervais no longer inhabits. Mr Gervais denies he has lost touch with workplace politics.
“I still have meetings. I still know all the politics, I’m still on set; that’s my office; it’s still the same, you have to worry about people’s feelings and hiring and firing and all [the] same admin and politics.”
Why does Mr Gervais work? He does not need the money, after all. “I didn’t need any more money after one year; need’s an odd thing. After writing The Office, literally after six months I had more money than I thought I’d ever have and it wasn’t a lot.”
Growing up in a council estate in Reading to a labourer father and housewife mother, he did not know he was working-class until he got to university and “everyone spoke a little bit like the royal family”.
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The comedian went on to become a student union entertainment manager, and landed a job at Xfm, the London radio station, at the age of 36, where he met Mr Merchant.
He works because he loves it. Once he asked his friend David Bowie why he continued to work, despite the fame and fortune. The late rock star’s response resonated. He simply stated: “To stave off the boredom until death.”
- (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016) | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/office-crisis-ricky-gervais-on-the-harsh-new-world-of-work-1.2756000?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-14T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/7c7db1606e059b424328f8ea111aa1b25b5e48ff64765a10592e1b158f6f8596.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:08:38 | null | 2016-08-26T10:56:00 | Surveys suggest Brexit referendum has done little to dampen the spirits of consumers | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fretail-and-services%2Fuk-consumers-stepped-up-spending-in-the-second-quarter-1.2769306%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769305.1472205369!/image/image.jpg | en | null | UK consumers stepped up spending in the second quarter | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | UK consumers stepped up their spending in the second quarter and businesses increased investment as the economy showed few signs of reticence before the June Brexit referendum.
Household spending rose 0.9 per cent from the first quarter, the fastest pace in almost two years, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday. Business investment gained 0.5 per cent.
Growth overall quickened to 0.6 per cent from 0.4 per cent, unrevised from an initial estimate.
“Our survey returns, which include the period leading up to and immediately following the referendum, show no sign so far of uncertainty having significantly affected investment or GDP,” ONS chief economist Joe Grice said in a statement.
The decision to leave the European Union has cast an abrupt shadow over the economy, prompting the Bank of England to cut interest rates this month and piling pressure on new prime minister Theresa May to deliver a tax and spending boost.
While surveys suggest the June 23 referendum has done little to dampen the spirits of consumers, tougher times may lie ahead as quickening inflation threatens to erode almost two years of real-wage growth.
The rise in businesses investment last quarter was driven by spending on transport equipment including cars and planes, the ONS said.
The level of investment was 0.8 per cent lower than a year earlier. Net trade once again dragged on the economy, knocking 0.3 per centage point off growth in the second quarter as exports barely rose.
The 10 per cent fall in the trade-weighted value of the pound since the Brexit vote may aid exports, but not by enough to prevent a sharp slowdown.
The economy will contract by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter, according to economists polled by Bloomberg between August 5 and August 12.
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The pound showed little response to the figures and was at $1.3218 as of 9:41 a.m. London time, up 0.2 per cent on the day.Growth in the second quarter was heavily centered on April.
Bloomberg | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/retail-and-services/uk-consumers-stepped-up-spending-in-the-second-quarter-1.2769306?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/75c13e24528ffff2162e87e729d23e7f09c28fb1b8bb1974f845b0c63daaae32.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T06:50:44 | null | 2016-08-27T06:00:00 | Paul Carroll travelled 31,000 miles to capture the seasonal changes of GAA for a book | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fart-and-design%2Fwhy-i-secretly-photographed-gaa-pitches-for-seven-years-1.2768186%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2768183.1472131202!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Why I secretly photographed GAA pitches for seven years | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | It started with a cycle. Paul Carroll toured the island with a friend and, arriving home, brain buzzing from the raw splendour of it all, the thought struck him.
“I had never seen Ireland in that way before,” Carroll (36), author of an ambitious new book of photographic images of Ireland’s GAA pitches, says, “and it blew me away.”
“I was in my late 20s, whiling away my time, living for the weekend sort of thing, and I decided I wanted to take on something.”
So, inspired by a Dutch book which chronicled soccer games across mainland Europe, he bought a car, threw his camera on the seat and hit the road, giving himself 10 years to complete a project he called Gaelic Fields.
Carroll, a native of Murroe, Co Limerick but based in Cork, managed it in seven. His journey took him 31,000 miles, greater than the circumference of the globe.
The book took him to new places, showed him new things. In west Cork, a team were down a man; he was cajoled into togging out. Twenty years after he last kicked a O’Neill’s in anger, he scored a point.
“I had to leave at half-time. What was funny was that there another guy of the same name, Paul Carroll, playing with the team I played for. It’s just a small world.”
In Bailieborough, Co Cavan, he heard the whirr of pistons and the grunt of valves in the factory which leans over the pitch.
In Leenane, in deepest Connemara, near where the film The Field was filmed, he found himself in a field when his car toppled over. Still, he kept on, juggling his duties, routinely driving for six or seven hours at a time in the hope of getting that shot.
“Through the narrative and flow of the club season, I wanted to highlight the identity of the communities at the grassroots of the game,” he says.
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Recognising that same community spirit which moved the islanders of Inisturk, his favourite pitch, to “carve their field out of rock on an island of 54 people, [to] put their stamp on the land”, was important.
Carroll is not a GAA diehard.
Although he played Gaelic football as a child, soccer is more his thing; his day job as a care worker in Cork city has taught him the power of sport and he organises an annual soccer league there for homeless people.
But, in Gaelic games, he saw Irish community life at its best and he was determined to record it.
“It’s a documentary work. The photos individually can be enjoyed but I wanted the work to flow. The whole idea of the book is that it moves from really dark, gloomy days in February at the start of the league, all the way through the season to the bright evenings, and on to the club championship in August.
“I’ve tried to mirror that within the pages of the book. It starts with the first throw-in of the season in Co Louth, dark photos, grim weather, before it starts brightening up into long, bright evenings.
“I hope it captures that seasonal transition. There is no point sanitising it. You’re trying to capture Ireland, so there’s no point taking photos in high light all the time, because that’s not what Ireland is about. We have bad weather, we have muddy pitches at the start and end of the year, and then we have some brighter days, too.”
Carroll kept the idea a secret, fearing it would get out (“a fleet of photographers could do what I did in a weekend”) and be ripped from his grasp. That would have broken his heart, he says.
“How do I feel now? I’m kind of relieved, to be honest. I was doing something for so long and I could only tell a select few people. It’s great to be able to open up about it.”
The book has, fittingly, been crowdfunded and that has brought its own unexpected benefits.
“It’s been nice because a lot of people who order it tell me the reasons why. Maybe it’s for a dad or because they’ve travelled around Ireland or maybe it’s because of how much Gaelic games means to them, how much they’re vested in it.” Just, as his labour of love shows, he now is himself.
To pre-order a copy of Gaelic Fields, log on to kickstarter.com and search “Gaelic Fields” | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/why-i-secretly-photographed-gaa-pitches-for-seven-years-1.2768186?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/8daad4a9dae3c7cc14449624c976ee7d6b75bbf70115e6b85765ed170a69f3ae.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T04:50:24 | null | 2016-08-27T05:00:00 | ‘The Heaneys, Devlins, set in stone, The local names, to whom, one day, I just may add my own’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fbooks%2Fpoem-at-the-grave-of-seamus-heaney-by-harry-clifton-1.2764874%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2764873.1471887980!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Poem: At the Grave of Seamus Heaney by Harry Clifton | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Bellaghy churchyard, County Derry
Because I know the territory
And have lived here
All these years, by my own lights,
I let myself in by rights
But carefully, lest my presence
Breed disquiet.
A raised catafalque
Of clay, a chain-link fence
Your self-defence
From the living shadow
Of the dispossessed,
The critic in the long grass
Of Arcadia. Birds in a bush,
The twittering mesh
Of the inarticulate
In mist-nets, skeins
Of language, brought to hand
In no-man’s land . . . For your pains,
Thank you. And for leaving,
This side of the grave,
Lough Neagh, my Land under Wave,
The Toome shore
And the yet-to-be-explored
Immensities of Doss,
The burning glass
Of water widening to a lens
Or a loss of innocence –
Love-cars, Sunday afternoons
Of too much knowledge, too soon,
The knowledge of death . . . /
Behind the senses,
Knowledge stripped of all that myth
Of history, hope and future tenses –
Acid jazz, the concrete bulk
And small-hours nightclub razzmatazz
That is still The Elk,
The haulage thundering east and west
In juggernauts of driven power
And spiritual exhaust . . .
“When Master Pollock’s bagpipes play
Outside, it must be rain.”
Maybe once, but not again
In the drinking-dens
Of Cranfield, Grange and Moneyglass
And the sheep-pens
High in the Sperrins, rattling tin
As a ghost might rattle a door,
Invite himself back in
To the middle ground
Of Ulster, the daily round
This Monday morning, no-one about,
Where time to spare,
A one-sided conversation
With the dead, is mine to share,
Who have been everywhere
But home, with the fleshers,
Eelmen, buried here,
The cattle doctors, way back when,
The Scullions, the Lavertys,
The haulier MacErlean,
The Heaneys, Devlins, set in stone,
The local names, to whom, one day,
I just may add my own.
Harry Clifton
Harry Clifton’s most recent poetry collections are The Holding Centre and The Winter of Captain Lemass (both published by Bloodaxe Books) | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/poem-at-the-grave-of-seamus-heaney-by-harry-clifton-1.2764874?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d27f1eb3b1aa0c05279572d355ba663c211d0cc9739cfa8d3cc1dca257ca0fde.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:51:37 | null | 2016-08-29T01:03:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Fparking-facing-oncoming-traffic-1.2769814%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | Parking facing oncoming traffic | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sir, – Susan Harlow (August 25th) makes the point that parking facing oncoming traffic is not illegal here. But driving on the wrong side of the road certainly is, so I assume that the cars she describes have been airlifted into position. – Yours, etc,
ALAN O’BRIEN,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/parking-facing-oncoming-traffic-1.2769814?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b087dccb8a15245fbdaed69a2e83c9e33f2ac6c82f19ee5b6681f8eb0ea4c650.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T08:52:45 | null | 2016-08-31T09:21:00 | iPhone maker posts questions and answers document for investors on Thursday | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Fapple-disputes-eu-sums-as-it-paid-800m-tax-on-european-profits-in-2014-1.2774094%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774093.1472631684!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Apple disputes EU sums as it paid $800m tax on European profits in 2014 | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Apple said it paid a total of $800 million (€718.6 million) of tax on European profits routed through its Irish entities in 2014, disputing a key element of the European Commission’s case that it received selective tax advantage in Ireland.
The Commission ordered Ireland to collect up to €13 billion in unpaid taxes, plus interest, from Apple for the period between 2003 and 2014, after ruling that the iPhone maker received special tax advantages in Ireland, amounting to state aid.
EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestage said this allowed Apple to pay an effective corporate tax rate of 1 per cent on its European profits in 2013, down to 0.005 per cent in 2014.
In a questions and answers document for investors, published on Apple’s website on Wednesday morning, the company said that the figure quoted by the Commission were “extremely misleading and deceptive”.
“We paid $400 million in taxes in Ireland in 2014 - considerably more than the Commission’s figure suggests,” Apple said. “We were certainly one of the largest corporate taxpayers in Ireland that year, if not the largest.”
In addition, Apple paid $400 million of current US taxes on those profits, bringing total current taxes paid to $800 million, it said.
“Most importantly, the Commission completely ignores the fact that the vast
majority of those profits was subject to US taxation,” Apple said.
While both Apple and the Irish Government plan to appeal the EU’s decision, the California-based group said it expects it will have to place “a small amount of cash in an escrow account”, pending the final outcome of the appeals process, which is likely to take several years.
Apple said it does not expect any near-term impact on its financial results or a restatement of previous earnings as a result of the decision.
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“We have previously accrued US taxes related to the income in question,” it said, adding that it does not currently expect the EU ruling to impact its tax rate in future. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/apple-disputes-eu-sums-as-it-paid-800m-tax-on-european-profits-in-2014-1.2774094?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/bd9d0b7932a44030d07ee5174cec3608d30c805a4846f2775ec4164597c02f58.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T10:50:28 | null | 2016-08-27T10:57:00 | Women’s groups and social media users criticized sentencing as too lenient | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fus%2Fjudge-in-stanford-sex-assault-trial-will-no-longer-hear-criminal-cases-1.2770735%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770734.1472291814!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Judge in Stanford sex assault trial will no longer hear criminal cases | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | California judge who came under fire and was the subject of a recall campaign for his sentencing decisions in a Stanford University sexual assault case will be transferred after he asked to be removed from hearing criminal cases.
The judge, Aaron Persky, of Santa Clara County Superior Court, will be moved to the civil division in San Jose, California, effective September 6th, according to an announcement late Thursday.
“While I firmly believe in Judge Persky’s ability to serve in his current assignment, he has requested to be assigned to the civil division, in which he previously served,” the Santa Clara County Superior Court’s presiding judge, Rise Pichon, said in the announcement, which was obtained from the court Friday.
“Judge Persky believes the change will aid the public and the court by reducing the distractions that threaten to interfere with his ability to effectively discharge the duties of his current criminal assignment.”
In the sexual assault trial in Palo Alto in June, the judge sentenced Brock Turner, a former Stanford University champion swimmer, to six months in jail and three years’ probation for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a Dumpster after a party.
The sentence, and the fact that Turner would in effect serve only three months, was denounced by victims’ advocates, who called for the judge’s removal from the bench.
A petition online calling for impeachment hearings swelled to more than 1.2 million signatures, members of Congress read excerpts from the victim’s statement publicly, and lawmakers introduced legislation to strengthen laws against sexual assault.
Turner, who was found guilty of three felony counts in March, is expected to be released Sept. 2, a sheriff’s spokesman said.
A rally calling for the judge’s removal will be held the same day in San Jose. The announcement of Mr Persky’s transfer came after he recused himself from what would have been another key court decision: He would have had to decide whether to reduce a felony conviction for possession of child pornography to a misdemeanour.
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On August 19th, Mr Persky said in court that while on vacation, he and his family became aware of publicity surrounding the new case, and that the attention had led to a “personal family situation” that might have raised doubts about whether he could be impartial, a court document said. No further details were provided.
Joseph Macaluso, a spokesman for the Superior Court, said Friday that the judge’s recusal and his request for the transfer to civil cases were not related.
Ms Pichon’s statement, first published in local news media including The San Jose Mercury News, noted that Mr Persky’s quick reassignment was made possible because another judge wanted to relocate to Palo Alto.
Michele Dauber, a Stanford University law professor who is leading an effort to have voters decide next year whether Ms Persky should remain on the bench, said Friday that the recall effort would continue to publicize and compare his record with that of other judges.
“Many cases are heard in civil court involving women’s rights for example, workplace and educational sexual harassment cases, or students suing their colleges for sexual assault, or victims suing their perpetrators,” Ms Dauber said. “All of those cases are civil cases, and there is no room for a biased judge in civil court either.”
Roderick O’Connor, a deputy public defender in Santa Clara County and a supporter of Ms Persky, called the transfer a “big loss.”
He said the judge didn’t deserve to be the target of “hysteria” because he is extremely prudent and fair, according to The Mercury News.
“It’s a shame he’s moving,” he added, “because I believe criminal defendants and prosecutors deserve a judge of Persky’s calibre.”
The New York Times | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/judge-in-stanford-sex-assault-trial-will-no-longer-hear-criminal-cases-1.2770735?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/dc9b70b008e94a3df3cbd3499f58150c24799fd55facd91c5e75e0cab7dd7948.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T04:52:00 | null | 2016-08-30T05:05:00 | Minister for Finance under pressure to resign is due to visit Interface’s Lurgan plant | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fm%25C3%25A1irt%25C3%25ADn-%25C3%25B3-muilleoir-finds-himself-battling-on-nama-and-brexit-fronts-1.2772095%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772089.1472506257!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Máirtín Ó Muilleoir finds himself battling on Nama and Brexit fronts | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The North’s Minister for Finance Máirtín Ó Muilleoir will be keen to ensure there are no slip-ups this week during a scheduled visit to the Lurgan plant of an American-owned manufacturer of commercial carpet tiles.
Interface, a key employer in Lurgan, is due to play host to Ó Muilleoir as part of an initiative that aims to give the North’s business community an opportunity to get up close and personal, so to speak, with Executive Ministers.
During the event, organised by the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce, Ó Muilleoir wants to update local businesses about what his department has been doing recently and probably talk about his own endeavours to, as he puts it, “maximise EU funds” as the Brexit clouds hang overhead.
But probably what the business community would be more interested in hearing about is whether Ó Muilleoir is likely to have the rug pulled from under his feet any time soon.
In the last seven days while carrying out the responsibilities of Minister for Finance, Ó Muilleoir has also repeatedly rejected calls to temporarily step aside – or resign – primarily because of the latest Nama-related drama to unfold in the North.
Leaked Twitter exchanges obtained by BBC NI and the Irish News between former Sinn Féin MLA Daithí McKay, the previous chairman of the ongoing Stormont inquiry into the sale of Nama’s Northern Ireland portfolio and the loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson, have cast a shadow over not only the work of the previous committee, but also the way Stormont operates behind the scenes.
It is claimed that the Twitter exchanges suggest McKay and another Sinn Féin member Thomas O’Hara coached Bryson before he appeared in front of the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Committee for Finance to give evidence about the North’s then first minister Peter Robinson. Robinson has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
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Ó Muilleoir, who at the time was also a member of the committee that conducted the inquiry, is also referenced in the Twitter exchange.
The Minister for Finance has strenuously denied any knowledge of any communications between McKay, Bryson or O’Hara and has said accusations that he did, are “no more than petty party politicking”.
For Ó Muilleoir , who consistently and very loudly condemned Nama throughout the previous Stormont inquiry, these twittergate revelations are far from helpful as he continues less than four months into the job to try to win the support of the local business community.
One of his first actions as Minister was to release additional information to the current Stormont Committee for Finance relating to the Project Eagle sale in the “interests of transparency and public confidence”.
When he first became Minister back in May he spoke of the “great responsibility” of the job and said it was “not a role I will take lightly”.
He has embraced it with some enthusiasm – there has been no shortage of ministerial visits to small firms and inward investors alike while the North’s Assembly has been on holidays. But Ó Muilleoir is facing into a key period.
First up he has the “Brexit effect” to contend with including the questions about what could potentially happen to the €1.2 billion structural and investment fund programmes that the European Union had pledged to Northern Ireland to run between 2014 and 2020.
Then there is the looming likelihood of further intense budgetary pressures for the North as the UK government continues to regroup after the EU referendum vote. Ó Muilleoir is already hearing in person from firms who are deeply worried that the Executive may not be doing enough at the moment to make sure that Northern Ireland will get its own “bespoke arrangements” post-Brexit.
A coalition of 11 industry organisations, convened by the Derry Chamber of Commerce, have also urged the Executive to step up and provide “reassurance and confidence” at this time of economic uncertainty.
In the short term, however, Ó Muilleoir will focus on holding on to his job. The UUP, Alliance, SDLP and the Finance committee have all called for him to stand aside, as the Project Eagle inquiry takes yet another unexpected twist. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/m%C3%A1irt%C3%ADn-%C3%B3-muilleoir-finds-himself-battling-on-nama-and-brexit-fronts-1.2772095?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/5def593d3d4e4c0db0534b095e8865f7f21d00768e58d49f277025b29cbb7926.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T04:52:03 | null | 2016-08-30T05:45:00 | State company believes it should not be stuck with cost of uneconomic rural phone lines | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Feir-launches-legal-challenge-against-rural-phone-services-duty-1.2772301%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772299.1472501231!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Eir launches legal challenge against rural phone services duty | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Eir is challenging the law requiring it to provide rural phone services under the universal social obligation (USO).
The State’s largest telco believes it should no longer be saddled with cost of connecting uneconomic rural lines with the advent of broadband and mobile phone services.
The company plans to take regulator ComReg to court to have part of USO designation relating to access at a fixed location overturned.
It is due to file a statement of claim with the High Court in the coming days, which will outline its arguments in more detail.
If successful, a major plank of universal service, designed to ensure every person can receive basic telecommunications services, no matter where they live, may become a thing of the past.
“Eir has lodged an appeal in the High Court as we believe Ireland no longer needs a universal service provider for voice services given the commercial rollout of fibre already delivered, future plans for fibre rollout and mobile services in place,” the company said in a statement to The Irish Times.
ComReg declined to comment other than to say that it planned to publish an information note on the issue later in the week.
Under its USO, Eir is obliged to connect homes and businesses in rural areas up to a cost threshold of €7,000 after which the customer must cover part of the connection cost.
The USO also obliges Eir to provide phone boxes in remote locations, publish telephone directories and provide certain disability services, but these services are not thought to part of Eir’s legal challenge.
In July, the regulator re-designated Eir as the State’s universal social provider (USP) for another five years, a move that appears to have prompted the company’s legal challenge.
Ronan Lupton of Alto, the umbrella group for non-Eir firms, disputed Eir’s assertion that the availability of broadband warranted the move away from USO and the company’s specific USP designation, citing the 920,000 homes and businesses, which have been earmarked for state intervention under the National Broadband Plan.
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He also highlighted that Eir’s obligations under the USO mandated the upkeep and repair of the existing telecoms network, claiming that Eir’s performance has been substandard.
Non-Eir companies – Sky, Vodafone, BT and Magnet which use Eir’s network to deliver their own bundles – are in a separate dispute with the former semi-State over fault repair times, which they claims are too long and fall below European industry norms, a claim the company rejects.
Eir has been lobbying ComReg to have the cost of providing rural phone services, which it estimates to be about €10 million a year, shared among providers.
To this end, it lodged a series of retrospective funding claims, dating back to 2010 and totalling €45 million, with the regulator.
Eir reclaims part of the connection costs via line rental charges but argues the overall costs should be shared among operators as customers can choose different service providers when connected.
ComReg has ruled against the first of these claims , while judgments on the others are still pending.
The European Commission is considering introducing a USO for broadband across member states as part of wider plans to revamp its digital agenda.
Minister for Communications Denis Naughten has already signalled his intention to consider introducing such a legal imperative here once the NBP is in place. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/eir-launches-legal-challenge-against-rural-phone-services-duty-1.2772301?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/384c6dc080aaca84dcccda1ea4479dc1cf2a607f8ae2ee57947c42f2d478e197.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T06:51:24 | null | 2016-08-29T07:39:00 | Jobs come as part of a new€10m investment programme by the medical devices firm | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fhealth-pharma%2Fvistamed-to-create-200-new-jobs-in-co-leitrim-1.2771794%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771793.1472452746!/image/image.jpg | en | null | VistaMed to create 200 new jobs in Co Leitrim | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Medical devices firm VistaMed is to create 200 jobs in Co Leitrim as part of a new €10 million investment programme.
The announcement was made as the company, which produces catheter and extrusion devices, officially opened a new research and development facility in Carrick-on-Shannon.
The company already employs 325 people in Co Leitrim where it is also in the process of expanding its current manufacturing facility in Rooskey, Co Leitrim, by 45,000 square foot.
Recruitment for the new roles is already underway with 37 jobs already filled. The company said it expected all positions to be filled by the end of 2019.
The company, which was founded in 1999, said it had seen increased demand in the global medical device market for the services it provided. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/health-pharma/vistamed-to-create-200-new-jobs-in-co-leitrim-1.2771794?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/97fab17da77bf61289213118e6c777aab851cb15a97b29eb026aea36ab665da6.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:52:12 | null | 2016-08-30T15:08:00 | Rowing boss says success at Rio Olympics has generated a spike in inquiries into the sport | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fo-donovan-brothers-have-led-to-a-surge-in-interest-in-rowing-1.2773131%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773128.1472566123!/image/image.jpg | en | null | O’Donovan brothers have led to a ‘surge in interest in rowing’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The success of Irish rowers Gary and Paul O’Donovan at the Rio Olympics has prompted a huge surge in interest in the sport, according to Rowing Ireland chief executive Hamish Adams.
The O’Donovan brothers won Ireland’s first-ever Olympic medals in rowing at the Rio Games.
The brothers, who were given a huge welcome home by supporters in Skibbereen on Monday night, have frequently spoken about how they hope their success in Rio will encourage others to take up the sport.
“There are plenty of people out there with two arms and two legs like the two of ourselves and there’ll be more Olympic champions to come, please God,” said Gary, after they captured the silver medal in the lightweight double sculls competition earlier this month.
Speaking at Skibbereen Rowing Club, where the O’Donovans learned their trade under coach Dominic Casey, Mr Adams said that every Olympics leads to an upsurge in interest in rowing in Ireland, but the success of the O’Donovans had prompted an unprecedented number of inquiries.
“We had planned for this - we have been working with clubs for the last couple of months because there is always a spike in interest in registrations after every Olympics, but this is unprecedented - we couldn’t have dreamed it was going to be this big,” said Mr Adams.
Irish rowers
According to Mr Adams, there are some 3,000 registered rowers in Ireland, attached to some 70 or so clubs.
However, it’s estimated that there are up to 10,000 rowers in the country in total, many of whom row for pleasure rather than competitively.
“We do want to continue growing but we want to do it incrementally because there’s no point in growing 50 per cent overnight,” Mr Adams said.
“But we would still encourage everyone to approach their local club because we are dependent on the clubs [as] it’s not something we can drive overnight from a governing body perspective but we feel if we could grow by 10 per cent next year, we would be doing well.”
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Mr Adams said the sport was split virtually 50/50 in terms of male and female participants.
Meanwhile, the O’Donovan brothers will be accorded a civic reception by the Mayor of Cork County, Cllr Seamus McGrath, at Cork County Hall on Wednesday, in recognition of their achievement. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/o-donovan-brothers-have-led-to-a-surge-in-interest-in-rowing-1.2773131?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/db8824d04a55570863649dd16e69d34d9379d4f23debf457480776f7b0e2b318.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:55 | null | 2016-08-31T01:00:00 | Saturday week’s race at Leopardstown is set to be run on “good to firm” ground | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fracing%2Fgrey-gatsby-may-get-ideal-ground-conditions-for-champions-stakes-1.2773550%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773549.1472588858!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Grey Gatsby may get ideal ground conditions for Champions Stakes | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Leopardstown’s authorities say Saturday week’s QIPCO Irish Champions Stakes will ideally be run on “good to firm” ground, which is perfect news for the 2014 race winner, The Grey Gatsby.
Such quick conditions currently apply at the Dublin track ahead of Irish Champions Weekend but the longer-term weather outlook is unsettled which puts any potential watering firmly in a “review” category.
“It’s very difficult to predict so far ahead but we’re told there will be rain about. A lot of the time we don’t get what the rest of the country gets so we’ll have to keep things under review. Obviously if we don’t get rain we will be watering,” said Leopardstown’s chief executive Pat Keogh.
“What every track tries to achieve is good to firm going for top-quality flat racing.”
Dermot Weld has already outlined concerns about the ground potentially turning too fast for both his dual-Derby winner, Harzand, and the top older horse, Fascinating Rock.
But fast going is precisely what cross-Channel-based Kevin Ryan wants for his star, The Grey Gatsby.
Memorable finish
The Grey beat Australia in a memorable finish to the inaugural Champions Weekend feature two years ago but hasn’t won since.
“It looks like the ground is going to be okay for him in Ireland. He’s got a good few targets before the end of the year so as long as the ground comes for him hopefully he’ll get his head in front,” Ryan said.
“Dermot Weld is concerned the ground is going to be quick for his horse [Harzand] so they know what the forecast is going to be for the next 10 days or so.”
However, the weather played a major late role in last year’s Champion Stakes, with overnight rain leading into the race prompting a re-jigging of the programme. The big €1.25 million feature was brought forward by an hour in order to give Golden Horn and co first go on Leopardstown’s outer course.
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“We had to move things around but in terms of the ground it turned out lovely,” said Keogh. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/racing/grey-gatsby-may-get-ideal-ground-conditions-for-champions-stakes-1.2773550?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/88506870ebfe59fdc84053f61eb7e8be1cd9963582ce0b96d55bff2b66924408.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:52:11 | null | 2016-08-30T13:06:00 | ‘They were wonderful children who will be greatly missed by all who knew them’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fcavan-deaths-community-comes-to-terms-with-terrible-tragedy-1.2773014%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773013.1472561064!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Cavan deaths: Community comes to terms with ‘terrible tragedy’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The blinds of Castlerahan primary school were pulled down and a sense of grief lay over the Ballyjamesduff area where five people died in a murder suicide.
On Monday morning, gardaí had been called to the house where the bodies of Alan and Clodagh Hawe and their children Niall (11), Ryan (6) and Liam (13) were found.
Assistant Garda Commissioner John O’Driscoll described the scene as “a grim discovery”. The alarm was raised at about 10.45am when someone, believed to be a relative, called to the house and became suspicious.
“We can confirm that we are not looking for anybody else. We believe all the answers are within that house so therefore the most likely scenario that one person in that house may have caused the death of others,” Mr O’Driscoll said.
Several cars were parked outside the school on Tuesday morning but there were none of the signs of a normal school day as the community tried to come to terms with the tragedy.
Local parish priest Fr Feilim Kelly went into the school this morning and the Department of Education sent in psychologists from the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) to help the pupils and teachers in dealing with the tragic event.
The principal of Castlerahan National School, Anne Foley, issued a statement via the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO).
“This is a terrible tragedy for the family, our school and our community. We are deeply saddened by this event. Our sympathy and our thoughts are with the extended family and friends.
“Alan was a valued member of our school staff and community. Niall and Ryan were pupils in our school and Liam was a past pupil. They were wonderful children who will be greatly missed by all who knew them. The school will be open to parents to support them and to offer them advice and guidance.”
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In the neighbouring church, the candelabra was full of lit candles. An elderly woman who did not wish to be named lit a candle, blessed herself and said she was lighting candles in memory of the family.
Castlerahan GAA club committee issued a statement on Facebook.
“Castlerahan GAA club were deeply saddened to learn this afternoon of the tragic deaths of the Hawe family.
“The family were well-known and widely-respected within our club and community and the news has come as a dreadful shock to everyone involved in the club.”
It said: “On behalf of the players, officials and members, we pass on our deepest sympathies to the wider bereaved families and all their friends and colleagues.
“The entire GAA family in Castlerahan are shocked and grief-stricken at this terrible event.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/cavan-deaths-community-comes-to-terms-with-terrible-tragedy-1.2773014?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/746b9920760e4d867cdbdfd4655812cfe54e01bf3437391e6f96587b178f6294.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:50 | null | 2016-08-31T01:00:00 | Seán Donlon to replace Daithi O’ Ceallaigh as chair for three years | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fformer-diplomat-appointed-chair-of-the-press-council-1.2773545%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773544.1472588475!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Former diplomat appointed chair of the Press Council | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Former diplomat Seán Donlon has been named as the new chair of the Press Council of Ireland.
Mr Donlon, pictured, was appointed following a public competition and will replace another former diplomat, Dáithí Ó Ceallaigh.
Mr Donlon is a former ambassador to the United States and former secretary general of the Department of Foreign Affairs. He is best known for the role he played in the Northern Ireland peace process.
The appointment is for a period of three years and can be renewed for one additional term.
The role of the chair is to adjudicate on any appeals to the decisions made by Press Ombudsman Peter Feeney.
An average of approximately 20 judgments are appealed every year.
Mr Donlon said the council was important in maintaining the confidence of the public in the media. “It is important that the public have access to a means of having their complaints handled in an independent, open and fair means,” he added.
The press council appointed two independent members, Patricia O’Donovan and Dr Ruth Barrington.
Ms O’Donovan was formerly deputy general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions while Dr Barrington is a former chief executive of the Health Research Board.
Also appointed as an industry member of the council was Ken Davis, recently retired editor of the Meath Chronicle. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/former-diplomat-appointed-chair-of-the-press-council-1.2773545?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/2b6c439d69d136fc6a406c8b42305d4ba880e7b057ce71f61c350727010dbcde.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:51:22 | null | 2016-08-29T01:02:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Ffor-the-record-1.2769813%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | For the record | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sir, – The tape recorder used by music collector Anne Byrne was of the “reel-to-reel” variety, and not “wheel-to-wheel” as stated (“Collector (101) gives 62 years of music to archive”, August 26th).
A wheel-to-wheel recorder would involve different tracks. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN O’SULLIVAN,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/for-the-record-1.2769813?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/047df42c49b253ecd6958bdbfd19b6447f3c05e4a52a935b6512411648927fef.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:51:49 | null | 2016-08-30T01:00:00 | Tipperary Independents in angry exchanges on plans to deal with hospital overcrowding | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Fmichael-lowry-and-mattie-mcgrath-clash-on-clonmel-patient-hotel-1.2772358%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772354.1472506115!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Michael Lowry and Mattie McGrath clash on Clonmel ‘patient hotel’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Independent Tipperary TDs Michael Lowry and Mattie McGrath clashed yesterday over a new “patient hotel” planned for South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel.
Mr Lowry said on Tipp FM radio last week that the HSE had sanctioned a 40-bed modular “patient hotel” which would relieve overcrowding at the adjacent hospital by accommodating suitable patients awaiting or recovering from procedures.
His Independent rival Mr McGrath yesterday accused Mr Lowry of a “solo run” and trying to gain credit for something he and other Tipperary TDs had worked on together. He said nothing had been sanctioned yet, but suggested the HSE was prepared to proceed with it.
Mr Lowry responded that Mr McGrath was “bitter” he did not get to announce the plans.
Political
‘understanding’ Both the Government and Mr Lowry have rejected suggestions
he has a deal in return for his support in the Dáil for the Coalition. However, Mr Lowry has previously been reported as saying he has “an understanding” with the Government.
Yesterday, he told Tipp FM his decision to support a Fine Gael-led Government should pay dividends for Tipperary.
More clout
The Department of Health confirmed Minister for Health Simon Harris met Mr Lowry and two consultants from the hospital in Clonmel to discuss the plans.
Yesterday, one of those consultants, Prof Paud O’Regan, told RTÉ that if planning permission was not an issue then the modular “patient hotel” could be in place within 10 days.
“The difference between Michael Lowry and the other TDs in the area is that he is a supporter of the Government so he has more clout,” Prof O’Regan said.
“The Government is going to look more kindly on a supporter than members of the Opposition.”
He indicated the new unit would be staffed by private contractors rather than HSE staff.
According to the HSE, no formal decision has been made about a new unit, though sources confirmed the hospital figures prominently in plans to alleviate overcrowding.
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The Department of Health confirmed it has provided funding to tackle overcrowding in emergency departments but the decision on where it would be spent lay with the HSE. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/michael-lowry-and-mattie-mcgrath-clash-on-clonmel-patient-hotel-1.2772358?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b802023923028efc56937ef9f42fdfa6b371c592e10b741c4ebfe34bb0fe7a13.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T14:48:52 | null | 2016-08-29T14:29:00 | Thai food chain Camile Thai to take on 100 staff while Harvey Norman also recruiting | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fretail-and-services%2Fjobs-boost-as-more-than-350-new-roles-promised-for-ireland-1.2771977.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771976.1472480113!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Jobs boost as more than 350 new roles promised for Ireland | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | More than 350 jobs are to be created across Ireland with food chain Camile Thai and retailer Harvey Norman both announcing the opening of new branches.
The Brody Sweeney-owned Camile Thai is to create 100 new jobs before the end of the year as it opens three new branches, in Stillorgan and Artane in Dublin, and in Sligo town.
The chain has 10 branches in Dublin and it also operates in Limerick.
Separately, Harvey Norman is to create more than 50 jobs with the opening of a new store in Tallaght, bringing to 15, the number of stores the company has across Ireland.
The new store will boast almost 60,000sq ft of retail space, a 250-space carpark, 42 cycle-park stands and a cafe.
Recruitment for the new roles is to commence in the coming weeks, the retailer said. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/retail-and-services/jobs-boost-as-more-than-350-new-roles-promised-for-ireland-1.2771977 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/ae4473e5d91730293957a9b4eac77fb77468f4bf33ba7c06e8b06313e7b7f390.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T04:50:15 | null | 2016-08-27T05:00:00 | Are you washed up creatively at 40? Doomed to average ordinariness in all things? | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fculture-shock-never-mind-the-cult-of-youth-let-s-hear-it-for-the-auld-ones-1.2769295%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769294.1472204752!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Culture Shock: Never mind the cult of youth - let’s hear it for the auld ones | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | One of the things I remember most clearly through the aftermath of Leaving Certificate results and CAO offers was the sense of hurry. Embodied in the notion of the points race is the idea of a contest in which you are pitted against your peers but also running against time. Our society is so structured that the moment you leave school your best years are a finite commodity – and the end is already in sight.
Newspapers are not immune. “20 20-somethings” articles nudge out “30 under 30” for freshness. But what about “70 under 70”? How much does the quite reasonable celebration of youth influence what we value, and how much does it skew our understanding and celebration of creativity?
Young artist, young theatremaker, new writing prodigy, enfant-terrible designer: all these terms invoke youth as a positive in our creative value systems, while the designation “midcareer artist” does the opposite. “Mid” anything, in fact, becomes a pejorative: middle aged, middle class, middle of the road.
But is there an age when creativity declines? Are you washed up at 40? Doomed to average ordinariness in all things once you cross that watershed? And do different careers peak at different ages?
It is said that mathematicians make their greatest breakthroughs in their 20s while architects come into their own only in their 60s. Albert Einstein commented that “a person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so”.
But before that makes all thirtysomething scientists too gloomy consider a study of Nobel science laureates that shows that the age at which breakthrough work is made is rising. From 1965 to 2000 fewer than 20 percent of the winners had completed their signature work before they hit 40. One of the study’s authors, Benjamin Jones of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, in Illinois, puts this down to the fact that there is now more discovered knowledge available to take on board about the world. Consequently, you need longer to absorb all the information that will enable you to make the next leap.
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This can be described as the difference between “fluid” and “crystallised” intelligence. The former is the ability to solve new problems; the latter is the ability to bring knowledge and experience to bear on solving a set of problems. That doesn’t mean the cult of the young innovator is a myth, but perhaps we take greater note of the achievements of geniuses such as the Limerick-born Collison brothers, creators of the online-payments system Stripe and millionaires while still in their teens, because their story is so seductive.
In fact our brains do change. Numeric ability peaks around the age of 25, but inductive reasoning – the ability to parse what we have learned about the world – isn’t at its height until we are in our 50s. The same is true for empathy, and we don’t reach full vocabulary capacity until our late 60s.
This means that as artists and writers get older their work, for want of a better word, matures – and with that we’re back to the problem of how we view people at different life stages. Mature used to mean improve, but now it carries a more toxic whiff of decline.
The work of young artists can seem more exciting because it is, when it is good, actually brand new. We don’t have their previous work to measure it against, and we can also pat ourselves on the back for discovering, or buying into the discovery of, a new voice. Nevertheless, caught between celebrating the extremes of youth and venerable old age, a generation gets missed, and misses out.
Before the recession the system of supports for emerging voices across the arts was designed, albeit imperfectly, to kick-start careers and help propel artists, writers and performers to a point at which they could, just about, support themselves. The recession destroyed that.
To take visual arts as an example, public, corporate and private collectors stopped buying. So midcareer artists now need as much support as those who are emerging, but the structures, with exceptions such as the RHA’s Ortho Award, aren’t there.
Those support systems go beyond grants and prizes. There is, for example, a tacit understanding that artists selected to represent Ireland at the Venice Biennale will not necessarily be at the absolute peak of their careers but will the ones most likely to benefit from their selection.
That way of looking at things may result in some strong choices, but it is less likely to favour artists over the age of 50. The implication is that they have already done their networking and are out there in the world. Still, shouldn’t an artist of the calibre of Alice Maher be up for selection? It would be interesting to see what the choices might look like if there were a way to enable age blindness alongside gender blindness in some selection panels.
Some stories are best told with the raw bravery of the new. Others require a lifetime of experience to distil. We need to reremember to value both. | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/culture-shock-never-mind-the-cult-of-youth-let-s-hear-it-for-the-auld-ones-1.2769295?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/5cecb67f423b87ad218198da9e6f1fd48cdc334141690e2dcd0eefcd481cdf4f.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T06:52:23 | null | 2016-08-30T07:00:00 | There’s a lot of sex in my new book. Writing well about sex requires a degree of personal vulnerability that most writers are either unwilling or unable to endure | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fbooks%2Feimear-mcbride-let-s-write-about-sex-1.2772078%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772075.1472483057!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Eimear McBride: Let’s write about sex | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The thing about sex is, it’s everywhere and for someone of my generation, that’s quite a reversal. When I was growing up it was nowhere. I harbour no nostalgia for that, though, because when Beckett’s characters at stool are more publicly acceptable than the merest intimation of physical desire, you know something has gone awry. Nowadays you can’t buy a yoghurt without fighting through a fug of heavy breathing, sexual cannibal is the de rigueur look for every woman from nine to 90 and the uniform sex-monkeydom of popstars is enough to put anyone off YouTube for life. The accessibility of internet pornography means that knowledge of the mechanics of sex is possible from an increasingly early age but, as porn mostly features the hairless engaging in the joyless, it’s a poor initiator into the wonders and horrors of what the average adult’s sexual life will be.
I think literature can, and should, do better – which makes it quite lucky that sex is a subject I’m interested in writing about. This is something to do with its hiddenness when I was growing up but more connected to a fascination with the tension between the rational exterior most of us present during the day and the other instinct which turns us into everything else in the dark. So I wrote a novel about love, joy, sadness, survival and, yes, sex. There’s a lot of sex in my new book and it runs the gamut from a mortifying ‘first time’ to sex between two people who are deeply sexually and emotionally in love with each other – with various, occasionally hair-raising, escapades in between. In many ways it’s a book about the life of the body, what happens when the physical and internal lives become separated, how hard it is to re-attach them and the deep human fulfilment of managing to.
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And what I discovered, over the course of the nine years it took me write The Lesser Bohemians, is that it’s hard to write about sex, really hard. Not only are there the terrible precedents of sex writings past –which usually equate the sexual act with either mighty cosmological events or find the whole business inescapably grotty and depressing – but writing intimately and graphically about the mechanics of it is something of a technical challenge too. The vocabulary which automatically springs to mind – the ubiquitous “thrusting” and “pumping” being particular offenders – is far more likely to leave the reader gagging on breakfast than buying into two people gagging for a shag.
What I understood early on in the process, however, was that the only way to avoid the pitfalls of cliche, titillation and pornographisation was to guard the humanity of the situation. The way to do this was by keeping the connection between the characters’ internal lives and their bodies’ activities as strong as possible and the “who” of who they were always at the forefront of my mind. Because the whole point of sex is that it’s done with someone else, willingly, and is, therefore, at the mercy of many uncontrollable unknowns.
So if it’s a quickie to relieve the boredom, a rubbish – or amazing – one-night stand, whether it’s between people who don’t particularly like each other or those who are madly in love, the sex will be different. Then who those people are, what they bring with them from their previous experiences, plus whatever their expectations might be, all have to be factored in. And that’s just their first night together. As they get to know one another the sex will inevitably change again.
For my characters sex is, initially, their primary mode of communication. Neither wants, or knows how, to speak about themselves, their histories or emotions, and so sex is their gateway to intimacy rather than its ultimate expression. Sex is how they get to know each other, learn to trust each other, come to care for each other and eventually form a bond which allows what needs telling to finally be spoken aloud. For them sex is a journey and a destination all in one.
So after many years of thinking, and writing, about sex what definitive answers do I have? Predictably none. What I would say is that sex does need writing about. Truthful fictional explorations of female sexuality, in particular, are virtually non-existent while exploitative, untrue and frankly dangerous ones abound.
Is the best we can hope for really to be trussed up in cable ties by a man with a sweaty scalp? Are we not yet tired of living up to the lies about ourselves? Do we not deserve better mirrors, ones that actually show us who we are? Because, in much the same way that no one mistakes bad sex for good sex, no one really mistakes bad writing for good writing about it either, which begs the question the Bad Sex Awards draw attention to but provide no solution for: why is there so much bad writing about sex? I venture that the problem lies within the heart of what being a writer is.
Writing, at its most animal, most fundamental is a mode of self-preservation and writing well about sex requires a degree of personal vulnerability that most writers are either unwilling or unable to endure. There’s no getting around it, though, writing honestly and explicitly about sex requires huge risk. Intellect, research and analysis, even an encyclopaedic knowledge of the English language might provide cover for bad writing about driving a car but they will not conceal any reticence –however natural and understandable – about allowing your writing, and therefore the best part of yourself, to be as open to humiliation as your characters are in that moment. When any writing is untrue the reader knows it and when it comes to writing about sex they know it far sooner again. This is all you know when, as a writer, you eye up that gauntlet and all you can know until it’s written and too late.
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The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride is published on September 1st by Faber & Faber and reviewed in The Irish Times on September 3rd by Fintan O’Toole. DLR Library Voices Series presents Eimear McBride in conversation with Sinead Gleeson on Tuesday, September 13th, at 7.30pm, in DLR LexIcon, Moran Park, Dún Laoghaire | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/eimear-mcbride-let-s-write-about-sex-1.2772078?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/ccd2b260a3e3c0d05bdba82ad388c86ed9898484d8fff5ce1cb12673d67b0f17.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:51:53 | null | 2016-08-30T01:08:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Fjames-reilly-s-big-house-1.2772140%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | James Reilly’s ‘big house’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sir, – For those of us who wondered how did Dr James Reilly sleep at night when he was minister for health at a time when our health service was so woefully and devastatingly inept, the question was answered in your newspaper (“Dr James Reilly on why he is selling his ‘big house’ in the country”, August 27th). He slept exceptionally well on a deep feather mattress in a “royal, carved-oak, sleigh bed made for King George IV’s visit to Ireland” in a 13-bedroom, 1,393sq m (15,000sq ft) Georgian mansion. And how did he relieve the stresses of his day? Chopping logs on his 82-acre estate. – Yours, etc,
EIMEAR MORHAN,
Drumcondra,
Dublin 9. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/james-reilly-s-big-house-1.2772140?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/419fbfdf91c56905c061cdb73825e2ea34ab2e15c127abf495a8c3197c9ae5cd.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T04:50:48 | null | 2016-08-27T04:00:00 | Just because I’m pregant doesn’t mean I want you to touch me or lecture me | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fpeople%2Flouise-mcsharry-some-people-feel-a-bizarre-sense-of-ownership-and-entitlement-over-pregnant-women-1.2768278%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2768273.1472135824!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Louise McSharry: ‘Some people feel a bizarre sense of ownership and entitlement over pregnant women’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Just over a year ago, I sat across from a fertility specialist as he told me that my egg count was in the very low to undetectable range. It was heartbreaking – more difficult than my cancer diagnosis the previous year, the treatment of which had led to the decimation of my eggs.
Afterwards, I wept outside the clinic as the man I was marrying a few weeks later did his best to comfort me. There was nothing he could do, however. There was nothing anyone could do to make me feel better.
You see, I have always wanted to be a mother. Not just a mother, but to carry my own baby and experience everything that goes with it. Just as some women know from an early age that they definitely do not want children, I always knew that I did.
Next month, I am due to give birth. I did not have to have special fertility treatment, I am just very, very lucky. I followed the specialist’s instructions to “Go away and try for a year,” and in January, I found out that I was pregnant.
I’d like to tell you I was thrilled and over the moon, and I suppose on one level I was, but the truth is my overwhelming emotion was fear. I couldn’t believe that I could possibly be so lucky as to beat the odds in such a way.
I felt certain something would go wrong, and refused to allow myself to believe that the pregnancy could last. During one night of particularly bad digestive cramps, I lay on the bathroom floor feeling stoic. This was it. I was losing the pregnancy. Just as I expected.
We hear so many sad stories these days, I suppose it’s not surprising that many mothers I’ve shared my fears with have told me they felt the same. Still, my pregnancy progressed, and each week the odds of my baby’s survival were greater.
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Eventually, I accepted that I was probably going to be a mother, and decided to try to have the pregnancy that I had always dreamed of, instead of the intensely fearful experience I had been having thus far.
Alas, it was not to be. It was not to be, because pregnancy is bloody difficult. I know that there are women who absolutely love every moment of it, and I really hoped that I would be one of them, but I am not. I am hot. I can’t sleep. I am leaking. I am exhausted. I have strange skin tags developing in surprising places. My husband has started to call me Parpy because of my increasing issues with gas.
I smell vomit everywhere, for some reason, and my iron supplements are having an unfortunate effect on my digestive system. I miss my social life, which yes, probably revolved a little too much around late nights and alcohol. I miss my (relative) autonomy over my own body.
Outside of my very close friends and family, though, I dare not complain. On the rare occasion that I do mention something negative on social media, or around people I don’t know very well, I feel I have to match the comment with a quick, “I know I’m very lucky though!”
Once, on my personal Facebook page, I posted a jokey status about missing booze and failed to match it with an, “Of course I wouldn’t change it for a thing”, (I felt it was obvious). I soon received an angry message from an acquaintance who felt I didn’t appreciate my good luck.
I know I’m not the only one who has experienced this type of thing. Some people feel a bizarre sense of ownership and entitlement over women when they become pregnant. They suddenly expect the woman in question to be the perfect earth mother and, on the occasion that the new mother fails in that effort, they feel it is perfectly within their rights to tell them so.
This entitlement can be demonstrated in many ways – from an angry Facebook message, to a disapproving look or a comment on the street. A friend of a friend was recently stopped on the street by a stranger who enquired as to their stage of pregnancy as they planted their hand firmly on her belly.
The friend of a friend replied politely, resisting the urge to swat the stranger’s hand away. “Oh, really?”, replied the stranger, “You’re absolutely enormous – expect to go early” before sauntering away, leaving a flabbergasted woman in her wake.
Here’s the thing. Pregnant women are still the women they were before they were pregnant. If they did not feel comfortable with strangers touching and judging them on the street before, they are not comfortable with it now. If they liked a glass or four of wine before, they’d probably still like it now. If they didn’t enjoy incessant heartburn before, they probably don’t enjoy it now!
That doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate their position and that doesn’t mean they’re not doing their absolute best. | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/louise-mcsharry-some-people-feel-a-bizarre-sense-of-ownership-and-entitlement-over-pregnant-women-1.2768278?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e362e8a5a92c6531d85b505c1992d12b2a9e25313e427b9968cd8d31308e2101.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:51 | null | 2016-08-31T01:00:00 | Administrative delay meant Olympic Council of Ireland figure spent extra night in Bangu jail | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fpat-hickey-praises-kindness-of-prison-authorities-after-release-1.2773521%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773519.1472597999!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Pat Hickey praises ‘kindness’ of prison authorities after release | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Almost 24 hours after a judge ordered his release from custody, Pat Hickey yesterday finally left the Brazilian prison where he had been locked up for 11 nights.
A delay in processing paperwork meant Mr Hickey had to remain one last night in a cell despite a Rio appeal court judge granting him a writ of habeas corpus at Monday lunchtime.
Under strong sunshine the man who has temporarily stepped aside as Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) head was spared the long walk from the holding units to the gatehouse of the Bangu prison complex, being driven instead in a car with blacked-out windows.
He emerged briefly from the vehicle to hand over paperwork to prison officials manning the gatehouse. Mr Hickey then quickly returned to the car as someone, believed to be a member of his legal team, attempted to shield him from the lenses of the waiting media outside the main entrance.
Alleged scheme
The car then drove off without Mr Hickey making any comment to the press. Despite his release from jail he remains under investigation for his role in the alleged scheme that saw OCI tickets for the Olympic Games passed to British sports hospitality company THG, which was not authorised to sell tickets for the event.
Just over an hour after his release in Brazil Mr Hickey released a statement through his representatives in Dublin.
“I have been released from the police detention system,” it read. “I will now stay in Rio and my lawyers will proceed to have the charges laid against me set aside as there is no substantive proof of any wrong doing on my part.”
It added: “I would like to thank the prison authorities for their kindness they have shown to me. Due to my medical condition, I will be making no further statements.”
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As a condition of his release authorities remain in possession of his passport to prevent him leaving Brazil.
If a prosecutor decides to formally charge Mr Hickey in the case he can appeal to have the habeas corpus writ revoked.
Controversy
Mr Hickey’s exit from prison follows the release on Saturday of Kevin Mallon , the Dublin finance director of THG whose arrest on August 5th in possession of 823 OCI tickets sparked the controversy. He secured habeas corpus from a federal judge in Brasília after efforts in Rio’s courts failed. Both men deny any wrongdoing.
An OCI statement welcomed Mr Hickey’s release. It also welcomed “the news that three OCI officials are due to have their passports returned over the coming days and we look forward to welcoming Kevin Kilty, Stephen Martin and Dermot Henihan home shortly”.
The three men had their passports seized by police on August 21st and were questioned by police last week. Mr Henihan was immediately declared no longer a person of interest. After questioning on Thursday police said there was a “great chance” that Mr Kilty and Mr Martin would also have their passports returned to them shortly.
But as of yesterday afternoon the court which issued the warrant to hold the men’s passports had not yet authorised their return and they remained checked in at a Rio hotel.
Stepped aside
Meanwhile, after a meeting on Monday in Frankfurt the executive committee of the European Olympic Committees (EOC), from which Mr Hickey has temporarily stepped aside from his role as president, issued a statement yesterday welcoming his release.
“We believe this was the correct decision as it respects the dignity and fundamental human rights of Mr Hickey. The EOC respectfully requests that these rights continue to be respected, including the principle of proportionality when under criminal investigation and Mr Hickey’s presumption of innocence.
“The EOC executive committee fully respects the Brazilian judicial procedures and it is not our intention to comment on, nor question, any matter relating to a specific legal case in Brazil.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/pat-hickey-praises-kindness-of-prison-authorities-after-release-1.2773521?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/9afae3782b1f90f10863dda16582b49b9781fa85499629308c9a1c95b35aab33.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:52:07 | null | 2016-08-30T01:01:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Fdublin-v-kerry-1.2772124%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | Dublin v Kerry | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | X
By using this website, you consent to our use of cookies. For more information on cookies see our Cookie Policy | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/dublin-v-kerry-1.2772124?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b228b2076de529a08802ecf43b2a0a56921c54ed90e272d76de1194185c1a0a2.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T20:52:19 | null | 2016-08-30T21:27:00 | Former New York City mayor attacks singer over politically-charged VMAs performance | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fus%2Frudy-giuliani-says-he-has-saved-more-black-lives-than-beyonc%25C3%25A9-1.2773548%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773546.1472588856!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Rudy Giuliani says he has ‘saved more black lives’ than Beyoncé | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said on Monday that he had “saved more black lives” than Beyoncé, following the singer’s MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) performance, which made allusions to racial injustice.
At the awards show in New York on Sunday, Beyoncé performed a medley of songs from her recent “visual album” Lemonade, which was released with an accompanying film.
The 15-minute performance began with her dancers falling as though shot by guns after they were hit by a red light, an apparent reference to police killings of black people.
She was later joined onstage by a black man wearing a hoodie, a seeming reference to the clothing teenager Trayvon Martin wore when he was killed.
She also brought the mothers of four unarmed black men who were killed in the US to the awards show.
Giuliani, who was mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001, told Fox News on Monday that the singer’s performance was “a shame”.
“I saved more black lives than any of those people you saw onstage,” he said, “by reducing crime – and particularly homicide – by 75 per cent, of which maybe 4,000 or 5,000 were African-American young people who are alive today because of the policies I put in effect that weren’t in effect for 35 years.”
Beyoncé’s performance should have also symbolised why police officers are dispatched to “those neighbourhoods”, the former Republican presidential hopeful said.
“Neither of them have saved any lives, although only Giuliani has the hubris to claim that he has,” Jeffrey Fagan, director of the Centre for Crime, Community and Law at Columbia Law School, said.
“His claim is dubious at best, without basis in fact.”
There was a 56 per cent drop in the violent crime rate during Giuliani’s tenure, which mirrored a nationwide trend in falling crime rates at the time.
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Giuliani also instituted a controversial stop-and-frisk policy, which a federal judge said in 2013 violated individuals’ constitutional rights and was “racially discriminatory”.
“Crime was going down everywhere at the same time; perhaps he wants to take credit for saving lives in San Diego, Houston and many other large US cities,” Mr Fagan said.
Inflammatory comments
Giuliani, who made a failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, was hailed as a hero in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, but in recent years has become known for his inflammatory comments.
Last month, he suggested Muslims on the government’s watchlist should be forced to wear GPS wristbands.
In 2015, Democratic leaders condemned him for saying Barack Obama did not love America.
Over the summer, Giuliani called Black Lives Matter “inherently racist”.
Giuliani, who endorsed Donald Trump earlier this year, has criticised Beyoncé before.
After her February half-time performance at the Super Bowl, which featured dancers dressed like Black Panthers, Giuliani said Beyoncé had used the show “as a platform to attack police officers”.
Guardian service | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/rudy-giuliani-says-he-has-saved-more-black-lives-than-beyonc%C3%A9-1.2773548?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d848a3dda8af07f8ad8dedd956a52e3c7c975c142e73822bfdbef2802989636b.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T18:51:41 | null | 2016-08-29T18:58:00 | It is understood the 71-year-old may be placed under house arrest | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fjudge-signs-order-for-oci-s-pat-hickey-to-be-released-1.2772242%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772241.1472493624!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Judge signs order for OCI’s Pat Hickey to be released | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A judge in Rio has signed an order for Pat Hickey to be released from prison.
It is understood there will be conditions and he may be placed under house arrest.
Mr Hickey (71) was arrested by the Brazilian police on August 17th and he has not been charged. He stood aside temporarily as Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) president following his arrest.
THG was not authorised to sell tickets or hospitality packages for the event within Brazil or abroad and therefore any attempt by that company to sell the tickets was illegal.
He was sharing a prison cell with THG official Kevin Mallon.
They were arrested by the Brazilian authorities investigating the alleged illegal sale of tickets allocated by the OCI to THG. Mr Mallon was released over the weekend.
THG was not authorised to sell tickets or hospitality packages for the event within Brazil or abroad and therefore any attempt by that company to sell the tickets was illegal.
Both men deny any wrongdoing, as has THG.
OCI used THG as its ticket reselling agent for previous Olympics, but switched to Pro10 after the Brazilian authorities last year refused to grant THG a licence to act as a ticket agent for the Rio Games. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/judge-signs-order-for-oci-s-pat-hickey-to-be-released-1.2772242?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/fbba86e0bee9b9e28e3ee4a8f47ff120e987e3acc1d9b4590587683ef1c51ccb.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T12:48:43 | null | 2016-08-29T12:52:00 | 18-year-old Amy Sharp offers Sydney news station alternative in Facebook comment | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Foffbeat%2Faustralian-fugitive-asks-media-to-use-more-flattering-photo-1.2771922.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771921.1472473065!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Australian fugitive asks media to use more flattering photo | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A young woman has received kudos on social media for offering a more flattering mugshot to media reporting on her escape from a Sydney police station.
Amy Sharp (18) escaped from the Surry Hills Corrective Services Cell Complex just after 3pm on Friday.
The police statement alerting the public to her escape was accompanied by two images they had taken of the young woman, wearing a glum expression and a red blanket over her shoulders.
Both the photos and the statement were shared to Sydney’s 7 News Facebook page.
Almost immediately, Ms Sharp commented on the post from her personal profile with a more flattering image of herself and a simple request: “can you use this photo, please and thank you, Yours Truly, Amy Sharp xx”
Her comment was accompanied by an angelic emoji and had been liked more than 60,000 times at time of writing.
Her public cover picture on Facebook describes herself as “just a lil princess with anger issues”.
She was later arrested just after midnight on Saturday in Wentworth Park, not far from where she escaped.
Despite Ms Sharp’s polite request, 7 News Sydney used her mugshots in a follow-up post alerting their followers to her arrest.
A spokeswoman for New South Wales police confirmed that Ms Sharp was charged with escaping lawful custody as well as an outstanding warrant, and appeared at Parramatta bail court on Saturday.
Guardian Service | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/offbeat/australian-fugitive-asks-media-to-use-more-flattering-photo-1.2771922 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/dbac0be99495c4e45b4e5c860dd71228bc3fc6780056dfeb79618e658cec6731.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T18:52:13 | null | 2016-08-30T18:00:00 | Children are well able to discuss what types of learning they like, says Ombudsman for Children | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fhealth-family%2Fparenting%2Fwe-have-failed-miserably-in-listening-to-children-s-voices-in-schools-1.2764345%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2760600.1472217008!/image/image.jpg | en | null | ‘We have failed miserably in listening to children’s voices in schools’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | With the proposed introduction of a parent-student charter in all schools, cynics may question what sort of meaningful contribution young children can make. Give them their way, wouldn’t it be all about fewer lessons, longer break times and free pizza for all on Fridays?
People can be sceptical, agrees the Ombudsman for Children Niall Muldoon, but he believes it is crucial that every effort is put into the harnessing of children’s voices.
“What we have to recognise is that we have failed miserably in listening to children’s voices over the years. Now there is a constitutional imperative that we have to listen to the child, individually, collectively, and I think this is an ideal opportunity for that to happen.”
It is important, he says, that children know they can make a complaint and that they have some input into the way a school is run.
Indeed, he is concerned that in some talk about reforming the Education Act, such as in “A Programme for a Partnership Government”, references have been made to simply a “parents’ charter” and he is determined that the children’s aspect is not downplayed.
“The whole idea of the charter is to improve relationships across the whole school body. You have got to have young people involved in that, no matter what the age, there is always a way of doing it and always a way of improving how you do it.”
There are many schools where they listen to children extremely well, he says. This can be done both formally and informally.
“Teachers and the people on the ground know how to do this,” he says. “People shouldn’t be sceptical.”
The National Parents’ Council, through its “Action Team Partnership” initiative with the Irish Primary Principals’ Network, has seen “quite dramatic outcomes when a child has a voice about his/her own learning and how that learning might change”, says chief executive Áine Lynch.
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“Talk to any parent about a four-year-old and [ask] do they have an opinion about things that matter to them in their own life, very few parents would say no,” she says. And eight-year-olds are well able to discuss what types of learning they like.
“This middle age group gets dismissed as ‘too young to know’. The reality is that parents and teachers who work with children are acutely aware of the fact that they are very clear about what they think.”
It can be more challenging to capture the thoughts of young children, she says, whereas with older children you might put them in a focus group and ask them questions.
For younger children it might require art work and drawings.
“But the outcomes of including them are so much greater,” she says, “if we make efforts to hear those voices.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/parenting/we-have-failed-miserably-in-listening-to-children-s-voices-in-schools-1.2764345?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/231fb0c37f939736d19836f361ac65664e0c3b8bc33a3792edab7036334ae07c.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:43 | null | 2016-08-31T01:00:00 | Deep sense of shock in Co Cavan village where the Hawe family lived and died | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Fwords-ultimately-futile-as-ballyjamesduff-deals-with-tragedy-1.2773595%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773588.1472590198!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Words ultimately futile as Ballyjamesduff deals with tragedy | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The sole Sunday Mass at St Mary’s Church in Castlerahan, near Ballyjamesduff in Co Cavan is at 9am, and this Sunday, Clodagh Hawe and her 13-year-old son Liam were due to give the two readings. Their names are listed in this week’s single-sheet parish newsletter, copies of which were still lying in the vestibule of the church yesterday. Among the listings is a notice of a meeting in the local community centre about organising a tea-party for a forthcoming festival.
Above the table where the newsletters lay were two faded posters on the wall advertising support for anyone who may be at risk of suicide, or coping with its aftermath. The church was empty, but there was evidence that people had come there earlier in the day for solace, or to pray. Almost every spike on the brass plate designed to hold tealights contained a lit flickering candle.
You can see the playground of Castlerahan National School from the door of the church grounds opposite it.
This is where Liam Hawe went to school, and where his little brothers, Niall (11) and Ryan (6) were due to return to their classrooms this week. It is also where their father, Alan, worked as the school’s deputy principal. You only have to look at the size of this small primary school to understand something of the devastating impact of losing two of its pupils and one of its staff members must be having on the rural community it serves.
Three members of one family who walked through its door every day of the school year, will now never be coming back.
School playground
Yesterday afternoon, the school playground was empty, and the yellow venetian blinds were down on all the front windows, but the car park was full. Inside, staff members were meeting to discuss the tragedy of the Hawe family’s deaths, supported by visiting psychologists from the National Educational Psychological Service.
There was the sound of grass being methodically mowed on a neighbouring lawn. On the noticeboard outside the school, held neatly in place by magnets, was a single piece of paper; a short statement from the principal, Anne Foley.
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“This is a terrible tragedy for the family, our school and our community,” one of the sentences stated with bleak simplicity. “Niall and Ryan were pupils in our school and Liam was a past pupil. They were wonderful children who will be greatly missed by all who knew them.”
It is less than a five-minute drive from Castlerahan National School, through bucolic green fields with grazing cattle, to the entrance of the estate where the Hawe family lived. The Barconey Heights estate, on the left-hand side of the road towards Ballyjamesduff, has just four houses in it, arranged in a type of semi-circle.
They are all two-storey, with upstairs dormers, and are close enough to be in earshot of each other. The Hawes’ house is the third one, slightly uphill and partially hidden from the road, but unmistakable due to the crime-scene tape at its entrance.
Passing cars slowed down as they approached the estate, with many passengers blessing themselves as they were driven past. The entire estate was closed off to the public, with tape running between the red-brick entrance pillars and two gardaí on duty to ensure nobody walked in.
The complete absence of flowers and cards, or tributes of any kind from the public that have become a sadly predictable accompanying motif in marking tragic deaths, was striking. More than a day had elapsed since the dreadful news broke, but there were no flowers, cards, or messages at the entrance to the Hawe family home, nor any at Castlerahan National School, or at the church.
Flowers
If flowers are ultimately futile at such a time of horrific tragedy, so too are words.
On the streets of Virginia and Ballyjamesduff, members of the public did not want to comment on the deaths of five of their own fellow Cavan neighbours. When approached, people grimly shook their heads and turned away in silence.
Nobody had any words for what happened in the Barconey Heights house sometime on Sunday night or Monday morning, and they made it clear they did not want to try.
Clodagh Hawe was due back at work this week in her job as a teacher at Oristown National School. The school is a few miles outside Kells, past the golf club, and the extensive stone walls of Headfort School and its vast green demense.
The Oristown principal, Ann O’Kelly Lynch, said in a statement that “Clodagh was a much loved and valued teacher in our school”. Yesterday, children were back in their classrooms, in this small school in rural Meath, where one class was missing its teacher.
The first thing you see when you go in the school door is a laminated notice, affixed to the wall beside a copy of the 1916 Proclamation. It is headed “Child Protection” and carries the name of the school’s two designated child protection liaison officers.
Clodagh Hawe would have passed this sign every time she came to work. She could never have imagined that one unimaginable day her own three children would be in need of protection in their own home. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/words-ultimately-futile-as-ballyjamesduff-deals-with-tragedy-1.2773595?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/18337e0d63c167951085f4c7128f654e714a980d3b2b8f68cbf6a318473831da.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T06:51:29 | null | 2016-08-29T07:00:00 | Here’s the first stage times for the Main, Rankin’s Wood, Other Voices and Body and Soul stages. We'll have more for you tomorrow | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fmusic%2Felectric-picnic-first-look-at-the-stage-times-1.2769494%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769493.1472220361!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Electric Picnic: first look at the stage times | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | MAIN STAGE
FRIDAY
22.30-00.00 The Chemical Brothers
21.00-22.00 The 1975
19.30-20.30 Nas
18.15-19.00 ABC
17.00-17.45 Ryan Sheridan
SATURDAY
00.05-01.45 LCD Soundsystem
22.00-23.15 Noel Gallagher
20.30-21.30 Bell X1
19.00-20.00 Catfish & The Bottlemen
17.30-18.30 Gavin James
16.00-17.00 The Lightning Seeds
14.45-15.30 Hermitage Green
13.00-14.00 Trinity Orchestra
SUNDAY
22.45-00.00 Lana Del Rey
20.45-22.00 New Order
19.00-20.00 Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
17.30-18.30 James Bay
16.00-17.00 Local Natives
14.30-15.30 Toots & The Maytals
13.00-14.00 Dublin Gospel Choir
BODY AND SOUL MAIN STAGE
FRIDAY
02.45-03.30 Whilk & Misky
01.30-02.15 MOTHXR
00.00-01.00 FlexFab
22.30-23.30 The Altered Hours
21.15-22.00 TooFools
20.00-20.45 Talos
19.00-19.30 Myles Manley
18.00-18.30 Ollie Bell
17.00-17.30 Search Party Animal
SATURDAY
03.00-03.45 Plutonic Dust
01.45-02.30 Ninos Du Brasil
00.30-01.15 Girls Names
23.15 - 00.00 DBFC
22.00-22.45 Blaenavon
20.45-21.30 Ocho
19.30-20.15 Mario Batkovic
18.15-19.00 Áine Cahill
17.00-17.45 John Connolly Inc
16.00-16.30 Æ Mak
15.00-15.30 Hilary Woods
14.00-14.30 Elephant
13.00-13.30 Phil Cosby
12.00-12.30 Ailbhe Reddy
SUNDAY
02.45-03.45 Overhead the Albatross
01.30-02.15 Prince Rama
00.00-01.00 Ezra Furman
22.30-23.15 This Is The Kit
21.30-22.00 The Dead Heavys
20.15-21.00 Eleanor Friedberger
19.15-19.45 White Mice
18.00-18.45 Slow Place Like Home
17.00-17.30 Elm
16.00-16.30 Niamh Regan
14.45-15.45 Sing Along Social: Girl Power
13.40-14.15 Frankenstein Bolts
12.45-13.15 Pine The Pilcrow
11.45-12.15 Hvmmingbyrd
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RANKIN’S WOOD
SATURDAY
22.00-00.00 John Talabot
21.00-22.00 DJ EZ
19.45-20.30 Joey Badass
18.15-19.15 Glass Animals
17.00-17.45 Rejjie Snow
15.45-16.30 Girls Names
14.45-15.15 Brian Deady
13.30-14.00 Eve Belle
SUNDAY
23.00-00.00 District 8 DJ‘s
21.15-22.45 Adam Beyer
19.45-20.45 Animal Collective
18.30-19.15 Savages
17.00-18.00 Gorgon City
15.45-16.30 Picture This
14.30-15.15 Sample Answer
OTHER VOICES
FRIDAY
23:00-00.00 Rusangano Family
22:10-22.40 Word Up Collective
21:05-21.45 Saint Sister
20:00-20.40 Heathers
19:00-19.40 Holly Macve
18:05-18.35 My Sweet Beloved
17:00-17.40 Skipper’s Alley
16:00-16.40 Booka Brass
SATURDAY
23:15-00.15 Special Guest
21:45-22.45 Le Galaxie
20:15-21.15 Karl Blau
19:15-19.45 Fangclub
18:00-18.45 Special Guest
17:00-17.30 Sample Answer
16:15-16.45 Stephen James Smith
15:00-15.45 Dr. Dog
SUNDAY
21:40-22.40 Lynched
20:30-21.10 Margaret Glaspy
19:20-20.00 Jalen N’Gonda
18:10-18.50 Julia Jacklin
17:00-17.40 Basia Bulat
16:00-16.30 Special Guest
15:00-15.30 Loah
EARTHSHIP STAGE
FRIDAY
02.30-4.00 Barry Redsetta
01.30-02.15 R.S.A.G
23.45-01.00 Shane Mannion
22.20-23.45 Alice Club Night
21.25-22.00 The Clandestinos
20.20-21.00 Ye Vagabonds
19.30-20.00 5th Element & DoubleScreen
18.30-19.00 Mythill Grimm
17.30-18.00 New Pope
SATURDAY
03.00-04.00 Automatic Tasty
01.40-02.40 Toby Kaar
23.50-01.20 Donal Dineen
22.50-23.35 Patrick Kelleher
21.45-22.30 Sack
20.45-21.15 The Amazing Few
19.30-20.15 Road Wives
18.15-19.00 ROCSTRONG
17.00-17.45 Vernon Jane
15.45-16.30 Alright You Restless
14.30-15.15 The Louisiana 6
13.20-14.00 Flecks
12.00-13.00 Mutefish
SUNDAY
00.00-04.00 Mother DJs
22.30-00.00 Neil Flynn
21.25-22.10 Adultrock
20.25-21.05 Myles Manley
19.15-19.55 Malojian
16.15-18.45 Telephones
15.20-16.00 Hilary Woods
14.10-14.50 Black Wing Bird
13.00-13.40 Sion Hill
12.00-12.30 Sonnets & Sisters
THE BANDSTAND (BODY & SOUL)
FRIDAY
02.00-03.00 PolyGlove
01.00-01.40 Apollonia
00.00-00.40 El Grey
23.00-23.40Contour
22.00-22.40 Kojaque
21.00-21.40 Colorama
20.00-20.40 Al-Jive Mestizo
19.00-19.40 Clara Tracey
SATURDAY
02.00-03.00 Contour
01.00-01.40 We Eat Electric Light
00.00-00.40 Cantina Bop
22.00-22.40 Zaska
21.00-21.40 Daft as Punk
20.00-20.40 Apollonia
19.00-19.40 Johnny Rayge
18.00-18.40 Pine the Pilcrow
17.00-17.40 Kiruu
16.00-16.40 The Ocelots
15.00-15.40 Clara Tracey
14.00-14.40 Hoodman Blind
SUNDAY
01.00-02.00 El Grey
00.00-00.40 Colorama
23.00-23.40 My House Presents Prince
22.00-22.40 We Eat Electric Light
21.00-21.40 Cantina Bop
20.00-20.40 Cult Called Man
19.00-19.40 Publicity Machine
17.00-18.40 Special Guests: My House DJs
16.00-16.40 The Ocelots
15.00-15.40 Kiruu
14.00-14.40 Clara Tracey 18.00-18.40 Hoodman Blind
PEACE PAGODA (BODY & SOUL)
FRIDAY
02.00-04.00 Elrap & Zukat
00.30-02.00 Paper Trail Records
23.00-00.30 Optical Flow
21.30-23.00 Emmet HomeBeat
SATURDAY
02.00-04.00 No Place Like Drone
00.30-02.00 Sias
23.30-00.30 Quaker Meeting
22.30-23.30 Somadrone
21.30-22.30 The Dead Sex
16.15-17.15 The Trailblazery's Census of the Heart: What Does It Mean to Be Alive in Ireland in 2016
15.00-16.00 The Ecstasy of Life: John Cantwell & Karen Ward (Sli an Chroi)
12.00-13.30 Yoga with Art McHeart
SUNDAY
02.00-04.00 Frankie Grimes
01.00-02.00 CLU
23.00-00.30 Papa Lou
21.30-23.00 A Gorilla
15.00-16.00 Rainbow Breathwork: A Journey Through All The Chakras - Meredith Sloane
14.00-15.00 John G Coaching - Mind Calm Meditation
13.30-14.00 Q&A with Anna Cosgrave
12.00-13.00 Om Body - Gillian McIlroy & Fiona Loughran
The Ticket will be there for the get in, the get up and the get down all weekend in Stradbally. As the Electric Picnic’s official media partner, today we give you the first look at those elusive stage times. On Tuesday we’ll have the Electric Arena, Cosby, Little Big Tent, Theatre of Food and Mindfield schedule. And on Wednesday we’ll have the times for Jerry Fish Electric Sideshow, Comedy Tent, Salty Dog, Trailer Park, Global Green, Trenchtown and more.
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From next Friday we’ll be onsite at Stradbally proper, with our live blog for all your get-in news, traffic and weather updates, and those essential first-night reviews. We’ll have daily editions of The Ticket on-site on Saturday and Sunday, as well as online video, blog, news and feature content all weekend.
And if you need a little break from the musical affairs, we’ll have a full programme of talks at the expanded Irish Times Ticket tent in the Mindfield section. There will be discussions with the best arts and sports writers, panels with experts in film and TV, and a look at the state of our 100-year-old nation. | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/electric-picnic-first-look-at-the-stage-times-1.2769494?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/76d7976e3e4a412da103ef9abdd961b893a1c15376782f4a2823a2541323c02b.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T08:51:23 | null | 2016-08-29T07:40:00 | US dollar adds to gains made after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen indicated a US interest rate increase remains on the cards for this year | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmarkets%2Fasian-share-markets-tumble-1.2771796%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771795.1472453619!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Asian share markets tumble | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Most Asian share markets tumbled on Monday while the US dollar added to gains made after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen indicated a US interest rate increase remains on the cards for this year.
European markets also looked set for a weak start, with financial spreadbetters expecting Germany’s DAX to open down 0.7 per cent, and the blue-chip Euro Stoxx 50 to begin the day 0.6 per cent lower. British markets are closed for a holiday. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan extended losses to 1 per cent.
Japan’s Nikkei bucked the trend, closing 2.3 per cent higher, the biggest one-day gain in three weeks, as the yen weakened against the resurgent dollar. China’s CSI 300 index and the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.2 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.4 per cent.
The case for a US rate hike has strengthened in recent months, with a lot of new jobs being created, and economic growth looks likely to continue at a moderate pace, Yellen said in a speech at the Fed’s annual monetary policy conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday. While Yellen did not give guidance on what the central bank needs to see before raising rates, she said the Fed already thinks it is close to meeting its goals of maximum employment and stable prices. The odds of a hike in September rose to 33 per cent following the comments, from 21 per cent on Thursday, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool. Traders were pricing in a 59.1 per cent chance of a hike in December, up from 51.8 per cent on Thursday.
“While the move towards another Fed rate hike will likely cause bouts of consternation in investment markets I don’t see the same degree of uncertainty that we saw around last year’s Fed rate hike,” Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital in Sydney, wrote in a note. “It’s clear from the Fed’s actions this year that it is aware of global risks, the impact of its own actions on those risks and any potential blow back to the US economy and of the impact of a rising U.S. dollar in doing some of its work for it.”
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The comments from Yellen and Fischer dragged Wall Street lower at the close. But they proved a boon for the US currency, with the dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six global peers, jumping 0.8 per cent on Friday. It held steady at 95.552 on Monday. The dollar rose 0.5 per cent to a two-week high of 102.34 yen on Monday. That followed gains of 1.3 per cent on Friday, its biggest one-day advance in almost seven weeks.
Japanese household spending and retail sales data for July are due on Tuesday. Investors are seeking some sign that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s massive stimulus programmes are having an effect, after figures on Friday showed a decline in consumer prices by the most in three years in July.
The euro was flat at $1.120 after tumbling 0.8 percent on Friday, its biggest one-day slide since July 15. In commodities, crude prices retreated on the rally in the dollar and concerns about growing output after exports from Iraq in August exceeded July levels. Iran also said late last week that it would only cooperate in upcoming producer talks in September if other exporters recognized Tehran’s right to regain market share lost during international sanctions that were only lifted in January.
US crude futures dropped 1.5 percent to $46.95. Global benchmark Brent crude retreated 1.2 per cent to $49.31. The stronger dollar also weighed on gold. Spot gold slipped 0.2 per cent to $1,318.10, after earlier touching a five-week low.
Reuters | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/markets/asian-share-markets-tumble-1.2771796?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f6ff49dea95489531871ccc2d74059c321ff0382f6bcd8707d19deded4448435.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:52:18 | null | 2016-08-30T11:29:00 | Dr Saleem Sharif convicted for second time in five years | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Fcork-based-gp-guilty-of-poor-professional-performance-1.2772946%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772945.1472558741!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Cork-based GP guilty of poor professional performance | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A Cork-based GP has been found guilty of poor professional performance at the Medical Council for the second time in five years.
Dr Saleem Sharif, who operates a private practice at Ballyphehane, was found guilty of a single count of poor professional performance arising from his failure to diagnose a serious infection in a patient.
Dr Sharif failed to properly examine Alison Hickey when he was working as a locum doctor at the GP Now clinic in Sandyford, Co Dublin, in 2014, the fitness to practise committee of the council found.
Dr Sharif diagnosed a low-grade urinary tract infection in Ms Hickey but she was found to have suspected sepsis when she was rushed by ambulance to the Rotunda hospital a day later.
He pleaded guilty to poor professional performance and has offered to undergo a professional review. Dr Sharif has also apologised to Ms Hickey and her husband Karl.
The charges against Dr Sharif related to his failure to take an adequate history from Ms Hickey, or to carry out appropriate examinations or tests on her. She came to his clinic in October 2014, just over two weeks after giving birth to twins by emergency caesarean section.
Lack of judgement
Lawyers for the council told the inquiry he showed a worrying lack of clinical judgement and acted incompetently in jumping to the wrong diagnosis for Ms Hickey without performing the necessary investigations.
In 2011, the council found Dr Sharif guilty of poor professional performance in relation to his treatment of a cardiac patient in Cork two years previously.
Simon Mills, for Dr Sharif, said no question of “recidivism” arose in relation to the 2011 finding because there was no question about the quality of the examination he carried out on the patient in this case. What was at issue was the location where the examination was performed.
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Mr Mills said his client wrote an apology to Ms Hickey in January 2015 but this was not communicated to her by GP Now until a month later, and it was this lack of response by the practice that led to Mr Hickey making a complaint to the Medical Council.
Earlier, Eoghan O’Sullivan, for the chief executive of the council, said Dr Sharif had displayed many failings during his five-minute consultation with Ms Hickey and each was an “individual act of incompetence”.
Dr Sharif displayed a “worrying level of clinical judgement” by jumping to an incorrect conclusion about the condition of the patient without carrying out examinations or tests, he said.
Mr O’Sullivan said Dr Sharif, who trained in Pakistan, deserved credit for admitting to poor professional performance.
The patient, Alison Hickey, told the inquiry on Monday she was feeling very unwell and could barely walk when she went to see Dr Sharif.
Mr O’Sullivan said the significance of Dr Sharif’s various clinical failings could only be appreciated by reference to Ms Hickey’s circumstances. She had given birth to twins three weeks earlier, delivered by emergency caesarean section after she suffered pre-eclampsia.
Clinical failings
In a five-minute consultation, Dr Sharif’s clinical failings were numerous, counsel said. He didn’t take a detailed history of the patient, physically examine her or carry out tests. The shivers Ms Hickey was experiencing were indicative of a systemic infection, not the urinary tract infection he diagnosed, Mr O’Sullivan said.
“To jump to that conclusion and form that impression in the absence of taking a history and carrying out investigations displays a very worrying lack of clinical judgment.”
Mr Mills said there was no evidence Ms Hickey’s outcome was made worse by what happened at the appointment with his client.
Pleading for mitigation, Mr Mills said it would be disproportionate for the council to take any action that would affect his client’s professional registration. It would also be an error in principle to take into account the previous inquiry as evidence of recidivism. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/cork-based-gp-guilty-of-poor-professional-performance-1.2772946?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f89dcf28a5da27a6486e7329cdefd3812bb25530c7f3dab1de1f0ddea85e8e96.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:49:11 | null | 2016-08-31T00:01:00 | Returns up across the country, with Dublin hotels earning €16,913 profit for every room | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftransport-and-tourism%2Fhotel-profits-up-by-30-due-to-rise-in-rates-and-tourists-1.2773475.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773474.1472583888!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Hotel profits up by 30% due to rise in rates and tourists | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Profits at Irish hotels are rising at a “remarkable” pace due to high occupancy and near record room rates, more tourists, a strong domestic market and lack of pay rises in the sector, according to a detailed new study.
The 21st annual hotel industry survey by accounting and advisory firm Crowe Horwath, based on 2015 figures, found that profits per hotel room were up by almost 30 per cent across the country.
Due to higher occupancy and a proliferation of luxury properties in the city, Dublin hotels are by far the most profitable, earning operators an average of €16,913 in profits for every room, compared to €13,797 the previous year.
Hotel rooms in the southwest and western seaboard each earn hoteliers more than €8,000 in profits, although the rise was less than the national average.
The Midlands and east of the country (excluding Dublin) saw the sharpest spike in profits per room – up more than 40 per cent to €10,628 – due to a strong increase in non-accommodation revenues for hotels such as food and banqueting, Crowe Horwath said.
VAT rate
Confirmation that Irish hotels are hiking rates to boost profits is likely to fuel the debate over whether the Government should retain the special 9 per cent tourism VAT rate in the upcoming budget.
The special VAT rate was introduced during the recession to boost a then-desperately flagging sector. Hoteliers have argued it should be retained to help them remain price competitive. The data seems to suggest that the benefit of the taxpayer-subsidised VAT rate is now flowing straight to hoteliers’ bottom lines.
The Crowe Horwath study shows that the standard industry metric of revenue per available room (RevPar) was €65.52 on a national basis last year. It was €90.25 in Dublin, up from €75, proving that the city’s hoteliers are capitalising on the dearth of supply to hike rates in a competitive market.
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RevPar in the Midlands is €54.73, €56.59 in the southwest and less than €50 on the western seaboard. Bigger hotels and luxury hotels are performing best, due in part to more visitors from the US.
Lack of supply
Aiden Murphy, Crowe Horwath partner, said demand for hotel rooms in Ireland is now back at pre-recession levels. He said Dublin’s average room rates were still slightly below their 2006 peak of more than €120, but this record is expected to be surpassed in 2016.
“More supply is needed for the Dublin market. Dublin occupancy is at a natural high,” he said.
Mr Murphy said Dublin rates were €102 in March, when occupancy was 75 per cent. In the September peak, the average Dublin rate was €123 with occupancy at 92 per cent. He said this suggests that the required increase in supply could see rates drop by 20 per cent.
He said the effects of Brexit were not captured by the study, but Dublin could replace any lost British business easily. He warned, however, that the west could not so easily do so.
Despite the booming profits, Mr Murphy also warned against restoring VAT to its previous rate of 13.5 per cent, as it might stymie the investment and building needed to boost supply. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/hotel-profits-up-by-30-due-to-rise-in-rates-and-tourists-1.2773475 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/21b1fdc006336a44653e495ae57677787b33ff25f540f5b4dbacbd28c21b1c1a.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:52:37 | null | 2016-08-30T13:51:00 | CEO says new office an ‘important milestone’ for the life and pensions administrator | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Fse2-to-double-jobs-at-new-waterford-operation-1.2772938%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773043.1472561517!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Se2 to double jobs at new Waterford operation | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Life and pensions administrator Se2 said on Tuesday it would double the workforce at its Waterford operations to 135 employees over the next three to four years. The US company has an existing full-time team of 70, and hopes to fill out its 135-seat office over the coming years.
It opened its new Waterford offices onTuesday in what is an “important milestone” for the company, said chief executive Gautam Thakkar.
“ This is a sign of our continued commitment to the region, which is an important hub for our global service delivery model, and we are excited about this investment in our business.”
Se2 supports more than 1,000 life and annuity products for more than 20 clients, and has approximately $100 billion in assets under administration.
Janet Dulohery, vice-president and head of human resources with Se2, said the company was still interested in “hearing from ambitious people who are similarly enthused about making a real impact on the US life and pension industry”.
The announcement is the latest jobs win for the Waterford region. Earlier this year healthcare company OPKO said it would create 200 highly skilled jobs over the next five years through the expansion of its EirGen Pharma facility in Westside Business Park in Waterford. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/se2-to-double-jobs-at-new-waterford-operation-1.2772938?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/661b1f862554c637801a13ed180a206fdb3459e0253155eeffbf8ae2f67f93c4.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:52:15 | null | 2016-08-30T01:09:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Fproperty-prices-here-we-go-again-1.2772146%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | Property prices - here we go again? | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sir, – One of the features within the*The Irish Times* your residential property supplement that has been running since before the property crash of 2008 has been the “Take 5” slot. On August 25th, the five chosen properties were an 1850 French chateau in the Pyrenees region, set on two hectares and featuring 16 bedrooms; a three-storey villa in five apartments with swimming pool in Dubrovnik, Croatia; a large and impressive villa in Andalusia, Spain; and a restored five-bedroom farmhouse in Italy’s Le Marche region. All these four wonderful properties were on offer for €695,000. The Irish offering with a similar price tag was a bungalow in Wicklow town.
The same supplement offers a house in Dalkey for €6.5 million, last offered for sale in 2001 for half that price, while a modest house in Ranelagh is now on the market for over €1 million.
Reading this news, it is not difficult to experience a certain feeling of déja vu and to ask if the “good times” of the early Noughties may be on the way back. – Yours, etc,
DERMOTT BARRETT,
Rathfarnham, Dublin 14.
Sir, – Your editorial on rent controls (August 24th) makes the same mistake as most Irish commentary on housing of assuming that there is some sensible reason for costs to be so high in the first place. There isn’t. Housing should cost much less than it does.
It is only as a result of sustained government policy that housing costs so much in Ireland. High housing costs are popular with several key groups in Irish political life, and they have held the whip hand on this topic for decades. That sustained control of policy doesn’t mean that there’s actually a reason for housing to be so expensive. It’s just that expensive housing is popular.
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The solutions are also simple and politically unpopular for the moment. But make no mistake, it’s official policy to keep housing expensive rather than anything really related to the cost of building a house. Have a land tax rather than development levies. Have a land tax rather than VAT on new houses. Undo the effective limitation on foreign banks entering the country. Encourage importation of pre-built housing. And so on.
Too many people benefit from expensive housing.
The negative social impacts of expensive housing are and were entirely predictable and have been for decades. But no-one in power cares yet. – Yours, etc,
HUGH SHEEHY,
Dublin 4. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/property-prices-here-we-go-again-1.2772146?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f4623b6104581dab3281f8d7fb8c18bdf8e8840c84e9a901394d5610b1bb4556.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:52:09 | null | 2016-08-30T15:38:00 | Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations ‘have failed’, says Germany | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Ffrance-joins-calls-to-halt-trade-talks-with-us-1.2772911%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773173.1472567907!/image/image.jpg | en | null | France joins calls to halt trade talks with US | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Current transatlantic trade talks should be halted and a new set started, France’s trade minister said on Tuesday, adding his voice to some calls from Germany for an end to the negotiations.
Matthias Fekl said he would request a halt to negotiations with the US over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on behalf of France at next month’s meeting of EU trade ministers in Bratislava.
“There should be an absolute clear end so that we can restart them on a good basis,” he said on RMC Radio, adding he would suggest that course to fellow ministers.
German economy minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Sunday that TTIP negotiations had effectively failed after Europe refused to accept some US demands.
Mr Gabriel is the chairman of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD), who share power with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives. Many Social Democrats have serious reservations about TTIP but Dr Merkel backs the talks.
Her spokesman insisted on Monday that talks should continue, while Germany’s foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier – also a member of the SPD – said on Tuesday that both sides were still far away from agreeing on standards and procedures.
Discrepancies
Mr Fekl’s and Mr Gabriel’s highlighted discrepancies between the views in the EU’s two biggest economies and the official line from both the European Commission and the US Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman.
Three years of talks have failed to resolve multiple differences, including over food and environmental safety, but the USTR’s spokesman told German magazine Der Spiegel the negotiations “are in fact making steady progress”.
The White House has said this week it aims to reach a deal by the end of the year. “It’s going to require the resolution of some pretty thorny negotiations, but the president and his team are committed to doing that,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in Washington.
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The commission also remains upbeat. “Although trade talks take time, the ball is rolling right now, and the commission is making steady progress in the ongoing TTIP negotiations,” the executive’s spokesman, Margaritis Schinas, told a news conference in Brussels on Monday.
Consumers
Supporters say the TTIP could deliver more than $100 billion worth of economic gains on both sides of the Atlantic, but critics say the pact would hand too much power to big multinationals at the expense of consumers and workers.
Paris threatened to stall further negotiations as long ago as April, but there are national elections due in both France and Germany in 2017, and before the summer experts were saying that this year – ahead of the US presidential election – may be the best opportunity to strike a deal.
That prospect looks less likely now, and Britain’s June vote to leave the EU has further clouded the picture, even though the commission has a mandate to finalise TTIP talks on behalf of all EU 28 members. – Reuters | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/france-joins-calls-to-halt-trade-talks-with-us-1.2772911?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/1a7e6b3a90b44b87422ca937219616b265a20787674bbf0dd9fc241ddb3563e0.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:51:55 | null | 2016-08-30T01:01:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fan-irishwoman-s-diary-on-colorado-s-pursuit-of-hoppiness-in-a-stoned-utopia-1.2772168%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772163.1472487551!/image/image.jpg | en | null | An Irishwoman’s Diary on Colorado’s pursuit of hoppiness in a stoned utopia | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | And on the eighth day, perhaps, the almighty took another break to gaze at the Rockies: miles high, meringue-capped, and heaving with coyotes, campers, curs, coolers and camping gear.
Utopia, your name is Colorado!
At nosebleed altitudes, rampant outdoorsiness rules. Hawks and migrating pelicans make it a birding paradise.
From hikes to beer, bongs and bikes, it’s created for pursuit of happiness. Also hoppiness, insist inhabitants.
And hippiness? Further gilding the state’s beer-soaked reputation as the Napa Valley of handcrafted ales is the two-year-old legalisation of pot, grass, weed, Mary Jane, cannabis, marijuana, wacky tobaccy, or cannabis sativa, call it what you will.
In short, Colorado’s mellow. In tasteful, eco-friendly Boulder, locals down tools and head off by four to toke, blast, weed, sink a cool one, head out with the dogs. How refreshingly different from workaholic America is that?
Horses too: saddle bums abound. What could anyone possibly add?
Well, a visit to The Farm introduces us to the place my pal Cynthia calls “the Bloomingdales of dispensaries” – an upscale marijuana store.
Unvarnished wood hints at western vibes. Glass cases spotlight artsy blown-glass bongs. Their “merch” counter peddles T-shirts and Zig-Zag rolling papers.
Waiting customers peruse giant blackboards listing today’s harvest. A sales assistant sweetly explains “Diesel Dump,” “Couch Lock,” and “Head Band”. As far as I could make out, Couch Lock equals inability to rise from sofa; Head Band hits behind the eyes. I forgot what Diesel Dump means, but one puff knocks you into 2017.
“Oh, forget that crap!” hisses Cynthia. “They just get stoned and invent stupid names!”
Speculating on Jerry Garcia’s choice, we’re led to the consultation boudoir. Comely maidens fawn, then get straight to the point: up or down, painkillers or sleep aid, tinctures or tea? Cyn needs sleep aids, so we pay a modest sum for grass and gummies. It’s cash only, of course, since federal law still forbids canna-banking.
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We tried the gummies later; bingo, you’ll out-snore Rip Van Winkle.
Beer names run to the eye-rolling too – “Insane Rush” by Bootstrap, or “Great Divide Aged Yeti”.
In cutely western Niwot, Powder Keg Brewery runs tastings where chocolate stouts and IPAs rule.
The bars also have quirky names, like Powder Keg or Bootstrap or Left Handed (in deference to southpaw Arapahoe Chief Niwot).
Former Dubliner Dan Shine likes to satirise this with new “brews,” like chewy, mouthable Pong and Reek from Western Disposable Brewery ($12 the half bucket. “No two batches alike”.)
But it’s hard to satirise names that satirise themselves, so we sank “Totes McOats, oatmeal stout with notes of dark chocolate, brewed with significant toasted oats for silky-smooth mouth-feel”, and pronounced it passable. Meh.
Denver man Rich Grant runs the “Walking and Drinking Beer” website to try both simultaneously, and mostly succeeds.
His “100 Best Things To Do in Denver Before You Die” lists breweries and bars, including the newly renovated Union Station, now a beaux arts beer-and-bistro hall. It’s gorgeous, and so are the trains. (The one from the Rockies to San Francisco is not to be missed.)
Strolling the station with Kurt Wolff, a country music nut and IPA fancier, I asked for picks: “Well, Codename Superfan from Odd 13 is a regular in my fridge, I love it!”
Fresh, super-juicy, he went on, and I reflected Denver really is the place for the IT-savvy young, non-judgmental and super-easygoing, and encircled by outdoor pursuits. Its ever-improving downtown now enjoys a pedestrianised main drag sporting pink pianos, wider sidewalks for outdoor tables, and free shuttle buses – a good recipe.
Previously I’d visited its Animal Wildlife Sanctuary with its elevated walkway and 33 lions, its National Weather Service (NOAA), IM Pei’s Center for Atmospheric Research and its museums and zoo. All impressive. The western feel is earned.
Best of all is the old-timey Brown Palace Hotel off 16th Street, still there, and with the best resident piano player in the West.
Inside, a glass atrium soars from swanky dining and memorabilia all the way to heaven. Ladylike tables are set for afternoon tea: mini-sandwiches and porcelain.
Luckily, old-timey cocktails exist too: Negronis, Tom Collins. Kurt and daughter Violet and I sink into banquettes to listen to John Kite, their glorious resident pianist who takes any and all requests.
After Old Fashioneds, we asked for and sang La Vie En Rose, marveling at generous acoustics.
Utopia, your name is also Brown Palace Hotel.
And then there’s Nederland, podunk hamlet in the shadow of the Great Divide at 8,234 feet, and home of the Carousel of Happiness. A very simple pleasure, it’s an old-fashioned merry-go-round featuring a hand-carved menagerie revolving to the strains of The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. Rides are a mere buck (profits to charity). Created by local Scott Harrison, it uses an antique frame, and is run by volunteers. Writer-scholar Doug Cosper escorted me to a spotted cow while he took a gorilla.
It was absurdly touching. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irishwoman-s-diary-on-colorado-s-pursuit-of-hoppiness-in-a-stoned-utopia-1.2772168?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/06e660560a71fee256a8c039f770a626a070c2df36970e966fe6e371beee6bd3.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T22:52:20 | null | 2016-08-30T22:03:00 | Victim pulled from vehicle and dragged into driveway in Culdaff Gardens in Derry | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Ffast-food-delivery-man-40-ambushed-and-shot-in-ankles-1.2773633%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773629.1472591003!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Fast-food delivery man (40) ambushed and shot in ankles | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A 40-year-old man who was shot in both ankles in Derry on Monday night was a fast-food delivery man who was ambushed as he delivered an order to an address in the Creggan area of the city.
The victim was pulled from his vehicle as he arrived in Culdaff Gardens by four masked men who were armed with iron bars. They dragged him to a nearby driveway where the victim, a family man, was shot in both ankles.
The victim was taken to Altnagelvin Hospital where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
PSNI Chief Inspector Gordon McCalmont said the shooting happened at 10.35pm: “I would ask anyone with any information about this shooting to contact detectives at Strand Road Police station . . . or the independent charity Crimestoppers and speak to them anonymously.”
A local resident, who did not wish to be named, said he heard a car screeching to a halt seconds before the shooting. “I then heard the shots and the sound of a car being driven off at speed. When I looked out of my front window I saw the victim crawling on his hands and knees crying for help.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/fast-food-delivery-man-40-ambushed-and-shot-in-ankles-1.2773633?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/41018aad50e7496afabfb7c7aa499847fe5db98298f6c4aff9251f061bc55b49.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T04:52:24 | null | 2016-08-31T05:20:00 | Elizabeth’s Block is a detached warehouse of 1,329sq m and this includes 311sq m of office | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Foffice-and-warehouse-at-ballymount-for-sale-at-1-1m-1.2772895%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772893.1472548369!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Office and warehouse at Ballymount for sale at €1.1m | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A potentially high-yielding office and warehouse investment at Ballymount Cross Industrial Estate in Dublin 24 is on the market at €1.1 million through agent QRE.
Should it sell at its guide price the so-called Elizabeth’s Block on Ballymount Road Lower would reflect a net initial yield of 8.7 per cent.
The modern building is let on a 10-year lease from January 2010 at an annual rent of €100,000. There was a tenant break option at the end of year five, but this has passed.
Tenant Tocana Ltd specialises in the design, development and manufacture of electrical and electronic insulation solutions.
Elizabeth’s Block is a detached warehouse facility extending to 1,329sq m (14,308sq ft) and this includes 311sq m (3,352sq ft) of office accommodation. There is also a metal deck mezzanine level providing a further 335sq m (3,608sq ft) of space.
The building has a clear internal height of eight metres and loading access is via two automated roller shutter doors. An enclosed yard to the front has ample car parking.
Ballymount Cross Industrial Estate is 9.6km west of Dublin city centre. It is accessed via the Ballymount Road Lower, which is 0.4km from the Walkinstown Roundabout and 0.8km from the M50 Ballymount Interchange. Proximity to the M50 makes for easy access to all arterial routes. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/office-and-warehouse-at-ballymount-for-sale-at-1-1m-1.2772895?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/302a1489ad2c13baa2894d3f689507d15929126df662ba83907905211fbd8c64.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T14:50:29 | null | 2016-08-27T15:35:00 | Spurs resuce a point at White Hart Lane as Dutch goalkeeper thwarts Liverpool | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Fenglish-soccer%2Ftottenham-goalscorer-says-michel-vorm-is-the-real-hero-1.2770802%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770801.1472308509!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Tottenham goalscorer says Michel Vorm is the real hero | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Tottenham defender Danny Rose praised goalkeeper Michel Vorm following the 1-1 draw with Liverpool at White Hart Lane.
The Dutchman, in for the injured Hugo Lloris, pulled off a stunning early save to deny Philippe Coutinho and then reacted quickly on two occasions to pull off perfectly-timed slide tackles to take the ball away from Sadio Mane as he raced clear.
Rose, who scored Spurs’ equaliser after James Milner had fired Liverpool ahead from the penalty spot, felt a draw “was a fair result”, before hailing Vorm.
“To be fair, in the first half Michel Vorm has been our man of the match. He’s made some great saves, he’s come off his line well and I thought we played a lot better second half,” Rose told Sky Sports 1.
“We’ve got two outstanding sweeper-keepers at the club and when Hugo is not playing it’s great to have a second goalkeeper who can come in and do the job exactly like Hugo.”
Commenting on his goal, Rose added: “I took a gamble, I didn’t want to go forward too much because the pace of Mane is frightening but I managed to get in at the back post and to be honest I think I shanked the goal but they all count and I’m glad that it went in.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/tottenham-goalscorer-says-michel-vorm-is-the-real-hero-1.2770802?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/566e017081985390a6a734bffadf06fd343fb0982a2e7322fb165c3d9fee06fc.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:51:16 | null | 2016-08-29T01:06:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Fmeath-is-open-for-business-1.2769820%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | Meath is open for business | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A chara, – I refer to the article headlined “Cork and Limerick could be the new powerhouse region” (Business, August 24th). Yes, they could, and I wish them every economic success. However, there’s analternative to Dublin as a powerhouse and it’s right on your doorstep.
Meath County Council has initiated the “Make it Meath” project, the first of its kind by a local authority, to attract jobs and people to Meath by virtue of being like Dublin, only better.
The county boasts a highly educated workforce, many of whom reluctantly commute for work into Dublin in the mornings and come home happily to Meath in the evenings. By getting more industry to locate in Meath, we can turn that daily commuting grind while immediately taking pressure off Dublin’s creaking infrastructure.
Our initiative has seen us identify “ready to go” industrial sites; we have a dedicated economic development team that helps all major industrial projects to completion and we have a fast-track planning system for these projects.
There are four motorways giving rapid access to both airports and seaports, so you can get from Navan centre to San Francisco in around 14 hours, including the mandatory airport early check-in.
If the State’s industrial agencies, who have been very supportive of our initiative, concentrated on developing industry in Meath, then Ibec’s submission for the massively expensive Dublin outer orbital motorway and the completion of the Eastern Bypass, mentioned in the article, could well be redundant and those funds put to better use.
We have great people in Meath, a great quality of life and relatively affordable housing (like the rest of the country we will be building many more homes).
The best part, though, is that it’s all here now, and already we have attracted big names like Facebook, Alltech and Shire to set up in Meath.
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Our new “Make it Meath” website goes live next month, and then we’ll be asking everyone in Meath, Dublin and beyond to tell people that Meath, Ireland’s most business-friendly county, is open for business. – Is mise,
JACKIE MAGUIRE,
Chief Executive,
Meath County Council,
County Hall,
Railway Street,
Navan,
Co Meath. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/meath-is-open-for-business-1.2769820?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/9a73c96068636b88baee812b77f3fba2f9c383929c0d559df6acba760d64c416.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T12:51:36 | null | 2016-08-29T12:52:00 | 18-year-old Amy Sharp offers Sydney news station alternative in Facebook comment | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Foffbeat%2Faustralian-fugitive-asks-media-to-use-more-flattering-photo-1.2771922%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771921.1472473065!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Australian fugitive asks media to use more flattering photo | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A young woman has received kudos on social media for offering a more flattering mugshot to media reporting on her escape from a Sydney police station.
Amy Sharp (18) escaped from the Surry Hills Corrective Services Cell Complex just after 3pm on Friday.
The police statement alerting the public to her escape was accompanied by two images they had taken of the young woman, wearing a glum expression and a red blanket over her shoulders.
Both the photos and the statement were shared to Sydney’s 7 News Facebook page.
Almost immediately, Ms Sharp commented on the post from her personal profile with a more flattering image of herself and a simple request: “can you use this photo, please and thank you, Yours Truly, Amy Sharp xx”
Her comment was accompanied by an angelic emoji and had been liked more than 60,000 times at time of writing.
Her public cover picture on Facebook describes herself as “just a lil princess with anger issues”.
She was later arrested just after midnight on Saturday in Wentworth Park, not far from where she escaped.
Despite Ms Sharp’s polite request, 7 News Sydney used her mugshots in a follow-up post alerting their followers to her arrest.
A spokeswoman for New South Wales police confirmed that Ms Sharp was charged with escaping lawful custody as well as an outstanding warrant, and appeared at Parramatta bail court on Saturday.
Guardian Service | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/offbeat/australian-fugitive-asks-media-to-use-more-flattering-photo-1.2771922?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/8f6d6f018db1cf95607b7c5d616c0e7ebca40452bd3167a45d8143cb0cbd232f.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:52:46 | null | 2016-08-31T07:00:00 | Economics professor’s novel ideas stretched the tactical boundaries of the game | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgaelic-games%2Feamon-o-shea-s-service-to-tipperary-cause-merits-recognition-1.2773494%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773490.1472585064!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Eamon O’Shea’s service to Tipperary cause merits recognition | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | In this week of all weeks, the mind wanders to what Eamon O’Shea is doing. Could be anything, really. Most likely, he has his nose deep in some new piece of research that will make up the hard yards of some piece of public policy down the line.
Since departing the intercounty hurling scene last August, Professor O’Shea has been published twice in peer reviewed journals – once in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and once in Ageing Resource Communities: New Frontiers Of Rural Population Change, Community Development and Volunteerism.
O’Shea was always the most interesting man in the room.
Half the time you weren’t entirely sure whether he really wanted to be there or if it was more that being Tipperary manager was just a thread he had pulled on out of curiosity one day and he was following it the end because he got a kick out of discovering new things. At a press day before the 2014 All-Ireland final, he teased out a question about separating the enjoyment of the experience of a big game from the result.
“I think that’s an interesting question, from the point of view of being involved in voluntary activity. Maybe if I was professional it would be more difficult for me. But the enjoyment of the game for me is paramount. I understand that as manager I’m expected to compete and win. But I also understand that when you go to a game against Kilkenny, in an All-Ireland final or down in Nowlan Park for the qualifier [in 2013], it’s a special hurling occasion. “And you can enjoy that at some level at some stage afterwards. You don’t enjoy the result, you’re devastated. But you can say, ‘That was a tremendous experience,’ and say, ‘To be part of something like this, not personally but for the team and the tradition, is something extraordinary.’
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“Where we’ve been to has been a good experience for everybody at the end of this. The result will determine how you’re remembered in a sense but I don’t care, really. I know what has happened here. I know I’ve worked with a really good group. That’s what matters to me.”
Reading that back two years later, it isn’t the thoughtfulness of the response that catches the eye. It’s more that such a question wasn’t laughed out of the room.
Nobody asks Brian Cody if he can separate his enjoyment of a game from the result. Maybe we should. Maybe we’d be surprised at the answer. That seems unlikely, though.
O’Shea was a different sort of character, one that you never quite felt the rest of the hurling world really took to. For such a mercurial sport, the innate suspicion of hurling folk towards anything remotely tippy-tappy or airy-fairy is strong indeed. O’Shea’s teams had a bad habit of losing tight games in a distinct manner – outhorsed and outfought by teams that usually weren’t as talented as them.
A classic of the genre was against Limerick in the 2014 Munster Championship. Leading by a goal in the 68th minute, Tipp were beaten by two points come the final whistle. Beside me in the New Stand press box, a Grand Old Hurling Man stood up and pronounced gleefully: “Sure that’s the nutty professor for you.”
Derek McGrath is getting a bit of that these days. There’s a strain of anti-intellectualism in the game that pooh-poohs anything beyond existing orthodoxies and it does hurling no credit. It’s the most virulent type of hurling snobbery – not only is our sport better than yours, this one way of playing it is better than anything new that comes along. Even if it is, there’s nothing attractive in being dogmatic about it.
Mick Ryan has changed Tipperary’s style over the past 12 months, from the midfield up especially. They still have sparkling hurlers but they are undeniably more rugged now, more lustful for the battle. They look more suited to what Kilkenny will bring to the final, as former star Eoin Kelly summed up in these pages a few weeks back.
“I would say Mick was tired of looking at six Noel McGraths in his forward line,” said Kelly.
“That’s probably the best way to put it. Tipp had a forward line where there was skill in abundance, a load of players who’d put the ball in your eye if you asked them to. But there was nobody there who’d kill a fella for you.”
Killing a fella wasn’t Eamon O’Shea’s way, it’s true. His thinking on it would be that a fella didn’t need to be killed when he could be got around or dragged into an area he didn’t want to be. Better to bamboozle him, twist him and turn him to distraction. No animals were harmed in the making of his Tipperary teams. As we all knew he would, O’Shea melted back into civilian life with barely a backward glance. Save for an interview in the Irish Examiner ahead of his keynote speech at the GAA’s annual coaching conference last January, he has scarcely been heard from. No punditing on TV, no newspaper columns, none of that stuff. Not his bag.
You’d hope that he gets his due, though. If Tipp win on Sunday and they bridge the gap to 2010, it will be Mick Ryan’s triumph, no question. But a little of it will be O’Shea’s too.
Even the snobs would surely grant him that. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/eamon-o-shea-s-service-to-tipperary-cause-merits-recognition-1.2773494?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/8c084d80190b155fb3494e21215c0d1a741bcf681bf13409a48b4c1cccce0a78.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:51:46 | null | 2016-08-29T15:54:00 | Dr Ogechi Chuku left St James’s Hospital after complaining of feeling sick | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Fhospital-doctor-guilty-of-leaving-post-without-informing-anyone-1.2772064%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | Hospital doctor guilty of leaving post without informing anyone | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A hospital doctor who left her post without telling colleagues or arranging for the handover of patients has been found guilty on two counts of professional misconduct.
Dr Ogechi Chuku, a locum senior house office at St James’s Hospital at the time of the incident in November 2014, was cleared of a third count of professional misconduct relating to her contacts with a consultant in the hospital’s emergency department.
The fitness to practise committee of the Medical Council said it was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Dr Chuku had left her post early without informing colleagues, and that this amount to professional misconduct.
It rejected as “not credible” her contention that no doctor or nurse was present in the department in the 15 minutes before she left after feeling unwell.
“The committee was satisfied from the evidence of Dr Chuku that she had not suffered any medical collapse such as would have prevented her from informing any person of her intention to leave the hospital,” it found.
The committee also accepted the evidence of other staff that Dr Chuku made no arrangements to transfer t he care of her patient to another doctor or nurse before leaving and said her “brief note” did not amount to a clinical handover.
This failure was a serious falling short of the standards to be expected of a senior house officer, it said.
The case against Dr Chuku arose after the consultant, Dr Una Kennedy, complained about her behaviour on November 23rd, 2014.
Dr Chuku, who is now in the US and gave evidence by Skype, told a hearing last month she could not find a doctor or nurse in the emergency department to tell them she was too ill to keeping working on that day. She told the committee she had been feeling so ill she thought she might pass out, had searched for someone to tell but could not see anyone.
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She was new to Ireland and it was not an easy period for her. She said she wrote “doctor unwell” on her patient’s notes and made it back to her apartment.
She said she thought she had left the notes at the nurses’ station but they were subsequently found on a security man’s chair. Her phone was on silent and she did not use voicemail, she said. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/hospital-doctor-guilty-of-leaving-post-without-informing-anyone-1.2772064?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/78b30fc9c86480609815f844b24dc6cfe4dff48d4d217c56c3a745409d74238d.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T04:48:59 | null | 2016-08-30T05:35:00 | Shopping centre’s owners, Hines, HSBC and Grosvenor, seeking to sell | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Fliffey-valley-centre-attracts-canadian-and-german-funds-1.2772109.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772107.1472485032!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Liffey Valley centre attracts Canadian and German funds | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, which was narrowly beaten in April in the race to buy the Blanchardstown Centre, is among parties circling the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre in west Dublin, according to sources.
The centre, which was put up for sale in recent months with a €600 million price target, has also attracted Germany’s largest public pension fund, Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) in Munich, the sources said.
The process is being kept tight, with four to five parties involved, with a view to selecting a preferred bidder for the property by the end of September and closing a deal as soon as possible thereafter.
A consortium led by Hines, a US-based international commercial property firm, and HSBC Alternative Investments hired real-estate investment bank Eastdil Secured in recent months to sell the shopping centre. The two firms had paid about €250 million in 2014 for a 73 per cent stake in the mall, with total floor area of 46,500sq m (500,000sq ft), buying out UK insurance giant Aviva.
No comment
A spokesman for the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board declined to comment, while representatives for BVK, Hines and HSBC didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The remaining 27 per cent stake in the centre is owned by the Grosvenor Group, the UK property group operated mainly on behalf of the new Duke of Westminster, Hugh Grosvenor (25), who is set to inherit his father’s £9 billion (€10.5 billion) estate following the latter’s death earlier this month.
Grosvenor Group, which has been involved the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre since it was developed and opened in 1998, also plans to exit its investment under the current process. Grosvenor’s core property portfolio comprised 300 acres of Mayfair and Belgravia in London.
While there has been speculation in property circles that Hines plans to remain a minority investor in the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre in order to retain its position as the property’s asset manager, sources said that the Houston, Texas-based firm plans to exit its investment. However, it remains open to being retained as asset manager, should the new owner require one, they said.
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Separately, BVK hired Hines earlier this year to identify and buy European retail property on its behalf.
Planning permission
Last week, South Dublin County Council planners granted planning permission for a 51,545sq m extension to the Liffey Valley centre, including a 2,500-seat Olympic-sized indoor ice arena, capable of hosting international skating, ice hockey matches and entertainment performances.
Investor interest in Irish retail centres has surged in recent times as consumer demand recovers following the economic crisis. German insurer Allianz and UK property group Hammerson paid €1.85 billion last year to acquire loans associated with the Dundrum Town Centre and 50 per cent stakes in the Ilac Centre in central Dublin and Pavilions Shopping Centre in Swords from the National Asset Management Agency.
Last month, Hammerson and Allianz secured underlying ownership of the Dundrum centre and a neighbouring six-acre site earmarked for mixed-use development under a consensual deal with Chartered Land, the Joe O’Reilly-controlled company that developed the asset. The deal also allowed Hammerson to take ownership of the Ilac and Pavilions stakes.
US investment group Blackstone closed a €950 million deal in June to acquire the Blanchardtown Centre from Green Property. The Canadian Pension Investment Board and Chartered Land, backed by financing from Morgan Stanley, had also been in the mix for the 20 year-old centre.
Data released by the Central Statistics Office on Monday show retail sales, excluding motor trades, increased by 2.7 per cent by volume in the year to July. The Central Bank sees personal consumer spending rising by 4.5 per cent this year, having returned to growth last year following the downturn. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/liffey-valley-centre-attracts-canadian-and-german-funds-1.2772109 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/97715ebe2138fd4cbda33fb06c84f5876704835d70badd5499e6bc5d2684d3af.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:51:40 | null | 2016-08-29T01:00:00 | Committee played no role in the engaging of Pro10 for Rio Olympics, study shows | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Foci-executive-did-not-appoint-ticket-reseller-review-finds-1.2771403%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771402.1472418069!/image/image.jpg | en | null | OCI executive did not appoint ticket reseller, review finds | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The executive committee of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) played no role in appointing the council’s authorised ticket reseller for the Rio Games, a trawl of the organisation’s minutes has indicated.
A study by law firm Arthur Cox of minutes dating to March 2014 “shows the appointment of Pro10 was not brought to the attention of, or approved by, the OCI executive committee”.
The committee members were notified of the outcome of the study at the weekend by the three-member crisis committee established after OCI president Pat Hickey was arrested in Rio earlier this month.
Police in Brazil are investigating suspected illegal dealings in the sale of tickets for the Olympics.
One key question arising from the crisis concerns who in the OCI was in control of the ticket-selling regime.
Last week, lawyers for John Delaney, chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland and a vice-president of the OCI, took issue with media reports from Rio that quoted local police as saying they had been told he was part of the OCI’s decision-making in relation to tickets for the Rio Games.
At the weekend the Irish Daily Mail published an apology to Mr Delaney.
It said that if he had been asked for a comment before publication of a report on the matter, the sports chief would have said he had “no role whatsoever in any decision-making” regarding the OCI’s ticketing licence for Rio.
It is Mr Delaney’s first public comment on the controversy.
Pro10
Pro10, an Irish business established last year, was the OCI’s authorised ticket reseller for the Rio games.
The international group it normally used, THG, had been refused a licence by the Brazilian authorities to act as a reseller, a year before the games.
Earlier this month, Brazilian police found hundreds of tickets allocated to the OCI in the possession of Kevin Mallon, an Irish executive with THG.
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THG has said Mr Mallon was merely acting as a “collection point” for customers of Pro10.
Mr Hickey has said he has not been involved in any wrongdoing, as has THG. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/oci-executive-did-not-appoint-ticket-reseller-review-finds-1.2771403?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/dbab533ef7e785b0cadb246b251e442b196e53fa3789448a13ce401c1d741768.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T12:53:06 | null | 2016-08-31T13:01:00 | State psychological services assisting teachers and students in Castlerahan and Oristown | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fshock-and-sadness-at-schools-where-hawe-parents-taught-1.2774309%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774308.1472644866!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Shock and sadness at schools where Hawe parents taught | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The first cars started arriving at Castlerahan National School just after 8.30am on Wednesday.
The school’s deputy principal, Alan Hawe, killed his wife Clodagh and their sons Liam (13), Niall (11) and six-year-old Ryan in their home near Ballyjamesduff. Their bodies were found on Monday morning at their home. Niall and Ryan attended the school, while Liam was a past pupil.
Teachers and counsellors carried toys, flowers, cakes and several two-litre containers of milk into the school, along with their laptop bags. They were grim-faced and pale and looked as if sleep had been scarce lately. They had nothing to say. There was nothing to say.
Ten minutes later, the blinds were opened. Each front classroom window had someone stationed behind it, watching out and waiting for the first children to arrive. When the first car pulled up a few minutes later, with three small boys, the school door was held open for them, and they were warmly greeted as they ran inside.
Then the cars started arriving in numbers. Many parents dropping off children did not immediately get out of their cars. They sat in their cars for up to 10 minutes, talking intensely to their sons and daughters, before getting out and starting the walk together to the front door. Being late to class was irrelevant on this particular first day back at school.
Stony-faced and subdued
Many children being dropped off were accompanied by both parents, holding their hands tightly. Parents were stony-faced, and subdued, nodding silently at each other in acknowledgement, while the younger children laughed and ran ahead to join friends. Many parents carried cards in white envelopes, which they handed over at the door.
Some of the older children were slower to walk up the school path. One boy of perhaps 11, reluctantly went inside, and then soon came out again, accompanied by both parents. They walked him slowly around the basketball court, heads close together, arms around each other, while he pulled up his hood and put his fists in his eyes.
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Some families arrived together in a convoy of cars, choosing to walk in together as a large group. Hands patted shoulders. People shook their heads. They pulled each other in for tight hugs. They gathered up their children and walked as one into the school.
In all of this, it was also a first day at school for its youngest pupils. Those were the smallest children, with the longest uniform skirts and the whitest knee-socks and the baggiest jumpers. They carried new backpacks featuring characters from Star Wars and Frozen and the Minions.
They skipped across the playground to the front door. They had no idea, one hopes, of what had happened to two of their fellow pupils and the deputy principal who should have been at the door to greet them on their first day at school.
It was very quiet. The nearby church bells of St Mary’s rang at 9am, and sounded loud as cannons in the school car-park, where the loudest sound for almost an hour was the crunch of gravel under car tyres.
Counselling available
Virtually all parents accompanying their children went inside the school, and stayed there for up to half an hour and more. Counselling was being made available to children, teachers and parents, by the psychologists from the National Educational Psychological Service. Some parents emerged red-eyed, holding tissues balled up in their hands.
For an hour or so, cars were double and triple parked beside each other in the carpark, hemming each other in. It didn’t matter. Everyone knew where to find each other, and why they were parked so erratically on this morning. Eventually, everyone drove away, the front door closed, and the first school day of 2017 at Castleranhan National School finally began.
Meanwhile, it looked for all the world like normal first day back at school for the children of Oristown National School, where Clodagh Hawe taught.
Shortly before 9am, cars began arriving outside the school, pulling in by the low white wall at a busy junction in a rural area where traffic flies by between Kells, Navan and Slane.
Three girls in uniform dropped their schoolbags at the front door and began to shoot basketball hoops as other children trickled through the gate. Some parents – mostly mothers - waited for some time with their children in the car, before opening doors for them, planting schoolbags on their bags, hugging them and sending them on their way.
Noise and play
The yard soon filled with children and their noise and play, and they were greeted by teachers as they lined up to enter the school.
A long summer holiday filled with the things of childhood comes to an end with the devastating news of the death of their young teacher.
Colleagues, themselves grieving Ms Hawe’s loss, will be assisted by counsellors from the National Educational and Psychological Service in helping their young pupils to deal with the tragedy.
Parents and teachers gathered at the school gates on Wednesday did not wish to speak to reporters and one referred to a statement already issued by the principal, Ann O’Kelly Lynch.
Ms O’Kelly-Lynch said on Monday that Clodagh Hawe was a much loved and valued teacher and that she would be greatly missed by all who knew her.
“This is a terrible tragedy for the families, schools and the communities involved. We are deeply saddened by this event. Our sympathies and thoughts are with Clodagh’s family and friends.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/shock-and-sadness-at-schools-where-hawe-parents-taught-1.2774309?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4ca1a2741cf006112c2bcd1ddf2d2c34202221c9305bb7a88deccbc8f1cc5bae.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T14:48:50 | null | 2016-08-29T13:50:00 | Demand for automobiles lifts spending, paves way for Fed interest rate rise this year | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fus-consumer-spending-rises-in-july-inflation-remains-tame-1.2771947.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771946.1472478961!/image/image.jpg | en | null | US consumer spending rises in July; inflation remains tame | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | US consumer spending increased for a fourth straight month in July amid strong demand for automobiles, pointing to a pickup in economic growth that could allow the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this year.
The Commerce Department said on Monday that consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of US economic activity, rose 0.3 per cent last month after an upwardly revised 0.5 per cent gain in June.
July’s increase was in line with economists’ expectations. Spending was previously reported to have risen 0.4 per cent in June. When adjusted for inflation, consumer spending also gained 0.3 per cent in July after advancing 0.4 per cent in June.
Consumer spending appears to have retained some of its momentum from the second quarter, when it grew at a 4.4 per cent annual rate, the fastest in nearly two years. That jump helped to mitigate some of the impact of a sharp inventory drop and prolonged business investment downturn.
The economy grew at a lackluster 1.1 per cent growth rate in the second quarter.
July’s consumer spending data added to reports on the goods trade deficit, industrial production, durable goods orders and residential construction that have pointed to an acceleration in economic growth early in the third quarter.
The Atlanta Fed is currently estimating third-quarter GDP growth rising at a 3.4 per cent annual pace.
Consumer spending is being driven by a tightening labour market, which is steadily lifting wages. Rising home values and stock market prices, which are boosting household wealth, are also supporting consumption.
Fed chair Janet Yellen told a gathering of global central bankers on Friday that she believed the case for raising interest rates had been strengthened in recent months by the “solid performance of the labor market and our outlook for economic activity and inflation.”
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Last month, there was little sign of inflation pressures even as consumer spending firmed.
The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, excluding the volatile food and energy components, edged up 0.1 per cent after a similar gain in June.
In the 12 months through July the core PCE increased 1.6 per cent. It has risen by the same margin every month since March. The core PCE is the Fed’s preferred inflation measure and is running below its 2 per cent target.
Consumer spending last month was lifted by a 1.6 per cent surge in purchases of long-lasting manufactured goods such as automobiles. Spending on services rose 0.4 per cent, but outlays on non-durable goods slipped 0.5 per cent.
Personal income increased 0.4 per cent in July after rising 0.3 per cent in June. Wages and salaries advanced 0.5 per cent. Savings rose to $794.7 billion from $776.2 billion in June.
Reuters | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/us-consumer-spending-rises-in-july-inflation-remains-tame-1.2771947 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/a00291fa14f0bd52eed76c0cb6ebfec67003dac90912c3447b8a5b0988aa14d6.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T22:50:10 | null | 2016-08-26T22:20:00 | Irish Olympian receives masters degree in sports performance at University of Limerick | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fhe-missed-a-medal-at-rio-but-thomas-barr-is-still-a-master-of-sport-1.2769913%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769912.1472246296!/image/image.jpg | en | null | He missed a medal at Rio, but Thomas Barr is still a ‘master of sport’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The old sports adage says “nice guys finish last”, but Irish Olympian Thomas Barr is one of the exceptions.
With his record-breaking 400 metres hurdle Olympic final performance from Rio just eight days old, a masters degree in sports performance was conferred on Barr at the University of Limerick yesterday.
None of his 24 fellow class graduates could argue that the accolade “master in sports performance” rested best on the Waterford native’s shoulders. Barr received a standing ovation as well as his scroll in a crowded UL Concert Hall.
Speaking afterwards, he said of the tribute: “It was insane. I was nearly more taken aback by that than when I was running in the stadium, because I was so out of my comfort zone. It was amazing.”
His emphatic performance in Brazil, in which he became the first Irish man to run an Olympic 400 metres hurdle final in over 80 years, has “still has not sunk in,” added Barr, who also has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from UL.
“I still feel like the same person, but now it just takes a bit longer to go down to the shop to get a bit of bread, because I have to chat to a lot people,” he joked.
Barr said he owed everything to UL, where he met his coaches, Drew and Hayley Harrison. He also paid tribute to his parents, who convinced him to continue running when he had all but given up on an athletics career. “I was on the verge of giving up the sport, but I got into a really good training group at UL, and, my parents convinced me to stick with it. I met my coaches, Hayley and Drew Harrison, here.
“They brought me on to where I am today. I also joined up with Tommy Cummins, a strength and conditioning coach who’s also based out of Limerick. It’s a team that’s really worked well.”
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The 24-year-old, whose academic skills still flourished despite him spending day and night on the UL athletics track, added: “I’m glad I came here. I’ve come away with two degrees as well.”
Barr now has his sights firmly set on taking a medal at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. “I’m finished studying and I’m going to focus on my athletics career and be a full-time athlete. I’ll be based in UL for the next few years. I’ve a good set-up here,” he added.
“He is one of our greatest Olympians,” UL president Don Barry noted.
Barr’s parents, Tommy and Martina, and sister Jessie attended the ceremony.
“We’re very proud of him. He has excelled in both his athletics career and his academic career – there’s nothing more I can say,” Barr’s father said. “He’s got a smart head, and he blew us away in Rio. Today has been a really proud day for us,” added his mother Martina.
The last word was left to Barr’s grandmother Breda French (78), who simply said: “I love him to bits.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/he-missed-a-medal-at-rio-but-thomas-barr-is-still-a-master-of-sport-1.2769913?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/ed76c16e2993304361950347256be15744709839ac2da6249c12a8c91b22de17.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T06:48:39 | null | 2016-08-29T07:39:00 | Jobs come as part of a new€10m investment programme by the medical devices firm | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fhealth-pharma%2Fvistamed-to-create-200-new-jobs-in-co-leitrim-1.2771794.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771793.1472452746!/image/image.jpg | en | null | VistaMed to create 200 new jobs in Co Leitrim | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Medical devices firm VistaMed is to create 200 jobs in Co Leitrim as part of a new €10 million investment programme.
The announcement was made as the company, which produces catheter and extrusion devices, officially opened a new research and development facility in Carrick-on-Shannon.
The company already employs 325 people in Co Leitrim where it is also in the process of expanding its current manufacturing facility in Rooskey, Co Leitrim, by 45,000 square foot.
Recruitment for the new roles is already underway with 37 jobs already filled. The company said it expected all positions to be filled by the end of 2019.
The company, which was founded in 1999, said it had seen increased demand in the global medical device market for the services it provided. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/health-pharma/vistamed-to-create-200-new-jobs-in-co-leitrim-1.2771794 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/75189e66eb96971b884f97333cc78ba29f30318fecbcf2ed4c7ef8fac2766085.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:52:31 | null | 2016-08-30T16:00:00 | Homelessness campaigner calls on Government to use compulsory purchase powers | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fsocial-affairs%2Fempty-homes-should-be-seized-for-social-housing-mcverry-says-1.2773205%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773203.1472569234!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Empty homes should be seized for social housing, McVerry says | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The Government needs to employ compulsory purchase powers to seize empty private homes to use as social housing, homelessness campaigner Fr Peter McVerry has said.
The number of homeless people placed in emergency accommodation by the Peter McVerry Trust increased by almost 90 per cent last year, according to the charity’s annual report.
The organisation said it made 3,847 emergency placements last year.
Speaking at an event to mark the publication of the report, Fr McVerry said he expected these figures to increase again this year.
“This time last year I said 2014 was the worst year on record for homelessness. So this time I have to say that 2015 was an even worse year . . . for homelessness, and I suspect that I’ll be saying this time next year that 2016 was the worst year on record for homelessness.”
He said the doubling of the number of homeless children was particularly shocking.
“This time last year we had just over 1,000 children who were homeless in this country and 12 months later we have just over 2,000 homeless children.
“What’s even more shocking than the figures is the fact that nobody is shocked,” he said.
“This has become the new norm and if the present rate continues we will be ‘celebrating’ 3,000 homeless children next year and nobody is going to raise an eyebrow.”
Homelessness was increasing because more people were becoming homeless but fewer people were being moved on into permanent housing, he said.
“What we’re doing at the moment is trying to empty the bathtub with the taps fully on.
“More and more people are flowing into homelessness and unless that is stopped we will never solve the problem of homelessness.”
However, he did not believe that there was a problem with a lack of housing, but that there was a lack of willingness to seize empty houses.
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“I believe there is no solution to homelessness without interfering with the right to private property . . . There are probably 130,000 households on those social housing waiting lists and there are 186,000 empty residential units in this country.
“Why we simply can’t take over those and use them for homelessness beats me.”
Compulsory purchase orders on many of those units would solve the supply problem, he said.
“The problem is Governments don’t like compulsory purchase order on private property, but we do it if we want to build motorways, why can’t we do it if we want to house families?”
Government action
Speaking at the same event, Minister for Housing Simon Coveney said the Housing Agency was spending €70 million on buying houses from banks and investment companies for use as social housing.
However, he said the housing waiting lists could not simply be cleared by using compulsory purchase orders to acquire vacant homes.
“A lot of the vacant properties in the county are in places were there is not a lot of housing demand.
“In Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo, or Donegal there are unfinished housing estates, and a lot of vacant housing, but the real pressures are in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford in terms of housing need.”
Homelessness figures would not rise again next year, he said.
“I do not accept the view that there is no response and no urgency and no concern at the levels of homeless families, homeless children, and homeless people in Ireland right now.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/empty-homes-should-be-seized-for-social-housing-mcverry-says-1.2773205?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/311899abf6666a9b09245a8a3913a62523b149b30c633b9ce0975d8cd8cccf4e.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T14:50:58 | null | 2016-08-28T15:31:00 | President makes comments at reception for Team Ireland at Áras an Uachtaráin | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fserious-issues-over-irish-part-in-olympics-says-michael-d-higgins-1.2771007%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771005.1472394676!/image/image.jpg | en | null | ‘Serious issues’ over Irish part in Olympics, says Michael D Higgins | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Serious doping and administration issues surrounding Ireland’s part in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games could undermine public confidence in sports, President Michael D Higgins has warned.
The Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) has been embroiled in major controversy after its president Pat Hickey was arrested during a Brazilian police investigation into alleged ticket touting at Rio 2016.
Irish boxer Michael O’Reilly tested positive for a banned substance.
There was also controversy over a series of boxing result decisions at the Games.
President Higgins held a reception for the Irish Olympics team at Áras an Uachtaráin in Dublin.
‘Serious issues’
He admitted there were “serious issues” surrounding Ireland’s involvement in the Olympics, but that they should not overlook the achievements of the athletes involved.
Some 26 members of Team Ireland, back from Rio de Janeiro, attended the Áras an Uachtaráin reception hosted by President Higgins and his wife Sabina.
The President acknowledged the Rio Games had thrown up “serious issues” for both the Olympic movement and for Ireland. These included doping, questionable refereeing decisions and what he called “the controversy around the administration of our sports”.
He added: “Each of these issues, if not adequately addressed, has the potential to undermine public confidence in our athletes, in our sporting administration and in the fairness of international sporting competition itself.”
President Higgins welcomed the justice of awarding a bronze medal won at the London Olympics to Rob Heffernan, and the gold medal won at the World Championships in Berlin to Olive Loughnane.
Among those present at the reception at the Áras were silver medallist Annalise Murphy and her family, Thomas Barr, who finished fourth in the 400 metres, diver Oliver Dingley and several members of the hockey, rowing and equestrian teams.
Conspicuously absent
Conspicuous by their absences were the O’Donovan brothers, Paul and Gary, who are making their way back from the World Rowing Championships in Rotterdam, where Paul won gold.
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None of the boxers were present either, though Paddy Barnes, the Irish flag bearer in the opening ceremony, was listed to attend.
President Higgins told them that medals were a “crude measure” of success, and by other criteria Ireland had had a better Olympics in Rio than in London.
There had been 14 top 10 finishes in Rio compared to eight in London, and 14 top 20 finishes compared to six in London.
A ‘decorous’ homecoming
President Higgins acknowledged the success of the O’Donovan brothers and hoped there would be a “decorous” homecoming in Skibbereen.
He said he hoped the success of the athletes “will encourage young people to participate in some of the less traditional but rapidly growing sports, that they get the opportunity to train to elite level and to reach the heights of the Olympic Games in years to come”.
Minister for Sport Shane Ross was there with his deputy Patrick O’Donovan, along with several members of the OCI, including vice-president William O’Brien. None spoke at the reception.
Afterwards, Thomas Barr said the controversies were “politics - and we’ll leave that to the politicians”.
Barr said he was happy to be a positive story out of the Games. “I was actually thrilled to be part of such a positive spin on the Games considering there was so much negativity around it.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/serious-issues-over-irish-part-in-olympics-says-michael-d-higgins-1.2771007?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/36283d789f259c33f61b5b38990d0e346ed7ecbedaf600073532f47b8bf942b8.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:52:30 | null | 2016-08-30T15:00:00 | Unveiling in Athy, Co Kildare on centenary of famous Antarctic rescue | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fpolar-explorer-ernest-shackleton-cast-in-stone-in-home-county-1.2773003%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | Polar explorer Ernest Shackleton cast in stone in home county | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A century to the day since Sir Ernest Shackleton rescued the crew of his ship Endurance from Elephant island in the Antarctic ocean, a statue to the polar explorer has been unveiled in his home county of Kildare.
The adventurer’s grand-daughter Alexandra Shackleton performed the event in Athy’s Emily Square with Fine Gael Mayor of Kildare Ivan Keatley on Tuesday.
The statue, which was commissioned from sculptor Mark Richards by Kildare County Council as part of its decade of commemorations programme, has been billed as the first public monument to the explorer in his birth county and state.
A Naval Service guard of honour and colour party paid tribute to Shackleton’s life at sea, and Athy singer Jack L performed The Wearing of the Green, which was originally sung by Kerryman Tom Crean on an epic trip with Shackleton to rescue their crew in 1916.
“I felt jolly near blubbing for a bit and could not speak for several minutes,” team member Frank Wild wrote after Shackleton’s arrival back on August 30th, 1916, on the steamer Yelcho to rescue the crew of the Endurance (italics).
The Endurance crew of 28 had set out in 1914 to make the first traverse of Antarctica via the South Pole, but the ship became trapped and crushed in pack ice. On April 24th 1916 , Shackleton and five crew, including Irishmen Tom Crean and Tim McCarthy set out in a timber lifeboat on an 1,300km sea journey to South Georgia to get help for their 22 comrades stranded on Elephant island.
With no loss of life, it is regarded as one of the most famous sea rescues on record.
‘Pure Spielberg’
Shackleton was born in Kilkea, near Athy, in 1874, but moved to England when he was ten years old and left school at the age of 16 to go to sea. He qualified as a master mariner, participated in Robert Scott’s Discovery expedition to the Antarctic from 1901 to 1904, and led his own team south in 1908 to come within 97 geographical miles of the South Pole. The Endurance was his third expedition south.
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Earlier this year, the British embassy in Ireland held a reception to honour the members of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-1916, with then ambassador to Ireland Dominick Chilcott describing the Kildare man’s exploits as “pure Spielberg”. Mr Chilcott also said he hadn’t known of Shackleton’s Irish lineage until his own diplomatic posting here.
Seamus Taaffe of the Shackleton autumn school said that the statue unveiling marks an important milestone in efforts by the Athy Heritage Centre-Museum to develop a Shackleton museum in the town.
The museum recently acquired the ship’s cabin in which Shackleton died, and which was located by Corkman Eugene Furlong in Norway. It is currently being restored in Letterfrack, Co Galway, with a view to relocating it to Co Kildare.
Sculptor Mark Richards’s previous work includes a statue of GAA legend Nicky Rackard in Selskar square in Wexford. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/polar-explorer-ernest-shackleton-cast-in-stone-in-home-county-1.2773003?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/64c993e164ec705eb6f514ef9da5a074925cc54557df45f9b713ea4085409716.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:53 | null | 2016-08-31T01:01:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fa-furry-friend-s-furlough-an-irishman-s-diary-about-the-search-for-pete-briquette-1.2773405%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773403.1472577263!/image/image.jpg | en | null | A furry friend’s furlough - An Irishman’s Diary about the search for Pete Briquette | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Our cat Pete Briquette went missing three weeks ago, so far without trace. His disappearance happened, as I since realised, four years to the day since I first found him, as a wet, week-old kitten on a bog road in Tipperary.
But unless he was some kind of replicant, like the humanoids of Blade Runner (they also had a four-year lifespan, with a self-destruct mechanism if Harrison Ford didn’t get them first), that was just a coincidence.
Call of the wild
For an added omen, the date in question was August 12th, the traditional “Scattering Day” at Puck Fair. So maybe Pete too felt some ancient call of the wild. In any case, he scattered, to a place or fate as yet unknown.
I scoured our neighbourhood in the days afterwards, lest he be squashed on a road somewhere. He wasn’t. Then I toured his favoured hunting grounds, including our stately neighbour, the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, whose precincts are separated from us by a 12ft wall.
Situation
I had to rescue him from there once when the place was in lockdown for a meeting of EU finance ministers. This involved explaining the situation to a Garda at the gate and then being accompanied to the scene from which we could hear Pete’s plaintive miaowing.
Naturally, being a cat, he stopped miaowing when we found him and instead behaved as if he had never seen us before, while the security cordon looked on suspiciously. But that was then. This time, he wasn’t to be found there either.
Among the worst-case scenarios we constructed was one in which, with typical promiscuity, he had crept through an unknown neighbour’s bedroom window and then fallen asleep, just before the neighbour shut the window and went on holidays, or emigrated. That too was gradually eliminated from our inquiries.
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Pigeon
A few days into the cat-hunt, meanwhile, a stricken pigeon turned up on in our road. It was just old or sick, or both. But it could no longer fly wherever birds go to die, and it was roasting in the August sun. So I took it in and put in our back yard, where it immediately found a sheltered roost, on the crossbeam under a table.
This was tempting fate, since if the prodigal feline returned in the night, he would surely help himself to the fatted bird (we had left the pigeon supper, in case he was hungry). Sure enough, in the morning, our avian guest was dead. But it was apparently of natural causes; there was still no cat.
If Pete has come to a bad end somewhere, well, my consolation is that it happened four years later than it might have done. On our first meeting, I almost mistook him for a scrag-end of turf, fallen off the back of a trailer. Only that the scrag-end developed ears at the last moment, I might have crossed him with my front car-wheel.
Pet
Reprieved, he lived to become an urbanised pet – much-loved if often exasperating, especially at four o clock in the morning, when he liked to serenade us from bedroom window sills, demanding to be let in; or to dance on piano keys downstairs, demanding to be let out.
He also had a bad habit of attacking our other cat – an extremely antique animal that, despite Pete’s daily assaults, lived to be about 100 in feline years before making a final, one-way journey to the vet’s earlier this summer.
I wonder now if that last event had anything to do with Pete’s subsequent disappearance. Maybe he missed not having the old cat around to torture and has gone searching for him.
But assuming he hasn’t been killed, or programmed out, I like to think he is just on an extended ramble somewhere, getting in touch with his feral side.
Predator
He was never quite tamed during four years with us. Although he got used to being picked up and petted, he always hated it.
And he remained a relentless predator to the end – of mice, rats, birds, or occasionally wild dogs (when watching, as he sometimes did, the David Attenborough programme).
So he should be resourceful enough to survive living rough. But who knows? Maybe he has found another host family somewhere – one with better food or furniture. In which case, fair enough.
Cats are cats – there’s no point being anthropomorphic about them. So if Pete is safe and enjoying a new life somewhere, I can only wish the ungrateful little bastard well. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/a-furry-friend-s-furlough-an-irishman-s-diary-about-the-search-for-pete-briquette-1.2773405?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/fc6191eda20e6a79dd9f6867c7e7b5dddfefa9af6baafc0a59055c788c590f34.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T04:47:40 | null | 2016-08-27T05:25:00 | Levy payment is at centre of escalating row between Goodman firm and farmers’ group | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fagribusiness-and-food%2Fifa-funding-threatened-by-fall-off-in-levies-in-beef-sector-1.2769590.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769606.1472225946!/image/image.jpg | en | null | IFA funding threatened by fall-off in levies in beef sector | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) is facing substantial losses in income with several beef processors reporting a major fall-off in levy contributions in the wake of recent pay scandals.
The Irish Times has learned that farmers and cattle dealers who supply up to 50 per cent of the beef to Ireland’s largest processors have opted out of the levy, which part funds the farmers’ group.
This compares to an average opt-out rate of less than 20 per cent at the same firms a year ago. The companies, which did not want to be named, account for the majority of beef processing in Ireland.
The fall-off in farmers paying the levy in the dairy and mart sectors is not thought to be as large. Two big dairy processors said the decline in levy payments, which are deducted from all farm sales to co-ops, processors and marts, was not significant.
Levy
In March, the IFA reported a 12 per cent decline in revenue from the levy across all sectors not just beef, but nothing like the mass opt-out some had predicted in the wake of organisation’s high-profile pay debacle last year.
Larry Goodman’s ABP group, however, upped the ante last week by ceasing the automatic collection of the levy.
In response, the IFA accused the Goodman firm of sabotaging its funding and cancelled the ABP’s authorisation to collect the levy, effectively jettisoning up to €300,000 in contributions from ABP suppliers.
There is growing concern within the IFA that other processors may follow ABP’s lead in shifting the onus on farmers to contact processors if they want to pay.
About a third of the IFA’s €13 million annual income comes from the European Involvement Fund (EIF) levy, which was ostensibly set up to fund the group’s lobbying operation in Brussels.
Rumbling disquiet about how the levy is collected has ratcheted up since the IFA’s pay debacle last year.
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However, the fractious relationship between the beef industry and the IFA may also be factor in the variation in opt-out rates.
In 2014, the IFA organised blockades of meat factories in protest at what farmers claimed were low cattle prices and the significant variation between prices here and in the North.
The IFA also claims Mr Goodman’s move was motivated by the group’s opposition to ABP’s planned acquisition of 50 per cent of Slaney Meats. The claim is strongly denied by ABP.
Deal
The Slaney deal, if cleared by competition authorities, will give ABP control over a quarter of the beef processing sector in Ireland.
An IFA-commissioned report submitted to the competition authority is understood to suggest that the proposed Slaney deal is likely to weaken competition in the processing sector here by making co-ordinated effects in the relevant markets more likely.
IFA president Joe Healy said earlier this week that many farmers and processors had been in contact to express their support for the stance taken by the IFA.
The organisation is also facing a possible showdown with former general secretary Pat Smith, who is suing his former employer over a €2 million severance package agreed prior to his departure, which was subsequently withheld. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/ifa-funding-threatened-by-fall-off-in-levies-in-beef-sector-1.2769590 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/92cb6f7d6d444ba707bb5452f497f7feea077fb8fbeb5623a9c190573c3b003f.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T06:51:43 | null | 2016-08-29T06:55:00 | Music streaming site said to be retaliating against musicians who introduce new material exclusively on rival Apple Music | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia-and-marketing%2Fspotify-is-burying-musicians-for-their-apple-deals-1.2771789%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771788.1472450115!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Spotify is burying musicians for their Apple deals | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | An escalating battle between Apple and Spotify is leaving some musicians caught in the crossfire.
Spotify has been retaliating against musicians who introduce new material exclusively on rival Apple Music by making their songs harder to find, according to people familiar with the strategy. Artists who have given Apple exclusive access to new music have been told they won’t be able to get their tracks on featured playlists once the songs become available on Spotify,said the people, who declined to be identified discussing the steps.Those artists have also found their songs buried in the search rankings of Spotify, the world’s largest music-streaming service, the people said.
Spotify said it doesn’t alter search rankings.
Spotify has been using such practices for about a year, one of the people said, though others said the efforts have escalated over the past few months. Artists who have given exclusives to Tidal, the streaming service run by Jay Z, have also been retaliated against, the person said, declining to identify specific musicians.
Biggest challenger
Apple’s music service has emerged as the largest challenger to Spotify over the past year, signing up more than 15 million subscribers since its debut last June, the company said two months ago. Exclusive deals for new music from artists such as Drake, Chance the Rapper and Frank Ocean are central to Apple’s strategy.
Spotify has more than 30 million subscribers globally.Apple Music also has ways to promote artists, such as highlighting their songs in its Top Tracks section, giving it ways to play favorites with musicians.
The dustup over exclusives comes at a critical time for Spotify, which is in the midst of renegotiating licensing contracts with the world’s biggest record labels. The company is aiming to hold an initial public offering by the end of next year, but needs more favorable long-term agreements with the labels to attract a higher valuation from investors, according to a person familiar with the plans. The company isn’t profitable despite generating more than $2 billion in revenue, in part because it has to give 55 per cent of the money to labels and an additional cut to publishers.
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It’s not clear whether major artists like Drake and Ocean have been affected by Spotify’s measures, and their representatives didn’t respond to questions. In any case, artists of their stature need less help from Spotify to draw attention to their music, emerging acts rely on the service to find new listeners.
The company has threatened to use its retaliatory practices on lesser-known artists who introduce music on a Beats One show hosted by DJ Zane Lowe, an architect of Apple’s radio service, the people said.One representative of a singer-songwriter said the client canceled plans to debut a song on Lowe’s show because of concern that the artist would lose promotion from Spotify. The agent asked not to be identified, and that the artist not be named, to avoid damaging relationships with the music-streaming companies.
Lowe, a former BBC radio host, has introduced new tracks from his first day on the air with Beats One, and his show has become an important platform to debut songs worldwide.
Ratcheting up
Apple and Spotify have been feuding since before Apple Music’s debut, and competition between the two ratcheted up again in the last several weeks after Apple proposed changing songwriting royalties in a way that would increase costs for competitors like Spotify by putting its music in a different category that requires a higher rate.
Spotify has also accused Apple of blocking a new version of its iPhone app, the latest volley in an ongoing dispute over Apple’s cut of sales from its app store. Apple denied blocking Spotify’s app, saying its rival hadn’t met its terms of service.
Led by former record executive Jimmy Iovine, Apple Music has kept its strategy flexible to appeal to what an artist wants. In the case of Frank Ocean and Drake, the company paid for exclusives. With Adele and Beyonce, it agreed to keep the music off its streaming service and initially only make it available for a paid download. The company also has been appealing to artists and industry executives by limiting its streaming service to paying subscribers and not having a free advertising-supported version like Spotify.
Spotify has decried exclusive deals as harmful to musicians, fans and the growing business of music streaming. However, it has sought to make exclusive deals with some artists, such as rock band the 1975, but refused to limit the release to the company’s paid service only, as labels and musicians have sought, two of the people said.
Spotify has said a robust free service is needed to attract new users who can eventually become subscribers.
Record labels are still pushing Spotify to let artists release music for paying subscribers only, and have yet to sign new long-term deals with the service as a result.Yet Apple’s ability to attract those big exclusives may also be in jeopardy. In an internal memo this week, Lucian Grainge, chief executive officer of Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, directed the heads of his company’s labels to stop giving any music services long-term exclusives, according to two people familiar with the matter. Universal has sold Apple many of its biggest exclusives, including Drake.
Bloomberg | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/spotify-is-burying-musicians-for-their-apple-deals-1.2771789?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/555427d51b7f03f2bf78b0d3229fd19085305ff728c9edfcd08cae61e7cbf2fe.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T18:51:10 | null | 2016-08-28T17:48:00 | Kerry had led by five points at half-time after scoring two quick goals | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgaelic-games%2Fgaelic-football%2Fdublin-get-their-neck-in-front-in-the-nick-of-time-1.2771129%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771126.1472402871!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Dublin get their neck in front in the nick of time | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Dublin 0-22 Kerry 2-14
Excuse us, please, while we gather our breath back, because Dublin and Kerry have just delivered another hands down football epic which neither words nor reason can do immediate justice.
Only after the crippling tension lifted and nerve-endings were revived could we be sure that Dublin were the team left standing, Kerry the team out on their feet. It was a game that absolutely could have gone either way – and that was in the five minutes of added time alone.
Once upon a time, Dublin beating Kerry in this sort of fashion would have been against the grain of hope and tradition, only not anymore – as they once again dug into their vast reserves of strength and self-belief to claw back a five-point deficit at half-time, and with that keep on track their quest for the their first back-to-back All-Ireland titles since the 1970s.
It couldn’t have come more hard-earned, however, as Kerry made them fight and fret and fight again for it every step of the way – or at least every step of a second half which seemed to stretch out and last forever.
That’s because Kerry’s crazy goal rush just before half-time turned the game upside down and inside out – both scored into the Hill 16 end, as if to add insult to injury, both at least partly the fault of Dublin’s chief of defensive police, goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton.
Everything up to that point had screamed of a Dublin victory, with apparent ease too, as Kerry struggled to come to terms with their own game plan as much as Dublin’s.
Instead, the full house at Croke Park was treated to a second half of the purest football tension – Dublin slowly chipping away at Kerry’s advantage, as Kerry all the while appeared to have just enough to keep their noses in front.
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Only as the game spilled into those five minutes of added time did the margin appear mildly decisive: Dean Rock, who scored a remarkable 0-12 on the day, had first drawn Dublin level, before as if on cue Kevin McMananon – the man who had broken Kerry hearts before – fired them in front for the first time in that second half.
Still, and justifiably so, Kerry weren’t beaten yet as Stephen O’Brien squared it up again, punching the ball over the bar with a statement as much as a score.
Now it was all and everything to play for, and both teams knew it. First, James McCarthy set up Eoghan O’Gara, and even if it seemed there was some latitude with the steps, there was no denying O’Gara’s powerful score.
Not long after that it was Diarmuid Connolly who scored the safety point, McManamon crashing into Peter Crowley while setting up that point, although again there was no arguing with the finish. Kerry had nothing left to give, nor did the time.
That it extends their now four-game championships losing streak to Dublin, which for Kerry was already bordering on the unacceptable, will be only part of the afterthought. Dublin go on to face Mayo in next month’s All-Ireland hotly fancied and duly tested to win a first back-to-back All-Ireland since Kerry, in 2006-2007.
That Kerry were the team surrendering their advantage at the death was in strange conflict with the start, because six minutes in and already Kerry’s defence looking in danger of snapping , and with ease, as if Dublin were putting a scissors to a piece of string.
Philly McMahon tested the length of goalkeeper Brian Kelly’s left arm, and luckily for Kerry it was just about long enough, preventing an otherwise certain goal from a move that had started with a Cluxton kick-out, then moved up the field with stunning precision.
Rock converted the resulting 45 and not long after added his first from play, then a free – and with that Dublin were suddenly coasting, four points clear of Kerry’s zero and Croke Park already tangled up in blue.
At last, Kerry found some breathing space, David Moran breaking free down along the Cusack Stand to score their opening point, after 14 minutes of play. The Kerry support greeted it with relief more than celebration. Dublin supporters, meanwhile, greeted any possession by Kieran Donaghy with an audible jeer.
Kerry were being murdered on their own kick-outs, losing two fatal ones in succession, towards the end of the first half, the most telling of which was won by Ciarán Kilkenny and passed straight off to Brogan, who promptly and cleanly sliced the posts.
Any Kerry possession of real value was promptly directed into the full forward line, and although Paul Geaney was getting his hands on some, his only return was a trio of points. Half an hour in, Kerry needed goals, and they knew it.
Suddenly they had not one but two: without warning, it seemed, yet clearly by design, Kerry pushed up on the Dublin kick-outs and punished them. Cluxton kicked right and straight into the hands of Geaney, who picked out Donnchadh Walsh, and from there into the thunderbolt path of Darran O’Sullivan – his shot, and himself, then crashing into the Dublin goal with unstoppable force.
So, that levelled it – Kerry’s 1-6 to Dublin’s 0-9; with five minutes left in the half, Kerry were only getting going. Cooper then added a beauty from just right of Hill 16, Dublin’s defence still in a state of mild shock. Then, Anthony Maher soloed the ball around the 45-metre line with apparent ease, as if Dublin forget how to tackle; from there he lobbed the ball into the Dublin goalmouth, Geaney darting in and then up to beat Cluxton to the ball and delivering just enough force to spill it into the net, before Cluxton could spill it out.
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Cooper, now as buoyant as ever, chipped over another free before the end of the half – which had Kerry lording it at 2-8 to Dublin’s 0-9, a five-point advantage which given where it had come from appeared invaluable.
If any team knew how to chip away at that it was Dublin, Rock a picture of calm over the placed ball, while Brian Fenton and McMahon all contributed to what must as one of Dublin’s finest comebacks in the Jim Gavin era – extending his winning streak to 27 games, stretching back to March of 2015.
Where exactly this one ranks only time will tell, but for now it feels right up there with the very best of them.
DUBLIN: Stephen Cluxton; Philly McMahon (0-1), Jonny Cooper, David Byrne; James McCarthy, Cian O’Sullivan, John Small; Michael Darragh Macauley, Brian Fenton (0-1); Paul Flynn, Kevin McManamon (0-2), Ciaran Kilkenny; Dean Rock (0-12, eight frees, two 45s), Diarmuid Connolly (0-3), Bernard Brogan (0-2).
Subs: Paddy Andrews for Flynn (46 mins); Paul Mannion for Small (51 mins); Eoghan O’Gara (0-1) for Macauley (60 mins); Michael Fitzsimons for Cooper (68 mins); Cormac Costello for Brogan (71 mins).
KERRY: Brian Kelly; Shane Enright, Mark Griffin, Killian Young; Aidan O’Mahony, Peter Crowley, Tadhg Morley; Anthony Maher, David Moran (0-1); Paul Murphy (0-1), Colm Cooper (0-5, four frees), Donnchadh Walsh; Paul Geaney (1-4), Kieran Donaghy, Darran O’Sullivan (1-0).
Subs: Stephen O’Brien (0-1) for O’Sullivan (40 mins); James O’Donoghue (0-1) for Donaghy (51 mins); Barry John Keane (0-1) for Walsh (52 mins); Brian Ó Beaghlaoich for Morley (57 mins); Bryan Sheehan for Maher (59 mins); Marc Ó Sé for Geaney (68 mins).
Referee: David Gough (Meath) | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/dublin-get-their-neck-in-front-in-the-nick-of-time-1.2771129?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/7a0eccc7c99e197cac3f92eea7dd3e58231ddb624371227f4391cdae783fef73.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T20:48:49 | null | 2016-08-29T17:29:00 | Government to embark on aggressive campaign to rebut the commission’s findings | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Feu-to-find-apple-owes-ireland-billions-in-back-taxes-1.2772178.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772176.1472497567!/image/image.jpg | en | null | EU to find Apple owes Ireland billions in back taxes | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The European Commission will in the morning find that Apple owes the Irish State “billions of euros” in back taxes when it rules that the technology giant’s tax arrangements in Ireland constituted a form of illegal state aid.
The ruling, to be announced in Brussels on Tuesday morning, will not stipulate a figure for the amount of tax owed, but will lay out a process and a formula by which the unpaid tax should be calculated.
It is expected that an indicative figure will be supplied by the commission later in the day. Sources who have been briefed on the matter say the amount of tax Apple will owe will be in the billions, rather than the hundreds of millions of euros that Dublin had hoped for.
However, the Government will appeal the commission’s finding, and says the money will not be available to spend, either now or in the future, Ministers have stressed. Depending on the terms of the decision, Apple may be required to pay the funds into an escrow account in the coming months.
Government Ministers will embark on an aggressive campaign to rebut the commission’s findings. “They are making up new rules for international tax,” said one Minister last night. “They are trying to make us tax Apple for stuff that doesn’t happen here. It’s nonsense.”
Strong defence
Apple is also certain to reject the finding and will launch a strong defence, while political sources said that they expect the US government to weigh in later in the week in support of Ireland and Apple.
The Apple tax ruling The European Commission is to issue a ruling in relation to the tax arrangements of Apple in Ireland, where the phone giant has its European HQ. It looks certain the EC will confirm a preliminary ruling that Ireland offers Apple illegal state aid in how it allows it to pay tax. It will then tell Ireland it must collect tax from Apple but Ireland is expected to appeal such a ruling fearing it will damage the drive to attract inward investment. Q&A: Cliff Taylor answers the key questions I found this helpful Yes No
However, the larger than expected size of the sum at stake will complicate the politics for the Irish Government, which is determined to avoid having to take the money.
While Fianna Fáil has supported the Government’s decision to appeal the decision, there was fierce criticism from other Opposition parties.
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“The Government is wrong to say they will appeal the decision no matter what,” said Pearse Doherty, Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman.
“They’ve been saying it’s a reputational issue. I think it’s more damaging to continue a fight that we will ultimately lose,” he said. The Government should accept the Apple money, he insisted.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd-Barrett said it was “outrageous” that the Government had already spent hundreds of thousands of euros on legal fees fighting the case.
Legal fees
Mr Boyd-Barrett discovered through a parliamentary question that the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Finance have already spent some €670,000 on legal fees fighting the case. The Government should accept the money as it would unpaid tax from any taxpayer, he said.
“This is money that could resolve our housing problems and the crisis in our hospitals,” he said.
However, the Government insists that even if the money if eventually paid to the Irish authorities, they will not be able to use it to finance current or capital spending. Instead, under EU rules the money must be used to pay down debt.
The contentious investigation has been under way now for more than two years. It concerns two tax rulings which the Revenue gave to Apple in 1991 and 2007. Last week the US Treasury accused the commission of acting beyond its powers in its investigations of the tax affairs of US multinationals and in particular objected to the idea of tax being collected retrospectively.
However, despite this the commission has pushed ahead with its final decision, which will be that Ireland offered illegal state aid to the US multinational.
Early estimates were that Apple could be asked to repay up to €19 billion in tax. While the final figure is expected to be substantially lower, sources say that there is no question but that it will be appealed by both sides.
The decision is expected to attract huge international attention. The Government is expected to immediately challenge the decision, saying that the reasoning used was unprecedented. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/eu-to-find-apple-owes-ireland-billions-in-back-taxes-1.2772178 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d54ba2dc6aa606445cb7e5093e894e1fc776e002018f5faccc6fc8fc9725d93a.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:58:34 | null | 2016-08-26T09:02:00 | Thwarted attack on activist used a text message that invited him to click on link | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Fapple-fixes-security-flaw-after-uae-dissident-s-iphone-targeted-1.2769255.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769254.1472198534!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Apple fixes security flaw after UAE dissident’s iPhone targeted | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Apple issued a patch to fix a dangerous security flaw in iPhones and iPads after researchers discovered that a prominent United Arab Emirates dissident’s phone had been targeted with a previously unknown method of hacking.
The thwarted attack on the human rights activist, Ahmed Mansoor, used a text message that invited him to click on a web link. Instead of clicking, he forwarded the message to researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab.
The hack is the first known case of software that can remotely take over a fully up-to-date iPhone 6.
Experts at Citizen Lab worked with security company Lookout and determined that the link would have installed a program taking advantage of a three flaws that Apple and others were not aware of. The researchers disclosed their findings on Thursday.
“Once infected, Mansoor’s phone would have become a digital spy in his pocket, capable of employing his iPhone’s camera and microphone to snoop on activity in the vicinity of the device, recording his WhatsApp and Viber calls, logging messages sent in mobile chat apps, and tracking his movements,” Citizen Lab wrote in a report released on Thursday.
The researchers said they had alerted Apple a week and a half ago, and the company developed a fix and distributed it as an automatic update to iPhone 6 owners.
Apple spokesman Fred Sainz confirmed that the company had issued the patch after being contacted by researchers.
The Citizen Lab team attributed the attack software to a private seller of monitoring systems, NSO Group, an Israeli company that makes software for governments which can secretly target mobile phones and gather information. Tools such as that used in this case, a remote exploit for a current iPhone, cost as much as $1 million.
NSO chief executive Shalev Hulio referred questions to spokesman Zamir Dahbash, who said the company “cannot confirm the specific cases” covered in the Citizen Lab and Lookout reports.
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Dahbash said NSO sells within export laws to government agencies, which then operate the software.
“The agreements signed with the company’s customers require that the company’s products only be used in a lawful manner,” he added. “Specifically, the products may only be used for the prevention and investigation of crimes.”
Dahbash did not answer follow-up questions, including whether the exposure of the tools use against Mansoor in UAE and a Mexican journalist would end any sales to those countries.
NSO has kept a low profile in the security world, despite its 2014 sale of a majority stake for $120 million to California private equity firm Francisco Partners. That company’s chief executive, Dipanjan Deb, did not return a call on Thursday. In November 2015, Reuters reported that NSO had begun calling itself “Q” and was looking for a buyer for close to $1 billion.
Sarah McKune, senior legal adviser to Citizen Lab, said Israel tries to follow the strictures of the Wassenaar Arrangement, which puts controls on the international sale of nuclear and chemical weapons technology and more recently cyber intrusion tools.
NSO may have had to apply for an export license, she added, saying that raised questions about “what consideration was given to the human rights record of UAE.”
The Israeli embassy in Washington did not respond to an email seeking comment.
NSO marketing material says that it also has capabilities for Android and BlackBerry devices. No version of the software has been exposed, indicating it remains effective.
Citizen Lab did not directly accuse UAE of carrying out the attack on Mansoor with NSO gear called Pegasus, but it said other NSO attacks on critics of the regime were connected to the government.
It also said a Mexican journalist and a minority party politician in Kenya had been targeted with NSO software and that domain names set up for other attacks referred to entities in Uzbekistan, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and other nations, suggesting that other targets lived in those nations.
A call to the UAE embassy in Washington was not immediately returned.
The market for “lawful intercept,” or government hacking tools, has come under increased scrutiny with revelations about authoritarian customers and noncriminal victims.
Two popular vendors, Hacking Team of Italy and Gamma Group of the United Kingdom, have had their wares exposed by researchers or hackers.
Mansoor had previously been targeted with software from both of those companies, according to Citizen Lab.
“I can’t think of a more compelling case of serial misuse of lawful intercept malware than the targeting of Mansoor,” said one of the Citizen Lab researchers, John Scott-Railton.
Reuters | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/apple-fixes-security-flaw-after-uae-dissident-s-iphone-targeted-1.2769255 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/3ed4c64dff16a9dc74d109ba5aa05d531b76f1dbd79d18e3d4a5e1cbe6c562c6.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:51:12 | null | 2016-08-28T16:27:00 | Women’s football GAA star may quit after Mayo beaten by Dublin in All-Ireland semi-final | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgaelic-games%2Fmayo-s-cora-staunton-may-have-played-last-game-for-county-1.2771064%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771058.1472398074!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Mayo’s Cora Staunton may have played last game for county | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Following Mayo’s agonising exit from the senior women’s All-Ireland championship, manager Frank Browne has paid tribute to Cora Staunton, who may well have played her last game for Mayo after an incredible 22 years of service.
Browne said he hoped that the 10-time All-Star would continue to line out for the county but was unsure as to whether Staunton would recommit for another season.
“I don’t know. Cora said all along that if she feels her body is able for it, she’ll go again. She’s just a phenomenal athlete, but to say that is to almost compartmentalise her because she’s a lovely person. She’s a brilliant role model for people as well.
“I hope she plays for a long time because she gave an exhibition again tonight.”
He added: “I read an article a couple of weeks ago about Cora [Staunton] saying that she was one of the top 16 most influential sportswomen in the country. That’s absolute rubbish, she’s one of the top three. If you ask people to name their top three Irish female sports stars, it’s probably Sonia [O’Sullivan], Katie Taylor and Cora Staunton.”
Staunton, a four-time All- Ireland medal winner, previously said she was 50-50 about returning to the Mayo panel at the beginning of this year and said it was getting more difficult, due to other commitments in her life.
In another superb display, Staunton posted eight points last night and was a half-turn away from adding a goal.
Mayo bowed out of the championship to Dublin last night in a thrilling All-Ireland semi-final that required a last-minute free from Sinéad Aherne to settle the tie.
Two yellow cards were doled out to either side in a highly physical encounter, and Browne says he thought other incidents during the game also warranted yellow cards.
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“We were briefed that there is a rule that a player has to have a head injury before play is stopped. That didn’t seem to happen. I thought there was potential for more yellow cards but that’s football and that’s why we love it.”
Reflecting on the disappointing defeat, Browne said it was “heartbreaking’ for the team, adding he would have to postpone making a decision on his own future with the team for another day. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/mayo-s-cora-staunton-may-have-played-last-game-for-county-1.2771064?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d3d92440b7db7ab5a03be2bb002ccccec763a114ab2da482dfdcfe9aa2a67c1f.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:49:14 | null | 2016-08-30T15:02:00 | iPhone maker’s market value stands at $573.5 billion; cash pile tops $230 billion | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Fapple-shares-cushioned-after-eu-ruling-by-cash-pile-1.2773112.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | Apple shares cushioned after EU ruling by cash pile | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Shares in Apple fell slightly in early trading in New York on Tuesday as investors largely shrugged off a European Commission ruling the company must pay up to €13 billion in unpaid taxes, plus interest, to Ireland.
Apple shares lost 0.3 per cent to $106.46 on the Nasdaq exchange within minutes of trading getting underway, giving it a market capitalisation of $573.5 billion (€514 billion).
Investors in the California-based group are likely to be “unconcerned on a relative basis” about the news, as the penalty, while large in absolute terms, “represents a small portion of Apple’s overall valuation,” according to Gene Munster, an analyst with US investment bank Piper Jaffray.
Apple and the Government in Dublin have strongly rejected the Commission’s findings that the iPhone maker secured selective tax advantages in this country under agreements with the Revenue Commissioners in 1991 and 2007. Both said on Tuesday they will appeal the ruling through the European Court of Justice.
“Given Apple’s cash pile of over $230 billion dollars, and the more than $53 billion in free cash flow expected this year, the company can easily afford to pay any potential bill,” Dublin-based Cantor Fitzgerald analyst David Donnelly said before the tax bill figure was unveiled by the EU on Tuesday.
“Long term, we remain positive on the stock given its highly cash-generative nature and its potential for acquisitions to bolster its services range, which we see as necessary given declining iPhone sales, on which Apple is reliant,” Mr Donnelly said.
Mr Donnelly said company’s launch of its iPhone 7 next week is unlikely to amount to much by way of “game-changing” technology in a way that would dramatically improve phone sales. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/apple-shares-cushioned-after-eu-ruling-by-cash-pile-1.2773112 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/bee2aa22131e36719280f079018415d49296ae071a6cfd5e467e152405a03096.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T20:51:08 | null | 2016-08-27T21:17:00 | Free-scoring full forward lands free from acute angle to secure All-Ireland final slot | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgaelic-games%2Fgaelic-football%2Fsin%25C3%25A9ad-aherne-edges-dublin-to-victory-over-mayo-with-last-kick-1.2770879%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770876.1472329038!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Sinéad Aherne edges Dublin to victory over Mayo with last kick | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Dublin 2-10 Mayo 1-12
Sinéad Aherne’s incredible free nailed victory for Dublin in Saturday evening’s titanic TG4 All-Ireland Ladies SFC semi-final at Kingpsan Breffni Park in Cavan.
Everything hinged on Aherne’s effort from an acute angle on the left-hand side and with the last kick of the game, the player-of-the-match delivered to send Dublin through to a third successive final.
It was heart-breaking for Mayo but Aherne’s personal haul of 2-6 was massive for Greg McGonigle’s Sky Blues and proved just how big a miss the St Sylvester’s player was when she took a year out in 2015.
It was cruel luck on Mayo, who had clawed back an eight-point deficit in the second half to draw level.
But they could never get ahead and the Connacht champions also had a goal chalked off in the second half when leading scorer Cora Staunton, who could well have played her last inter-county game, was penalised for over-carrying.
Staunton, in her 22nd season as a senior player, was policed closely by Sinéad Goldrick for the entire game but there was often two – and sometimes three – players around the Carnacon superstar whenever the ball came her way.
Dublin played very much on the edge at times in terms of some of their tackling but when the dust settled, they edged home by a point and will now play Cork or Monaghan in the September 25th showpiece.
As an advertisement for Ladies Gaelic football, the second half of this game was as good as you could wish to see, played out in front of a big crowd and following on from the rich entertainment served up in the intermediate semi-final.
At half-time, Dublin looked well in control as two Aherne goals helped them to lead by six points – 2-6 to 0-6.
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After Dublin had stormed into a 0-5 to 0-1 lead, Aherne stuck for the opening goal of the game in the 12th minute, finishing clinically after Niamh McEvoy supplied the pass.
It was a crucial goal, coming just a minute after Sarah Rowe was denied by a superb Ciara Trant save at the other end of the pitch.
Nine minutes from half-time, Aherne bagged her second goal and a converted free from the same player three minutes later had Dublin eight clear – 2-6 to 0-4.
Two frees from Staunton approaching half-time kept Mayo in touch but Aherne had Dublin eight ahead again after the restart – another free followed by a sensational point from play.
But then Frank Browne’s Mayo took over and a run of 1-5 without reply, incredibly, hauled them level.
In that run, Staunton had that ‘goal’ ruled out but Dublin’s net did bulge when sub Rachel Kearns, a late call-up to the starting team, slammed home a fine effort across the boughs of Trant and into the far corner.
That effort had Mayo level at 1-11 to 2-8 and the tide appeared to have turned in their favour but Aileen Gilroy, scorer of two first-half points, was sin-binned.
An extremely tense passage of play followed as Aherne missed a scoreable free and the numbers on the pitch were levelled up when Siobhán Woods was yellow-carded.
Nicole Owens ended a long Dublin wait for a score, some 20 minutes in fact, with a vital point seven minutes from home, before Mayo sub Carol Hegarty equalised.
The scene was set for a dramatic finish and after Staunton dragged an effort just wide, Aherne held her nerve to land what could turn out to be a priceless winner if Dublin can land a second Brendan Martin Cup win next month.
DUBLIN: C Trant; O Carey, D Murphy, L Caffrey; S Goldrick (0-1), S Finnegan, N Collins; L Magee, S Furlong; N Healy (0-1), M Lamb, C Rowe (0-1); N McEvoy, S Aherne (2-6, three frees), L Davey.
Subs: N Owens (0-1) for Rowe (41 mins), S Woods for McEvoy (47 mins), M Ní Scanaill for Murphy (50 mins), F Hudson for Caffrey (52 mins), L Collins for Finnegan (56 mins).
MAYO: Y Byrne; L Ryder, S Tierney, R Kearns (1-0); M Corbett, M Carter, O Conlon; F McHale, C McManamon; G Kelly (0-1), A Gilroy (0-2), D Hughes; S Rowe, C Staunton (0-8, six frees), N Kelly.
Subs: C Hegarty (0-1) for McManamon (43 mins), S Howley for Hughes (51 mins), D Caldwell for Kelly (56 mins).
Referee: B Rice (Down) | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/sin%C3%A9ad-aherne-edges-dublin-to-victory-over-mayo-with-last-kick-1.2770879?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/1e82f5c3939d995b8f205211560620cbced71a9d2db81603d2ec52bea0e8bd98.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T08:52:16 | null | 2016-08-30T08:40:00 | Body of male aged in his 40s recovered at Clogherhead pier on Monday | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fman-dies-after-getting-into-difficulty-while-swimming-in-louth-1.2772859%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772858.1472542834!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Man dies after getting into difficulty while swimming in Louth | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A man has died after getting into difficult while swimming in the sea off Clogherhead, Co Louth.
Gardaí said the body of a male, aged in his 40s, was recovered from the water at Clogherhead pier at about 7pm on Monday evening.
The man was removed to Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/man-dies-after-getting-into-difficulty-while-swimming-in-louth-1.2772859?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/bd3e82b2be92974a7b5d2b671c970978232bf4289e36dc15ac5af22bd3708749.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:27 | null | 2016-08-31T01:00:00 | Garda Technical Bureau examine property where five family members were found dead | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Fhawe-home-still-sealed-off-as-garda%25C3%25AD-continue-investigation-1.2773623%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773616.1472590713!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Hawe home still sealed off as gardaí continue investigation | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The Hawe family’s home remained sealed off yesterday as the Garda Technical Bureau continued its examination of the property where the five family members were found dead on Monday.
The house at Barconey Heights, Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, was expected to remain a crime scene for some days.
The Garda team is set to comb it and the surrounding garden and lands for any evidence that would help shed light on the motive for the murder-suicide.
Garda sources said all cases in which a murderer took their own life, thus negating the need for a criminal inquiry, were thoroughly probed to inform the inquest process.
However, the sources said there was “real anxiety” locally about a motive for Mr Hawe’s actions being established.
“Many of the families caught up in these cases down the years have been respected people and well-liked but, in most cases, you can pinpoint some kind of strife or mental health issue,” said one Garda source.
“And when there is something in the background, people at least feel they know what happened; there is some kind of explanation.
Explanations sought
“But this case is not like that, as far as we can see this was not a family with any mental health issue or one that gave any indication of distress.”
“This is something that has come as a major shock to people locally and there will be pressure to find answers,” said another Garda source.
The blinds of Castlerahan National School were pulled down yesterday and there were none of the signs of a normal school day.
Alan Hawe was deputy principal at the school while his sons Niall (11) and Ryan (6) were pupils, and Liam (13) was a former pupil.
A mother whose child attends the school said they were “lovely young fellas” and “ Mr Hawe was a great teacher and very well liked by parents and kids”.
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A woman who said she knew the family to see said they were “lovely people”.
In the local church, an elderly woman lit a candle, blessed herself and said she was lighting candles in memory of the family. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/hawe-home-still-sealed-off-as-garda%C3%AD-continue-investigation-1.2773623?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/27928654c49e92cd60abed425e4420edec69876a1a20f2692bcd5115d4257023.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:50:11 | null | 2016-08-26T15:09:00 | In Sydney and Perth, there are mixed views about where will be their ‘forever home’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fgeneration-emigration%2Firish-in-australia-will-you-stay-or-move-home-1.2769567%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769564.1472224182!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Irish in Australia: Will you stay or move home? | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | ANNE-MARIE JULIAN, SYDNEY
“I’ve been living in Sydney with my husband, Philip, and two children for seven years. We moved for work; we both worked in financial services and had taken redundancy. Australia is fantastic for children. The education system, healthcare, lifestyle, the weather – you wake up every day to the sunshine, which really gives you a positive outlook. “Every time I go back to Ireland to visit I want to stay. Work for us here right now is really giving us a good opportunity, good income, a good lifestyle, but ultimately I think we would like to return. We have got some great experience here which we can bring back with us.”
STEPHANIE McCURDY, PERTH
“I left Mayo when I was 21 and lived in London and Dublin before moving to Australia, in 2009. I met my husband working in the gold mines in Kalgoorlie, where we lived for seven years, before moving to Perth in January. I am always looking for the next adventure: I could be in Sydney next year, or Timbuktu. I just know I won’t settle in Ireland, unfortunately. Anywhere else in the world I am open to. Sometimes I feel sorry for our daughter, Alannah” – who’s 16 months old – “as she doesn’t have cousins to play with. I have four brothers at home, three with kids, and they are always catching up. They all ring on Skype, though, and we plan to visit every year, so she can get to know them.”
MARTIN LYNCH, MELBOURNE
“I quit a pretty good job in Ireland to go travelling in 2011. Now I work for the Teeling Irish whiskey company, based in Melbourne, but I travel all over the Asia-Pacific region. I planned to stay in Australia for five weeks, but five years later I’m still here and just got citizenship. I might go to live in Ireland for a year or so, but I think I’ll end up coming back here for the long term. The lifestyle is so good, the weather is great, and there’s a relaxed attitude. I love Melbourne. It has been voted the most liveable city in the world for a reason.”
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MARIA HOMAN, PERTH
“We started out in Karratha, where my husband was sponsored as a teacher for two years, before moving to Perth four years ago. We love it here. Our friends have become our family; they have taken the place of our sisters and brothers and cousins from home. My husband has always said he would like our kids” – now four and two – “to be educated in Ireland, certainly by secondary school. But he knows we have a better standard of living here, there is more to do, the weather is better . . . If I move home I won’t have friends with small kids, so I would need to start from scratch, to meet new people.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/generation-emigration/irish-in-australia-will-you-stay-or-move-home-1.2769567?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/26c143c6f539597fc4ba86dc13cd6f9c318ae8be9503a2980548f3aa8dbb0a42.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T14:50:21 | null | 2016-08-27T14:10:00 | Former president says events regarding Máirtín Ó Muilleoir will not derail Good Friday Agreement | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fnama-controversy-will-not-impact-on-peace-process-mcaleese-1.2770778%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770777.1472303418!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Nama controversy will not impact on peace process - McAleese | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Former president Mary McAleese has said that the controversy surrounding Minister of Finance Máirtín Ó Muilleoir as the result of the latest NAMA revelations will not impact on the Good Friday Agreement.
Dr McAleese said the controversy regarding the Northern Ireland Sinn Féin politician and the call for him to step down due to the latest Nama disclosures were just part of the “day-to-day up and down of everyday politics.” She said the the Good Friday Agreement had survived far more difficult challenges.
Nama controversy
The Northern Assembly’s finance committee agreed this week that Mr Ó Muilleoir should stand aside, pending the outcome of a probe into allegations that loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson was “coached” by ex-Sinn Féin MLA Dáithí McKay on how to give evidence against former DUP leader Peter Robinson.
Apart from Sinn Féin finance committee member Caitriona Ruane, all other members of the committee, from the DUP, the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP and the Traditional Unionist Voice parties, said Mr Ó Muilleoir should quit his ministerial post until the inquiry is completed.
The committee met to discuss the claim that Mr McKay and a Co Antrim Sinn Féin member Thomas O’Hara, were involved in a conspiracy with Mr Bryson.
Mr McKay resigned as a Sinn Féin MLA as a result of the claims, and he and Mr O’Hara were suspended from the party.
It is alleged Mr Bryson was allowed claim to the finance committee last September that Mr Robinson was to gain financially over the £1.2 billion purchase of Nama’s Northern Ireland portfolio by American company, Cerberus.
Mr Robinson dismissed that claim as “scurrilous and ill-founded”.
Issues regarding Mr Ó Muilleoir were raised because he was named in one of the transcripts of Twitter postings which indicated that Mr Bryson was “coached” on how to give evidence against Mr Robinson.
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‘Broader picture’
Speaking at the Daniel O’Connell Summer School in Cahersiveen in Co Kerry, Dr McAleese said she was not getting “too excited” about the controversy.
She said people needed to look at “the broader picture” with regard to the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Good Friday Agreement.
“If that episode (the Ó Muilleoir controversy) would bring down the Good Friday Agreement, I would say it was not built on very robust terms.
“Let’s look some of the stuff that the Good Friday Agreement has already survived and I think of the solidarity that manifested itself particularly around the outrageous murder of two young soldiers (Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar) by whatever they call themselves now, the Real IRA.”
Dr McAleese said the double shooting of the two young sappers outside the Masserene Barracks in Co Antrim in 2000 had the potential to destabilise the Good Friday Agreement as loyalist paramilitaries were not on ceasefire at the time.
“I know only too well because Martin (Dr McAleese’s husband) spent the next 24 hours on the phone, phoning every loyalist he knew and every loyalist that he didn’t know, persuading them that the Good Friday agreement was our way forward ,” she said.
“He argued that tit for tat was going to help unravel the Good Friday Agreement and if they reacted, that was precisely what the people who killed the two soldiers wanted and a lot of people were doing the same thing.
“And in that moment, the rush of solidarity among the unionist and nationalist, republican and loyalists communities was such that it was evident that the Good Friday Agreement was working as it should be.”
Dr McAleese said events regarding Mr Ó Muilleoir should be allowed take their course so that the truth emerges about what happened between members of Sinn Féin and Mr Bryson.
She said that she is certain that the controversy will “absolutely not” derail the Good Friday Agreement. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/nama-controversy-will-not-impact-on-peace-process-mcaleese-1.2770778?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/ee057e794eec8afc8eb2a742950fa213d8cc8ef5fc5d1fcbf8c1108a8e0761c3.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:49:21 | null | 2016-08-30T14:07:00 | Issuance of bond type vehicle peaked at €121bn in 2007 but fell to €29bn by 2014 | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ffinancial-services%2Finvestors-shunned-irish-private-placements-in-the-financial-crisis-1.2773051.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773050.1472572182!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Investors shunned Irish private placements in the financial crisis | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Irish private placement issuance peaked at €121 billion in 2007 but had slumped to €29 billion by 2014, according to new research published by the Central Bank.
A private placement allows debt to be placed directly with investors without recourse to the public markets, and are a sub-set of total bond issuance.
In 2007, on the cusp of the financial crisis, some €121 billion of these bonds by both Irish and IFSC banks were outstanding and were an important source of wholesale funding.
German and French
However, by the end of 2014, the private placement market had diminished to €29 billion, with a noted decline in holdings by Irish domestic banks by the end of the period surveyed. By 2014, IFSC banks had more private placement activity on balance sheets than domestic banks, the Central Bank found.
“With the onset of the financial crisis, the downgrading of banks’ credit ratings, and associated fall in investor confidence, made it more difficult to roll-over extant funding and dissipated any appetite for new issuance,” the Central Bank said.
Up to 62 per cent of instruments placed privately were held by other financial sector entities at end-2014, with investment funds and money market funds the prevalent holders.
German and French residents are estimated to be the largest euro area holders, but non-euro area holders held more than a quarter of the total, the research found. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/investors-shunned-irish-private-placements-in-the-financial-crisis-1.2773051 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/1a363753bd2bb271a9c9f288a91c6d5a5cc266d3bb6d12392bfa4a471cd020f4.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T00:50:11 | null | 2016-08-27T01:11:00 | ‘The worldwide nursing shortages and ageing workforce highlight the importance of improving the recruitment and retention of nurses within the health care systems’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fhse-initiatives-to-recruit-nurses-to-the-irish-health-service-have-failed-1.2769712%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769710.1472231462!/image/image.jpg | en | null | HSE initiatives to recruit nurses to the Irish health service have failed | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The evidence indicates that recent HSE initiatives to recruit much-needed nurses to our health services have not worked. The piecemeal and minimalist approach to nursing recruitment adopted by the HSE will not reverse the internal nursing perception and image of the nursing profession created in recent years.
On the back of patterns of unstable employment for nurses, there have been up to three nursing pay cuts since 2009, coupled with working hours increased by six hours each month.
Such unplanned actions have created disillusionment and disrupted the cycle of positive nursing developments and upgrading arising from the 1998 Commission Report on Nursing. The Commission of Nursing, the chairmanship of the late Justice Mella Carroll, set out a blueprint for the future, and was the most important overall upgrade of nursing in the history of the profession.
It is significant to note that the commission was established following a national strike by nurses in pursuit of better terms/conditions and the strengthening of career and educational pathways.
The worldwide nursing shortages and ageing workforce highlight the importance of improving the recruitment and retention of nurses within the health care systems. The World Health Organisation in 2006 reported a shortage of 4.3 million healthcare workers globally and estimated this figure would increase by 20 per cent over the next two decades. Nursing is an international profession and nurses, in particular Irish nurses, can obtain employment anywhere in the world, and in business world parlance, nurses would be regarded as a scare commodity with a premium value.
Sustaining a nursing workforce is fundamental to all health care systems and the quality of patient care. The importance of adequate nursing manpower was highlighted in a recent Lancet journal, which showed that increasing a nurse’s workload by one patient increased the likelihood of an inpatient dying within 30 days of admission by 7 per cent (Aiken et al. 2014).
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Context
How have we arrived at this point of nursing shortages in Ireland? The context is all important in understanding how nurses evaluated the current HSE relocation offer. The juxtaposition is that Ireland is attempting to attract back to employment nurses that were trained as graduates, at great taxpayer expense.
The understanding of those graduates was that employment opportunities would be available following graduation and the reality was that no employment opportunities were made available and so international recruitment agencies came to Ireland and recruited graduating nursing classes en mass.
The dismantling of the customary permanent and pensionable job was a body blow to newly qualified nurses.
The fragility of strategic nursing manpower planning in Ireland was exposed, as our new Irish graduates were being recruited outside of Ireland, while at the same time our health agencies entered into elaborate schemes for overseas nursing recruitment in places such as India and the Philippines and South Africa.
Arising from the golden nursing period following the commission report, Ireland’s decision to introduce a university graduate nursing programme in 2002 was perceived internationally as forward thinking and was designed to bring Irish nursing education into line with other countries such as the US and Australia.
The introduction of a four-year pre-registration BSc honours nursing degree placed Ireland in a flagship position in Europe, with a government-backed guaranteed financial investment in Irish nursing. This created a very positive direction for nursing careers, and the role of the nurse extended into new areas. Sadly, much of the inventiveness of this period which had created a new dynamic for the profession was lost in the subsequent years with a failure to sustain the developmental ethos and enhanced professionalisation of nursing and midwifery.
The challenge now for the HSE and the health service employers is to attract back the nursing and midwifery graduates. In foreign jurisdictions Irish nurses and midwives have been initiated into a new scope of nursing and midwifery practice with exciting careers. In the current Irish health care culture there are concerns that nurses are not sufficiently involved in policy decisions related to health care and therefore it may be time to review and build on the nursing developments of the early part of this century. The acceptance that nurses as front-line health services workers can be transformational in supporting the healthcare objectives of a nation must be top of any developmental agenda along with targeted efforts at cultivating and promoting nursing leaders.
Empowerment
Workplace empowerment of nurses needs to be embraced by health services employers so as to create working conditions that promote work effectiveness, positive work attitudes and better staff satisfaction.
The way forward in recruitment and retention of nurses is to review the current development of the nursing profession.
The first step is to establish a national strategic nursing committee along the lines of the commission report. A root and branch analysis of nursing and health care might create the necessary impetus to restore pride among nurses and provide the positive foundation that will attract them back to Ireland.
Policymakers and health service employers must learn from the sequence of events of the last 10 years that has fragmented the development of the nursing and midwifery professions. The public places its trust in nursing and in the US the nursing profession has ranked at the top of the 2014 Gallup polls when it comes to the public perception of honesty and ethical standards in professions.
Dr Seamus Cowman is Professor of Nursing at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/hse-initiatives-to-recruit-nurses-to-the-irish-health-service-have-failed-1.2769712?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b64ca3fb82ea9020649d1fa0efee1291bb21985f6bc82fd0ac7eef652e57c671.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T00:50:20 | null | 2016-08-27T01:02:00 | President was right to speak of the need to recognise the atrocities committed by both sides | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fhiggins-s-reflection-on-civil-war-highlights-edgy-issues-1.2769748%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769746.1472232870!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Higgins’s reflection on Civil War highlights edgy issues | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Some of those organising history discussions and conferences for the autumn are keen to keep the conversation about the 1916 centenary going, but with a twist. Next month’s Dublin Festival of History, for example, will host a discussion framed around the idea that this year’s 1916 commemorations were conducted with “dignity and gravitas” and succeeded in “igniting a public mood of pride and confidence”, but as the commemorative reach extends, the festival asks: “How can we sustain the positive tone in future commemorations?”
It should not be about a “positive tone”, however, but an appropriate tone. Of course commemorating the War of Independence and Civil War will create complications different to that of remembering 1916, but, as with the commemorations this year, there are also opportunities to broaden the parameters of our understanding, highlight new information, and expose propaganda masquerading as history, and deliberate selectiveness serving contemporary political needs at the expense of evidence and nuance.
At Béal na mBláth last weekend, for the annual Michael Collins commemoration, President Michael D Higgins spoke with an edge about the Civil War and its atrocities “that we must recognise for what they were, on both sides: cruel, vicious, uncontrolled, and at times informed by vengeance”. He also referred to civilian losses “inflicted in a way that had little to do with republicanism or any emancipatory version of nationalism”.
While he stressed the need for a “forgiving consciousness”, he queried the neglect of the class dimension in historical analysis and referred pointedly to “the distance between the background of Collins and those who would later go on to fill the major offices of the new state”.
Honesty
He essentially called for honesty in confronting the snobberies of that era and “the exclusive and partisan way in which the pension applications for participants in the War of Independence were handled, in particular the exclusion of women, and the failure to recognise the pover- ty of those unemployed due to the struggle for independence or the Civil War”.
The President’s assertion about these applications from combatants cannot be proved conclusively until the full pension archive of almost 300,000 files is available in the coming years, but it is also undoubtedly informed by the experience of his own father. John Higgins was a member of the IRA in Cork; interned during the Civil War, he lost his job as a result. He had to endure a 22-year wait and numerous appeals before a small military pension was approved in 1956 (£32 a year) and the family was fractured as a result of financial difficulties.
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Many similar experiences will be laid bare as more archival material is released and for some, commemorating the Civil War will remain an intensely personal business and about discovering painful detail. According to the President’s brother, their father “never spoke very much about it all actually. They just didn’t”.
There were many reasons for this – not just the experience of war and violence but also the difficulties of adjusting to civilian life, especially in a hostile environment; and some chose, or were forced, to leave Ireland. A combination of these factors made family relationships and post-conflict adjustment tortuous for many. Veterans also questioned what their sacrifices amounted to. As the patriarch Michael Moran in John McGahern’s Amongst Women remarked bitterly: “Sometimes I get sick when I see what I fought for.”
According to the writer Seán O’Faoláin, the Civil War “woke us up from the mesmerism of the romantic dream. It set us asking questions about the presanctified dogmas of our history”. Those questions will be updated, broadened and added to over the next few years, and as Higgins underlines, re-examining the era involves key issues of class and violence and hierarchies of suffering and benefit.
Doubtless, alongside this, attempts will be made to latch the politicians and soldiers of a century ago on to a contemporary agenda by a selective reading of history. Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar, in delivering the annual Collins/Griffith oration at Glasnevin, also last weekend, referred to the question of the Border in the wake of the Brexit vote and applauded the “inclusive vision of Arthur Griffith” because at one stage Griffith referred to unionists as “my countrymen”.
Anglophobic
Griffith had many noble traits, but he was also instinctively Anglophobic and occasionally racist and anti-Semitic and well-capable of personal abuse, deriding London-born Erskine Childers , an ardent Irish republican who opposed the Treaty, as a “damned Englishman”.
As Higgins highlighted, “no single side had the monopoly of either atrocity or virtue”, and this was true of words as well as actions. Childers was executed during the Civil War; his son, also Erskine, became the fourth president of Ireland in 1973. As president, Childers was subjected to systematic censorship; he had plenty to say about commemoration but was not allowed say it publicly. At least now, both citizens and their representatives can air their thoughts about legacy and commemoration more freely. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/higgins-s-reflection-on-civil-war-highlights-edgy-issues-1.2769748?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/98ae2909bfc941fb38b1c15e5285836ae42d9791466e5b5fdd20699851f4320d.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:57:45 | null | 2016-08-26T06:00:00 | Obama administration escalates transatlantic dispute with warning of retaliation | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Fus-steps-up-pressure-on-eu-ahead-of-apple-s-irish-tax-ruling-1.2768456.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2768454.1472141612!/image/image.jpg | en | null | US steps up pressure on EU ahead of Apple’s Irish tax ruling | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The US Treasury’s missive, fired at the EU Commission warning about the effect of its antitrust investigations into Irish tax arrangements of Apple and other US firms, had plenty of legalese.
But the use of words such as “disturbing,” “troubling” and “chilling” point to how serious Washington is taking this and what responses it may consider.
After months of back-room peddling between the two sides, the Obama administration escalated the dispute this week over what Washington sees as the unfair targeting of American multinationals and their tax arrangements with individual EU members states in investigations that have “major implications” for the US.
The white paper published by the Treasury on Wednesday warns very publicly that the investigations are trampling over existing bilateral tax treaties, “broadly accepted” international tax arrangements and global efforts to combat corporate tax avoidance.
Washington accused Brussels of becoming a “supra-national tax authority”, an arbiter of member states’ corporate tax regimes, beyond the role of enforcer of competition and state-aid law. They warned that such investigations, should they continue, would have “a growing chilling effect on US-EU cross-border investment” – a warning that should sound alarm bells in Dublin.
At issue is the practice of “transfer pricing” – how multinationals channel international profits through low-tax countries and internal corporate structures. The Treasury’s complaint is timed to sway the Commission’s soon-to-be-published findings in its investigation into Apple’s use of Irish shell companies to keep tens of billions of overseas profits offshore to avoid the 35 per cent US corporate tax rate.
Effective 2 per cent tax rate
The disclosure at a Senate panel investigation three years ago that the Californian tech giant was paying an effective rate of 2 per cent – well below the Irish corporate rate of 12.5 per cent – on Irish-warehoused international profits sparked this whole furore and led to the Commission’s investigation.
The Treasury is acting here out of self-interest. The investigations, which may apply heavy penalties retrospectively, could result in substantial tax demands on US firms that would, in turn, reduce American taxes given the firms’ use of foreign tax credits.
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“That outcome is deeply troubling as it would effectively constitute a transfer of revenue to the EU from the US government and its taxpayers,” said Robert Stack, the Treasury’s top international tax lawyer, who authored the paper.
Some US observers understand the Treasury’s decision to try to meddle in internal EU business given what it is at stake but are not convinced by its arguments.
“I totally understand and sympathise with what the Treasury is doing here from an American standpoint but I don’t think the arguments are actually that strong,” said Daniel Shaviro, a tax professor at New York University’s School of Law.
“If I were an EU person, I would want the EU to be doing this, I would think it is right, and if it is tough luck for US companies, I would say that is really a shame.”
Shaviro sees the retrospective application of tax penalties being most damaging from an American perspective.
“The US should be glad that the EU did this because the US companies cannot play tax games in the future that the US loses from, but applying it to past transactions, there is no upside to the US,” he said.
For Brussels, the line that should jump out of the paper was the warning of retaliatory action at the end: “The US Treasury Department continues to consider potential responses should the Commission continue its present course.”
In January, Itai Grinberg, a law professor at Georgetown University and a former treasury international tax lawyer, suggested that the Obama administration should remind Brussels of a little-used statute, section 891 of the Internal Revenue Code, that allows the US president to double US taxes on foreign individuals and corporations from countries deemed to have subjected US companies to “discriminatory or extraterritorial taxes”. Using the statute in response would amount to an all-out tax war. Grinberg declines to say whether the Treasury had this in mind.
‘Forceful response’
“I am not prepared to divine what the Treasury means beyond that sentence,” he said. “But a forceful response by the United States to these investigations would be appropriate given the significant consequences that the investigations have for the international tax architecture – consequences that go well beyond the individual tax rulings under investigation.”
Grinberg goes further than the Treasury, saying that the investigations are “untethered from any legal or economic principle” and “inconsistent with EU law”. He sees the Treasury’s concerns and mulling of potential responses as “appropriate”.
The paper was “simply an acknowledgement” by the Treasury that the Commission has “put itself on a crash course” with the OECD, the G20 and their Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project, and the stability of the international architecture.
“It is an attempt to warn the Commission and give the Commission appropriate notice of the unfortunate consequences of proceeding,” he said. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/us-steps-up-pressure-on-eu-ahead-of-apple-s-irish-tax-ruling-1.2768456 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b58fc4787366fffb6985337a5bda719b319b041f3cb63c225bb80964ec55ad9b.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T08:52:23 | null | 2016-08-30T08:55:00 | People of Ballyjamesduff are ‘numbed and traumatised’ by murder-suicide | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Fcavan-deaths-we-don-t-know-if-we-will-ever-understand-1.2772867%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772866.1472543709!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Cavan deaths: ‘We don’t know if we will ever understand’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The Bishop of Kilmore Leo O’Reilly says the people of Ballyjamesduff are numbed and traumatised following the deaths of five members of one family in Co Cavan.
Alan and Clodagh Hawe and their children Niall (11), Ryan (6) and Liam (13) were found at their home in Ballyjamesduff on Monday in what is being treated as a murder-suicide.
The Bishop told the death of a child has to be the most difficult cross for any parent to bear and that the deaths of the three children and their parents was unbearable.
“I am deeply shocked and saddened at the tragic circumstances. The couple were very active and devoted to the parish. My heart goes out to their families and friends especially the school friends of the children,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
“The whole community is affected. We have to think of them and all who have been affected, the gardaí and emergency services who had to deal with a very difficult situation.”
He said the impact on pupils and staff in the schools where the parents worked would be dramatic and he hoped the support of psychological services would help.
“This is going to have a huge impact on the school community - children, parents, teachers, everyone is going to be affected,” said Dr O’Reilly.
“You hear about situations like this, always somewhere else, now it is on our doorstep.
“We will try to find answers, but there are none. We will have to await the outcome of the inquest, but we don’t know if we will ever understand.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/cavan-deaths-we-don-t-know-if-we-will-ever-understand-1.2772867?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/bd0089fafdb01f0f5c9e4daea2dd8eb0417e2178f7b727c16a94e7e134d25856.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:08:02 | null | 2016-08-26T12:40:00 | Sinn Féin minister should have ‘stepped aside’ over Nama revelations | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Farlene-foster-says-m%25C3%25A1irt%25C3%25ADn-%25C3%25B3-muilleoir-should-step-aside-even-temporarily-1.2769399%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769376.1472214240!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Arlene Foster says Máirtín Ó Muilleoir should step aside, even temporarily | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | First Minister Arlene Foster has said that the Sinn Féin Minister of Finance Máirtín Ó Muilleoir should have stepped aside due to the latest Nama disclosures.
Ms Foster, on her first day back from her summer holidays, also said that the DUP has formally asked the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to investigate the allegations that former Sinn Féin Assembly member Daithí McKay was involved in a conspiracy to damage former DUP leader and first minister, Peter Robinson.
“I believe, probably on balance, it would be to the benefit of the institutions if he had stepped aside even temporarily,” Ms Foster said on Friday.
“It is apparent that there was a most disgraceful attempt to impugn and discredit my then party leader Peter Robinson,” Ms Foster told BBC Radio Ulster.
She added that that as a result of this attempt to damage Mr Robinson there was also “an attempt to destabilise the DUP and also ultimately to destabilise the institutions at Stormont”.
McKay did the right thing
Ms Foster said Mr McKay did the right thing in resigning as an Assembly member whether it was “falling on his sword or told to do so by his party”.
She referred to how the Stormont Commissioner for Standards, George Bain, is to investigate the claim that Mr McKay, as former chairman of the Assembly’s finance committee, colluded with loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson to discredit Mr Robinson.
Mr Bryson claimed to the committee last September that Mr Robinson was to financially gain from the £1.2 billion sale of Nama’s Northern Ireland property portfolio to US investment company Cerberus.
Ms Foster did not say directly whether she believed Mr McKay was involved in a “solo run” and that no other Sinn Féin Assembly member was implicated, as senior Sinn Féin figures have insisted. “The investigation must be allowed to go forward by the Assembly and indeed by the police service as well,” she said.
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After Mr McKay resigned as an MLA and was suspended from Sinn Féin the focus turned to the Minister of Finance Mr Ó Muilleoir, who was a member of the finance committee which Mr McKay chaired.
He is mentioned in one of a number of Twitter posts that appeared to confirm the “coaching” allegation against Mr McKay and another Sinn Féin member, Thomas O’Hara.
In one direct message from Mr O’Hara to Mr Bryson, Mr O’Hara said: “I’m trying to establish what Máirtín or someone could jump on and say there’s no way we can turn him ( Bryson) away (from giving his evidence to the finance committee), this is credible, relevant and in the public interest.”
This prompted the DUP, Ulster Unionist Party, SDLP, Alliance, Green and Traditional Unionist Voice Party politicians to call on Mr Ó Muilleoir to stand aside as Minister.
Temporarily step aside
The minister, with the strong support of Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness insisted he had done nothing wrong and refused to temporarily step down.
Ms Foster said it would have been best if Mr Ó Muilleoir stepped aside, even temporarily. “But Sinn Féin has decided he is to remain in place.”
She said if evidence comes forward that Mr Ó Muilleoir was implicated in the alleged collusion against Mr Robinson then his position would be “entirely untenable”.
Ms Foster indicated that for the moment, the issue was unlikely to interfere with the DUP-Sinn Féin powersharing Northern Executive.
While she felt Mr Ó Muilleoir should stand down, she said “that is not my call, he is not my minister, and Sinn Féin have decided otherwise and that probably is an end to the matter”.
Relationship with Sinn Féin
Asked if the controversy would damage trust with Sinn Féin, Ms Foster repeated what she said when she succeed Mr Robinson as First Minister in January, “I trust Sinn Féin to always be Irish republicans, and that hasn’t changed. I will continue to be alert on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland.”
Ms Foster said it was the job of politicians to maintain stability in Northern Ireland “because I believe very firmly that is what people want.
“We will get through this because there is an investigation and we will follow the evidence.”
Ms Foster also criticised Mr Bryson for engaging with Sinn Féin in the alleged conspiracy against Mr Robinson.
She said, “People will not understand how someone who purports to be a so-called loyalist could collude in such a way with a member of Sinn Féin to try and bring down my former party leader, Peter Robinson, a man of huge integrity, a man who always had the best interests of Northern Ireland at heart. It seems your enemy’s enemy is your friend.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/arlene-foster-says-m%C3%A1irt%C3%ADn-%C3%B3-muilleoir-should-step-aside-even-temporarily-1.2769399?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/ee785a1f618dec5d7e23c4cfec77cf2d3ff34e787a2316c51c7cc2d15281b657.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:49:10 | null | 2016-08-30T13:04:00 | The €13bn figure means the political noise will be turned up to 11 | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fsheer-size-of-apple-tax-bill-complicates-things-for-government-1.2773012.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773007.1472560653!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Sheer size of Apple tax bill complicates things for Government | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The scale of the Apple tax bill has suddenly complicated the politics of the matter for the Government.
Even though there is no prospect of the Irish Government getting its hands on the money immediately – it will be placed into an escrow account pending the outcome of an appeals process likely to take years – the Government will certainly take a lot more flak for seeking to use all the legal and political tools at its disposal to avoid receiving the Apple windfall in the future.
Bombshell
“There would be no problem in appealing it if it was only a couple of hundred million euros,” one Minister said this morning. “But €13 billion? Jesus . . . .”
In recent days, Government sources suggested at first that the number was likely to be in the hundreds of millions; yesterday that estimate had risen into the billions. Today’s bombshell was a lot nearer to the “worst case” scenario for Apple, estimated by JP Morgan at €19 billion.
That’s worst case for Apple – but is this worst case for Ireland? Given its determination to avoid actually taking the money, it’s certainly a much bigger problem for the Government.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has already issued an extremely strongly worded statement rejecting the commission’s decision and outlining his intention to appeal it. A Cabinet meeting may be held as early as tomorrow to formally decide on an appeal.
Appeal
This assumes that the independent Ministers, including the Independent Alliance, are happy to proceed with the appeal. Minister for Finance Michael Noonan met the Alliance Ministers yesterday afternoon to brief them on the issue and outline his plans to appeal, but nobody was aware of the quantum at that stage. Noonan seemed to be indicating a few billion at that stage, according to sources briefed on the encounter. Not thirteen though.
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The Independent Alliance Ministers are meeting this afternoon again to consider the matter, it is understood. If they object to the Government’s appeal and prevent a unified Cabinet decision, then the coalition is probably over, though there is no indication from any of them at this stage that they are preparing to do that.
What is clear though is that they, like everyone else, realises how the context is changed by the vastness of the sum which Apple will now have to pay to Ireland.
The €13 billion figure will turn up the political noise several notches. Wait for Liveline, wait for the social media tsunami, wait for the infographics on what you could get for €13 billion. Wait for the opposition assault on the notion of a Government trying desperately to avoid the biggest windfall in the history of the state.
As well as presenting Ireland with a large cheque, the commission has also presented the Irish Government with a very tricky problem. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/sheer-size-of-apple-tax-bill-complicates-things-for-government-1.2773012 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/cea94f0c62fcee1d3bfd82544417b0cdd45d2edd3fd93f3bccec7eb9a7503c48.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T08:52:34 | null | 2016-08-31T08:18:00 | Over €46,000 worth of stolen property recovered after spate of break-ins in Sydney | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fasia-pacific%2Ffive-irish-men-charged-with-involvement-in-criminal-group-in-australia-1.2774077%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774076.1472627871!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Five Irish men charged with involvement in criminal group in Australia | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Five men, believed to be Irish nationals, have been charged with theft and participating in a criminal group in Sydney, Australia.
More than €46,000 worth of allegedly stolen property was recovered after a number of break-ins in north-west Sydney.
The five were arrested at an apartment block in Pennant Hills in a major police operation on Tuesday, according to reports in the Sydney Morning Hearld.
There were several reports of break-ins and thefts in The Hills, Ku-ring-gai and Ryde regions of Sydney over the past few weeks, police said.
Items valued at more than €46,000 were seized, including designer watches and jewellery as well as cars and balaclavas.
The charges included aggravated break and enter with intent, participating in a criminal group, possessing housebreaking implements and having goods suspected to have been stolen.
The men - aged between 19 and 22 - were refused bail and will appear in Hornsby Local Court on Wednesday. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/five-irish-men-charged-with-involvement-in-criminal-group-in-australia-1.2774077?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/966cd13ebc4058252acbe887e28d57599c88f06cee403942f4aeb0e2f2d9e4c9.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T18:49:12 | null | 2016-08-30T17:00:00 | INM seeking 14 layoffs although staff fear close to double that will lose their jobs | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia-and-marketing%2Findependent-news-media-outsourcing-newspaper-production-to-pa-1.2773277.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773342.1472577818!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Independent News & Media outsourcing newspaper production to PA | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Independent News & Media (INM), publisher of titles such as the Irish Independent, is to outsource some production and subediting functions of its newspapers to the international media group, the Press Association (PA), and is seeking 14 redundancies. The final number of jobs lost is expected to be higher, when contract roles are included.
INM said today it intends to “outsource the Dublin editorial production services to PA”, which it later clarified includes its copy editing function. It will also outsource some production roles, which it described as “quality control and archive” positions, to Belfast-based company, RE&D.
Stephen Rae, editor-in-chief of INM, said that while production will be outsourced, the process will continue to be “be managed by our editorial team at Talbot Street in Dublin”.
“We will continue to invest in good writing and content in our newspapers and online,” he said.
Robert Pitt, INM’s chief executive, said “businesses need to adapt and innovate to survive and working with PA will allow us to maximise synergies and efficiencies”.
INM previously outsourced subediting – the correction of writing style and cutting of articles to size – to RE&D in 2007, but some of those roles later returned in-house.
The group, the largest newspaper publisher in Ireland whose main shareholder is Denis O’Brien, has notified staff of its intention to seek redundancies.
The company says it is seeking 14 job losses, although rumours swirled among staff that the final number could be almost double that figure, including contractors. INM said six contract roles expire before the year end.
The employees made redundant will not transfer to PA, it is understood. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/independent-news-media-outsourcing-newspaper-production-to-pa-1.2773277 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/a064dc44c6282b95ff3b38cd209d84979a5606948e9d37bab888e11bccf4a057.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T14:47:29 | null | 2016-08-26T07:49:00 | Media group first-half results show fall in print advertising revenue offset by jump in digital | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia-and-marketing%2Finm-looks-beyond-uk-for-acquisitions-as-analysts-say-it-must-spend-1.2769231.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769230.1472220375!/image/image.jpg | en | null | INM looks beyond UK for acquisitions as analysts say it must spend | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Independent News & Media (INM) says it has expanded its hunt for acquisition targets beyond the UK following Brexit, as analysts warned on Friday the company needs to quickly deploy its capital if it is to keep investors happy.
INM released positive half-yearly results on Friday morning showing revenues rose by 2.7 per cent to €161.6 million in the six months to the end of June. The results also showed that its cash balances ballooned to €62.4 million, up from €35 million at this stage last year.
INM said it has no plans to pay a dividend this year from its growing cash pile, however. The company is focusing on buyouts instead. It is thought to have a war chest of about €120 million, and it is “actively” seeking buyout targets in the Irish publishing industry and also digital media businesses abroad
“We have done detailed work on acquisition targets in the UK, but there has been some uncertainty created by Brexit,” said Robert Pitt, INM’s chief executive officer.
“We are not running scared because of Brexit, but we need to be more careful. We are now willing to look further afield. Our biggest shareholders and our board are comfortable working abroad,” he said.
INM’s two biggest shareholders are Denis O’Brien, the founder of the Caribbean telco Digicel, and Swiss-based financier Dermot Desmond. The INM board is chaired by Leslie Buckley, who also sits on the board of Digicel.
Mr Pitt indicated that INM is still interested in mopping up print assets in Ireland: “But it is difficult to see how we could deploy a lot of cash in Ireland. We will not be very aggressive in Ireland and we will not overpay.”
No dividend
In the UK and possibly further afield, it is seeking to buy “digital media businesses” with scale that it can bolt on to its existing operations.
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“If we buy you, we will put you front and centre,” said Mr Pitt. “You have to have scale within your market, but we need to be realistic about what we can buy. We have to acquire within our means. We aren’t looking for niche digital businesses, but they must be well-defined.”
Rob Stokes, an analyst with Davy stockbrokers, warned on Friday morning, that INM’s share price is unlikely to rise until it deploys its capital. As INM has ruled out a dividend, this means it must make acquisitions.
“INM’s existing cash pile continues to be the source of investor focus,” said Mr Stokes. He highlighted that more than a third of INM’s market cap is tied up in its cash balances, and that this could be 45 per cent by year end.
In its results, the media group said the ongoing decline in print advertising revenues and circulation was offset by a 23. 4 per cent jump in digital advertising revenue and increased earnings from its distribution business, Newspread.
INM, which includes the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent,the Sunday World and the Herald among its titles, said pre-tax profits rose by 22.5 per cent to €18.5 million.
In the Republic, under the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent titles, INM accounted for 50 per cent of the daily newspaper market and 65 per cent of the Sunday market, the company said.
Online traffic across the independent.ie desktop and mobile platforms grew by 24 per cent year on year, it said, fuelled by strong combined mobile web and app growth of 40 per cent.
Audience numbers as defined by unique visitors a month to independent.ie grew to an average of 9.4 million, an increase of 8.9 per cent on the corresponding period last year, peaking at 10.2 million in March 2016.
“While the outlook for H2 [half two] continues to be challenging, particularly in print advertising, the group will continue to deal with those challenges pro-actively,” said Mr Pitt.
Davy stockbrokers said: “On outlook, INM anticipates a full-year performance in line with current expectations and states that the directors are not proposing a dividend for 2016.
“While the operational performance of the group should not be ignored, it is hard to look beyond the staggering cash balance of the group.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/inm-looks-beyond-uk-for-acquisitions-as-analysts-say-it-must-spend-1.2769231 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/faa619339c4aeb332c59ffdf71b41c047e4362f9c7b80fa824b2a390b6bd3bfd.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T08:52:43 | null | 2016-08-31T09:28:00 | New York Times say Apple and US have only themselves to blame for the situation | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Finternational-media-react-to-apple-ruling-1.2774098%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774087.1472632634!/image/image.jpg | en | null | International media react to Apple ruling | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The story of Tuesday’s ruling from the European Commission which directed Apple to pay €13 billion in back taxes to the Irish State was carried by a number of media outlets throughout the world.
The story was carried on the front page of The Guardian and The New York Times, while analysis and opinion pieces were featured throughout a number of other newspapers and websites.
The following is a selection of those news, analysis and opinion pieces illustrating interntional media's reaction to the Apple ruling.
The Guardian – News: Apple rages at EU’s €13bn tax demand
“Apple has warned that future investment by multinationals in Europe could be hit after it was ordered to pay a record-breaking €13bn (£11bn) in back taxes to Ireland.
The world’s largest company was presented with the huge bill after the European commission ruled that a sweetheart tax deal between Apple and the Irish tax authorities amounted to illegal state aid.
The commission said the deal allowed Apple to pay a maximum tax rate of just 1%. In 2014, the tech firm paid tax at just 0.005%. The usual rate of corporation tax in Ireland is 12.5%”
The New York Times – Editorial: Apple, Congress and the Missing Taxes
“Apple and the United States have only themselves to blame for the situation. Apple has engaged in increasingly aggressive tax avoidance for at least a decade, including stashing some $100 billion in Ireland without paying taxes on much of it anywhere in the world, according to a Senate investigation in 2013.
In a display of arrogance, the company seemed to believe that its arrangements in a known tax haven like Ireland would never be deemed illegal — even as European regulators cracked down in similar cases against such multinational corporations as Starbucks, Amazon, Fiat and the German chemical giant BASF.”
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The Times (subscription required) - Analysis: Europe will pay the price as US threatens tit-for-tat retaliation
“The row between the world’s biggest company and the commission threatens to cause lasting damage. The US is particularly concerned about the ruling because its taxpayers could end up paying the €13 billion bill rather than Apple. The Treasury department warned last week that “US taxpayers could wind up eventually footing the bill for these state aid recoveries in the form of foreign tax credits that would offset the US tax bills of these companies”.
BBC – News: Europe’s ‘unfair’ Apple tax ruling sparks US anger
“There has been widespread criticism in the US of the European Commission’s ruling that Apple should pay up to €13bn (£11bn) in back taxes.
The US Treasury said that such tax investigations were 'unfair' and undermined the tax rules of individual states. Charles Schumer, a senior Democrat senator, called the move a 'cheap money grab'.
The White House said the ruling could cost US taxpayers.”
The Washington Post – Analysis: How the EU’s ruling on Apple explains why Brexit happened
“Much of the debate across the Irish Sea in Britain during the lead-up to the referendum on EU membership in June centred on the idea that bureaucrats with no allegiance to Britain were sitting in Brussels and writing their laws. Proponents of a “Brexit” argued that leaving the EU would allow the country to “take back control” of its economy and borders.”
After the EU’s ruling on Apple and Ireland on Tuesday, one of the most outspoken Brexit leaders, Nigel Farage, tweeted that the EU was 'anti-democratic' and 'doomed,' and included a video of him on a television show saying, 'Across the whole continent, people are saying, ‘Why are our laws being made somewhere else?’"
Sydney Morning Hearld – Analysis: Apple’s headache is the start of tax revenue wars - and Australia may join the fight
“Governments around the world are closely watching this decision, and may now decide they also have the right to challenge old rulings. The Australian Taxation Office issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon saying that while 'Australia’s tax system is not immediately comparable with European Union nations' the federal government’s tougher anti-avoidance laws are 'designed to counter the erosion of the Australian tax base'." | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/international-media-react-to-apple-ruling-1.2774098?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/c9fa3278a96aa3759f10764401c6b91055bbb694c7f019296832f26f1171899a.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T20:52:12 | null | 2016-08-30T20:09:00 | Banks to stop ‘bundling’ research costs with trading fees under new EU rules | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ffinancial-services%2Fubs-hires-psychologists-to-help-revamp-research-reports-1.2773481%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773476.1472584190!/image/image.jpg | en | null | UBS hires psychologists to help revamp research reports | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | UBS has brought in psychologists, data scientists, shipments specialists and pricing experts to overhaul how it generates investment ideas and recommendations for clients.
Some investors have viewed the move with scepticism, but the investment bank says it has more than doubled readership of its research output in the past two years.
The revamp under Juan-Luis Perez, the global head of research who UBS poached from Morgan Stanley in 2013, comes at a time of existential crisis for the City of London’s sprawling research departments.
Banks and brokerages are preparing to abandon the age-old practice of “bundling” research costs with trading fees in order to satisfy new EU rules coming into force in 2018. UK-based banks expect the rules to be adopted despite Brexit.
Investors, already under pressure over the fees they charge their own clients and struggling with low interest rates, are expected to react by drastically reducing the volume of research they use.
Ask better questions
To thrive in the new era, Mr Perez said researchers must “ask better questions” rather than letting themselves off the hook with questions and buzzwords that are overly vague.
“This is the area where the sell side has to make the biggest investment, and we [the sellside] are not making as much of an investment as we have to,” said Mr Perez, a 30-year-veteran of sell-side research.
He brought in psychologists to help analysts think about their topics differently, and to pinpoint more precise and insightful research questions.
Words such as “risky” are discouraged, because Mr Perez said research showed “risky” could be interpreted as a risk of failure of between 10 and “80-something” per cent to investors.
“If you are using the word ‘risky’ all the time, you can never learn because the interpretation of risk is so broad that you can always take the victory lap,” he said.
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“It’s not just to avoid the word risky,” he added, but to “try to break down the big questions, like ‘what is the future of the bank into testable propositions?’, that can have an incontrovertible answer.”
– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016 | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/ubs-hires-psychologists-to-help-revamp-research-reports-1.2773481?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/97b4493fc63038635f08cb301ed9b9001d6bc3d22c6f0ed069e02c4536c3fac5.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T08:50:23 | null | 2016-08-27T08:40:00 | British entrepreneur says helmet saved his life after coming off bicycle in the British Virgin Islands | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Frichard-branson-injured-in-high-speed-bike-crash-1.2770713%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770712.1472283599!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Richard Branson injured in high-speed bike crash | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Entrepreneur Richard Branson said he thought he was going to die after coming off his bicycle in a high-speed crash.
The 66-year-old Virgin founder was left bloodied and suffered a cracked cheek, torn ligaments and severe cuts.
The accident happened on Virgin Gorda, one of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, on Monday.
Mr Branson said: “I was heading down a hill towards Leverick Bay when it suddenly got really dark and I managed to hit a sleeping policeman hump in the road head on.
“The next thing I knew, I was being hurled over the handlebars and my life was literally flashing before my eyes.
“I really thought I was going to die. I went flying head-first towards the concrete road, but fortunately my shoulder and cheek took the brunt of the impact, and I was wearing a helmet that saved my life.
“My bike went flying off the cliff and disappeared. We’ve since recovered the crumpled bicycle, completely destroyed. My cheek has been badly damaged and my knee, chin, shoulder and body severely cut.”
Mr Branson said his assistant, Helen, was first on the scene as he was “lying prostrate on the road” and then another member of his team, George, “sprinted from the bottom of the hill” to assist.
He travelled to Miami, USA for x-rays and scans, and described himself as “extremely fortunate” to have avoided more serious injuries.
“My biggest hardship is having to drink tea out of a straw,” he said.
He was cycling with his children Holly and Sam in training for September’s Virgin Strive Challenge in which a group of people will hike, cycle, swim and run from the base of the Matterhorn in the Alps to the summit of Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy.
He added: “My attitude has always been, if you fall flat on your face, at least you’re moving forward.
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“All you have to do is get back up and try again. At least I’m practising what I preach — though a little too literally!”
Mr Branson said he has “been in the wars” this year, twice knocking his teeth out playing tennis, being “kissed by a ray” while swimming and running into a bulletproof door.
He went on to say he had experienced “many brushes with death, not least in my ballooning adventures”. From 1995 to 1998 he made several attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon with Per Lindstrand and Steve Fossett. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/richard-branson-injured-in-high-speed-bike-crash-1.2770713?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e94e32cd1383deeee9bd0ee9230bcdcbacb2ddf08b19078360125f2e32bc7c0b.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T12:51:25 | null | 2016-08-28T12:59:00 | Reports suggest prime minister will trigger article 50 without allowing MPs to vote on it | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fuk%2Ftheresa-may-acting-like-a-tudor-monarch-over-brexit-vote-1.2770949%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770948.1472388120!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Theresa May ‘acting like a Tudor monarch’ over Brexit vote | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Theresa May has been accused of displaying the “arrogance of a Tudor monarch” over her reported intention to deny a parliamentary vote on Brexit before beginning the process of pulling the UK out of the European Union.
The prime minister is allegedly planning to prevent MPs from voting on the decision to leave the EU before article 50, the legislation that will trigger the UK’s formal exit from the bloc, is triggered.
There has been a post-referendum debate over whether the result is merely advisory, as the act that created it did not specify whether the result would be binding. Some have argued a vote should be held in parliament to ratify the result.
The Daily Telegraph reported that Ms May had been told by government lawyers that she did not need parliamentary approval to trigger the procedure, but it is believed that the prime minister could face legal challenges over the decision.
The vast majority of MPs, up to 480, and most peers in the House of Lords have supported remaining in the EU. Some reacted to the news with anger.
Owen Smith, who is challenging Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership of the Labour party, suggested Ms May would avoid a parliamentary debate because there was not sufficient support for Brexit.
‘Running scared’
“Theresa May is clearly running scared from parliamentary scrutiny of her Brexit negotiations,” he said.
“She’s looked at the numbers and she knows she might not win a vote in parliament.
“She hasn’t set out what Brexit means and she doesn’t want to be held to account on vital issues such as stripping away workers’ rights and environmental safeguards.”
Mr Smith said that if he was to become the opposition leader, he would “press for whatever final deal she, Boris Johnson, Liam Fox and David Davis come up with” to be put to the British people, either in a second referendum or at a general election.
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David Lammy, the Tottenham Labour MP who has been campaigning for a second referendum, tweeted that the plans were a “stitch-up”, adding that: “In our democracy, parliament is sovereign and must vote ahead of any decision to Brexit.”
The shadow international trade secretary, Barry Gardiner, also spoke out against Ms May’s plans.
“The logic of saying the prime minister can trigger article 50 without first setting out to parliament the terms and basis upon which her government seeks to negotiate – indeed, without even indicating the red lines she will seek to protect – would be to diminish parliament and assume the arrogant powers of a Tudor monarch,” he said.
“Parliament cannot be sidelined from the greatest constitutional change our country has debated in 40 years.”
Tim Farron, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, who have said they will fight the next general election on stopping Brexit , was also dismayed by the report.
“The people narrowly voted to leave the EU, and we must respect that,” he said.
“But the people did not elect Theresa May, and neither did they vote for the as-yet unknown outcome of David Davis’s negotiations.
“To impose a swift exit on the British people without giving the people or their representatives a say, or an opportunity to scrutinise the government’s as yet nonexistent plan for our country’s future, is a betrayal of Britain’s interests and of British democracy.”
‘Let’s get on with it’
Bill Cash, a Conservative MP and leading Brexit campaigner, welcomed the news about the legal advice reportedly given to May.
“It sounds emphatic, and that’s what we want to hear,” he told the Sunday Telegraph.
“There are people who are threatening to try to stop Brexit. The bottom line is that there is nothing that could possibly be allowed to stand in its way.
“Everyone in Europe is expecting it, the decision has been taken by the British people, and that’s it. Let’s get on with it.”
The logistics of implementing article 50 will doubtless be one of the main topics of debate when Ms May gathers her cabinet at Chequers on Wednesday.
At the meeting, which No 10 announced on Sunday morning, senior ministers will reportedly be challenged to come up with an action plan to “make Brexit work”.
Each cabinet minister will be asked to identify the “opportunities” that could stem from the UK’s departure from the EU in their own particular field of competence, a senior government source told the newspaper.
The UK’s future outside the EU will also be an issue next weekend, when May travels to the G20 summit in China.
The Guardian | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/theresa-may-acting-like-a-tudor-monarch-over-brexit-vote-1.2770949?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/db69dbb2c4d852a50a2753a17a5f96fb77fb7ced6329a450850e03ab658cdbe8.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T02:50:12 | null | 2016-08-27T03:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fin-a-word-nice-1.2764306%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2764305.1471858983!/image/image.jpg | en | null | In a word . . . Nice | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | I get into trouble with nice people. I knew a man who equated popularity with lack of character. Real people had enemies, he said. Holding a conviction, he said, was like one of Newton’s laws. It provoked an equal and opposite reaction.
In journalism you can make enemies with the ease of a spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down. There have been moments I had to conclude the old maxim “by their friends shall ye know them” was old hat.
No. “Show me your enemies and I’ll tell you who you are.”
I am glad to say I have great enemies. They are the sort of people I’d be tempted to boast about having as enemies, were I to boast.
Who would want them as friends?
Back to the nice people. In this column last month I made claims about my siblings and myself.
I said of us that “all conceptions were immaculate and the end product ended up under a head of cabbage, which is where I was found”. Meaning it had nothing to do with sex, which didn’t exist when I was young. Ours were just wonderful, clean, pristine conceptions. Look at us!
A reader took the trouble of contacting me to say: “The phrase immaculate conception, which is of course a term used by the Catholic Church, relates to Our Lady and the belief that she was born without original sin on her soul. It has nothing to do with sex, with or without a partner.
“It relates to Mary herself being born and has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. The concept of Our Lady conceiving and giving birth to Jesus Christ without having had sex is another tenet of the Catholic Church and is referred to as the ‘Virgin Birth’.” The lady is, of course, right.
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My use of the word immaculate, however, in the context was not meant in a doctrinal sense.
Even if our mother remains a virgin as do the mothers of all Irish men. It’s only our partners who are not.
Nice is an exception among four-letter words as it means amiability and being pleasant. But it does not have an immaculate origin in Middle English. There it means something foolish or stupid. From the Latin nescius (ne-scius/scire not knowing), ignorant or incapable. Ahem.
Such character.
inaword@irishtimes.com | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/in-a-word-nice-1.2764306?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/1b84e84bb14136a71e29e7ea9f2937a9602889acab9d45943d4877fa94d2a009.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:49:10 | null | 2016-08-30T14:25:00 | Efforts to win back customers with store revamps and other measures does not work | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fretail-and-services%2Fabercrombie-fitch-no-longer-expects-results-to-improve-this-year-1.2773064.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773063.1472567550!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Abercrombie & Fitch no longer expects results to improve this year | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Clothes retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co posted a bigger-than-expected loss for the second quarter as efforts to win back shoppers through store remodelling and other measures failed to boost sales and are not expected to do so for the rest of the year.
The retailer’s about-turn from a forecast issued in May, when it said it expected results to improve in the second half of the year, sent its shares tumbling more than 14 per cent in premarket trading on Tuesday. Abercrombie’s sales dropped for the 14th straight quarter and comparable sales fell a slightly steeper-than-expected 4 per cent, mainly due to lower traffic, including from tourists, at its flagship stores.
“Comparable sales [will] remain challenging through the second half of the year, with a disproportionate effect from flagship and tourist locations,” the company said.
Abercrombie, like other teen apparel retailers, has posted a string of sales declines as it struggled to compete with the trendier and often cheaper products at fast-fashion retailers such as H&M and Inditex’s Zara. To win back shoppers, Abercrombie is investing heavily in remodelling its Hollister stores, has hired designers from top brands to keep up with trends and shifted away from the logo-centric designs that were once a big draw.
Abercrombie said its cost of sales dipped 0.6 per cent, stores and distribution expenses dropped 1.6 per cent, while marketing, general and administrative expenses fell 7.3 per cent in the quarter ended July 30th. But, that was not enough to offset a 4.2 per cent fall in net sales.
– Reuters | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/retail-and-services/abercrombie-fitch-no-longer-expects-results-to-improve-this-year-1.2773064 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/a356ee285d147e998b78d06628e9af52908d36ef08ef29cefcb8a47cc5c46ffc.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T14:51:03 | null | 2016-08-28T15:37:00 | Kevin Magnussen walks away from 180mph crash at eventful Belgian GP | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fother-sports%2Fnico-rosberg-wins-as-lewis-hamilton-fights-back-to-claim-third-1.2771016%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771014.1472395027!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Nico Rosberg wins as Lewis Hamilton fights back to claim third | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Lewis Hamilton fought his way back from the final row of the grid to finish third in a frenetic Belgian Grand Prix won by Nico Rosberg.
While pole-sitter Rosberg enjoyed the easiest of victories to move to within nine points of Hamilton in the title battle, Formula One’s return to action following its traditional mid-season break will live long in the memory following a frenetic race which saw Kevin Magnussen taken to hospital following a jaw-dropping 180mph crash.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo finished second while his team-mate Max Verstappen, roared on by an army of Dutch fans, could manage only 11th following a first-corner collision involving the Ferrari duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel.
Hamilton was thrown to the back of the grid after serving an engine penalty, but by the end of lap eight he had incredibly navigated his way up to fifth following a dramatic opening to the Spa-Francorchamps race.
Rosberg retained the lead on the short run down to La Source, but it was utter chaos behind the German.
First, a slow-starting Verstappen was gobbled up by the Ferrari duo of Vettel and Raikkonen before Vettel turned into his team-mate with Raikkonen then bumping into Verstappen. Vettel spun, while both Raikkonen and Verstappen limped back to the pits with a left-rear puncture and front wing damage respectively.
Jenson Button, whose future beyond this season hangs in the balance, was also a first-lap casualty after Pascal Wehrlein drove into the back of his McLaren. Both drivers were out of the race, and they were soon joined by Carlos Sainz who suffered a right-rear tyre blow-out before coming to a stop with his car in pieces.
With debris scattered across the track, the virtual safety car was deployed to slow the field down with Hamilton in 13th.
The world champion had made up a further two places when, on lap six, Magnussen ran across the kerb at Eau Rouge and spectacularly lost control of his Renault.
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The sport held its breath with Magnussen’s car buried in the wall, but the Dane was able to walk away from his destroyed Renault albeit with a limp. He was later taken to hospital with an ankle injury and will certainly be a doubt for the Italian Grand Prix in seven days’ time.
While Magnussen’s car was in bits, so too was the tyre wall at Eau Rouge, and the real safety car was deployed. A flurry of cars pitted for new tyres promoting Hamilton to fifth, and Fernando Alonso, who started from last, after he too was forced to serve an engine penalty, was incredibly in fourth.
With the tyre barrier destroyed, the race was then suspended with further repairs carried out.
But the 15-minute suspension enforced a clean start, with Hamilton seemingly in position to challenge for an unlikely win. On lap 12 he swept past Alonso, and six laps later he was in a podium position after easing past the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg, but that is where his charge ended.
On the less durable soft tyre compound, Hamilton came into the pits at the end of lap 21 to take on the harder medium tyre compound. He pitted again for a final time with 12 laps remaining, but was unable to close the gap to either Ricciardo or Rosberg, and crossed the line nearly 30 seconds adrift of his Mercedes team-mate.
Nevertheless, Hamilton, who predicted he would struggle to score a single point on Saturday night, will be ecstatic to leave here having lost only 10 points to his championship rival.
Elsewhere, Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez completed a strong day for Force India as they crossed the line in fourth and fifth, with Vettel sixth and Alonso coming home an impressive seventh.
“It has been a great weekend and I am very happy with that result of course”, said Rosberg who was subjected to a number of boos on the podium. “Congrats to Lewis. From last place to third must have been pretty impressive.
“Of course, Lewis starting from the back made it a lot easier this weekend and I am sure he is going to be back in Monza and it is going to be a big battle as always.”
Hamilton, who in contrast to his rival was given a warm welcome by the huge crowed here, added: “ I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who supported me today. The team did an amazing job this weekend. It was just a remarkable day. Beautiful weather, great crowd and a great race.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/nico-rosberg-wins-as-lewis-hamilton-fights-back-to-claim-third-1.2771016?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/22ca6c61d8fa50c50c9ae882a244d0247b3f092ea4c132d423d371b262a74f54.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:53:02 | null | 2016-08-31T06:30:00 | Mixed-use property on Francis Street producing annual rent roll of nearly €60,000 | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Fapartments-and-shop-in-dublin-8-for-695-000-1.2772104%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772102.1472484629!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Apartments and shop in Dublin 8 for €695,000 | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A shop with four apartments overhead at 57 Francis Street in Dublin 8 is on the market at €695,000 through DNG Advisory.
Should it sell for its guide price, this would represent a gross investment yield of 8.6 per cent.
The ground-floor retail space is occupied by an antiques trader while the apartments are set out as three studio units and one two-bed.
These fully-let apartments and shop are producing an annual rent roll of €59,700 – but the agent says this could be increased “through active management”.
Francis Street, the heart of the antiques business in the city, has a big student population due to its proximity to the NCAD, Trinity College, St James’s Hospital and the DIT campuses at Aungier Street and Kevin Street.
The area is well serviced by public transport, including the Luas which is close by, while the city centre is within walking distance. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/apartments-and-shop-in-dublin-8-for-695-000-1.2772104?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/db3a72e5ce27ca0ca839515aeb0e11bc046982535e15fbe6be603a29f0081d19.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T12:51:21 | null | 2016-08-28T13:44:00 | Opinion: Muslims’ visibility in dress reflects an ownership over their dual identities | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Fburkini-row-shows-depth-of-west-s-crisis-of-confidence-1.2770969%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770968.1472388245!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Burkini row shows depth of west’s crisis of confidence | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Europe’s increasingly intolerant debate about the burkini is puzzling to many European Muslims.
Liberal indignation at the sight of a Muslim woman in a swimsuit says far more about the fragile state of western secularism than it does the role of Islam in European societies.
To be clear: a burkini is not a burka.
It is a long swimsuit with a head covering. Its creator says that about 40 per cent of women buying burkinis are not Muslim. In the UK, the suit came to national attention in 2011 when it was worn by celebrity chef Nigella Lawson.
But in Europe today, conservative Islamic clothing has become a shibboleth for an age-old “clash of civilisations” between those who supposedly want to destroy the west and its hard-won freedoms and the defenders of the sacrosanct values of the Enlightenment.
The highest French administrative court might have suspended the ban on burkinis on some beaches but Muslim dress is often seen as a “provocation”, a threat to societal cohesion in a country that has suffered multiple terror attacks in the past two years.
The rhetoric is beginning to be echoed by political elites in Germany, which is moving closer to outlawing the burka in public spaces after one of its most senior ministers proclaimed the dress had no place in German society.
Proponents of clothing bans hail themselves as defenders of European civilisation and liberators of Muslim women from their patriarchal menfolk.
A covered woman, by this logic, is robbed of her agency - weak, oppressed and in need of the full armour of the state.
In banning the burkini, these newly emancipated women, it is hoped, will be emboldened to don the skimpy swimwear that is the apogee of the west’s freedom from institutionalised religion.
And yet, for all the muscularity of France’s laïcité , modest dress is proliferating rather than dying out among the country’s Muslims, a phenomenon that confounds secularists.
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In one sense, the supporters of the ban are right: this is a clash of cultures. A clash between increasingly assertive European Muslims and fragile liberal democracies in the throes of a crisis of confidence.
This tension was neatly typified by Jean-Pierre Chevènement, the non-Muslim politician likely to head the new Foundation for French Islam, who urged Muslims to show “discretion” in public expression of their faith.
Mr Chevènement’s sensitivity is telling. Outward religious observance is not mounting evidence of radicalisation or the slow creep of intolerance. Most of those who commit acts of violence in the name of Islam barely have any grasp of the tenets of their faith.
Instead, the growing visibility of Muslims in western society reflects an ownership over their European and Muslim identities in a manner their first-generation immigrant parents and grandparents did not dare display.
A headscarf is a mark of self-confidence not illiberalism. The Islam practised by many young European Muslims today is flexible, tolerant and accepting of the west’s prevailing norms, whether on homosexuality, abortion or atheism.
The burkini has gained prominence in recent years because Muslim women make Islam work for them: at the beach, in the workplace or at the Olympic Games. Previous generations, including my mother, would never have thought of going to the beach.
Fixation on the perceived enemy within is a symptom of a wider societal malaise: one that does not seem robust enough to tolerate a conservative morality that has been a feature of Europe’s social fabric for centuries.
Mired in economic stagnation, with frustrated populaces and mistrust of its political elites, Europe faces no bigger challenge to its freedom and democracy than to decide whether or not it can tolerate anything other than itself.
(Copyright - The Financial Times) | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/burkini-row-shows-depth-of-west-s-crisis-of-confidence-1.2770969?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f497fe5538368b73c688de2bbaaf47405171640af5ff5c261bf694cdb4b1d55f.json |
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