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[] | 2016-08-29T08:51:22 | null | 2016-08-29T08:09:00 | Rihanna shares her success with her country and family as Drake gets stuck in traffic | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fmusic%2Fbeyonce-arrives-at-vmas-with-black-lives-matters-supporters-1.2771807%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771806.1472454536!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Beyonce arrives at VMAs with Black Lives Matters supporters | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Beyonce has won top honours at MTV’s Video Music Awards in New York, where rapper Drake professed his “love” for Rihanna as she collected a lifetime achievement award.
The star-studded show at Madison Square Garden saw Beyonce take home video of the year for Formation and best female video for Hold Up, as well as deliver a 16-minute performance of tracks from her hit album Lemonade.
The singer arrived at the event with her four-year-old daughter Blue Ivy and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement, including Sybrina Fulton, the mother of murdered teenager Trayvon Martin.
After winning video of the year, Beyonce thanked her daughter and “incredible” husband Jay Z for their support.
“I dedicate this award to the people of New Orleans,” she said.
Rihanna performed four separate medleys of her biggest hits throughout the show after she was named the receipt of the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, MTV’s equivalent of a lifetime achievement honour.
The Barbadian singer (28) was presented with her Moonman trophy by Drake, her long-time collaborator and rumoured love interest.
Drake told the crowd: “She’s someone I’ve been in love with since I was 22 years old. She’s one of my best friends in the world. All of my adult life I’ve looked up to her even though she’s younger than me.”
Rihanna thanked her family, friends and hometown of Saint Michael, Barbados, for helping her succeed in her 11-year-career.
“My success started as my dream, but now my success is not my own. It’s my family, my fans, my country ... it’s women, it’s black women,” she said.
Kanye West took to the stage for a six-minute speech before introducing the video to his new song Fade, where he compared himself to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Walt Disney.
He also addressed his recent war of words with Taylor Swift, insisting he informed the pop singer about the lyrics to his single Famous in which he raps: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous.”
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West told the VMA crowd: “I love all y’all. That’s why I called her.”
He went on: “I know at times for me, I sit down and talk to older, rich people, AKA white, and they tell me don’t compare yourself to Steve Jobs and don’t compare yourself to Walt Disney.
“My role models are artists, merchants. There’s less than 10 I can name in history: Truman, Ford, Hughes, Disney, Jobs, West.”
West also pointed out his ex-girlfriend Amber Rose in the crowd after he included a waxwork of her in his controversial video for Famous. The video also features nude waxworks of Swift, Donald Trump, West himself and his wife Kim Kardashian West.
Britney Spears returned to the VMA stage but faced accusations she lip-synced her performance of Make Me from her new album Glory.
Drake won best hip hop video, for Hotline Bling, but did not collect his trophy on stage because he was stuck in traffic, presenter Sean “Diddy” Combs told the crowd.
Calvin Harris picked up best male video for This Is What You Came For, featuring Rihanna. The Scottish producer sent a video message thanking MTV for the honour after missing the ceremony because he was performing in the UK.
Alicia Keys announced the winner of the award after giving a passionate A Capella performance of a poem on the 53rd anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream speech.
Presenters on the night included recent Olympic gold medallists, swimmer Michael Phelps and US gymnasts Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian. Fellow gymnast Gabby Douglas missed the show after she was admitted to hospital with a mouth infection. | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/beyonce-arrives-at-vmas-with-black-lives-matters-supporters-1.2771807?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/5465b84a7f87528cc9d5f8b5a474ef04557be64520afbb68011e060113f89d2e.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:52:30 | null | 2016-08-30T14:07:00 | Three lawnmowers taken as part of investigation into organised crime in eastern region | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Fgarda%25C3%25AD-recover-two-audis-and-a-boat-in-co-meath-operation-1.2773049%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773048.1472562441!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Gardaí recover two Audis and a boat in Co Meath operation | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Gardaí in Co Meath have recovered two cars, a rigid inflatable boat and three ride-on lawnmowers as part of an investigation into organised crime in the eastern region.
During a search of a house in Rassilagh, Oldcastle, on Tuesday, gardaí discovered a 2015 Audi A5, a 2010 Audi A4 estate, the boat and outboard motor, the lawnmowers as well as a regular lawnmower and power tools.
The property is believed to have been stolen during burglaries in the midlands, particularly in counties Meath and Westmeath.
One man in his 30s was arrested at the scene and was detained at Kells Garda station. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/garda%C3%AD-recover-two-audis-and-a-boat-in-co-meath-operation-1.2773049?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/6e9734b2b3815d394973ccca457ce0e65097c10e0b99081278b0a4c6a1b8ce7b.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:52:20 | null | 2016-08-30T01:00:00 | Leinster coach admits province’s pre-season was a mixed bag ahead of Friday’s opening Guinness Pro12 game at home to Treviso | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Frugby%2Fpro12%2Fleo-cullen-stays-patient-as-leinster-s-strength-in-depth-gets-early-test-1.2772298%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772296.1472499079!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Leo Cullen stays patient as Leinster’s strength in depth gets early test | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | It says plenty about Leinster’s strength in depth, and their need for same, that despite using close on 40 players in their three warm-up games a further 15 frontline internationals have still to see any game time. Nor, most likely will they do so in this Friday’s opening Guinness Pro12 game at home to Treviso or for a week or two afterwards.
Seán O’Brien and Robbie Henshaw remain long-term absentees as they continue their recovery from hamstring and knee injuries, with Leo Cullen estimating they may return to action in about six weeks’ time.
This could, conceivably see them in the frame for the meeting with Munster at the Aviva Stadium on October 8th or the ensuing European Champions Cup games at home to Castres and away to Montpellier.
Others carry existing injuries into the early stages of the campaign, namely Richardt Strauss and Rhys Ruddock, are expected to return in about four weeks after knee and ankle surgery. Johnny Sexton and Mick Kearney are both rehabbing shoulder injuries and are aiming at a return “in the early rounds of the Pro12”.
Isa Nacewa and Dave Kearney are seemingly nearer to making a return as they complete their recoveries from the arm and A/C joint injuries they sustained at the tail end of last season. Nacewa is “being managed back this week and depending on how full contact training goes, will be assessed further.”
Conan setback
All of this has been compounded by Jack Conan suffering another ankle injury in Leinster’s second of three warm-up games against Gloucester a little over a week ago. As was the case twice last season, this has required surgery and will sideline him for an estimated eight weeks. “It is a different injury to the same part of the body,” said Leo Cullen yesterday. “Losing Jack is a blow.”
Furthermore, their academy outside back Ian Fitzpatrick injured his cruciate knee ligament last week and will undergo surgery. This follows their 21-year-old academy product Billy Dardis, who will be sidelined for an estimated 16 weeks after shoulder surgery. There is still no definitive date for a return for their talented 22-year-old prop Ed Byrne, who has been out for a year.
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The former Munster lock Ian Nagle underwent a scan yesterday on the shoulder injury he suffered in last Friday’s final warm-up game against Bath and will be out for a few weeks.
Against all of that, Cian Healy, Rob Kearney, Mike McCarthy and Noel Reid all played at least half of that Bath game and will be available this week.
Gradual returns
Their remaining summer tourists to South Africa with Ireland who managed to end the season without injuries, should complete gradual returns in rounds three and four, namely Jack McGrath, Seán Cronin, Tadhg Furlong, Mike Ross, Devin Toner, Jordi Murphy, Jamie Heaslip
“They are all getting back in on an individual basis,” said Cullen of a contingent who returned to pre-season at the end of July after four weeks’ holidays. “You’ll see them return over the course of the next three or four weeks. It is a long season. We need to manage our squad as best we can.”
While affording so many players game time in warm-up matches was beneficial, Cullen admitted Leinster’s pre-season was a mixed bag.
“Guys really put their hand up and others still have a bit to go. It was disappointing we leaked a few tries at the weekend,” said Cullen of the 39-19 defeat to Bath. “We tried to address a few things after Gloucester and we were repeating some of the same mistakes. We still have a lot of players integrating back over the next few weeks and it will hopefully lead to a very competitive environment as we go into Europe again.”
Friday’s opener is given added interest by the expected presence in the Treviso squad of the former Leinster and Irish Under-20 outhalf Ian McKinley, who lost his sight in his left eye in an accident while playing for UCD in 2012, and retired in 2011, only to resourcefully revive his professional career, thanks to a protective goggle, with first Zebre and now Treviso.
“Ian is a special kid,” said Cullen. “Really special. When he was here with the academy, I was still playing at that stage, there was just something very special about his personality. He obviously got that injury playing for UCD. I’d say it was hard for him to process at the time. But he has gone away, started doing a bit of coaching and back playing, to the stage where he is now as a contracted player with Treviso. It’s an amazing story, really, but it just shows the drive and determination the guy has.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/pro12/leo-cullen-stays-patient-as-leinster-s-strength-in-depth-gets-early-test-1.2772298?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/7ae827cca1e0db90d9cc0e4a7ef786ac8412f81b0bc4ded95ce802d24e548f28.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:08:50 | null | 2016-08-26T13:26:00 | Irish champions to face Zenit St Petersburg, AZ Alkmaar and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Group D | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Fdundalk-handed-tough-europa-league-group-draw-1.2769421%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769416.1472214366!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Dundalk handed tough Europa League group draw | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Dundalk have been handed a particularly tough draw for the group stages of the Europa League with the Irish champions set to face Zenit St Petersburg, AZ Alkmaar and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Group D over the coming months.
The Russians were the second ranked side in the draw behind Schalke with AZ the top rated of the second seeds according to Uefa’s coefficients. Maccabi were not reckoned to be one of the strongest third seeds although they qualified for the group stages of the Champions League last season when they were ultimately beaten in all six games by Chelsea, Porto and Dynamo Kiev.
Though Zenit have lost a number of their more high-profile overseas stars over the last season or two, they continue to boast a squad packed with senior internationals, most of them Russian, but several including Belgium’s Axel Witsel, who scored against Ireland at the European Championships, from some of the strongest teams abroad.
Aleksandr Kerzhakov, Aleksandr Anyukov (both of whom have previously impressed against Ireland) as well as goalkeeper Yuri Lodygin are among the highly rated Russians at the club while the foreign contingent also includes Danny, Javi Garcia and Giuliano who have been capped by Portugal, Spain and Brazil respectively.
The club won the old Uefa Cup in 2008 when they beat Rangers in the final and having competed consistently in Europe in recent years and they will start the groups stages this season as one of the favourites for the title.
AZ also won the Uefa Cup, back in 1981 and reached the quarter-finals in 2013-14. The club, which has traditionally been just off the very top level in the Netherlands, nevertheless boats a strong squad containing both experienced stars like captain and Dutch international Ron Vlaar.
Maccabi’s best known players in this part of the world would be Yossi Benayoun and Tal Ben Haim, both of whom had spells in the Premier League, but there are also a handful of other senior Israeli internationals, including their skipper, Gal Alberman, and some overseas stars like Bosnia and Herzogovina international midfielder Haris Medunjanin.
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THE FULL DRAW:
Group A: Manchester United, Fenerbahce, Feyenoord, Zorya Luhansk
Group B: Olympiacos, Apoel Nicosia, Young Boys, Astana
Group C: Anderlecht, St Etienne, Mainz, Qabala
Group D: Zenit, AZ Alkmaar, Maccabi Tel Aviv, DUNDALK
Group E: Viktoria Plzen, Roma, Austria Vienna, Astra
Group F: Athletic Bilbao, Genk, Rapid Vienna, Sassulo
Group G: Ajax, Standard Liege, Celta Vigo, Panathinaikos
Group H: Shakhtar Donetsk, Braga, Gent, Konyaspor
Group I: Schalke, Salzburg, Krasnodar, Nice
Group J: Fiorentina, PAOK, Slovan Liberec, Qarabag,
Group K: Internazionale, Sparta Prague, Southampton, Hapoel Beer Sheva
Group L: Villarreal, Steaua Bucharest, Zurich, Osmanlispor | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/dundalk-handed-tough-europa-league-group-draw-1.2769421?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/cc831a2117fa8825aec2de5327a8681d4853c984ebb4fca74c3a3bae3640359c.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T04:50:31 | null | 2016-08-27T05:00:00 | Feyisa Lilesa’s solidarity sign to Ethopians is the latest political act at a games | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fthe-question-can-the-olympics-ever-be-apolitical-1.2769597%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769595.1472225235!/image/image.jpg | en | null | The Question: Can the Olympics ever be apolitical? | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | On the final day of the Rio Olympics, as the Ethiopian runner Feyisa Lilesa crossed the finishing line in second place, he raised his arms above his head and crossed his wrists in an X.
The simple gesture was a highly political act, a sign of solidarity with the Oromo protests that have convulsed Ethiopia in recent months. The runner is from the Oromia region, where protests about land rights have mushroomed in to a larger civil-rights movement. This has prompted a ruthless government crackdown, leaving hundreds of unarmed protesters dead.
The crossed-wrists gesture has become a symbol of defiance.
As well as raising the international profile of the Oromo protests, the gesture has changed Lilesa’s life: he says he cannot safely return home, despite government assurances to the contrary, and has remained in Brazil as he seeks asylum elsewhere.
The gesture recalled the raised fists of the African-American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos as they received medals at the 1968 Olympics, in Mexico, the famous Black Power salute that is as iconic an Olympic moment as they come.
Like Smith and Carlos before him, Lilesa has been criticised for “politicising” the games, which like to think of themselves as an apolitical sphere of human co-operation and goodwill. Indeed, the International Olympic Committee’s rule 50 imposes conditions on host nations prohibiting political signs and demonstrations.
After a number of peaceful protesters were ejected from arenas, a Brazilian judge ruled that the conditions were in violation of the Brazilian constitution. The organisers appealed the ruling.
Controlling which platforms can and cannot be used for political messages is a privilege of the powerful, of course. For Lilesa the moment he crossed the finishing line with the world watching is not merely the only platform he has but also by far the largest platform the Oromo people have.
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Lilesa may have discomfited the IOC and put himself in danger, but in doing so he reclaimed part of that elusive Olympic spirit. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/the-question-can-the-olympics-ever-be-apolitical-1.2769597?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/04d11326da3e066e959f69f760f5d2f79358adf2f77baa65813c11b7d9331ed6.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T06:50:31 | null | 2016-08-27T06:00:00 | Likes of McCaffrey, Kilkenny and Mannion products of the county’s underage system | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgaelic-games%2Fgaelic-football%2Fnew-generation-the-catalyst-for-dublin-football-s-transformation-1.2769793%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769787.1472234884!/image/image.jpg | en | null | New generation the catalyst for Dublin football’s transformation | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | 2001: A Thurles Odyssey
The Point. First meeting since the 1985 All-Ireland final. Semple Stadium has seen plenty days like it, just not these colours, not this foreign sport.
“Dublin still think it’s possible, 64 minutes gone, that was a great point,” Ger Canning screams on RTÉ as the camera pans to Ciarán Whelan with Éamonn Fitzmaurice on his shoulder.
“It’s 1-13 to 1-10.”
Kerry have been coughing up an eight point lead ever since Vinnie Murphy, their old Kerins O’Rahillys pal, arrived. The stadium is cackling but nowhere near full as trailed back Dubs were forced to abandon cars from Abbeyleix to Newbridge as punishment for being themselves.
Páidí Ó Sé finally pulls fellow An Ghaeltacht man Aodán Mac Gearailt.
“Maurice Fitzgerald is in.”
The scene turns ugly; late night inner city brawl as blue men clatter into Kerry’s queen bee. Darren Homan plants one on his chest. Peadar Andrews is his designated mauler. By the time Johnny Magee arrives Darragh Ó Sé is providing protection.
“It had nothing whatsoever to do with Maurice. They just attacked him when he came on the field.”
A frenzied mood descends and stays. Kerry versus Dublin reborn. Séamus Moynihan gets out in front of Murphy but Whelan lines him up with a clean shoulder. Whelan splats against a granite wall as Moynihan powers on.
Senan Connell puts a quick free in front of a stooping Jayo. Moynihan takes his head clean off and plants it on a spike in front of horrified Dubliners. Boom boom? Sherlock gets up, all shook up.
A pointed free by Wayne McCarthy. Sun is shining. Dublin are humming.
“What’s happened to the champions? They are definitely rattled.”
As was the way with Dublin until Pat Gilroy arrived, goals save them, turn hype into momentum. Turn them into perceived contenders. Of course they were just brazen, talent everywhere except in the point-scoring department, wholly unprepared as Gaelic football changed before their eyes and they stood startled.
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The Class Of 1993 – Jack McCaffrey, Ciarán Kilkenny, Paul Mannion – are only learning to bend their backs.
Another McCarthy free drops short but Homan fists to the top corner.
Homan, as Dub as a Dub can be, batters the sky. Dublin by one.
Suddenly this unstructured rural invasion looks to be coming off.
“Two minutes of normal time to play.”
“What a comeback by Dublin, pure heart.”
Maurice Fitz hasn’t been in spitting distance of the ball. Shane Ryan dives at Johnny Crowley’s feet. Kerry wide. Three minutes of injury time signalled as Dublin keeper Davy Byrne shifts a young fella sitting in his flight path behind the goal. The kick out beats Andrews to the sideline about 45 metres out. Number 17 walks over.
“The breeze is behind him but it is blowing over his left shoulder.”
Magic from outside of his right boot. Horror or joy depending on colour or creed.
The replay went to form despite Tomás Ó Sé being sent off. The then Dublin manager Tom Carr now rides a largely uninformed commentary shotgun.
In the midst of the great Tyrone era that followed, Kerry captured three All-Ireland titles. One came during Dublin football’s low water mark of the 21st century. After losing to Páidí’s Westmeath in 2004, they scramble into an All-Ireland quarter-final. Kerry brush past them with seven points to spare. Dublin hit three scores from play. Kerry under Jack O’Connor regained Sam. No rivalry at all.
Three summers pass. McCaffrey, Kilkenny, Mannion enter the newly streamlined Dublin underage system at under-14. Pillar Caffrey is promoted from selector to manager. Provincial success continues to serve them poorly.
2007 All-Ireland football semi-final – Kerry 1-15 Dublin 0-16
Declan O’Sullivan scores a uniquely subtle goal before Kerry go all coy.
“Kerry haven’t scored for 15 minutes,” says Darragh Maloney as the clock ticks into 66 minutes. “At that stage they led by six.”
Dublin implode, again. Stephen Cluxton holds the ball for an eternity, soloing way out the field, not a Dublin chest to be aimed at across the vast green canvass. O’Sullivan forces Cluxton into kicking downfield where Kieran Donaghy gathers. A lovely high punt finds O’Sullivan who draws three defenders before Bryan Sheehan then Tomás then Darragh Ó Sé calmly recycle out and across to Colm Cooper. A quick hand pass finds Sean O’Sullivan. Fist. Two point game.
Same old problems as Ciarán Whelan’s last real tilt at making an All-Ireland final ends with a consoling hug from Darragh Ó Sé. Still no full back since Paddy Christie (Ross McConnell’s switch from midfield was properly punished by Seán Cavanagh in 2008). Plenty of flashes in the pan. Still not enough scoring forwards (Both Alan and Bernard Brogan did earn All Star nominations).
Contenders in name only.
Survivors? For Kerry: Colm Cooper, Kieran Donaghy, Darran O’Sullivan, Marc Ó Sé, Aidan O’Mahony and Bryan Sheehan. All change for Dublin with only Bernard and Cluxton still on deck.
Out of St Vincent’s furnace comes Pat Gilroy. He gives Dublin a coherent, modern way to go about their business but not before another Kerry flailing. 2009 All-Ireland quarter-final – Kerry 1-24 Dublin 1-7
It takes 35 seconds for Mike McCarthy to saunter up from centre back and link Darran O’Sullivan to Cooper for a goal that stuns the Hill.
Everything wrong with Dublin in microcosm. With Killian Young, Tom O’Sullivan and Marc Ó Sé all free to carry from deep, Kerry have 1-10 when Alan Brogan posts Dublin’s second point after 27 minutes.
“We seemed to be like startled earwigs in the first 15 minutes all over the pitch,” said Gilroy afterwards. “I think nerves got to us . . .we were just getting killed everywhere. It was showing most at full back, because they were just flooding through on us.”
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Same problems but a solution was apparent. The Brogans shared six points although Paul Flynn and Diarmuid Connolly have arrived. Denis Bastick was switched from midfield to fullback but a teenage Rory O’Carroll made his senior debut that summer against Westmeath.
“Eventually there will be no one left from the ’09 team,” said Denis Bastick this week. “No one to remember, so there will be no connection there.”
Maybe that’s how it ends.
The Class of 93 enter minor.
“We are overdue,” said Tony Hanahoe on the eve of the 2011 final. “We are 16 years off the mark at the moment. It is nearly time . . . all kinds of interesting things could happen.” 2011 All-Ireland football final Dublin 1-12 Kerry 1-11
“I’ll go on record: they stole that one off us,” said Bryan Sheehan only last week. “We let it slip through our hands.”
With 62 minutes played, and Kerry ahead by three, Cooper ran at Philly McMahon, feigned to shoot off his left, sold the dummy and put it over the bar with his right.
Ger: “He has a goal and three now and Kerry and their fans will feel they are in touching distance of victory and the All-Ireland.”
Then: Declan O’Sullivan’s hand pass clips Paul Flynn and falls to Cian O’Sullivan in the middle of Croke Park. Two Kerrymen grab him.
O’Sullivan swivels and lasers his free kick to Alan Brogan. Catch, solo, hand pass to Kevin McManamon. Declan O’Sullivan chases the patron saint of lost causes but the St Jude’s man nimbly steps inside him. Marc Ó Sé can’t leave Bernard Brogan. McManamon’s goal cuts the Kerry lead to one. Tom O’Sullivan, under pressure from Bernard Brogan, sees his pass go to Michael Darragh Macauley. Foul. Quick Alan Brogan free to Diarmuid Connolly, who switches play from right to left, to Kevin Nolan. Point. As Kerry once did to Dublin now Dublin do to them.
Bernard sneaks an inch from Marc. Point. Donaghy responds with an epic score. McManamon draws the foul, hugs the ball like it’s a new born. Bernard kneels down, gently taking it from him. Cluxton’s long walk.
34 years since the last Kerry scalp.
Survivors? More a case of who has passed on. For Kerry that would include Tomás Ó Sé, Declan O’Sullivan, Eoin Brosnan, Tom O’Sullivan and Paul Galvin.
Mannion, McCaffrey, Kilkenny, Eric Lowndes, Cormac Costello and John Small are beaten by Tipperary in the minor final. 2013 All-Ireland semi-final Dublin 3-18 Kerry 3-11
A classic to mirror 1977 initially seemed to be shaping into 1978.
Pre-Donegal in 2014, Dublin’s middle is carved open. Eight minutes played, Dublin in control, Gooch foot pass to Walsh to James O’Donoghue. Kerry goal. 11 minutes played, Dublin in control, Gooch foot pass to Walsh. Kerry goal.
The established order reaffirmed.
Diarmuid Connolly rages against such authority, his shot dropping shy of the crossbar to allow a skinny Mannion slap a goal. Donnchadh Walsh barges into Cluxton. O’Donoghue buries the penalty. 3-3 to 1-6.
Bernard Brogan has never been so alive. He gives Dublin a lead with 20 minutes to play. Brilliant point from Darran O’Sullivan.
Connolly’s free levels it for the seventh time. 69th minute: Declan O’Sullivan shoots wide. All kinds of interesting things are happening.
Cluxton kick out goes long and left. David Moran climbs highest.
Somehow it breaks. Macauley paws it to McManamon. Same man same result. He was never going for a point. Proves it a year later. Jim Gavin just sitting there screwing a water bottle airtight.
The morning after this All-Ireland was won David Hickey, a 1970s man and team medic (organ transplant surgeon too), believed this Dublin was better than his Dublin: “This is a team in evolution. This is not the finished product by any means.”
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“I can’t understand people wanting to win 10 All-Irelands. The Kilkenny guys keep coming back every year because they obviously have a huge level of skill and expertise but competitive Gaelic football, the skill level is pretty standard. It’s the drive. No one has won back-to-back All-Irelands because of that. It is the drive and the anger and the hunger to do it. I’m not saying we are going to win for 10 years but I think Dublin are in a position now to compete in the last four for the next 10 years.”
Survivors? More a case of who has passed on. Still, Fitzmaurice fished out Sam Maguire in 2014.
Familiarity breeds contempt now. Spring 2015: Bernard Brogan and Anthony Maher crumble onto sodden Killarney turf with face grabbing and a greco-roman embrace. Mick Fitzsimons gets the full Maurice Fitz treatment for putting Fionn Fitzgerald on his arse. Dublin have not lost since. 2015 All-Ireland final Dublin 0-12 Kerry 0-9
Dublin neutralise Kerry strengths. Gooch is unable to contain Philly McMahon. Donaghy is unable to outfield O’Carroll and Macauley. Alan Brogan’s perfect farewell.
McCaffrey ends as footballer of the year then takes off not long after O’Carroll. Dublin readjust. After sparks of excellence against Donegal, having properly returned from his year away, Jim Gavin says that Paul Mannion “is a man now”. Ciarán Kilkenny proves that Dublin without Alan Brogan (or James McCarthy) will drive on. Kilkenny had a year off too. Torn cruciate.
“Myself, Ciarán, Mannion – the few guys from class of ’93 for want of a better word – we came straight in, we were the first group through the development squads,” McCaffrey told Anthony Moyles on the balls.ie podcast this week. “We have pretty much been involved in it since under-14. A lot of the lads involved in it would have done J1s and stuff before being called in. It was great to get that balance [this year] and please God there is plenty of football in me.”
He is 22. Time waits for them because those three are who David Hickey was talking about. The evolution of Dublin through the prism of Kerry matches will never end. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/new-generation-the-catalyst-for-dublin-football-s-transformation-1.2769793?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f70bf8d0a502b99675b547dcd1ffebed1986e8e715bdbcf26463ef3d75d21152.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:49:17 | null | 2016-08-30T17:36:00 | Volkswagen to consider multi-suppliers after wrangle with Prevent hits production | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmanufacturing%2Fvw-reviews-procurement-after-dispute-with-parts-supplier-1.2773329.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773328.1472574890!/image/image.jpg | en | null | VW reviews procurement after dispute with parts supplier | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Volkswagen chief executive Matthias Müller has said he will review the German car giant’s procurement strategy to avoid a repetition of the crippling supplier dispute that hit production at six plants this month.
VW will re-examine contracts that leave the group dependent on a single supplier after the dangers were highlighted by its damaging wrangle with Bosnian parts maker Prevent, Mr Müller said.
“We will of course look into questions such as multi-sourcing, single-sourcing,” he told reporters late on Monday. “We will look at our procurement contracts and try to optimise matters with all suppliers.”
Carmakers generally seek to avoid over-dependence on any one supplier and seek to duplicate critical relationships even at slightly higher unit costs.
But Car Trim and ES Automobilguss, two suppliers within privately held Prevent group, exposed a vulnerability when they halted seat cover and gearbox parts deliveries, triggering stoppages at VW assembly plants.
Diesel scandal
VW’s relationship with Prevent soured after it commissioned Car Trim to develop new seat covers for high-end models including Porsches and then cancelled the €500 million deal in the aftermath of the diesel scandal, refusing to cover the €58 million its supplier had already invested.
Parent company Prevent retaliated by moving some of Car Trim‘s financial claims against VW to Automobilguss, sole supplier of a key gearbox casing for VW’s top-selling Golf compact, said two sources with knowledge of the matter.
Separately, Volkswagen decided against suing South Korea over its decision last month to suspend sales of most of its models and a fine of 17.8 billion won (€14.35m) on the German carmaker.
Instead, Volkswagen will try to achieve certification for the affected models and resume sales quickly rather than taking on a lengthy legal process, a spokesman for Volkswagen’s South Korean unit said.
Last month, Korea revoked certification for 80 model variants of VW, Audi and Bentley vehicles on grounds that the German automaker fabricated certificates of vehicle emissions and noise-levels. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/manufacturing/vw-reviews-procurement-after-dispute-with-parts-supplier-1.2773329 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/cf6e75fba837ded6db7e8d17925107698aee74bdee5de58dabec64392f087594.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T04:52:02 | null | 2016-08-30T05:32:00 | Q&A: Dominic Coyle | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fpersonal-finance%2Fwhere-can-i-get-a-risk-free-return-on-a-six-figure-sum-1.2772172%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2763452.1472487923!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Where can I get a risk-free return on a six-figure sum? | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | I have a six figure sum in a deposit account due to mature next month. The interest is very bad. It’s with Bank of Ireland and they want me to meet an adviser there about my options. Maybe a five-year term low risk. The money I got was from a house sale. I don’t really like the idea of risk. Any ideas, Post Office and so on? I don’t mind it being put away three to five years or so.
Mr JB, email
Answer:
Maturing investments are proving a right headache at the moment, especially for low risk investors.
You’ll have seen the news last week that Bank of Ireland is joining the growing trend by financial houses of charging customers for deposits. It is only major corporate customers – those with more than €10 million in the bank – that will have to pay, but even the idea that depositors are having to pay banks to hold (and use) their money tells a tale of a deeply dysfunctional market.
Essentially, it is proving next to impossible to make a decent return on cash at the moment, unless you are willing to take chances, and even then there’s no guarantee it will not go against you. For the banks, the option is to lodge the money with the European Central Bank, which is considered the safest way of ensuring they don’t lose anything.
This, however, runs counter to ECB policy, which is looking to encourage banks to invest in the real economy in an effort to improve the economic situation in Europe. When persuasion didn’t work, the ECB eventually brought the rate at which they accept deposits from the banks overnight down below zero. So the banks are paying the ECB to accept their money.
Where banks turn to the ECB for a “state guarantee”, individual consumers tend to turn to State savings , i.e. An Post. You may not make much on your money – from 0.33 per cent per annum on three-year savings bonds to 0.98 per cent on five and a half year savings certificates – but it is tax free and more than you make on basic term deposit with the banks.
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And while you can make a better return by investing in funds with Bank of Ireland or elsewhere, you will have to accept some level of risk. As a general rule, the higher the risk, the higher the potential returns – but that also comes with a higher risk of losing some or all of your money.
At least, with An Post – like the basic bank deposits – you’re backed by a State guarantee that you will get your money back.
The bad news for investors is that the outlook does not signal any easing in the harsh and volatile investment environment over the medium term; in fact, the post-Brexit turmoil, exacerbated by problems with the Chinese economy and uncertainty around the US presidential elections, mean choices are likely to remain difficult.
I was wondering what you think is coming up in the next budget? At present a house is tax free if you’ve inherited it while living in it for a few years, but I read that this is being reviewed. I’d just like your take on this.
Mr J.McJ, email
Answer:
At this remove, it is hard to have any clear sense of what will be in the budget in October, although there has been some fairly clear signalling of an intention to address/reduce the impact of the universal social charge. Ironic really, as it operates more cleanly and transparently than a lot of our tax system.
In any case, the two driving forces shaping the budget will be, first, the Government’s determination to be seen to share some of the benefits of the recovery – especially after the last election showed the presumption of a rising tide lifting all boats was not shared by the electorate. This might be mitigated somewhat by the second influence – the impact of the UK Brexit vote on the Irish economy and the exchequer.
One of the things that has been brought into the mix is the relief you’re talking about – dwelling house relief. I certainly did see some venting in certain media channels on the subject, much of it very exaggerated.
However, it is true to say that the number of families availing of the relief has jumped sharply, and there are concerns in Revenue circles that it is being abused – which it most likely is.
As usual, eagle-eyed tax specialists have been advising their often wealthy clients of the possibility of providing a home for children without any tax implications on. They have been surprisingly open on the subject of such “tax planning”.
Revenue has been clamping down recently on the practice of wealthy parents financially supporting the lifestyles of their adult children. Most recently in the 2014 Finance Act, it tightened up the rules for such support under section 82 of the Capital Acquisitions Tax Act 2003, covering the “support, maintenance and education” of children. The suspicion is that support no longer available under section 82 is now being redirected to dwelling house relief.
If they have strong grounds to suspect the tax exemption on dwelling houses is being similarly abused, I would expect them to push hard for reform.
Still, the relief is a valuable element of social policy to ensure that family members living with, and often caring for, elderly parents are not effectively forced into homelessness by inheritance tax charges on the death of those parents which forces them to sell the only home they know.
I think, as with the review of section 82, any reform will look to retain the relief for those people who have been genuinely living in the family home for the three years prior to any inheritance with an aged or infirm parent and who subsequently remain in the home (or replacement accommodation) for six years thereafter.
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Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, or email dcoyle@irishtimes.com. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/where-can-i-get-a-risk-free-return-on-a-six-figure-sum-1.2772172?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/3b767e0d4a013a9e72b11fa280f76b1f66ba42cf83357f168bbdc5916f1b481f.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:52:42 | null | 2016-08-31T07:00:00 | Here are the stage times for the Jerry Fish Electric Sideshow, Comedy Tent, Salty Dog, Trailer Park, Global Green, Trenchtown and more | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fmusic%2Felectric-picnic-stage-times-the-last-batch-of-schedules-revealed-1.2773664%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773663.1472596734!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Electric Picnic stage times: the last batch of schedules revealed | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | COMEDY TENT
SATURDAY
20.15-21.00 Dylan Moran
19.35-20.05 Reginald D Hunter
18.55-19.30 The Rubberbandits
18.30-18.50 Aisling Bea
18.00-18.25 Colin Murphy
17.35-17.55 Kevin McGarhen
17.05-17.30 Eric Lalor
16.25-17.00 Deidre O’Kane
15.55-16.20Colm O Regan
15.20-15.50 Dublin Comedy Improv
14.55- 15.15 Danny O Brien
14.40-14.50 Colm Tyrell
14.10-14.35 Damian Clarke
13.45-14.05 Fred Cooke
13.30-13.45 Andrew Stanley
SUNDAY
20.10-21.00 David O’Doherty
19.35-20.05 Abandoman
18.45-19.20 Al Porter
18.15-18.40 Joe Rooney
17.45- 18.10 Chris Kent
17.15-17.40 Patrick McDonnell
16.45-17.10 Karl Spain
16.20-16.40 Ian Coppinger
15.55-16.15 Kevin Gildea
15.25-15.50 Rory O Hanlon
14.55-15.20 John Colleary
14.40-14.50Ashlee Bently
14.15- 14.35 Alison Spittle
13.45-14.10 Gearoid Farrelly
SALTY DOG STAGE
FRIDAY
02.30-3.45 Salty Dog NoStars play Bowie
01.35-02.15 Pete Pamf Sextette
24.25-01.15 Stomptown Brass
23.15-24.00 Third Smoke
22.00-22.55 Swords
20.45-21.35 Bronagh Gallagher Band
19.25-20.15 Five by Five
18.10-19.00 These Charming Men present The Queen is Dead
17.05-17.50 Buffalo Sunn
16.00-16.45 Rob Walsh Band
14.00-16.00 Will Softly
SATURDAY
02.50 - 04.00 Le Galaxie Soundsystem
01.35 - 02.30 RSAG
24.25-01.15 Eskies
23.00-24.05 The Pale
21.55-22.40 Ross Breen
20.40-21.35 Square Pegs
19.30-20.20 Prison Love
18.40-19.10 Gavin Glass
17.25-18.15 The Portside Hootenanny
16.10-17.05 D Riculous Allstars
15.00-15.50 Leila Jane and the Healers
14.00-14.45 Sion Hill
13.00-13.45 Trinitones
12.00-12.45 Love for Arthur Lee presents Forever Changes
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SUNDAY
01.35-03.00 Kormac
24.25-01.15 New Secret Weapon
23.20-24.05 Manden Express
22.10-23.00 Mongrel State
20.55-21.50 Cronins featuring Shane MacGowan
19.30-20.20 Mick Pyro & The Dublin Blues Cartel
18.15-19.10 David Kitt
17.10-18.00 Aine Cahill
16.05-16.50 My Fellow Sponges
15.05-15.50 Emma Lou & The Agenda
14.05-14.50 Old Hannah
13.00-13.50 Dr Strangely Strange
12.00-12.45 Aidan Kavanagh‘s Sunday Morning Dishgo
RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY
FRIDAY
01.30-03.00 Colm K
23.30-01.30 Fish Go Deep
21.30-23.30 Timmy Stewart
18.30-21.30 KC
16.30-18.30 Galactic Beat Club
14.30-16.30 Discotekken
12.00-14.30 Ciara Brady
SATURDAY
23.00-03.00 Mr. Scruff
20.30-23.00 Phil Boyle
18.30-20.30 Nialler9
16.30-18.30 Sim Simma
14.30-16.30 This Greedy Pig
12.00-14.30James Hannan
SUNDAY
01.00-03.00 New Jackson
23.00-01.00 Billy Scurry
21.00-23.00 Stevie G
19.00-21.00 Donal Dineen
16.30-19.00 Hubie Davison
14.30-16.30Mr Ray
12.00-14.30 Dave Fear
JERRY FISH ELECTRIC SIDESHOW
FRIDAY
23.30 Fire Show with RealTa Circus
Past Midnight-01.00 The Jerry Fish Electric Sideshow feat. Jeremy Hickey aka R.S.A.G
01.00-04.00 Kelly Ann Byrne + Billy Scurry
SATURDAY
00.00-04.00 Johnny Moy + Mulljoy + Special Guests
23.00 -00.00 The Strypes
22.00-22.45 Gavin James
21.00-21.45 The Frank & Walters
20.00-20.45 The Academic
10.15-20.00 Special Guest DJ
18.30-19.15 EngineAlley
17.45-18.15 Le Boom
17.00-17.30 Wob
16.1516.45 The Outer Limits
15.30-16.00 Weenz
14.45-15.15 The Vincents
14.00-14.3 Foxjaw
13.15-13.45 Ceili All-Stars
12.00-13.00 House of Yoga feat. Get Down Edits
SUNDAY
01.00-02.00 End of the World Party
00.00-01.00 The Jerry Fish Electric Sideshow
23/00-23.45 The Blizzards
22/00-22..45 Exmagician
21.00-21.45 Bitch Falcon
20.00-20.45 Relish
19.15-19.45 Veda, Regina, Pixie & Sngelica - stars of Witchy Wednesdays @ the George - present Drag, Sex & Rock ’n’ Roll
18.30-19.05 Interskalactic
17.45-18.15 Mariachi San Patricio
17.00-17.30 Barq
16.15-16.45 Orchid Collective
15.30-16.00 Ivy Nations
14.45-15.15 Craig Gallagher
14.00-14.30 White Cholera
13.15-13.45 Absolutely Yo
12.00-13.00 House of Yoga
TRENCHTOWN
FRIDAY
01.00-03.30 Dirty Dubsters w/ Kwasi, Mango, RV, Jago & Deemas j
23.55 -00.45 After The Ibis
22.50-23.40 Gangsters
21.55-22.35 Jafaris
20.10-21.40 Jameire
18.40-20.10 Dub Foundry & Ranking Fox
16.40-18.40 Junior Spesh
14.40-16.40 t woc
SATURDAY
01.30-03.30 Ras Kwame & Serocee
23.25 -01.25 Worries Outernational
22.20 -23.10 Adeniyi Allen Taylor & the Afrobeat Orchestra
21.15-22.05 The Bionic Rats
20.10-21.00 The Hacklers
19.05-19.55 Johnny Pluse & the Stormtroopers of Love
17.20-18.50 Word Up Collective
16.15- 17.05 Skazz
14.30-16.00 Rub A Dub Crew
13.00-14.30 An Galar Dub
SUNDAY
02.00-03.30 Cian Finn
00.45-01.45 Ajo Arkestra
23.30-00.30 Wob! (Sambass Set)
22.15-23.15 Andrew White
21.10-22.00 The Service
20.05-20.55 The Little Beauties
19.00-19.50 Dah Jevu
17.15-18.45 Tom Beary & MC Little Tree
16.20-17.00 Bevin Rimson
14.05-16.05 Tim Timmah
GLOBAL GREEN Village Hall
FRIDAY
01.00 Start The Dance. featuring RobotRock and DJ Dave Caffrey till late
23.20 Phases DJs
22.40 Cinema
21.50 Wastefellow
21.00 Jem Mitchell
20.00 WEAVE
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SATURDAY
23.20 Hip Hop Hooray. featuring Re.Raw, Gin n Juice, Rosko til very late..
21.40 Caz9
19.50 Voices Rising. Spoken Word
19.00 Cult Called Man
18.10 The Witch Trials
17.00 Reconnecting With Nature - Panel Discussion
16.15 Swords
15.20 CreamDream
14.30 Anna-Mieke
13.30 Community Energy - Panel Discussion
13.10 Community Power - Screening
12.00 Yoga
SUNDAY
02.15 Ben Live/DJ Set - Breaks, jackin house, trap and dubstep
21.40 Last Train to Skaville. featuring Rub A Dub, Pressure Drop DJs and The Service
20.00 Atlantic - Screening and Discussion
19.15 The Savage Jim Breen
18.20 Black Bank Folk
16.00 The Show Must Go On - Panel Discussion
17.00 Pop Icons. Sing Along Social for GOAL
15.00 David Keenan
14.10 I Am Niamh
13.20 Sarah Buckley
12.00 Yoga
CASA BACARDÍ
FRIDAY
22.00-00.00 Huxley
20.00-22.00 Hercules & Love Affair (Dj Set)
18.00-20.00 Stevie G
16.00-18.00 Stephen Manning
SATURDAY
00.00-02.00 DJ Deece
22.00-00.00 Nicky Siano
20.00-22.00 Horse Meat Disco
18.00-20.00 Krafty Kuts
16.30-18.00 Get Down Edits
15.00-16.40 Groovement Soul
13.30-15.00 Modern Magic
12,30-13.30 4wrd Grad
SUNDAY
22.00-00.00 The Magician
20.00-22.00 Disco Bloodbath
18.00-20.00 A-Skillz
16.00-18.00 Kelly Anne Byrne
14,00-16.00 Ghostboy
12.00-14.00 Christian Homan
From Friday The Irish Times will be onsite at Stradbally proper, with our live blog for all your 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.
For more visit our Electric Picnic page here | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/electric-picnic-stage-times-the-last-batch-of-schedules-revealed-1.2773664?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/467f311bebab9c721017dacbd02eb72d1ce5ecb2c80ee6b276f5d71be75efacd.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T10:53:07 | null | 2016-08-31T10:33:00 | Floods triggered by Typhoon Lionrock have forced more than 1,000 people from their home | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fasia-pacific%2Ftyphoon-kills-nine-people-in-japanese-nursing-home-1.2774108%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774105.1472636150!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Typhoon kills nine people in Japanese nursing home | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Nine people were killed when floods hit an old people’s home in Japan, police said on Wednesday, taking the death toll from a typhoon battering northern parts of the country to at least 11.
Police found nine bodies on Wednesday in the nursing home in the town of Iwaizumi, in Iwate Prefecture in the north of Japan’s main island of Honshu, but it was not clear when their home was flooded.
It was also not clear why people there had not been taken to safety before the storm struck. The nursing home is located near a river and was partially buried in mud and debris when the river overflowed its banks.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK said the home was for people with dementia.
“The area is in a state of chaos. We are not sure what preparations the facility had taken,” said a prefectural government official who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
The town issued evacuation preparation information on Tuesday morning, which is to inform elderly or disabled people who take time to evacuate. That, however, was not as strong as an evacuation warning, according to another prefecture official.
More than 1,000 other people were forced from their homes by the flooding brought by Typhoon Lionrock.
The body of a man was also found near a river in Iwaizumi and a dead woman was found in Kuji city, police said.
Further north, on the island of Hokkaido, at least two rivers broke through their banks. The fire and disaster management agency said at least one person went missing while driving or riding in a car that went down with a bridge torn away by the flood.
Authorities in the town of Minamifurano reported hundreds of people trapped in houses and shelters by flooding from the Sorachi river, the agency said.
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Hundreds of other people were also trapped in buildings and isolated in several towns in Iwate. Typhoon Lionrock made landfall on Tuesday evening near the city of Ofunato, 310 miles north east of Tokyo on the Pacific coast and crossed the main island of Honshu before heading out to the Sea of Japan.
It was the first time a typhoon had made landfall in the northern region since 1951, when the Japan Meteorological Agency started keeping records. Iwate prefecture, the hardest-hit by the typhoon, is one of the areas still rebuilding from the March 2011 tsunami and earthquake, which left more than 18,000 people dead along Japan’s north-eastern coast.
Agencies | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/typhoon-kills-nine-people-in-japanese-nursing-home-1.2774108?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/96028a0479297610a73c3694570968cb885957bbaafd52aeab43e2c5eb286e18.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T04:50:19 | null | 2016-08-27T05:00:00 | The US presidential candidates hopes a €9m wall will save his golf links in Co Clare. But nature might be more powerful than that | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fenvironment%2Fanother-life-donald-trump-the-wall-and-the-ocean-that-giveth-and-taketh-away-1.2769520%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769517.1472221980!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Another Life: Donald Trump, the wall and the ocean that giveth and taketh away | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Early on the first of the last days of summer I walked to the edge of the sea. This is much farther than you might think, especially when the tide is out. Tallamh Bán gives tourists quite a gasp when they round a high bend on the Wild Atlantic Way and see wildness, indeed, in the gleaming kite of sand spread out below.
Its tail begins where the boreen ends and the mountain river starts its long curve to the waves. I crossed its channel cautiously, propped by a pair of walking poles from China, the gift of a thoughtful friend. Too eccentric for the road, they serve as great stabilisers for wading the copper torrent in my wellies.
After that came the strand’s main drag, well patterned with curlicues of tyre marks spun by the summer’s four-by-fours. Their delirious circles will melt in the reach of September’s spring tide, leaving me a mirror finely ribbed by the small, ebbing waves.
At the corner of the long spit of dunes I tried to judge how much had been lost in the violent storms we have shared. The whole arm of sand, after all, perhaps a kilometre long, with the flat lawn of machair behind it, took the ocean and its winds just a century to build.
I tried to picture the profile of its terminal bluff as it stood just a decade ago. I’d buried the head of a dolphin somewhere in its slope, hoping to recover, in due course, another sculpture for the garden. Now the whole slope had gone. Smoothed by this rainy summer, the scarp of the dunes is all bland parabolas, the ridges thatched with marram with seed ears tight as wheat.
The ocean giveth and taketh away. It works within a local cell of sediment, typically trapped between headlands, to sustain the dunes of a sandy shore in a perennial budgetary cycle. In winter, storm waves bite and scour, dragging sand out to store in a bar offshore. This can leave the strand low and hard, any bedrock ribs exposed. In calm summers the sand is ushered gently in again, building the foredunes and nourishing the whole system with fresh, wind-blown particles described, nicely, as “aeolian”.
What I had come to check – my excuse, at least, on a rare and glorious day – was the summer’s due gift of sediment. I stepped into it on cue in a generous band above the highest tide, boots and poles piercing a surface as fluffy and soft as snow.
This early the strand was empty end to end but for an angler who had taken his jeep to the very bottom of the tide. He made great casts that flew like birds on the stiff offshore breeze and landed with bright splashes. I stood a long way off, at the last lapping of the waves, lost in the play of light through the shallows: shades of jade and turquoise deepening into indigo.
I was thinking, begrudgingly, of the appalling Donald Trump and the wall he wants to build to save his golf course on the dunes down in Co Clare. Actually, not strictly a wall but a revetment: a sloping scarp of three-tonne chunks of local limestone 2.8 kilometres long and rearing up to 5m high. If it goes ahead it will cost him up to €9 million – “small potatoes”, as he smirks.
Most of the local community, understandably enough, want it built, protecting their jobs along with the dunes, parts of which were indeed deeply gnawed in the last big storms. Its NGO opponents point to the downsides of such hard and monstrous engineering and urge the softer measures of a “managed retreat”.
Trump’s company tried to lure An Bord Pleanála into rating the wall as “strategic infrastructure development”, but the buck was returned to Clare County Council, to deal with after the holidays.
Loss of the revolving sand budget I described above could have several physical results, including undermining the wall so that it sinks, and sending waves alongshore to bite where revetment ends. The dunes, it’s argued, would become fossilised for want of blown sand and less hospitable to the minute, EU-protected snail Vertigo angustior (whose numbers at Doonbeg have lately been doing rather well). Surfers could lose the kind of waves they prefer.
Would Trump’s 200,000-tonne colossus of Canute do such harm to total biodiversity? Probably not: enough cracks and holes in the blocks would, in time, make homes for marine life more typical of a rocky shore.
Trump himself is a specimen the planet could have done without. I did, eventually, manage to ease him out of my mind and lose myself, instead, in the joyful shrieks of terns diving for sand eels, out beyond where the third wave should have been.
Michael Viney’s Reflections on Another Life, a selection of columns from the past four decades, is available from irishtimes.com/irishtimesbooks | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/another-life-donald-trump-the-wall-and-the-ocean-that-giveth-and-taketh-away-1.2769520?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/76cacca446423aa81e6655727c920d0775461fae87baa084916449204624f8ec.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T06:51:55 | null | 2016-08-30T07:26:00 | Acquisitions and expansion in north America boosts fresh food group as pre-tax profits jump 5.8%; Davy reiterates ‘outperform’ rating | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fagribusiness-and-food%2Frevenues-soar-by-10-4-at-total-produce-1.2772847%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772846.1472539186!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Revenues soar by 10.4% at Total Produce | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Revenues at Total Produce rose by 10.4 per cent to €1.9 billion in the first half of the year, as the fresh food group got a boost from acquisitions and higher average prices.
In the six months to June 30th, total revenues rose by 10.4 per cent, while adjusted EBITA was up by 13.2 per cent and adjusted fully diluted earnings per share grew by 11.6 per cent. Profit before tax rose by 5.8 per cent to €25.6 million. The fruit distributor spun out of Fyffes said it benefited from acquisitions completed in the period and a circa 5 per cent like-for-like growth in revenue on the back of both volume growth and higher average prices. A strong operational performance was offset in part by a small negative impact on translation to Euro of the results of foreign currency denominated operations.
Chairman Carl McCann said the group delivered “a very strong performance” in the first six months of the year, as the group continued its expansion in north America in 2016, acquiring 65 per cent of Progressive Produce, a company headquartered in Los Angeles, as well as a number of other investments.
“ The group continues to actively pursue further investment opportunities,” Mr McCann said, adding that the interim dividend is up 10 per cent to 0.8096 cent per share.
“The group is now targeting increased full year earnings at the top end of the previously announced range of 10.50 to 11.50 cent per share,” he said.
On the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, Total Produce said while it has “created some macroeconomic uncertainties, it is not expected to have a material impact on the group”.
In a note, Davy Stockbrokers said it was a “strong” set of results, adding that the international segment represents “a significant growth opportunity” for the group, as it reiterated its “outperform” rating. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/revenues-soar-by-10-4-at-total-produce-1.2772847?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/809dae61ea969d5e15d10cc518b31e57088a47cf69ce1d5cf8106ddec59611a5.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:51:52 | null | 2016-08-29T01:00:00 | Those without the necessary visa have reason to feel afraid and very vulnerable | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fgeneration-emigration%2Fillegal-irish-workers-in-australia-face-a-perilous-existence-1.2771284%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771282.1472413905!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Illegal Irish workers in Australia face a perilous existence | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | “Sarah” flew out to Australia on a working holiday visa in 2013. She works in Perth as an administrator for a big company. But there’s a secret the Irish woman is keeping from her employer: she has been living in the country illegally since her visa expired last year.
“I come from a small town at home and I just couldn’t go back to nothing,” says Sarah (23) whose Irish boyfriend, who works in construction, has also overstayed his visa.
“I had a choice to go home and be on the dole, or stay here and try and make a life for myself. I tried everything to stay legally. We met with an immigration agent, but because my degree is not on the skills list and my boyfriend’s trade isn’t either, there is nothing we can do.”
Sarah and her partner are among an increasing number of Irish people overstaying temporary visas in Australia, not wanting to move home to Ireland when they expire.
According to the Australian department of immigration and border protection, 1,120 Irish nationals were believed to be living in Australia unlawfully in June 2015.
More than 100,000 Irish people moved to Australia in the six years following the crash in Ireland in 2008, the vast majority on working-holiday or four-year employer-sponsored (subclass 457) visas.
With the economy in Australia contracting and unemployment levels rising, they are now finding it harder to get sponsorship or permanent residency to stay legally in the long term, as their visas come to an end.
Dramatic increase
Organisations working with Irish communities around the country, particularly in Western Australia where the construction industry has been hardest hit, are warning of a dramatic increase in the number of cases of visa overstays they are seeing among their clients.
“There is more talk of it now than I have ever known,” says Liz O’Hagan, co-ordinator of the Claddagh Association in Perth, who has been a registered migration agent in Australia for 17 years.
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“They are getting nervous because there is so much talk of people in detention. We are getting a lot of hypothetical questions, asking, ‘What would happen if my friend who is illegal . . . ?’ ”
Figures from the Australian department of immigration and border protection show that between July 2014 and June 2015, 92 Irish citizens were “removed” after being arrested and held at immigration detention centres, up from just 16 in 2010/11.
A further 309 returned to Ireland voluntarily, after overstaying their visas and engaging with the immigration authorities.
“A lot of the people who came out here [during the recession in Ireland] weren’t skilled. They left school in Ireland and went to work on building sites, and don’t have a third-level education.
“They are the ones who are staying on illegally because they don’t have the skills Australia needs, and can’t get sponsored,” O’Hagan says.
“They are reluctant to return to Ireland. They are worried about their job prospects because they don’t have any skills. The labourers who haven’t done an apprenticeship and don’t have a degree have very limited options.”
Brian Mooney, who keeps Perth’s Irish construction workers well-fed with breakfast rolls, batch bread sandwiches and curry chips at Mooney’s Irish Sandwich Bar, says “the chat” among his customers “has always been about the visas, and how they can stay”.
“God love them, what choice do they have? Things haven’t changed completely at home yet, and work is still hard to get. There’s a lot of depression about – they don’t know what they are going to do.”
Mooney has noticed a sharp drop in the number of Irish construction workers coming through his doors in the last year, as they move home, to Sydney where construction is still booming, or on to other countries.
He estimates that the proportion of illegal Irish among those working on sites around Perth could be one in 10.
Exploitation
“It’s easy to do. They can get a tax number or Australian Business Number [ABN] off the internet and use that on invoices or to open a bank account.”
A lot of them work for cash, he says, which leaves them vulnerable to exploitation.
“On the sites they might be on AUS$1,500 [€1,014] a week, and their boss might not pay them for four or five weeks if they haven’t been paid for a job or something.
“Suddenly they are thousands in debt. And if they are illegal, they can’t do anything about it, they can’t complain to anyone if they are not paid. That is happening a lot. I feed some of the lads like that who are hungry – young fellas who have no money or have lost their jobs.”
Living undocumented in Australia is a risky business, especially when it comes to healthcare, O’Hagan says.
“They put themselves at risk because they don’t have access to insurance policies.
“There is such a risk of someone reporting them that they pay cash to go to the doctor. If you get sick you could end up in detention at the end of your hospital stay.”
Three-year ban
Immigrants who have overstayed visas are advised by the department to present in person with proof, such as flight tickets, of their intention to leave Australia.
By doing so they will face a three-year ban from the country, but will avoid arrest or detention.
O’Hagan says the department won’t actively seek out people who have overstayed, but do come down hard when undocumented immigrants get in trouble with the law in other ways, for driving offences or arrests for drunkenness.
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“For people who have no history but have just overstayed, they can get lost in the system and not be caught for a long time.
“But the Australian tax office is linked to the department of immigration, so they can get caught that way. It is surprising how many people talk openly about it too, which is beyond stupid – you don’t know who you are talking to.”
Also related to the expiry of temporary visas is the rise in the number of Irish being refused permanent residency.
The case of Bernard Lee from Greystones in Co Wicklow made headlines across Ireland this month when he was arrested by armed border police in Perth and detained at Yongah Hill detention centre, before being deported back to Ireland 10 days later.
Lee (28), who had applied for permanent residency, had his business visa cancelled when the department discovered he had not informed them of nine-year-old convictions in Ireland for drink-driving and driving without a licence.
Lee’s case received a lot of publicity because of his family’s appeal for his release, but organisations such as Claddagh are seeing cases like his regularly, mostly because the people involved haven’t disclosed prior criminal convictions.
At a recent presentation to these Irish welfare organisations in Perth, a representative from the department said there was a particularly high refusal rate for permanent residency among Irish applicants.
“They are coming down really heavily. There is a pattern emerging of Irish people being caught out for not declaring minor offences,” O’Hagan says.
“I see this on a weekly basis where young men have committed an offence, usually minor like driving without insurance, but tick ‘No’ under the criminal record section on the form when applying for their working holiday visa, or their employer sponsored [subclass 457] visa.
Mandatory
“But when they go for permanent residency, it is mandatory to provide a police cert.
“What is happening more and more often is people have an offence on their Garda clearance that they didn’t declare, not only on their visa applications but at the airport every time they entered Australia after being on holidays.
“What is a major no-no is if you reoffend in Australia. You have your history in Ireland, a history of not telling the truth to immigration, and then an Australian offence. There is zero tolerance for that now.”
The Lee case will “cause a bit of fear for the lads” who are illegal in Perth, Mooney says, “because they always thought that if caught they would be just brought to the airport and put on a plane and sent home. But it doesn’t work like that.”
As increasing numbers of Irish apply for citizenship in Australia (3,092 Irish took the oath in the 12 months to June 2015, up from just 903 in 2009), the number of refusals for Irish applicants on is also on the up, says the department.
On a recent visit to Perth and Sydney to meet some of Australia’s young Irish population, there was a lot of talk about getting citizenship as a “safety net” before returningto Ireland, in case things don’t work out and they want to return to Australia.
“People are rushing to get citizenship who have no intention of remaining in Australia, and the department has cottoned on to that,” O’Hagan agrees.
“They sometimes even say it in their citizenship interviews, or ask for their applications to be rushed through because they are moving home.
“They will be refused, because genuine citizen applicants are expected to contribute to Australian society in the long term.”
O’Hagan has also noticed an increase in the number of people violating the conditions of their sponsored visas, which are state-specific:
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“They might have lost their job in Perth and they go to Sydney, which is against the terms of their visa. But they tell me they don’t feel they have a choice, because they can’t go back to Ireland.”
Sarah says she lives in fear of being caught by the police in Perth, but the risk of living illegally seems worth it to her for now. She and her partner plan to stay working in Australia until they have saved a deposit for a house.
“We are not criminals, we are not bad people,” she says. “I have never ever been in trouble here or in Ireland, but I still feel I will be treated like the worst kind of criminal if I get caught.
“We are afraid to go to the hospitals, and we are terrified of the police because we know they can take our whole lives away from us.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/generation-emigration/illegal-irish-workers-in-australia-face-a-perilous-existence-1.2771284?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4524a49f816708f4eaded4854c0c49d6730df2dd437512cb51854ef1a69c292c.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:19 | null | 2016-08-31T01:00:00 | Back taxes of €13bn not available until appeals end and EU dictates may only be used to cut debt | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fapple-tax-judgment-five-key-points-on-eu-ruling-1.2773511%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773509.1472586063!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Apple tax judgment: Five key points on EU ruling | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | 1 The Government will be obliged to issue a tax bill to Apple. However, the certainty of an appeal means the money is likely to be put into some kind of escrow account – in other words it will not be ours to use – until legal appeals are over. Given also that the European Commission decision questions whether all the €13 billion is actually due to Ireland – saying other European countries or even the US might stake a claim – it is unclear whether Ireland will ever see some, or all, of the cash.
2 The Government points out that under EU budget rules it could not use a one-off windfall – if one does eventually appear – to fund day to day spending or tax cuts. It would have to go to pay down the national debt, which now stands at €200 billion. A decent chunk off the debt would, of course, reduce the debt and the annual interest bill. However, the Government says that it has to act to defend Ireland’s reputation as a place for FDI investment and appeal the decision.
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
3 The European Commission investigation was specifically into the affairs of Apple. There is no investigation under way into other Irish companies. The one concession to Ireland in the commission’s press statement is a sentence saying “this decision does not call into question Ireland’s general tax system or its corporate tax rate.” It is likely that other US companies both here and in other European countries had similar, though possibly not identical, structures. It remains to be seen if the commission has other targets in the years ahead, though Irish sources do not believe it currently has other Irish companies in its sights.
4 There appears to be no chance of any negotiated settlement here. If the amount demanded by the European Commission was much smaller, some sources feel there might have been attempts to sort out some agreement. Now, however, this will not happen. This will go right through the European courts system.
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5 The Government and IDA argue this will have no impact on future foreign direct investment. The European Commission statement that it is not targeting our general tax system will provide some support. However, it remains to be seen what impact this has on overall US investment in Europe and in Ireland, and if US companies will be tempted to pull back from operations here if they feel they are being targeted by officialdom. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/apple-tax-judgment-five-key-points-on-eu-ruling-1.2773511?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/27f0b7093a05d2b508b435cc1f8b2e48d2605f3a3a9f9b5642e17d848d8e480e.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T10:49:25 | null | 2016-08-31T11:39:00 | Economist says: ‘You got jobs at the cost of stealing revenues from other countries’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fjoseph-stiglitz-says-ireland-should-not-appeal-apple-ruling-1.2774184.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774183.1472640328!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Joseph Stiglitz says Ireland should not appeal Apple ruling | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Nobel prize winning economist Prof Joseph Stiglitz says the Irish government is wrong to appeal the EU decision on Apple and its tax obligations.
He described comments by Minister Richard Bruton on RTE’s Today with Sean O’Rourke Show, in defence of the government’s position, as ‘utter balderdash.’
On the same programme Prof Stiglitz said: “the fact is that you were encouraging tax avoidance, you knew it.
“Let’s not make any pretence about it, you got a few jobs at the cost of stealing revenues from countries around the world. That’s the kind of activity that has to be stopped.”
He said that the question now was: “what are the rules of the game about tax competition, about state aid and it’s very clear if a company says that they got revenue associated with Ireland, you have to pay a tax on it.
“Whether that income was correctly attributed to Ireland is another matter. If Apple is saying that this is Irish income, you have an obligation to impose taxes on income that they say originated in Ireland.
“Apple is claiming that the income was associated with activities, that’s why they said they could book it to an Irish subsidiary. Can they book it to a subsidiary for activities not occurring in Ireland? The issue is, if they book it to Ireland should there be an Irish tax?
“That’s what the issue is. They were booking it to an Irish subsidiary and they were not paying taxes.”
Prof Stiglitz said he found it mystifying that Ireland didn’t “just pocket that €13billion and use it for the enormous hardship that the people of Ireland have had to face.
“The argument that you will lose lots of jobs is absolute nonsense. It’s a new world, it’s very clear that the rules of the game have changed, under those new rules Ireland will have to compete on the basis of going forward, what it can provide economically.
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“I think Ireland can provide a lot - it has a well trained labour force, a disciplined labour force, and that is the basis on which countries should compete, with infrastructure.
“This idea that all these people will leave and their jobs will disappear is a vote of lack of confidence in Ireland. I’d rather have a vote of confidence in Ireland and say, maybe a few people engaged in cheating, relatively few, but nothing to compensate for the loss of the €13billion.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/joseph-stiglitz-says-ireland-should-not-appeal-apple-ruling-1.2774184 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f486000ee794535aa1bf64e42356c0c576320e60355f22133e106f19282836bc.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T02:50:29 | null | 2016-08-27T02:30:08 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Ffood-and-drink%2Frecipes%2Feasy-overnight-white-sourdough-1.2768350%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2768348.1472137731!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Easy overnight white sourdough | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Easy overnight white sourdough
Cooking Time: 50 mins
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: Irish
Ingredients 500g strong white flour
5g salt
325g water
150g sourdough starter
Method
Add the flour to a clean mixing bowl. Mix the salt through the flour. Add the water and sourdough starter. Combine all the ingredients to form a rough dough.
Turn the dough out on to a clean work surface. Knead the dough for 10 seconds. Return the dough to the mixing bowl and leave to one side for approximately 10 minutes. When kneading, do not worry if the dough is slightly wet or sticky. Resist the temptation to add any extra flour.
After 10 minutes, turn the dough out onto the work surface and knead for another 10 seconds, then return the dough to the mixing bowl and allow the dough to rest for a further 10 minutes. The dough will need to be kneaded one more time. After the third time of kneading for 10 seconds, the dough should be smooth, smooth and elastic.
Return the dough to the mixing bowl, cover with cling film and allow it to prove for four hours at room temperature. After four hours, turn the dough onto a work surface and knock it back. Knocking back simply involves knocking the air from the dough and equalising the temperature within the dough. Form the dough into a tight round ball.
Line a 2.5l round Pyrex dish with a clean tea towel and dust with flour. Place the dough, seam side facing up, into the dish. Cover the dish with the lid, put it in the fridge and leave it overnight.
Using a fridge reduces the temperature of the dough, allowing it to prove slower and longer, which allows for greater development of flavour within the dough and increases its digestibility. As dough ferments or proves, the gluten within the dough breaks down. The longer a dough is allowed to prove, the more flavour it will have and the easier it is to digest.
The next morning, preheat your oven to 230 degrees Celsius/gas 8. Remove the Pyrex dish containing the dough from the fridge. Flip the Pyrex dish over, so the bowl of the Pyrex dish now becomes the lid. Remove the tea towel.
Using a sharp knife, cut the surface of the dough; this is what is known as the baker’s signature. The dough can be cut up to half a centimetre deep. Put the lid back on and place the dish in the preheated oven. Baking the dough with the lid on creates steam, which will allow the dough to rise and open up while baking. The dough will need to be baked for 50 minutes. After 25 minutes, remove the lid from the dish and continue to bake for a further 25 minutes.
Once baked, remove the bread from the dish and allow it to cool. | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/recipes/easy-overnight-white-sourdough-1.2768350?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/5e87e09c77f8a67765f621ff99811eff31f76ab1421441f9738cd3acb155e011.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:52:28 | null | 2016-08-30T12:16:00 | Acquisitions and expansion in north America boosts fresh food group | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fagribusiness-and-food%2Frevenues-soar-10-4-at-total-produce-1.2772847%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772978.1472555770!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Revenues soar 10.4% at Total Produce | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Revenues at Total Produce rose 10.4 per cent to €1.9 billion in the first half of the year as the fresh food group got a boost from acquisitions and higher average prices.
In the six months to June 30th, total revenues rose 10.4 per cent, while adjusted EBITA was up 13.2 per cent and adjusted fully diluted earnings per share grew 11.6 per cent. Profit before tax rose 5.8 per cent to €25.6 million.
The fruit distributor spun out of Fyffes said it benefited from acquisitions completed in the period and a circa 5 per cent like-for-like growth in revenue on the back of both volume growth and higher average prices.
A strong operational performance was offset in part by a small negative impact on translation to euro of the results of foreign currency denominated operations.
Expansion
Chairman Carl McCann said the group delivered “a very strong performance” in the first six months of the year as the group continued its expansion in north America in 2016, acquiring 65 per cent of Progressive Produce, a company headquartered in Los Angeles, as well as a number of other investments.
“The group continues to actively pursue further investment opportunities,” Mr McCann said, adding that the interim dividend was up 10 per cent to 0.8096 cent per share.
“The group is now targeting increased full-year earnings at the top end of the previously announced range of 10.50 to 11.50 cent per share.”
On the UK’s decision to leave the EU, Total Produce said while it has “created some macroeconomic uncertainties, it is not expected to have a material impact on the group”.
In a note Davy Stockbrokers said it was a “strong” set of results, adding that the international segment represented “a significant growth opportunity” for the group. It reiterated its “outperform” rating. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/revenues-soar-10-4-at-total-produce-1.2772847?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/2602e28ff3e21384fc8a00bd3c867bb469ffda3517b6c27497e00a7e8585de16.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T18:50:12 | null | 2016-08-26T18:30:00 | I will always remember the pain I endured as a psychiatric inpatient in an Irish hospital, but the kindness I encountered was equally unforgettable | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fhealth-family%2Fa-psychiatric-patient-s-life-calling-us-crazy-is-easy-1.2769304%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769496.1472220766!/image/image.jpg | en | null | A psychiatric patient’s life: Calling us crazy is easy | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | I turned around as the door clicked shut behind me: there were now three locked doors between me and the exit. Exhausted, agitated and numb, I followed the nurse towards my bed. Little did I know it would be months before I would be free to walk out of the front door and not return.
My overriding memory of my time in hospital is the hopelessness, the desperation, the pain; the kindness. I don’t think I will ever forget the mental torture I felt, but I know I will always remember the kindness I was shown there.
Not only from the nurses and psychologists, who were seemingly endless sources of nonjudgmental support, but also from my fellow patients. The people who were themselves in unbearable pain yet who nevertheless were capable of empathy the likes of which I had never before encountered.
Like the person who would play card games with me when I was upset, the man who wrote me a card apologising for becoming angry with me, the woman whose company would take away the tedium of walking in circles around the special-care garden.
Or the person who left a tub of jelly beans on my bed when I couldn’t stop crying, the person who wrote me a poem the night before I was discharged, the person who kept me company when I was the only one not allowed off the ward.
While I was on the special-care unit I, to put it mildly, wasn’t doing so well. On one of my worse days I returned to my bedside, puffy eyed and with yet another incident report in my file, to discover a piece of paper on my bed. A patient had written me a lengthy note explaining that they knew how it felt to be plagued by self-destructive urges but that they believed things would eventually improve for me.
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I read and reread that note countless times over the next few weeks, and I still do every so often. That someone who was obviously struggling a great deal themselves could find it in themselves not only to show me kindness but also to have hope for me means more than I could ever tell them.
‘I spent hours walking around and playing cards’
Then there was my birthday: I turned 19 while I was an inpatient. Luckily, I was on an open ward for it and was allowed a few hours of freedom with my family. That evening a group of people from my ward organised a party for me, complete with cake, candles and sweets.
In spite of everything that was going on in their lives they cared about my birthday. That was far more important than their carefully chosen gifts of playdough and a stress ball.
I spent hours walking around and around the garden by myself, but I also spent hours playing card games and, yes, colouring, with the other patients. One night we decided to amuse ourselves by setting up a game of Jenga in the middle of the corridor and playing bowling by throwing stress balls at it.
On a few other evenings we would have music sessions; there always seemed to be a couple of musicians or singers among us.
There was always an air of great anticipation on the wards come 7.30pm. We would strain our ears for the trundling noise that meant the tea trolley was on its way. It wasn’t that the decaffeinated tea was particularly enjoyable; it was more the fact that it signalled we had made it through another day.
That and the fact that it brought with it biscuits that we would horse into ourselves. If we were very lucky then a tub of hot chocolate would also appear.
One night we were so pleased to find that precious tub of Cadbury’s on the trolley that we all made ourselves hot chocolate and sat around, sipping out of our plastic cups and trying and failing to muster the concentration to play Monopoly.
‘To an outsider I had failed society’s sanity test’
There were times when I knew an outsider would think I’d officially failed society’s sanity test, and not just because of my thoughts and actions.
Like the moment I held a metal fork for the first time in weeks after being transferred out of the special-care unit. I held it in my hand for a few minutes, appreciating its weight, then gently tapped it against the table, exclaiming when it made a slight noise. All that was left was to be trusted with a nonplastic plate.
That moment was comparable only to my delight at finally being able to store my clothes in my own wardrobe. It really was the little things that mattered.
There were times when I was scared, of course, like when I awoke in the middle of the night, a few days into my admission, to the sound of someone shouting at the top of their lungs.
Or when a patient would attack a nurse and have to be restrained, and the times when we were not allowed into the corridors because someone was flinging things around and trying to kick in doors.
And it was more than a bit frustrating to be confined to a ward with very little to do, to not be allowed to close the curtain around my bed except when getting dressed and to be permitted to walk around the small circular garden surrounded by nonstick walls only when supervised by a nurse.
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Then there were the patients who refused to respect what little privacy we had, who would sit on other people’s beds, open the shower door when someone was inside and tell you every detail about their bodily functions.
‘Boredom is like torture’
Once I began to improve the boredom was like its own form of torture. I once spent a solid 40 minutes “exploring” the ward – that is, reading every notice word for word and deriving meaning from the pictures on the walls.
But the people I was sometimes scared of were the same people I would later play a game with or pass the football to. Someone who would one hour be shouting in my face would the next hour be a pleasant source of company. I soon learned not to judge people by their behaviour on any one day.
I also learned the power of a conversation.
I remember many of the things the nurses said to me, but, more than that, I remember how it felt to have someone look me in the eye, listen and calmly respond even when I was in high distress and quite irrational.
To be so vulnerable and to know that someone could still see past the haze of pain to the person I no longer thought existed was a powerful experience. They saw me when I was at my most desperate, yet they cared about me. At the time it didn’t make sense.
The emotional pain I was experiencing, the alternating numbness and utter overwhelm, is etched into my memory. It’s unlikely I will forget how it felt to be in an environment where the door handles sloped downwards, the toilets had no locks, laces were banned and every day an alarm would go off that would send 10, 20, 30 nurses pelting towards whichever one of us had given up.
I would much rather not know what it feels like to struggle through each minute, to be mummified by bandages, to wake up every morning and feel a fresh wave of dread, of hopelessness wash over me. But I do know what that’s like, and because of that I’ve met some of the most decent, genuine people I know.
I also now know it isn’t necessary to understand a person’s experience; what matters is that you appreciate that what they are going through is real and that they do what they do for reasons that make sense to them.
Unless you’re part of their treating team that’s all you need to know.
Sure, you could call us crazy, dismiss us, fear us. But they are the easy options. They ignore how real our pain is, how our states of mind are not reserved for a certain type of person, how we all have the ability to suffer mental anguish.
In the corridors and canteen it was almost impossible to distinguish patient from visitor.
We all looked like humans. | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/a-psychiatric-patient-s-life-calling-us-crazy-is-easy-1.2769304?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/af1730b2dd901e773dd53c6b40d019c8548d7ca6d9020f1c8beaa6db21394b7f.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:51:58 | null | 2016-08-30T01:06:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Fresearch-and-data-protection-1.2772145%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | Research and data protection | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sir, – Like the data protection commissioner, Fred Logue uses a sledgehammer to crack a nut (August 29th).
He worries about potential misuse of detailed personal information, including place and date of birth, telephone numbers, and mother’s maiden name.
But how is this relevant to the current debate on the withdrawal of historic electoral registers, which contain only names and addresses, are at least 50 years out of date, and are defined under legislation to be public records? – Yours, etc,
ROY STANLEY,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – In answer to Fred Logue’s letter, as immediate past president of Accredited Genealogists Ireland, I can confirm three points.
The first is that the vast majority of professional genealogists in Ireland specialise in obtaining information on their clients’ long-dead ancestors; the second is that the minority (including myself) who locate living people, do so on behalf of solicitors and their agents to identify those entitled to a share in an estate involving intestacy; and the third is that I, and all my colleagues, derive our information legally, from public records, which, under the Electoral Acts 1918-2016, include the electoral register. – Yours, etc,
STEVEN C SMYRL,
Rathgar,
Dublin 6. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/research-and-data-protection-1.2772145?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f53011799349cbbff07c8dc0e47b48cbc143e40ea8edd314cf81b7ad0e4f9758.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:49:17 | null | 2016-08-30T15:21:00 | We could give the Government an open tab in the Dáil bar for 10,833 years | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Foffbeat%2Fwhat-could-ireland-buy-with-the-13bn-apple-tax-1.2773156.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773155.1472566839!/image/image.jpg | en | null | What could Ireland buy with the €13bn Apple tax? | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The European Commission has found that Apple owes the Irish State € 13 billion in back taxes after ruling that the technology giant’s tax arrangements in Ireland constituted a form of illegal state aid.
That works out as approximately €2,732 for every single person in the Republic of Ireland.
So, what could the Irish State buy with that €13 billion? Here are a few ideas:
1. MacBooks for everyone in the audience
If Apple settles its debt by doling out merchandise, each person in Ireland would get approximately one 15 inch Mac Book Pro, valued at about €2,800.
2. Free pints for TDs
If the Government chose to spend the entire sum on free pints and food in the Dail, they could have an open tab for 10,833 years, meaning they wouldn’t pay for a cheap Guinness until the year 12849.
3. A Spire in every school
We could build roughly 3,250 replicas of the Spire on O’Connell Street in Dublin. Enough for each of Ireland’s 3,200 primary schools, with a few left over. OR, we could stack them end-on-end on O’Connell Street, tip the whole lot over in a south-easterly direction, and it would reach Oxford.
4. Shelve motor tax
The Government could pick up everyone’s motor tax bill until about the year 2028.
5. The Irish Times
The State could buy one copy of The Irish Times for every single person in the Republic of Ireland every single day of the week (except Sundays, of course) for the next four years. Sure what more would you want?
6. Tim Cook
The CEO of Apple, Time Cook, is worth roughly €704 million. So by our calculations, you could buy 1,847 Tim Cooks.
7. Dublin to Lisbon
It costs an average of € 8 million to build one kilometre of motorway in Ireland, meaning you could build1625km of motorway. That would get you from Dublin to Lisbon.
8. Steve Jobs’ black turtleneck
In memory of the co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, you could buy 97 million replica black turtlenecks, his favourite item of clothing.
9. The fiscal chasm
The fiscal space – allowing tax cuts and increased spending - is expected to be about € 1 billion in October’s budget and about €11 billion between now and in budgets up to 2021. So the Apple tax windfall could deliver tax cuts and spending increases until then (with € 2 billion left over). All assuming Fianna Fáil supports them of course.
10. Olympics
The Brazil Olympics cost an estimated €1.43 billion, meaning Ireland could host nine Olympic Games and still have change. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/offbeat/what-could-ireland-buy-with-the-13bn-apple-tax-1.2773156 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/41bb513fc3c4cb6fc9c45b7a5e2d9694ef903f1a3aa3546881f167d8d9496342.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T08:52:50 | null | 2016-08-31T09:39:00 | Newcastle midfielder looks likely to join Tottenham or their London rival Arsenal | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Fenglish-soccer%2Fmoussa-sissoko-freed-by-france-to-complete-transfer-1.2774101%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774100.1472632757!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Moussa Sissoko freed by France to complete transfer | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Moussa Sissoko has been allowed to leave the France squad to complete a move from Newcastle.
The France national team’s official Twitter account confirmed the midfielder has been granted time away to tie up a deadline day transfer, with Tottenham reportedly making an offer.
Sissoko has been continually linked with a switch from St James’ Park since Newcastle’s relegation from the Premier League in May.
Spurs’ north London rivals Arsenal were also reportedly interested and Sissoko described them as “beautiful” in an interview with French website Foot Mercato in June.
The 27-year-old impressed at Euro 2016 as hosts France lost to Portugal 1-0 in the final and had been with the squad as they prepared for their friendly with Italy on Thursday and World Cup qualifier in Belarus on Tuesday.
Should Sissoko leave he will join Georginio Wijnaldum, Andros Townsend, Daryl Janmaat and Papiss Cisse in quitting Newcastle since their relegation to the Sky Bet Championship.
Sissoko has made 133 appearances for the Magpies, scoring 12 times, after joining from Toulouse in 2013. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/moussa-sissoko-freed-by-france-to-complete-transfer-1.2774101?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/86462d08ca0160df8cbae5aeae78f6f39299ee91781d8ca62e607a5c6415d2b5.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T14:50:21 | null | 2016-08-26T14:09:00 | Study supports State company’s expansion plans | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftransport-and-tourism%2Fshannon-foynes-port-handles-7-6bn-a-year-in-trade-1.2769462%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769450.1472216962!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Shannon Foynes Port handles €7.6bn a year in trade | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Shannon Foynes Port handles almost more than €7 billion in trade every year, according to a report commissioned by the State company that runs mid-western harbour.
Research by W2 Consulting, based on 2014 figures from the port itself and 31 companies using it, shows that it is worth €1.9 billion to the wider economy and handles €7.6 billion in trade annually.
It also shows that Shannon Foynes Port Company and its customers plan to spend €277 million between them over the five years to 2019, which will support 3,372 jobs in the region.
The port company intends spending €130 million on an expansion plan, dubbed Vision 2041 , that will exploit advantages such as its deep water and sheltered harbours to develop an international trade hub there.
Investment
Combined with private sector capital spending, investment there will total €1.8 billion over the plan’s lifetime.
Chief executive, Pat Keating, said that Shannon Foynes will fund its share of this investment from its own resources. “We are generating the cash flow to do this,” he said.
As the EU recognises it as a core European port, Brussels provided it with €3 million last year to aid development. Mr Keating said that it will be able to get more funding from this source as time goes on.
He explained that the company commissioned the study to demonstrate the port’s worth to the regional and national economies.
“We always knew that it had a huge impact, but we didn’t have the figures to back that up,” Mr Keating said. “These are hard figures, collated from at the primary source, there’s no extrapolation.”
Launching the report, Shannon Foynes chairman, Michael Collins, confirmed that business at the port has overtaken levels achieved at the height of the boom in the first decade of the century.
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“We have a clear vision for the company that envisages it doubling its trade over the lifetime of our masterplan and driving very significant employment growth across the region,” he said.
Ambition
He added the completion of the proposed Limerick-Foynes road, already included in Government spending plans, was essential to this ambition.
“The other key project is the regeneration of the disused Limerick to Foynes rail link and a major feasibility study is being advanced in relation to that,” Mr Collins said.
The report’s author, Mark O’Connell, pointed out that the port has already attracted significant investment since the masterplan’s launch in 2013.
“If you take the capital expenditure of €277 million planned by Shannon Foynes Port Company and its customers up to 2019, that’s almost seven times the investment in redeveloping Thomond Park, ” he said.
“ That’s an indication of the importance that the port authority and the estuary will have in the years ahead.”
The port company has statutory jurisdicction over all marine activities and port management on the Shannon Estuary, covering 500 sq km from Kerry and Loop in Co Clare to Limerick city. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/shannon-foynes-port-handles-7-6bn-a-year-in-trade-1.2769462?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/5d5f519a3328dd43d9b696e5e42ed72e0b723254d369d23d408e92365a95d0bc.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T12:51:06 | null | 2016-08-28T13:15:00 | Bledisloe Cup stays in New Zealand after victory in Wellington | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Frugby%2Finternational%2Fmichael-cheika-s-problems-grow-as-malaise-continues-in-australian-rugby-1.2770956%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770954.1472386535!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Michael Cheika’s problems grow as malaise continues in Australian rugby | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The malaise that blighted Australia’s top rugby players throughout Super Rugby has now well and truly ensconced itself in the national team following their sixth successive defeat in their Rugby Championship loss to the All Blacks on Saturday.
Michael Cheika’s side were beaten 29-9 at Wellington Regional Stadium and while they were more combative than in the 42-8 loss the previous week, the niggly, negative tactics earned little respect from rugby fans or their local media.
Cheika attempted to divert attention from the loss, and style of play, by criticising referee Romain Poite and suggesting All Blacks prop Owen Franks had been guilty of eye gouging.
In reality, however, the Wallabies were again simply outplayed with their game plan designed to minimise the damage and prevent another thrashing in a match that doubled as part of the Bledisloe Cup series between the two sides.
To that extent the tactics worked, though it really only papered over some worrying cracks that are signs of deeper issues within Australian rugby as they fight for relevance in a crowded sporting marketplace.
While those issues will need a more strategic view, it will be interesting to see if the Wallabies can at least fix some of their on-field problems in time for their next match against the Springboks in Brisbane on September 10th.
The Wallabies’ set piece has fallen apart in the last two weeks. They lost four lineouts on their own throw on Saturday and did not get enough clean ball to attack with from lineouts they did win.
All Blacks hooker Dane Coles also suggested the visitors were not interested in scrummaging, instead preferring to try to milk penalties from Poite.
What the immensely strong set pieces from South Africa and Argentina make of that observation will be interesting to watch as the Rugby Championship progresses.
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Player depth continues to be a major issue for the two-time world champions and injuries have only highlighted their glaringly inadequate international playing stocks.
Three immensely creative players who could spark something at inside centre – Kurtley Beale, Matt Giteau and Matt Toomua – are among those who are out injured.
First choice flyhalf Bernard Foley, so instrumental in their run to the World Cup final last year, sat too deep last week in Sydney and has kicked poorly in both games.
The gamble of recalling enigmatic flyhalf Quade Cooper, who looked vulnerable and indecisive in all of his previous 10 matches against the world champions, failed to pay dividends.
Cooper again struggled with the speed and intensity of the All Blacks defenders and rarely appeared at first receiver.
The unpredictability of his game, which could tear teams apart when he was at his best, has also largely disappeared since he suffered a bad knee injury at the 2011 World Cup.
Instead of challenging defenders or trying to create any doubt in the line, his default reaction is to shovel the ball on, which creates issues in the midfield as players get cramped or forced across field.
Despite those issues, Cheika said he felt he had seen enough from Cooper and Foley on Saturday to consider sticking with the partnership in the future, though what he does in the number 13 jersey is another issue.
Centres Tevita Kuridrani and Samu Kerevi, whose selections have been based on their ability to get beyond the gain line, have consistently failed to do so and been error prone.
One positive for the Wallabies continues to be the ball-pilfering abilities of their loose forward trio, though Michael Hooper’s previously under the radar, off-the-ball cheap shots were noticed on Saturday.
The only other is the sense of danger whenever fullback Israel Folau, who has said he wants to play in the midfield, gets his hands on the ball.
The issue is whether the rest of the side can give him enough of it to make a difference. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/international/michael-cheika-s-problems-grow-as-malaise-continues-in-australian-rugby-1.2770956?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/94e301549ddc4c81582d076144d44a27d44fb87f1d307433790eba4a1ee6b151.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T14:50:02 | null | 2016-08-26T15:23:00 | Teenager, who is understood to be from Dublin, fatally injured on a motorcross track | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Fboy-13-dies-after-crash-on-motocross-track-in-co-derry-1.2769512%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769510.1472221471!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Boy (13) dies after crash on motocross track in Co Derry | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A 13-year-old boy, who is understood to be from Dublin, has died following a motorbike crash in Co Derry.
The teenager was injured in an incident on a motocross track in Magilligan about 1.20pm on Thursday.
It is understood the boy was taken to hospital but later died.
The PSNI said police are investigating a sudden death on behalf of the coroner in relation to an incident in the Seacoast Road, Limavady on Thursday.
Sinn Féin MLA Caoimhe Archibald said he wanted to send his condolences to the family and friends of the teenager.
“The community is in shock following the tragic death of a 13 year-old boy,” she said. “My thoughts are with his family and friends of this at this difficult and sad time.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/boy-13-dies-after-crash-on-motocross-track-in-co-derry-1.2769512?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/502ff77cce7830670514971aa6d284b908192268b8c3260196e0503625d41280.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T12:51:16 | null | 2016-08-28T12:00:00 | If this album was intended as a riposte to the oppressive regime, it packs more punch than a million angry words | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fmusic%2Fsunken-treasure-hailu-mergia-and-the-walias-band-s-tche-belew-1.2768442%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2768441.1472141098!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Sunken Treasure: Hailu Mergia and the Walias Band’s Tche Belew | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The Walias Band’s name derives from the walia ibex, an endangered species native to the mountains of Ethiopia. They were formed in the early 1970s as a house band for the Hilton Hotel. At a time in which the military Derg was turning the screw on the music scene in Addis Ababa, they chose their name well.
The band’s residency was the best in town with many luminaries in the ranks to match their stature. Hailu Mergia is the nominal leader here and his distinctive touch on the keys is an outstanding feature. His career had begun playing accordion as a boy scout in the army. A deeply instilled musical curiosity led him to experiment with more modern sounds and instruments. By 1977, when this LP was recorded, he was switching between an electronic organ and Moog synthesiser, and re-purposing folk songs into funkier modern melodies.
Girma Bèyènè, arranger of some of the most seminal recordings of the golden age, is co-pilot on production duties. The hard polyrhythmic funk sound has lost none of its edge four decades later.
The other key component is the vibraphone mastery of Mulatu Astatqe. This was his only appearance with The Walias Band. Astatqe was another maverick who had been schooled in London, New York City and Boston, where he combined his latin and jazz interests with traditional Ethiopian music. Like Mergia, his ability to straddle these worlds brought the band into uncharted territory.
For all the pressure that was being exerted on the musical scene at the time, this album bristles with excitement. So infectious and forceful is the rhythmic push, the lack of vocals is inconsequential. If it was intended as a riposte to the oppressive regime, it packs more punch than a million angry words. | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/sunken-treasure-hailu-mergia-and-the-walias-band-s-tche-belew-1.2768442?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/6065f4fd5d6845857754e9e23a52fb1c406cfade7e69bfec3e4b63559f8fcc64.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:03:28 | null | 2016-08-26T07:49:00 | First-half results show fall-off in print advertising revenue offset by jump in digital | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia-and-marketing%2Finm-looking-further-afield-for-acquisitions-as-analysts-warn-over-need-for-buyouts-1.2769231.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769230.1472214499!/image/image.jpg | en | null | INM looking “further afield” for acquisitions as analysts warn over need for buyouts | 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
Brexit
“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 Carribbean 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.”
Digital business
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 we 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.
Print advertising
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.
Challenging
Audience numbers as defined by unique visitors/month to independent.ie grew to an average of 9.4 million, an increase of 8.9 per cent the corresponding period last year, peaking at 10.2 million in March 2016.
“While the outlook for H2 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,” it added. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/inm-looking-further-afield-for-acquisitions-as-analysts-warn-over-need-for-buyouts-1.2769231 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/96bf4bfdd904d18ddfa8b874317ad5b38c286e7f2e3e181fb0318717946f91c0.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T18:50:46 | null | 2016-08-26T18:01:00 | Kurdish group calls for retaliation against President Erdogan after military intervention | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fmiddle-east%2Fbomb-kills-11-after-turkey-thwarts-kurds-in-syria-1.2769706%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769701.1472230866!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Bomb kills 11 after Turkey thwarts Kurds in Syria | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Turkey has suffered a deadly bomb blast and an unprecedented threat by a Syrian group, as it faces an escalation of its battle with Kurdish militants.
A truck bomb at a police headquarters in Cizre, in the Kurdish heartlands of the southeast, killed 11 people and wounded over 70 yesterday morning, in the latest indication that the Syrian conflict threatens to increase tensions within Turkey itself.
The blast came just hours after a Syrian Kurdish group called for retaliation against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for sending Turkish forces into the country this week.
In an ostensibly anti-jihadi operation, Turkish troops, supplemented by Turkish-trained Syrian rebels, thwarted Kurdish plans for territorial expansion on Wednesday by taking over Jarablus, a Syrian town Isis had held since July 2013.
“Death to Erdogan and his mercenaries,” said a group known as the council of Aleppo, in a statement shared by the political arm of the Syrian Kurdish militias.
“We call on all the national revolutionary forces in Syria and to its north to face this invasion and to intervene immediately. Jarablus and north Syria will be a graveyard for the murderous invader Erdogan and his mercenaries.”
Control of Jarablus was a central goal of Kurdish militias in Syria, who had hoped to join two separate cantons they control in the north of the country and create a self-administered state along Turkey’s southern border.
Kurdish self-rule
The Syrian Kurdish militia is closely linked to the PKK, an outlawed group that has waged a conflict for more than 30 years to win self-rule for Turkey’s Kurdish minority, a battle in which tens of thousands of people have died.
Mujtaba Rahman, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, a consultancy, warned Ankara’s decision to intervene militarily in Syria was likely to exacerbate its long-running tensions with the PKK and could invite further attacks from Isis.
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‘Aggressive move’
“This aggressive move will raise the stakes for Turkey’s involvement in Syria and introduces the risk of a further intervention to support rebel forces if they come under stress in the future,” he said.
“In the meantime, Turkey’s exposure to Syria will increase domestic security risks and is likely to provoke retaliatory attacks by Isis and the PKK in Turkey.”
The Turkey-backed rebels now intend to expand their corridor of influence, after the US pressured the Syrian Kurdish fighters to disperse from Manbij, a town they had helped liberate from Isis
“The next step is Al Bab,” said Mohammad al Shamali, a vice-president with the Turkmen Council, a group of fighters backed by Turkey, and rivals of both Isis and the Kurdish militias. He was referring to an Isis controlled city about 20km from Aleppo. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/bomb-kills-11-after-turkey-thwarts-kurds-in-syria-1.2769706?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/981480f2ae89120567dc51325ec921a18ed4c6ad25fdc52b0e451d2319b9ea8a.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:04:33 | null | 2016-08-26T06:10:00 | Cork-based Bon Secours Health System is buying private hospital in Limerick | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fhealth-pharma%2Fbon-secours-healthcare-to-take-over-barrington-s-for-15m-1.2768660.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2768654.1472153078!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Bon Secours healthcare to take over Barrington’s for €15m | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Bon Secours private healthcare group is poised to take over Barrington’s Hospital for a reported €15 million.
Cork-based Bon Secours Health System, owned by religious order the Sisters of Bon Secours, was known to have been eyeing the private hospital in Limerick for some time.
Both sides confirmed on Thursday that Bon Secours has agreed to buy Barrington’s Hospital Ltd from its owner and director, surgeon Paul O’Byrne. Reports suggest the price is about €15 million.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) received notice of the agreement this week and said it is investigating the transaction.
Because of the size of the transaction, the commission must first establish that it will not significantly reduce competition before allowing it to go ahead.
It has 30 working days to complete a phase one investigation. If it necessary the commission can then carry out a more detailed phase two probe, which can take up to 120 working days.
Bon Secours chief executive, Bill Maher, welcomed the news. “I have been very impressed with Barrington’s in our review work over the last few months,” he said.
Mr O’Byrne said he was pleased with the news and added that further growth within the Cork group would provide greater opportunities to Barrington’s staff and consultants.
Bon Secours is the bigger of the two companies. It runs private hospitals and healthcare facilities in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Tralee and Limerick.
Its latest accounts show that its operations generated a €1.9 million surplus in 2014, almost 65 per cent less than the €5.4 million it earned the previous year.
Profits fell as revenues were down €2.4 million at €221.3 million while costs rose €1.2 million to €219.5 million. A once-off charge of €1 million for redundancies left it with operating profits of €800,000 for the year.
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Insurance drop
The directors’ report, signed by Sr Goretti Spillane and Peter Lacy , said a fall in the number of people with health insurance combined with a reduction in the cover that insurers provided hit its business.
However, the company spent €10 million on infrastructure and equipment in all its hospitals during the year. Assets stood at €130 million at the end of 2014.
Mr Byrne founded Barrington’s in 1991 in the same Limerick city building that housed the historic hospital of the same name: the old Mid-Western Health Board closed that one amid controversy three years earlier.
Profits at Barrington’s Hospital Ltd grew 35 per cent to €483,667 from €357,947 in 2014. Net assets were €2 million at the end of the year. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/health-pharma/bon-secours-healthcare-to-take-over-barrington-s-for-15m-1.2768660 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/8ba1baa45fba2288918ef79b47794449dffde2c3ac647eb912b697fe8fa424b8.json |
[
"Louise O'Neill"
] | 2016-08-26T14:50:16 | null | 2016-08-26T15:00:00 | In ‘The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo’, her new book, Amy Schumer is brutally honest about issues that women are discouraged from talking about | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fbooks%2Flouise-o-neill-on-amy-schumer-she-s-completely-unashamedly-herself-1.2767140%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2767133.1472218792!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Louise O’Neill on Amy Schumer: she’s completely, unashamedly herself | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | In ‘The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo’, her new book, Amy Schumer is brutally honest about issues that women are discouraged from talking about
Book Title:
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo ISBN-13:
9780008172374 Author:
Amy Schumer Publisher:
HarperCollins Guideline Price:
£20.0
A woman doing stand-up comedy isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. Gilda Radner was one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live, and Joan Rivers started her career as a guest on The Tonight Show in 1965. But despite their attempts, and many other women’s, to infiltrate the industry, comedy has remained a very malecentric space.
Recently, however, it feels as if a shift is occurring. So many women have exploded on to the scene in the past number of years that I’m beginning to wonder if some “Can men even be funny?” think pieces might be published in the not so distant future.
From Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to Kate McKinnon and Kristen Wiig, women comics have begun to dominate the headlines, but none has made such a visceral impact as Amy Schumer.
Inside Amy Schumer first aired in 2013. The show, with its skits featuring an exaggerated version of “Amy”, was perfectly placed to take advantage of the YouTube generation’s predilection for short videos that could be easily shared on social media. The most successful of Schumer’s vignettes usually explored feminist issues, such as “Last Fuckable Day”, in which women actors over a certain age discussed when and how Hollywood decided that they were no longer sexually viable; two excellent skits skewering rape culture, “Friday Night Lights” and “A Very Realistic Military Game”; and the masterly “12 Angry Men” episode, a furious takedown of the male gaze and the sexualisation of women.
With her sharp, hilarious and unapologetic brand of humour, Schumer was fast becoming a feminist icon, with Time saying that she “gets guys to think feminists are funny”, Vogue declaring her an “amazing feminist” and, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Schumer herself saying, “I don’t try to be feminist. I just am . . . Feminists are in good hands with me.”
Schumer was everywhere: on TV, in magazines and then on cinema screens, with the release of Trainwreck, the hit movie she made with Judd Apatow in 2015. But when details of her book deal made the press in September 2015, and it was reported that Schumer had received an advance of between $8 million and $10 million for her memoir, the backlash that seems to blight all women in the public eye began.
There were mutterings about her problematic take on racial issues, with clips of her appearing to mock Mexicans surfacing online. Schumer argued that she was parodying the dumb-white-girl stereotype, but the damage had been done.
She has also inadvertently been forced into a scandal involving a writer on Inside Amy Schumer, Kurt Metzger, who vehemently defended a fellow comedian accused of rape and called the alleged victims liars. Schumer has been pressured to take an unequivocal stand and to prove her commitment to the feminist cause by firing Metzger, but this is something she seems reluctant to do.
The furore around Metzger has been threatening to overshadow the publication of The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, which is a shame, because the book is infinitely readable.
I’m a huge fan of Inside Amy Schumer, and I had expected a similarly laugh-out-loud experience when reading her collection of essays, so I was surprised to find it a much darker affair.
There are humorous moments, such as when she writes a love letter to her vagina; a chapter called “Athletes and Musicians”, where she describes an attempt to have sex with a hockey player who has an unusually large penis; and one called “New Money”, a joyously vulgar look at the perks of earning vast amounts of money, from flying in a private jet to leaving considerable tips for waiting staff.
The excerpts from her journal – at the ages of 13, 18, 20 and 22, with footnotes from 2016 – are witty and cleverly create a sense of Schumer’s burgeoning feminism, as well as giving the reader an insight into her family life as her parents decide to divorce and her father’s multiple sclerosis is diagnosed.
But it is when Schumer is exploring bleaker material that the book comes into its own. The essays dealing with her father’s struggle with his illness are often difficult to read, as Schumer watches a once vibrant, handsome, charismatic man reduced to accidentally soiling himself in public.
I was very close to tears when reading of how, at 14, after watching her father lose control of his bowels at an amusement park, she experienced “the saddest realisation I’ve had in my life . . . that my parents are people. Sad, human people. I aged a decade in that moment.”
In “The Worst Night of My Life” she writes about an abusive ex-boyfriend and how he damaged her self-esteem to a degree that made her unable to leave him, as she thought no one else would love her. When I read the lines, “I’m telling this story because I’m a strong-ass woman, not someone most people picture when they think ‘abused woman’ – but it can happen to anyone”, I thought about the inordinate number of women who are trapped in abusive relationships and hoped that a copy of this book would find its way into their hands.
Similarly powerful is the essay in which Schumer explains the unconsensual way in which she lost her virginity. “Sex is something you share,” she writes. “My first time didn’t need to be perfect, but I would have liked to have known it was going to happen. Or have been part of the decision. Instead, he just helped himself to my virginity – and I was never the same.”
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo isn’t the funniest memoir written by a comic that I’ve ever read (take a bow, Tina Fey), but it’s a brutally honest, poignant look at issues many women face, issues that we are all too often discouraged from talking about. Schumer’s narrative voice is incredibly strong, and her insistence on being completely, unashamedly herself still feels exciting and radical for a woman in 2016. Although it’s not perfect, the book is moving and worthwhile, and I suspect it will bring more readers to tears than to laughter.
Louise O’Neill is the author of Asking for It and Only Ever Yours | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/louise-o-neill-on-amy-schumer-she-s-completely-unashamedly-herself-1.2767140?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/546f189486826d5f69b7832b3755f6c2b69929a0738e7c7d47a8ba91e49aa398.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T14:50:25 | null | 2016-08-26T15:15:00 | Drugs found at builder’s yard in Bishopstown and at a flat in Blarney | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Fthree-arrested-as-heroin-worth-100-000-seized-in-cork-1.2769503%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769502.1472220908!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Three arrested as heroin worth €100,000 seized in Cork | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Gardaí have arrested three men following a €100,000 heroin seizure in Cork.
Members of the Cork city divisional drugs squad arrested three men in their 30s at a builders’ providers yard at Bishopstown at about 3.30 pm on Thursday.
Heroin with an estimated street value of €8,000 was recovered, and in a follow up search a further €100,000 worth was recovered in a search of a flat in Blarney.
Two of the men are being held in Togher Garda station and one in Gurranabraher Garda station where they can be held for up to seven days. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/three-arrested-as-heroin-worth-100-000-seized-in-cork-1.2769503?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/cb7732c4d297e81f9ce91464c59b4d549e1136abe8ba124d04e4e5ab3a800661.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T18:50:28 | null | 2016-08-26T19:25:00 | Patrick Reed is leading at the Barclays - on the Black Course at Bethpage State Park | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgolf%2Frory-mcilroy-moves-back-into-contention-with-much-improved-69-1.2769805%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769804.1472235946!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Rory McIlroy moves back into contention with much improved 69 | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Rory McIlroy came back into contention with a two-under-par 69 in Friday’s second round at the Barclays.
Debuting his new Scotty Cameron putter this weekend - McIlroy enjoyed a much improved round after Thursday’s disappointing 71.
Still seeking his first PGA Tour win of 2016 - McIlroy’s round leaves him six shots off the lead with the play still ongoing.
McIlroy started brightly with three birdies in his first seven holes, and he added another birdie on the 13th. Yet his round was blemished with bogeys on the 15th and 16th. Although he did stop the rot, making par for the final two holes.
For the four-time Major champion, it was an all too familiar mixed round - unable to maintain his momentum to the end.
Top of the leaderboard is American Patrick Reed, at three-under-par through four holes. And eight under overall. He is three shots ahead of fellow American Ryan Moore - who ended his second round three-under-par.
Graeme McDowell is currently two over par - through four holes of his second round. The Irishman is three-over-par overall, a shot over the projected cut. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/rory-mcilroy-moves-back-into-contention-with-much-improved-69-1.2769805?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/7f4d482964aa5c4e9b811aadc573b525fbdda8ed7dafe5445af5d1e1db5fb5dd.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T20:51:46 | null | 2016-08-29T20:16:00 | ‘Could you imagine if all 65 of us had a political agenda on stage?’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Frose-of-tralee-maggie-mceldowney-answers-back-critics-of-the-festival-1.2772282%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772281.1472498204!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Rose of Tralee Maggie McEldowney answers back critics of the festival | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The 2016 Rose of Tralee Maggie McEldowney has said the festival is apolitical and not the place to air political views.
Ms McEldowney (27), the Chicago Rose, said she has her own views on political issues but will not be sharing them because she claims it is not what the festival is about.
Sydney Rose Brianna Parkins became the first Rose to stray into political territory last week when she called for the repeal of the eighth amendment of Ireland’s Constitution that gives equal rights to a mother and her unborn child.
In a follow-on article published in The Irish Times on Saturday, Ms Parkins said the festival risked being on the “wrong side of history” if it does not allow contestants to air their political opinions.
Ms McEldowney responded on Monday by suggesting that Roses were entitled to their views, but not to air them on stage.
She stated: “This event is not to celebrate the ambitions and political beliefs of the modern day Irish woman. Could you imagine if all 65 of us had a political agenda on stage? That is not what this festival is about and that is ok.”
After being selected for the Rose of Tralee, Ms McEldowney said she would take the “neutral ground” on the issue of abortion.
“My political stances (which I have) will not be in the headlines because this festival is not about me and my opinions,” she said.
“ It is about the celebration of my class, modern day Irish women, the marvelous women who had the title before me, and the remarkable list of wonderful things we are all doing (in our careers, in school, in local charities and causes) in our respective parts of the world.
“In no way is the Festival stealing our voices, they are just asking us to respect the festival and what it stands for while we are representing it. I genuinely feel that is not asking too much.”
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In a statement issued through the festival office, Ms McEldowney said the controversial selection process to decide who went through to the live final was flawed.
Down Rose Fainche McCormack said she and the other Roses were “treated like animals in a circus” and the Roses in the final were “manipulated, bullied and mistreated”.
The Roses were divided into two rooms; one with the 32 finalists and the other room with the 32 who were not chosen.
In a post on the Rose of Tralee Facebook page, since deleted, Ms McCormack said neither she nor the other Roses signed up “for a cheap reality television show in which our emotions would be manipulated for entertainment”.
Ms McEldowney responded by stating that the Sunday morning, when the selection process was made, “was difficult for everyone involved”.
She explained: “We signed up for this knowing there’s a good chance we will not go through, since the judges are required to basically cut the group in half. The issue was with how the news was delivered. No one is downplaying that or trying to make light of that.”
She revealed that Rose of Tralee chief executive Anthony O’Gara apologised to all the Roses for how it had been handled.
She added: “ He promised on behalf of the Festival that the entire process was going to be reviewed and things will be resolved for the Roses who participate after us. He offered us the opportunity to hand in our sashes and enjoy the rest of the festival with our families.
“At that point in time, there was nothing else that man or his team could do. The damage had been done, and he was ‘unreservedly apologising from the bottom of his heart’ for it. He made it clear that ‘this level of treatment was not to the Rose of Tralee Festival standards’, and was ‘so, so sorry’.”
She criticised the media and said some of her fellow Roses were being made out to be “ungrateful, catty princesses who are only in it for the show”.
She added: “We, my classmates, the chaperones, the volunteers, the committee members- we the International Rose of Tralee Festival, have all worked too hard over the last 12 months and particularly the past two weeks giving every ounce of energy we had left into this festival, and I will not allow the media to depict any of these people in anything but the greatest light their little pens can descriptively portray.
“I hope over the next 12 months, I am able to very clearly embody through my actions what my class is made of, what the beautiful people of the festival stand for, what the unforgettable International Roses before me have accomplished, and give this festival the outstanding media attention it deserves.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/rose-of-tralee-maggie-mceldowney-answers-back-critics-of-the-festival-1.2772282?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b388eca240cf4ea8d978af5eaf856421be3822bbc800a2f2d6f6eef97179cf68.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:49:03 | null | 2016-08-30T12:52:00 | Below is an open letter posted by Apple CEO Tim Cook on the tech giant's website | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Ftim-cook-reacts-we-are-committed-to-ireland-1.2773002.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773001.1472557876!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Tim Cook reacts: ‘We are committed to Ireland’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Thirty-six years ago, long before introducing iPhone, iPod or even the Mac, Steve Jobs established Apple’s first operations in Europe. At the time, the company knew that in order to serve customers in Europe, it would need a base there. So, in October 1980, Apple opened a factory in Cork, Ireland with 60 employees.
At the time, Cork was suffering from high unemployment and extremely low economic investment. But Apple’s leaders saw a community rich with talent, and one they believed could accommodate growth if the company was fortunate enough to succeed.
We have operated continuously in Cork ever since, even through periods of uncertainty about our own business, and today we employ nearly 6,000 people across Ireland. The vast majority are still in Cork — including some of the very first employees — now performing a wide variety of functions as part of Apple’s global footprint. Countless multinational companies followed Apple by investing in Cork, and today the local economy is stronger than ever.
The success which has propelled Apple’s growth in Cork comes from innovative products that delight our customers. It has helped create and sustain more than 1.5 million jobs across Europe — jobs at Apple, jobs for hundreds of thousands of creative app developers who thrive on the App Store, and jobs with manufacturers and other suppliers. Countless small and medium-size companies depend on Apple, and we are proud to support them.
As responsible corporate citizens, we are also proud of our contributions to local economies across Europe, and to communities everywhere. As our business has grown over the years, we have become the largest taxpayer in Ireland, the largest taxpayer in the United States, and the largest taxpayer in the world.
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
Over the years, we received guidance from Irish tax authorities on how to comply correctly with Irish tax law — the same kind of guidance available to any company doing business there. In Ireland and in every country where we operate, Apple follows the law and we pay all the taxes we owe. The European Commission has launched an effort to rewrite Apple’s history in Europe, ignore Ireland’s tax laws and upend the international tax system in the process. The opinion issued on August 30th alleges that Ireland gave Apple a special deal on our taxes. This claim has no basis in fact or in law. We never asked for, nor did we receive, any special deals. We now find ourselves in the unusual position of being ordered to retroactively pay additional taxes to a government that says we don’t owe them any more than we’ve already paid.
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The Commission’s move is unprecedented and it has serious, wide-reaching implications. It is effectively proposing to replace Irish tax laws with a view of what the Commission thinks the law should have been. This would strike a devastating blow to the sovereignty of EU member states over their own tax matters, and to the principle of certainty of law in Europe. Ireland has said they plan to appeal the Commission’s ruling and Apple will do the same. We are confident that the Commission’s order will be reversed.
At its root, the Commission’s case is not about how much Apple pays in taxes. It is about which government collects the money.
Taxes for multinational companies are complex, yet a fundamental principle is recognized around the world: A company’s profits should be taxed in the country where the value is created. Apple, Ireland and the United States all agree on this principle.
In Apple’s case, nearly all of our research and development takes place in California, so the vast majority of our profits are taxed in the United States. European companies doing business in the U.S. are taxed according to the same principle. But the Commission is now calling to retroactively change those rules.
Beyond the obvious targeting of Apple, the most profound and harmful effect of this ruling will be on investment and job creation in Europe. Using the Commission’s theory, every company in Ireland and across Europe is suddenly at risk of being subjected to taxes under laws that never existed.
Apple has long supported international tax reform with the objectives of simplicity and clarity. We believe these changes should come about through the proper legislative process, in which proposals are discussed among the leaders and citizens of the affected countries. And as with any new laws, they should be applied going forward — not retroactively.
We are committed to Ireland and we plan to continue investing there, growing and serving our customers with the same level of passion and commitment. We firmly believe that the facts and the established legal principles upon which the EU was founded will ultimately prevail.
Tim Cook | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/tim-cook-reacts-we-are-committed-to-ireland-1.2773002 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/45b28b633204748ab52f9f7dbc0965fbd86a24c3eb55fe0ebc0d888b07c219ae.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T18:50:21 | null | 2016-08-26T18:53:00 | Saturday 27th August | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fmartyn-turner-1.2769785%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769783.1472233941!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Martyn Turner | 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/martyn-turner-1.2769785?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/ad10d57b6bc1dcc1bdc93a1da525149548e56adaa7a62fa10c49cb0535b0798b.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T04:52:44 | null | 2016-08-31T05:25:00 | Site has town centre zoning under development plan which has been extended to 2020 | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Ftown-centre-site-in-tullamore-for-1-8m-1.2772925%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772922.1472551073!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Town centre site in Tullamore for €1.8m | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A substantial town centre site in Tullamore, Co Offaly, with obvious development potential has come on the market through Cushman & Wakefield and Sherry FitzGerald Lewis Hamill. The joint agents are guiding €1.8million for the 4.32 hectares (10.66 acres) which are to be sold on the instructions of receivers Michael Madden and Michael Coyle of HWBC Allsop.
The lands are partially occupied by a detached car showroom extending to 945sq m (10,167sq ft). The remainder of the site was recently cleared of a number of warehouse buildings and is on the northern side of Church Road immediately west of Tullamore Shopping Centre which is anchored by Dunnes Stores.
The site has town centre zoning under the local development plan which has been extended to 2020 and favours a mixed use development.
In 2009 planning approval was granted for a mixed-use development of 29,229sq m (314,619sq ft|) ranging in height from three to six storeys over basement. The planning permission was extended to 2014 and, according to the selling agents, a lower density scheme may now be favoured by the various interests. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/town-centre-site-in-tullamore-for-1-8m-1.2772925?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4518afa9e0bc0df2e9e1e9ccf1a050c4b4b1699e26e3fc9806c5b92605190248.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:53:03 | null | 2016-08-31T06:43:00 | Republican candidate has made derogatory remarks about the country during campaign | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fus%2Fdonald-trump-to-meet-mexican-president-enrique-pe%25C3%25B1a-nieto-1.2774067%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774066.1472622218!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Donald Trump to meet Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | US Republican candidate Donald Trump will travel to Mexico City later on Wednesday to meet Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, after more than a year of making derogatory remarks about the country during his presidential campaign.
Mr Peña Nieto invited Mr Trump and his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton last Friday and both Mr Trump and Mr Peña Nieto tweeted last night that they would meet each other privately in Mexico today.
“I have accepted the invitation of President Enrique Peña Nieto, of Mexico, and look very much forward to meeting him tomorrow,” Mr Trump wrote last night.
The Mexican president’s office wrote that “El Señor” Donald Trump had accepted the invitation and would meet him today.
The two men are expected to meet privately. The location has not been disclosed. It will be Mr Trump’s first official meeting with a head of state as the Republican presidential nominee.
“I believe in dialogue to protect Mexican interests in the world and, principally, to protect Mexicans wherever they are,” said Mr Peña Nieto.
The visit will come hours before the Republican nominee delivers a closely watched speech in Arizona to explain his views on immigration policy that has wavered at times over the past fortnight from his hardline positions in an attempt to appeal more to minority voters.
Falling poll numbers
In the face of falling poll numbers against Mrs Clinton, particularly in battleground states where she has strong support among Hispanic and other minority voters, Mr Trump has appeared willing to soften his immigration policies in an effort to make up lost ground.
Mr Trump’s anti-immigration stance has been the signature policy and his anti-foreigner rhetoric, the hallmark of his bombastic campaign. He has promised to deport an estimated 11 million immigrants living illegally in the US, including millions of Mexican-born migrants.
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In some of the most incendiary remarks of his campaign, the New Yorker has denigrated Mexican immigrants as criminals, drug dealers and “rapists,” promised to build a wall along the US border with Mexico and to make the Mexican government pay for it, and threatened to unwind the North America Free Trade Agreement, triggering alarm within Mexico.
The property mogul has threatened to block cash being sent home by Mexicans living in the US until the country agrees to pay for the wall, estimated to cost tens of billions of dollars.
Mr Peña Nieto has dismissed Mr Trump’s plan to make Mexico pay for the wall and likened the Republican candidate to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
Mr Trump has attacked America’s southern neighbour for “ripping off the US more than almost any other nation” as US firms have taken advantage of lower-cost Mexican labour.
The businessman has condemned Mexicans from the outset of his 14-month campaign.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Mr Trump said at the launch of his presidential bid in Trump Tower in June 2015.
“They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people.”
The Clinton campaign released a statement in response to the news of Mr Trump’s meeting with the Mexican president, referring to his past remarks about Mexicans.
“What ultimately matters is what Donald Trump says to voters in Arizona, not Mexico, and whether he remains committed to the splitting up of families and deportation of millions,” said Mrs Clinton’s communications director Jennifer Palmieri. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/donald-trump-to-meet-mexican-president-enrique-pe%C3%B1a-nieto-1.2774067?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/af17298791cb57efc7cb1c6ae527498e08196e18daad110c4738fccd916b75a2.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:52:07 | null | 2016-08-30T13:29:00 | August weakness may be down to decision of Britain to leave EU | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Feuro-area-economic-confidence-hit-by-brexit-effect-1.2773035%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773034.1472560096!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Euro-area economic confidence hit by Brexit effect | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Euro-area economic confidence worsened more than analysts predicted in August in a sign that the reverberations of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union may finally be reaching companies and households.
An index of industry and consumer confidence fell to 103.5 from a revised 104.5, the European Commission in Brussels said on Tuesday. That compares with a median estimate of 104.1 in a Bloomberg survey of economists, and follows an unexpected increase in July.
With European Central Bank president Mario Draghi leaving it largely to economic data to fine-tune policy expectations before next week’s Governing Council meeting, the release provides a case for more stimulus to sustain the recovery and revive inflation. The International Monetary Fund has already cut its forecast for euro-area growth next year on the back of the UK’s Brexit vote, and the ECB will release new projections next week.
“The weakness in the August reading is broad-based across all countries, with some exceptions, and across sectors,” said Frederik Ducrozet, an economist at Banque Pictet and Cie SA in Geneva. “It’s another reason to be cautious and dovish for the ECB. Maybe not in the next weeks, but in the next months.”
August Weakness
Inflation in the currency bloc probably accelerated to 0.3 per cent in August from 0.2 per cent the month before, leaving it well below the ECB’s goal of just under 2 per cent, according to a separate survey. Eurostat will release preliminary figures on Wednesday, along with jobless data that is expected to show the unemployment rate dropped to 10 per cent in July.
Sentiment in the industrial sector fell to minus 4.4 from minus 2.6, the lowest level in 18 months, according to Commission data. Confidence also slipped in services, retailing and among consumers, while a gauge for construction rose to an 8-year high.
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Figures showed last week that confidence also subsided in the region’s two largest economies. Germany’s business climate as measured by Munich-based research institute Ifo unexpectedly declined the most in more than four years. Sentiment slipped in France, the nation’s statistics institute said. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/euro-area-economic-confidence-hit-by-brexit-effect-1.2773035?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d94d02945c6f8b970fa9b74791f775873b735cba3e3a68c41719e9642e6711d2.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:51:53 | null | 2016-08-29T01:00:00 | Broadcaster and festival organisers release statement after 'Road to the Dome' criticism | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Frt%25C3%25A9-regrets-aspects-of-rose-of-tralee-documentary-1.2771387%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771374.1472417443!/image/image.jpg | en | null | RTÉ ‘regrets’ aspects of Rose of Tralee documentary | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | RTÉ says it regrets its documentary on the Rose of Tralee International Festival caused upset to some contestants and will review the process for next year.
The broadcaster has come in for fierce criticism about the Road to the Dome programme and how Roses were selected for the live final.
Down Rose Fainche McCormack said she and the other Roses were “treated like animals in a circus” and the 65 Roses in the final were “manipulated, bullied and mistreated”.
She criticised the televised process in which the women were told who would be competing in the final.
The Roses were divided into two rooms; one with the 32 finalists and the other room with the 32 who were not chosen.
In a post on the Rose of Tralee Facebook page, since deleted, Ms McCormack said neither she nor the other Roses signed up “for a cheap reality television show in which our emotions would be manipulated for entertainment”.
‘Bullshit detector’
Sydney Rose Brianna Parkins wrote in The Irish Times on Saturday that, during filming, “my bullshit detector goes off and I surmise that this is not a documentary but reality TV”.
The Road to the Dome was made on behalf of RTÉ by Vision Independent Productions (VIP), an independent production company.
In a joint statement issued with the Rose of Tralee International Festival, RTÉ said all 65 Roses involved in the festival were aware from the outset they were being filmed at all stages in the run-up to the live television shows.
“This also included the selection process where the 65 became 32 for the live televised programmes. In advance of the show going out on Monday evening, the festival was given the opportunity to view the programme and was happy with it,” says the statement.
“We regret any upset caused by elements of the filming process for the documentary and RTÉ and the Rose of Tralee Festival have agreed to review the process for next year.”
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On Friday, Rose of Tralee chief executive Anthony O’Gara admitted none of the 65 Roses liked the way the selection process was conducted.
“It is not nice when we get comments that are very severe, but we have to take it on the chin. It is the first year and we have to learn,” he said. “When we do get things wrong we put our hands up.
“All would say that the Sunday morning programme was wrong. In fairness to RTÉ, we asked them to put on a separate programme and they did a very good job on it, but probably the timing of the judging and the cameras in the girls’ faces was, in retrospect, not the right thing to do.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/rt%C3%A9-regrets-aspects-of-rose-of-tralee-documentary-1.2771387?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f237d60d313aafb108f5deb899be48fd33bbf63b5d192492dbc7cfb9fe9302f7.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T16:50:26 | null | 2016-08-27T17:26:00 | Three first-half goals end the contest as Watford struggle at Vicarage Road | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Fenglish-soccer%2Farsenal-cruise-by-watford-for-first-win-of-the-season-1.2770842%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770840.1472315210!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Arsenal cruise by Watford for first win of the season | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Watford 1 Arsenal 3
Arsenal’s season sprung into life as they recorded their first Premier League win of the season with a 3-1 victory at Watford.
Having lost at home to Liverpool and drawn 0-0 at champions Leicester, Arsene Wenger saw his side dominate the first half at Vicarage Road, as an early Santi Cazorla penalty was added to by Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Özil.
Watford, still looking for a win under Walter Mazzarri, looked better after the break as club-record signing Roberto Pereyra came off the bench to grab a consolation.
The Gunners, who will add defender Shkodran Mustafi and forward Lucas Perez to their ranks in the coming days, were ahead in the ninth minute after Nordin Amrabat crashed into the back of Sanchez and, after a delay, referee Kevin Friend pointed to the spot.
Where Theo Walcott had failed on the opening day, Cazorla made no mistake, stroking his penalty down the middle as Heurelho Gomes dived to his left.
Walcott came close to adding a second as he latched onto Cazorla’s low cross but Gomes was on hand to save with his feet.
And Watford were almost level moments later as Amrabat skipped past Nacho Monreal before his cross was turned towards his own goalkeeper by Laurent Koscielny, but Petr Cech shown fine reactions to push the ball clear.
The hosts were starting to create more and defender Christian Kabasele almost marked his Premier League debut with a goal but could only glance Etienne Capoue’s corner wide of the post.
Sanchez was denied by a smart Gomes save at his near post as the game opened up but the all-important second goal would come Arsenal’s way courtesy of a contentious throw-in decision.
Amrabat appeared to have won Watford a throw-in deep in Arsenal territory only for the decision to go the way of the visitors.
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Arsenal burst up-field through Sanchez, who then scuffed home Walcott’s cross, with goal-line technology confirming he had doubled the Gunners’ lead.
Walcott was impressing from the right flank and only another great save from Gomes prevented the England man driving Arsenal further ahead – but it was only a short respite.
From the next attack, Sanchez delivered an inch-perfect cross which has headed home by Özil, enjoying a busy return to the side having been given an extended rest following the European Championship.
Mazzarri responded by introducing Pereyra at the interval and he marked his debut with a well-taken goal 10 minutes into the second half, stealing in ahead of the impressive Granit Xhaka to bend a strike past Cech and reduce the arrears.
Arsenal were still looking dangerous in attack but Watford were much more potent now, Cech forced into a smart double-save to deny Jose Holebas and Odion Ighalo before the latter saw an acrobatic overhead kick fly inches over the crossbar.
That was as close as the hosts came to getting a foothold in the contest and it was Arsenal left celebrating a first three-point haul of the campaign. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/arsenal-cruise-by-watford-for-first-win-of-the-season-1.2770842?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/c1b2da1380ca96e8ffbc29cc54c94d6390de46ab84eb548676120b67bf5cfd2c.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:48:55 | null | 2016-08-30T00:01:00 | Research finds post-referendum uncertainty prompts many business to halt investment | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fmost-irish-firms-completely-unprepared-for-brexit-survey-finds-1.2772047.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772031.1472481775!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Most Irish firms completely unprepared for Brexit, survey finds | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The outcome of Britain’s referendum on EU membership caught most Irish businesses by surprise, according to a new survey.
InterTradeIreland’s latest business monitor indicates that 97 per cent of firms, and 92 per cent of export firms, had no plans to deal with Brexit and the ensuing volatility.
The post-referendum uncertainty is further reflected by the relatively high number of businesses, approximately one in five, now reporting plans to decrease investment.
InterTradeIreland’s survey also indicated more than a quarter of Irish businesses (27 per cent) are concerned about exchange rates, an increase of 14 per cent on the first quarter, with sterling 10 per cent down against the euro since the poll.
“It is evident in the responses to our latest business monitor that the outcome of the EU referendum has caught many businesses on the hop and introduced a large degree of uncertainty into the marketplace,” Aidan Gough, policy director at InterTradeIreland, said.
“Clearly businesses will need support to manage the ramifications of Brexit, particularly in the provision of timely and relevant information to assist them to adjust to any new trading relationships that emerge from Brexit negotiations.”
“In the short term, whilst companies will still trade under the same rules and regulations, we would encourage them to hedge any exposure their business may have to volatile movements in the sterling-euro exchange rate,” he said.
InterTradeIreland’s survey also picked up a variation between companies in the Republic and their Northern Ireland counterparts in terms of the perceived Brexit impact on cross-Border trade.
While almost three in five of businesses in the Republic (57 per cent) felt that cross-Border sales would decrease, only one in four Northern Irish firms felt they would be negatively impacted (25 per cent).
Variations
There were also variations across sectors. The hospitality industry is expecting a sharp decline in cross-Border sales with four out of five (84 per cent) companies expecting a downturn.
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In comparison, about half of those in the manufacturing (49 per cent), construction (52 per cent) and servicing sectors (52 per cent) foresee a sharp decline in their cross-Border business.
Of those questioned, retailers are the most positive, with 15 per cent anticipating an impact, which the survey suggests this may be due to exchange rate volatility.
“In terms of wider business performance, the picture remains generally positive. In quarter two, 93 per cent of businesses in Ireland report that they were stable or growing,” Mr Gough said.
“We may see uncertainty continuing in forthcoming quarters while companies adjust to the changing realities,” he added. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/most-irish-firms-completely-unprepared-for-brexit-survey-finds-1.2772047 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/a318bb85536e5dc4b37f1e5f017740ff2fc4dea985f5322801e4edc0653b1fb9.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T10:50:19 | null | 2016-08-27T11:38:00 | The 24-year-old enjoys three-under-par 69 in her second round - leaving her in tied-second | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgolf%2Fstephanie-meadow-remains-in-contention-in-canadian-pacific-open-1.2770746%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770745.1472294328!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Stephanie Meadow remains in contention in Canadian Pacific Open | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Ireland’s Stephanie Meadow is three shots off the pace at the halfway point of the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open.
The 24-year-old, ranked 419 in the world, carded an impressive first-round 66 and put in another good round, sinking six birdies and three bogeys in her three-under-par 69.
That leaves her in tied-second with In Gee Chun behind world number two Ariya Jutanugarn, who is three shots clear on 12 under after a blemish-free round of 64.
Five players, including world number one Lydia Ko, are a further shot back at eight under and will all be eyeing a charge for the trophy over the weekend.
Scotland’s Catriona Matthew is on three under, but her Olympic Team GB team-mate Charley Hull leaves the tournament at the halfway stage after missing the cut with a level par score. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/stephanie-meadow-remains-in-contention-in-canadian-pacific-open-1.2770746?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/9829e06e024233e135b9173d89f5ce90b93102b30cffe25a3da37886e5c02b89.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T08:52:37 | null | 2016-08-31T07:00:00 | Here are the stage times for the Jerry Fish Electric Sideshow, Comedy Tent, Salty Dog, Trailer Park, Global Green, Trenchtown and more | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fmusic%2Felectric-picnic-the-last-batch-of-stage-times-and-a-first-look-on-site-1.2773664%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773663.1472596734!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Electric Picnic: the last batch of stage times and a first look on site | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | COMEDY TENT
SATURDAY
20.15-21.00 Dylan Moran
19.35-20.05 Reginald D Hunter
18.55-19.30 The Rubberbandits
18.30-18.50 Aisling Bea
18.00-18.25 Colin Murphy
17.35-17.55 Kevin McGarhen
17.05-17.30 Eric Lalor
16.25-17.00 Deidre O’Kane
15.55-16.20Colm O Regan
15.20-15.50 Dublin Comedy Improv
14.55- 15.15 Danny O Brien
14.40-14.50 Colm Tyrell
14.10-14.35 Damian Clarke
13.45-14.05 Fred Cooke
13.30-13.45 Andrew Stanley
SUNDAY
20.10-21.00 David O’Doherty
19.35-20.05 Abandoman
18.45-19.20 Al Porter
18.15-18.40 Joe Rooney
17.45- 18.10 Chris Kent
17.15-17.40 Patrick McDonnell
16.45-17.10 Karl Spain
16.20-16.40 Ian Coppinger
15.55-16.15 Kevin Gildea
15.25-15.50 Rory O Hanlon
14.55-15.20 John Colleary
14.40-14.50Ashlee Bently
14.15- 14.35 Alison Spittle
13.45-14.10 Gearoid Farrelly
SALTY DOG STAGE
FRIDAY
02.30-3.45 Salty Dog NoStars play Bowie
01.35-02.15 Pete Pamf Sextette
24.25-01.15 Stomptown Brass
23.15-24.00 Third Smoke
22.00-22.55 Swords
20.45-21.35 Bronagh Gallagher Band
19.25-20.15 Five by Five
18.10-19.00 These Charming Men present The Queen is Dead
17.05-17.50 Buffalo Sunn
16.00-16.45 Rob Walsh Band
14.00-16.00 Will Softly
SATURDAY
02.50 - 04.00 Le Galaxie Soundsystem
01.35 - 02.30 RSAG
24.25-01.15 Eskies
23.00-24.05 The Pale
21.55-22.40 Ross Breen
20.40-21.35 Square Pegs
19.30-20.20 Prison Love
18.40-19.10 Gavin Glass
17.25-18.15 The Portside Hootenanny
16.10-17.05 D Riculous Allstars
15.00-15.50 Leila Jane and the Healers
14.00-14.45 Sion Hill
13.00-13.45 Trinitones
12.00-12.45 Love for Arthur Lee presents Forever Changes
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SUNDAY
01.35-03.00 Kormac
24.25-01.15 New Secret Weapon
23.20-24.05 Manden Express
22.10-23.00 Mongrel State
20.55-21.50 Cronins featuring Shane MacGowan
19.30-20.20 Mick Pyro & The Dublin Blues Cartel
18.15-19.10 David Kitt
17.10-18.00 Aine Cahill
16.05-16.50 My Fellow Sponges
15.05-15.50 Emma Lou & The Agenda
14.05-14.50 Old Hannah
13.00-13.50 Dr Strangely Strange
12.00-12.45 Aidan Kavanagh‘s Sunday Morning Dishgo
RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY
FRIDAY
01.30-03.00 Colm K
23.30-01.30 Fish Go Deep
21.30-23.30 Timmy Stewart
18.30-21.30 KC
16.30-18.30 Galactic Beat Club
14.30-16.30 Discotekken
12.00-14.30 Ciara Brady
SATURDAY
23.00-03.00 Mr. Scruff
20.30-23.00 Phil Boyle
18.30-20.30 Nialler9
16.30-18.30 Sim Simma
14.30-16.30 This Greedy Pig
12.00-14.30James Hannan
SUNDAY
01.00-03.00 New Jackson
23.00-01.00 Billy Scurry
21.00-23.00 Stevie G
19.00-21.00 Donal Dineen
16.30-19.00 Hubie Davison
14.30-16.30Mr Ray
12.00-14.30 Dave Fear
JERRY FISH ELECTRIC SIDESHOW
FRIDAY
23.30 Fire Show with RealTa Circus
Past Midnight-01.00 The Jerry Fish Electric Sideshow feat. Jeremy Hickey aka R.S.A.G
01.00-04.00 Kelly Ann Byrne + Billy Scurry
SATURDAY
00.00-04.00 Johnny Moy + Mulljoy + Special Guests
23.00 -00.00 The Strypes
22.00-22.45 Gavin James
21.00-21.45 The Frank & Walters
20.00-20.45 The Academic
10.15-20.00 Special Guest DJ
18.30-19.15 EngineAlley
17.45-18.15 Le Boom
17.00-17.30 Wob
16.1516.45 The Outer Limits
15.30-16.00 Weenz
14.45-15.15 The Vincents
14.00-14.3 Foxjaw
13.15-13.45 Ceili All-Stars
12.00-13.00 House of Yoga feat. Get Down Edits
SUNDAY
01.00-02.00 End of the World Party
00.00-01.00 The Jerry Fish Electric Sideshow
23/00-23.45 The Blizzards
22/00-22..45 Exmagician
21.00-21.45 Bitch Falcon
20.00-20.45 Relish
19.15-19.45 Veda, Regina, Pixie & Sngelica - stars of Witchy Wednesdays @ the George - present Drag, Sex & Rock ’n’ Roll
18.30-19.05 Interskalactic
17.45-18.15 Mariachi San Patricio
17.00-17.30 Barq
16.15-16.45 Orchid Collective
15.30-16.00 Ivy Nations
14.45-15.15 Craig Gallagher
14.00-14.30 White Cholera
13.15-13.45 Absolutely Yo
12.00-13.00 House of Yoga
TRENCHTOWN
FRIDAY
01.00-03.30 Dirty Dubsters w/ Kwasi, Mango, RV, Jago & Deemas j
23.55 -00.45 After The Ibis
22.50-23.40 Gangsters
21.55-22.35 Jafaris
20.10-21.40 Jameire
18.40-20.10 Dub Foundry & Ranking Fox
16.40-18.40 Junior Spesh
14.40-16.40 t woc
SATURDAY
01.30-03.30 Ras Kwame & Serocee
23.25 -01.25 Worries Outernational
22.20 -23.10 Adeniyi Allen Taylor & the Afrobeat Orchestra
21.15-22.05 The Bionic Rats
20.10-21.00 The Hacklers
19.05-19.55 Johnny Pluse & the Stormtroopers of Love
17.20-18.50 Word Up Collective
16.15- 17.05 Skazz
14.30-16.00 Rub A Dub Crew
13.00-14.30 An Galar Dub
SUNDAY
02.00-03.30 Cian Finn
00.45-01.45 Ajo Arkestra
23.30-00.30 Wob! (Sambass Set)
22.15-23.15 Andrew White
21.10-22.00 The Service
20.05-20.55 The Little Beauties
19.00-19.50 Dah Jevu
17.15-18.45 Tom Beary & MC Little Tree
16.20-17.00 Bevin Rimson
14.05-16.05 Tim Timmah
GLOBAL GREEN Village Hall
FRIDAY
01.00 Start The Dance. featuring RobotRock and DJ Dave Caffrey till late
23.20 Phases DJs
22.40 Cinema
21.50 Wastefellow
21.00 Jem Mitchell
20.00 WEAVE
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SATURDAY
23.20 Hip Hop Hooray. featuring Re.Raw, Gin n Juice, Rosko til very late..
21.40 Caz9
19.50 Voices Rising. Spoken Word
19.00 Cult Called Man
18.10 The Witch Trials
17.00 Reconnecting With Nature - Panel Discussion
16.15 Swords
15.20 CreamDream
14.30 Anna-Mieke
13.30 Community Energy - Panel Discussion
13.10 Community Power - Screening
12.00 Yoga
SUNDAY
02.15 Ben Live/DJ Set - Breaks, jackin house, trap and dubstep
21.40 Last Train to Skaville. featuring Rub A Dub, Pressure Drop DJs and The Service
20.00 Atlantic - Screening and Discussion
19.15 The Savage Jim Breen
18.20 Black Bank Folk
16.00 The Show Must Go On - Panel Discussion
17.00 Pop Icons. Sing Along Social for GOAL
15.00 David Keenan
14.10 I Am Niamh
13.20 Sarah Buckley
12.00 Yoga
CASA BACARDÍ
FRIDAY
22.00-00.00 Huxley
20.00-22.00 Hercules & Love Affair (Dj Set)
18.00-20.00 Stevie G
16.00-18.00 Stephen Manning
SATURDAY
00.00-02.00 DJ Deece
22.00-00.00 Nicky Siano
20.00-22.00 Horse Meat Disco
18.00-20.00 Krafty Kuts
16.30-18.00 Get Down Edits
15.00-16.40 Groovement Soul
13.30-15.00 Modern Magic
12,30-13.30 4wrd Grad
SUNDAY
22.00-00.00 The Magician
20.00-22.00 Disco Bloodbath
18.00-20.00 A-Skillz
16.00-18.00 Kelly Anne Byrne
14,00-16.00 Ghostboy
12.00-14.00 Christian Homan
From Friday The Irish Times will be onsite at Stradbally proper, with our live blog for all your 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.
For more visit our Electric Picnic page here | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/electric-picnic-the-last-batch-of-stage-times-and-a-first-look-on-site-1.2773664?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b10880b4f890e11006b8d72e53ac37299756aede26dc6e8e0fb2daeccbb7ad54.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T06:49:07 | null | 2016-08-30T06:00:00 | Research suggests investors can profit by buying funds that go against the grain | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fpersonal-finance%2Fshould-active-funds-embrace-high-conviction-investing-1.2771094.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771082.1472400879!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Should active funds embrace high-conviction investing? | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | It’s one of the most documented findings in finance: the majority of equity funds underperform stock markets. However, defenders of active management say the statistics are distorted by closet index funds containing so many positions as to make their performance almost indistinguishable from benchmark indices. Can investors therefore earn outsized profits by avoiding the closet indexers and embracing concentrated, high-conviction funds?
Neither passive nor genuinely active investors have a good word to say about closet index funds. Such funds are all too common, for two main reasons. Firstly, fund managers run the risk of being fired or losing investors if they suffer short-term underperformance; buying hundreds of stocks means outperformance becomes almost impossible, but it also ensures their performance will not deviate too much relative to their benchmark, thereby minimising career risk.
Secondly, managers want to bag the extra fee that comes with increased assets under management, but it’s difficult to manage large sums of money if your investment universe is limited to 30 or so stocks. Accordingly, managers are naturally incentivised to over-diversify and own more stocks; diversification becomes diworsification.
That’s bad news for investors hoping to outperform markets. According to a study conducted by money manager and author Robert Hagstrom, a randomly generated portfolio of 15 stocks has a 27 per cent chance of outperforming indices, but the odds of outperformance decline to just 2 per cent for portfolios consisting of 250 stocks.
What if managers took a more concentrated approach? Few if any investors can have in-depth knowledge of 200 or 300 stocks, but what if they had only to pick a few stocks – say their best ideas? One 2010 study, ‘Best Ideas’, found returns generated by managers’ “high-conviction investments” – for example, their top-five stocks – comfortably outperformed the market and their other holdings. Investors, the authors concluded, “would benefit if managers held more concentrated portfolios”.
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Similar conclusions are reached by the authors of ‘Diversification versus Concentration . . . and the Winner is?’, a 2012 paper that examined 4,700 US equity funds over the 1999-2009 period; the more concentrated the portfolio, the better the performance.
Active share
One way of avoiding closet index funds is to buy funds with a high active share, a concept popularised by Yale researchers Martijn Cremers and Antti Petajisto.
Active share refers to the percentage of a fund’s portfolio that differs from its benchmark. A fund with a score of 0 is identical to its benchmark index, whereas a score of 100 means it holds none of the stocks in the index. A 2009 Cremers and Petajisto paper that examined the 1980-2003 period found US funds with the highest active share “significantly outperform their benchmarks, both before and after expenses”.
A follow-up Petajisto paper in 2013 that analysed the 1990-2009 period found the average actively managed fund underperformed, with one exception – the most active stock pickers, who beat indices by 1.26 per cent per year after fees and by 2.61 per cent annually before fees, indicating a “nontrivial amount of skill”.
Other studies have replicated these findings regarding the value of active share. One recent study found significantly better performance from emerging market funds with a high active share over the 2009-14 period. Similarly, recent research by Premier Multi-Asset Funds’ manager Simon Evans-Cook has found UK funds with the highest active share have easily outperformed the FTSE All-Share index over one-, three-, five- and 10-year periods.
Sceptical
Many researchers are sceptical, however. A recent study of the Norwegian equity market found “no correlation between the active share and performance, persistence, nor skill”. Japanese firm Nomura’s analysis of the US market found that closet trackers actually outperformed concentrated stock pickers in eight of the 11 years from 2004 to 2014. Active share “may have been useful before 2004 but not since then”, cautioned Nomura.
Similarly, Morningstar researcher Russ Kinnel noted last month that funds with high active share have underperformed those with low active share over the 2011-15 period. Low fees are a better guide to fund performance, said Kinnel; 64 per cent of the cheapest funds outperformed, he said, compared to just 29 per cent of the funds with the highest active share.
Advocates of passive investing are also sceptical. A Vanguard report found high-conviction funds were associated with higher costs but not better performance. An S&P Dow Jones Indices report, meanwhile, cautions portfolio volatility “will almost certainly increase” if an active manager reduces his holdings from 100 to 20 or so stocks. The S&P report also suggests portfolio concentration makes management skill “harder to detect, and less likely to matter”; a few losing bets can make a skilled manager look bad just as a few lucky punts will make bad managers look good, resulting in investors’ decisions being “informed by luck rather than skill”.
The most trenchant criticism, however, comes from researchers allied to hedge fund AQR Capital Management. Their paper, ‘Deactivating Active Share’, says Cremers’ and Petajisto’s findings have “attracted considerable attention in the investment community”, with more active managers opting to “tout their active share”. However, AQR researchers argue that while the highest active share funds have outperformed in recent decades, this is because such funds were largely invested in small- and mid-cap companies; this, rather than active share, explains the results.
Patience
Cremers and Petajisto, who have vociferously rejected the AQR thesis, argue that critics are missing the point. Active share is “not a measure of skill”, Cremers said at a Morningstar conference earlier this year. “You do not need skill to have high active share, you just need to buy a bunch of different stocks”.
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On its own, a fund’s active share tells you little, he admits. The key is to examine a fund’s active share and its average holding period. Cremers’ latest paper, ‘Patient Capital Outperformance: The Investment Skill of High Active Share Managers Who Trade Infrequently’, finds that managers that trade frequently “systematically underperform”, even if they are funds with a high active share. However, funds characterised both by high active share and patience (defined as holding positions for at least two years) have significantly outperformed over the last 26 years, by over 2 percentage points per year.
Useful
Overall, the concept of active share appears useful on a number of levels. Calls for funds to reveal their active share have grown louder in recent years and that is a good thing – low active share scores expose closet index funds that are taking their investors for a ride. Additionally, if a fund’s active share declines rapidly, it may suggest that asset bloat – a rush of money into a fund after a period of outperformance – is driving a change in strategy.
Nevertheless, it’s clear investors would be naive to dive headlong into a fund purely on the basis of it boasting a high active share or a low number of stock holdings. Deviating from an index is risky. Investors frequently make the mistake of thinking a portfolio consisting of 10 or 20 stocks has a 50:50 chance of outperforming, but the aforementioned Robert Hagstrom statistics show a randomly-generated 15-stock portfolio has only a 27 per cent chance of beating the market.
That’s because most stocks actually underperform the market, with a small handful of so-called super-stocks historically accounting for the bulk of market returns. Doubtless, those odds will plummet further if a fund manager relies on a dumb strategy – managers that frequently trade expensive growth stocks will underperform, whether or not their fund boasts a high active share.
In that sense, active share is, as Prof Cremers puts it, “a very basic tool” in a large toolbox. If combined with other tools, however, the measure would appear to be a relevant one for investors seeking market-beating returns. Cremers’ research indicates the best managers outperform by focusing on stocks often shunned by others: specifically, picking safe, value and high-quality stocks “and then sticking with those over relatively long periods until their apparent undervaluation has been reversed”.
In that sense, high active share doesn’t mean a manager will outperform; it is, however, a necessary condition for outperformance. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/should-active-funds-embrace-high-conviction-investing-1.2771094 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d3eccdca8a4534da3d93c77a265c631814c22a2bf384308d4b35164e9fb32ed6.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T18:50:36 | null | 2016-08-27T18:07:00 | Paul Dunne in a share of sixth place, four shots off the lead | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgolf%2Fthomas-pieters-keeps-wildcard-hopes-alive-in-denmark-1.2770853%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770851.1472317633!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Thomas Pieters keeps wildcard hopes alive in Denmark | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Belgium’s Thomas Pieters remains on course to stake his claim for a Ryder Cup wild card in perfect fashion by winning the final qualifying event.
Pieters was fourth in the Olympics and second in the defence of his Czech Masters title last week to force his name into the frame for one of European captain Darren Clarke’s three wild cards.
And after carding rounds of 62 and 71 while playing alongside Clarke in the first two rounds of the Made In Denmark tournament, the world number 54 added an adventurous 69 on Saturday to lie just a shot behind leader Bradley Dredge.
Dredge, who finished second at Himmerland Golf & Spa Resort in 2014 and sixth last year, carded a 72 to finish 12 under par, a shot ahead of Pieters, American David Lipsky and Spain’s Adrian Otaegui.
Paul Dunne carded a two-under 69 to move to eight under and a share of sixth position, while Shane Lowry also carded a 69 to move to four under.
The Offalyman will look to go low in his final round as he bids to keep his name in the reckoning before Clarke confirms his wildcards on Tuesday.
Pieters failed to record a single par in the first six holes, carding four birdies, one bogey and a bizarre double bogey on the par-five fourth, when he found the putting surface in two but then putted off the green.
“Shocker,” Pieters said. “I don’t know what I was thinking there and made a terrible seven, but fought back and shot 69 which is not bad, but I would have loved to shoot a couple more under par.
“You get mad one second and then (have to play) the next hole. I did a good job because I made two birdies in a row after that. I’m still learning mentally to handle stuff like that, but thought I did a good job today.
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“The putts weren’t dropping at the end but hopefully tomorrow.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/thomas-pieters-keeps-wildcard-hopes-alive-in-denmark-1.2770853?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/94cdeb122fb362e5474f2f87a4835c71cd6bf78a1ec56717f60a43d8a04bf33e.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:52:13 | null | 2016-08-30T12:39:00 | Europe’s defence of the Ryder Cup against the United States starts on September 30th | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgolf%2Fdarren-clarke-reveals-his-ryder-cup-wild-cards-and-there-s-no-shane-lowry-1.2772992%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772991.1472560244!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Darren Clarke reveals his Ryder Cup ‘wild cards’ and there’s no Shane Lowry | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | European captain Darren Clarke has chosen Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Thomas Pieters as his three wild cards for the Ryder Cup match against the USA at Hazeltine from September 30th-October 2nd. Clarke confirmed his picks at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon at Wentworth.
There was no joy for Ireland’s Graeme McDowell and Shane Lowry while England’s Luke Donald and Scotland’s Russell Knox were others under consideration. It is the first time that Irish golf has only had one representative on the European team since coincidentally Clarke’s debut, in 1997, under the late Seve Ballesteros at Valderrama.
Europe are the defending champions, having won under Ireland’s Paul McGinley at Gleneagles two years ago, and will be going for a fourth straight win over the Americans. The last time the USA prevailed was in 2008 at Valhalla.
Westwood and Kaymer have long been touted as shoo-ins but Belgium’s long-hitting Pieters is the sixth rookie in this year’s time, joining fellow first-timers. Andy Sullivan (England), US Masters champion Danny Willett (England), Matt Fitzpatrick (England), Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spain) and Chris Wood (England).
The 24-year-old Pieters demonstrated exquisite timing in every respect, winning the Made in Denmark tournament on the European Tour on Sunday, putting pressure on Clarke to pick him. The Belgian said in the immediate aftermath of the win: Darren Clarke has got plenty of good players to pick from, so if he doesn’t pick me, then so be it; I’ll work my butt off to get there in the next one. But I’ve done all I can now and I’m just really pleased with this win to be honest.”
At 6ft 5in, he is prodigiously long off the tee, but he also has a very tidy short game. His best result in a major is 30th, which he achieved at the British Open this year.
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Clarke said of his wild cards: “To get it down to those three has certainly be very difficult. As I’ve spoken all along with the qualification process and how the team was shaping up, I was going to look towards experience and in Lee (Westwood) and Martin (Kaymer) I have two former world number ones.
“With Lee and Martin they were two pretty obvious choices for me. The last one was very difficult, I’m not going to sit here and say otherwise. I had a few different people in my mind, like Graeme McDowell and Luke Donald.
“Then it came down to the choice between Russell Knox and Thomas Pieters. That was an incredibly difficult decision and I have not slept an awful lot; having to phone Russell was one of the toughest phone calls I have ever had to make.”
Pieters played with Clarke in Denmark last week. The European captain explained: “Last week I played with him as I have done many times on the qualification period. When we teed off on Thursday morning, Thomas knew exactly why I was playing with him. There were a few other contenders I was thinking about as well but Thomas went out and shot one of the finest 62s I have ever witnessed, and made it look very easy.”
Pieters speaking by video link had this to say about his selection. “I had been playing well for a while but I guess the results were not there [before this weekend]. What do you feel you will bring to Darren’s team, Pieters is asked? “Points. It’s pretty cool to be honest. I just can’t wait to get on that plane and be with the team the whole week.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/darren-clarke-reveals-his-ryder-cup-wild-cards-and-there-s-no-shane-lowry-1.2772992?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/957ac27068cde0f92744f969a2b985d6fbd4f3824c106097814eae7e8d90c1d8.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T18:52:10 | null | 2016-08-30T18:11:00 | Decline leaves about 40% of emergency beds empty at cost of almost €1.7m a week | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Fnetherlands-sees-substantial-drop-in-middle-eastern-refugees-1.2773402%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773400.1472577083!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Netherlands sees substantial drop in Middle Eastern refugees | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A substantial drop in the number of refugees from the Middle East arriving in the Netherlands has left about 40 per cent of the beds in emergency accommodation centres empty – at a cost to the Dutch taxpayer of €237,000 a day or €1.7 million a week.
New figures show that while 4,789 migrants – many of them fleeing the civil war in Syria – arrived in the Netherlands during the month of July 2015, the number of new arrivals in July 2016 had halved to 2,260, according to the refugee settlement agency COA.
The agency says that, of the 52,676 emergency beds it set up at the height of the immigration crisis last year, when more than a million migrants arrived in Europe, only 32,905 are being used and the remainder – 19,771 beds or 37 per cent – are lying empty.
The cost of providing and maintaining a refugee centre bed – including electricity, gas, water and caretaking – is calculated at an average of €12 a day. This means the total cost of maintaining the 19,771 unused beds is €237,252 a day or €1.66 million a week.
Violent clashes
The Dutch ministry for justice has called a meeting with the refugee agency next week to discuss the fall-off in demand – and the escalating cost of maintaining the beds.
The agency is expected to close 15 emergency reception centres in the next few weeks, shedding temporary staff employed to help cope with the anticipated influx – and plans for new centres, many of which are highly controversial with local residents, are to be put on ice. However, it’s the patchy manner in which the emergency accommodation was provided in the first place that has left people in many parts of the country doubly bemused now.
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One nursing home in the town in Winterswijk, in the east of the country, spent time and money preparing a 200-bed wing to receive refugees, but none ever arrived.
Similarly, a new reception centre is being built in the town of Ede, which has a number of empty centres in its hinterland. It’s not clear, even to the authorities, what has caused the drop in new arrivals. But there have been several violent clashes over the past year between police and people protesting against immigrant centres in their areas.
In one town, riot police had to fire shots over the heads of a crowd threatening to overrun a council meeting. In another, residents asked their council to dig up the footpath in front of their homes because they believed migrants walking past – to the shops – would devalue their properties.
The increase in refugees arriving led to a spike in support for Geert Wilders and his right-wing Freedom Party, whose popularity peaked last February when polls showed it could win 42 seats in the 150-seat parliament – making it by far the largest party.
However, a new poll shows the Freedom Party now down six percentage points or nine seats – though it would remain the largest party, with 22 per cent of the vote, if an election were held tomorrow. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/netherlands-sees-substantial-drop-in-middle-eastern-refugees-1.2773402?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d242afca1eb883f9ccf4b043bd360aa550f09a6a3d58c97bf7e42ffb6df90f62.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T06:52:19 | null | 2016-08-30T06:00:00 | Proposed ‘parent and student charter’ to clarify classroom rights and responsibilities | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fhealth-family%2Fparenting%2Fnew-term-for-teachers-as-way-clear-for-fitness-to-practise-hearings-1.2764348%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2760598.1472217218!/image/image.jpg | en | null | New term for teachers as way clear for fitness-to-practise hearings | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | There is a familiar flurry of pristine school uniforms, bulging school bags and squeaky new lunch boxes this week as children around the country return to their classrooms or step into the formal education system for the first time.
For parents it can be emotional, dealing with life’s milestones, logistical challenges and financial headaches, or just euphoria that their children are out of the house and back into a structured routine after the long holidays.
This summer, during that break, there was a significant development in Irish education. Since July, after a wait of 10 years for a part of enacted legislation to be commenced, the way is now clear for the Teaching Council to hold “fitness-to-practise” hearings.
The council has the power to remove a teacher from its register where it deems the person unfit to teach, including where this is for child-protection reasons. It is also charged with investigating underperformance or conduct issues, on foot of complaints from students, parents and teachers, among others.
All teachers paid by the State must be registered with the council. In mid-August there were 43,936 at primary-school level and 41,824 at secondary level on its books. (Teachers employed and paid by private schools do not have to register.)
However, for the vast majority of school-children and their parents, not to mention all the highly committed and competent teachers, this new arena of “last resort” will be of no personal relevance. But a proposed “parent and student charter” that is promised in its wake will affect everybody in the school community.
This charter has the potential to be “a really positive catalyst” within schools if it is received well and implemented well, says Áine Lynch, the chief executive of the National Parents’ Council (NPC), Primary – the level of education at which parents have most interaction with schools. She believes it could clarify everybody’s rights and responsibilities so that when parents have concerns or children are unhappy, the situation would be less likely to escalate to a formal complaint.
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The Ombudsman for Children, Niall Muldoon, who has made the promotion of good complaints-handling in schools one of his office’s key objectives over the next two years, agrees that such a charter should help parents, students and schools to improve ways of working together. Some 47 per cent of all complaints to his office in 2014 related to education; and three-quarters of those 768 grievances concerned individual schools.
“If you can improve on relationships, everybody knows what they are doing and everybody knows what is expected of them, that will be very, very positive and that will reduce complaints, but you will always have complaints,” he says.
The triggering of the “fitness-to-practise” mechanism has highlighted the lack of an agreed, standardised system for handling complaints at school level, yet local procedures are supposed to be exhausted before an issue is brought to the Teaching Council. The Department of Education and Skills has promised to address this gap, as part of more holistic guidance on parent-student-school relationships.
Under the Education Act of 1998, it was expected that procedures for handling complaints would be outlined for schools. But almost 20 years later, that hasn’t happened and most primary schools still use a framework drawn up in 1993 by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation and the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association, with no input from parents or the Department of Education, as Lynch points out.
A Programme for a Partnership Government that was published last May promised it would “introduce a stronger complaints procedure and charter for parents”.
In response to a query from Health+Family, a spokesman for the Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, says he plans to seek Government approval “presently” for the Heads of Bill to replace the relevant Section 28 of the Education Act, which would then include principles that will govern how schools engage with parents and students.
“The legislation will provide the statutory basis for ministerial guidelines, which will form the framework for a Parents and Students’ Charter in every school following consultation with parents, students, recognised school management bodies and staff associations representing teachers and other appropriate bodies. Revised local complaint and grievance procedures will be a key part of the charter,” the spokesman adds.
The Teaching Council believes the existing systems at local level should be replaced by a statutory complaints procedure under the Education Act.
“There could be potential for complaints to be submitted to the council that could possibly have been resolved at school level,” it says.
While it is not aware what the proposed parent-student charter will contain, the council’s “primary concern is that an effective means of communications is in place to resolve issues that arise in schools from time to time involving students, parents and school staff and management”.
We are now on our third minister for education since the idea of a “parent and student charter” was first mooted by Ruairí Quinn in 2013. It is “absolutely essential” that such a charter is implemented as soon as possible, says Lynch. While ideally it would have been in place before the go-ahead for fitness-to-practise hearings, she says she would not have wanted the latter to have been delayed any longer.
The teaching profession is behind others such as the nursing, medical and legal professions in having such a mechanism to ensure standards are high, she says.
Lynch recalls “a very forward-thinking” 1991 circular from the Department of Education, when Mary O’Rourke was minister, on the need for partnership with parents, which stated that every national school would be required to have “a clearly defined policy for productive parental involvement”. However, the provisions of that circular didn’t seem to trickle down into schools.
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When the NPC surveyed its members in 2012, just 17 per cent agreed that their school had a clearly defined, written policy document for productive parental involvement.
“This is why strengthening of legislation is needed to make sure this is implemented rather than just aspirational,” she says.
Having looked at how it’s done in Scotland – where the guidance booklet for the Parental Involvement Act runs to 86 pages – and in the US, where certain funding is dependent on a school having a policy for parental involvement, the NPC believes there are weakness in both approaches.
“Anything that is required to be done to receive funding doesn’t get ‘buy in’, understanding and belief in what they’re doing, because it is ticking the box,” Lynch argues.
Nor does the NPC want lengthy legislation dictating what schools should do; rather it would like to see a parent-student charter enshrining principles and values, such as two-way communication, respectful understanding and transparency, and so on.
For busy parents who may feel their current level of involvement with schools is just fine, thanks, she makes it clear that the NPC is not suggesting we spend more time at the school.
“What the research does say is that when parents are involved in their children’s education, children will do better”, but it’s the nature of the involvement that is important.
“The biggest difference parents can make is around their children’s learning at home but parents are lost in that respect in many cases, unless there is a good relationship with the school and good communication.”
There also needs to be ongoing discussion around children’s abilities, expectations, setting goals for children – and those goals being realistic – and what parents can do at home to support the child’s learning in school.
However, she stresses, there is lots of “very, very positive work” being done in schools already around the relationships between the school, parents and the children.
“I think in certain circumstances, where a difficulty has arisen, it can be because of a lack of understanding of process and how to manage parents who have concern about their children or children who are unhappy in certain situations.”
The current complaints process can be quite difficult for parents to navigate, she says. Also it can be very hard for them to raise concerns and make complaints in a school when their child continues to be taught there, particularly “when there is a lack of clarity about where the parent stands, where the child stands, in that system”.
Muldoon is also keen to stress that the majority of schools are doing a good job and the majority of schools have got this right.
“The concern is always the 10 or 15 per cent where things may go wrong,” he says. And in schools where issues do arise, there is nobody checking to see if it had had the same procedures as the school up the road, could the problems have been averted.
“If you have poor policy, poor leadership and poor communication with parents, then you are going to have trouble but there is no standard to measure that against. Only when it goes wrong, do we realise local resolution isn’t working, or the policy wasn’t on the website, or parents making a complaint are being ignored, or the board of management is not meeting often enough.”
Muldoon also acknowledges how difficult it can be for parents to make a complaint in the first place. “School is such a personal experience for everybody, it is so intimate. If you’re in the only primary school in a small town and something goes wrong, the whole world knows about it. That’s why it is crucial to have proper guidance and proper policies and procedures in place.”
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His experience is that so often it comes down to personal relationships. “That is why we work very hard on local resolution to get it done as soon as possible; the quicker it is resolved the better for everybody.”
The fostering of a positive relationship between schools, parents and children should allow for issues to be raised in a way that doesn’t intimidate the parent or hamper the child. “There are schools which never get to formal complaints because they do the informal so well.”
If Section 28 of the Education Act is to be replaced, it needs to provide for a strong level of consistency across all primary and secondary schools, says Muldoon.
“Inconsistency can lead to differences of outcome and that is something that is obviously not good practice anywhere,” he says. “Any business that had 3,500 branches would like to know that they doing the same thing in most places.”
swayman@irishtimes.com | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/parenting/new-term-for-teachers-as-way-clear-for-fitness-to-practise-hearings-1.2764348?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b4044b4a12f469dbc1bdae8ed9f8b03d168ac6d9d8558a9f0778f6278d457eab.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T06:50:20 | null | 2016-08-27T06:00:00 | The deciding factor in any development should be the character it contributes to its place | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fart-and-design%2Fin-the-dublin-high-rise-debate-size-matters-less-than-quality-1.2769492%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769486.1472220227!/image/image.jpg | en | null | In the Dublin high-rise debate, size matters less than quality | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | With the recovering economy, and despite the potential fallout from Brexit, Dublin could be at a historic tipping point in its development. The city’s new development plan – to be debated by councillors next month – sets out a vision for the capital to be “one of Europe’s most sustainable, dynamic and resourceful city regions” – a beautiful, compact city, with a distinct character and socially inclusive neighbourhoods.
However, if successful, current lobbying to increase building heights in response to the shortages of residential and office accommodation in the city could have the opposite effect to the draft plan’s aspiration that the growth projected “takes place in a coherent sustainable manner”.
The large-scale Ordnance Survey plans of Dublin from 1847 depict the city as compact and contained, with a population of about 400,000. In the following century and a half it grew to more than a million. Now it stands at 1.3 million and is projected to increase by about 400,000 by 2031 – two-thirds of the State’s total projected growth for this period. This should all be positive – but the compact city illustrated in the 1847 maps is now circumscribed by low-density suburbia, extending from Drogheda to Gorey, and almost as far inland as Newbridge, Navan and Mullingar.
Today it is accepted that this type of sprawl is unsustainable economically, socially and environmentally. It increases the cost of providing infrastructure, services and amenities; the long-distance commuting it generates is bad for family and community life; and the private motoring on which it depends is a major contributor to our untenable carbon-dioxide emissions.
It is therefore self-evident that the challenge for Dublin in planning for the demographic and economic growth projected is accommodating this growth sustainably, in order to increase the city’s population without extending its urban footprint.
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The draft plan’s distinction in building-height limits between the inner city and the suburbs will do the opposite: concentrate development pressure on the already dense historic core while curtailing intensification of the city’s low-density outer areas.
If Dublin is to achieve its ambition to be a beautiful and compact city the challenge is how to bring the two into some form of equilibrium, safeguarding the character and quality of the historic core while transforming the suburbs into higher-density urban neighbourhoods.
First, the special character and quality of the historic core – its built form, urban structure, public realm and building heights – should be protected and conserved. By defining low-rise (for offices) as anything up to 28m (92ft, or nine residential storeys) the plan is fraught with risks.
The calls for higher densities and greater building heights will have an irreversible impact on the city’s urban quality and its human scale, features that surely rank high on Dublin’s list of unique selling points in terms of its attractiveness as a place to live, work, shop, invest and visit.
It might be more appropriate to set a benchmark of, say, 18m – the height of Merrion and Fitzwilliam Squares – for offices and apartments alike. Developments would be allowed to extend above this “shoulder height” only when evidence showed that greater height and higher density – and design of the highest quality – would provide essential employment; provide essential retail space, residential accommodation, or both; and improve the character and quality of the public realm.
While accepting the correlation between height and density, my research into cities such as Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Barcelona, as well as housing designed by my own practice, demonstrates that heights of no more than six storeys can comfortably provide high-quality living environments at residential densities in the region of 130 homes per hectare. This is more than enough to support transport, shopping, education and leisure facilities in the locality.
Second, outside the inner city there is no logical reason why the heights allowed in the centre should not be permitted as a way to curtail sprawl and reconfigure the suburbs as more sustainable and higher-density places.
The four storeys envisaged in the draft plan will make apartment and office developments economically unviable in these locations. If a midrise building – that is, under 50m – is appropriate for Ballymun or Cherry Orchard, why is the same height or higher not allowed in, say, Donnybrook or Rathfarnham? What is important is to ensure that the development proposed is of the highest quality and that its height doesn’t harm adjoining properties or the receiving environment generally.
That said, it can be argued that all quantitative height standards, whether expressed in metres or storeys, should be replaced by qualitative criteria that assess development proposals in terms of how they will deliver “planning gain” for their locations.
Wherever the location, the deciding factor ought to be whether a development can contribute to improving the character and quality of its place. Those that don’t should not be permitted.
The task, therefore, is to reconfigure the Greater Dublin Area – from the low-density suburbia envisaged in Patrick Abercrombie’s 1922 plan, into a metropolitan area made up of sustainable neighbourhoods, or “urban villages”.
These urban villages must be compact, enabling residents to perform daily trips without a car. They must be diverse, combining residential with other buildings. They must be planned, focused on a civic, commercial and cultural core. They must be attractive, providing a high level of amenity and open space.
In addition, they must be legible, structured around a fine-grain street network. They must be high-density, capable of supporting local services, schools, shopping, leisure and transport. And they must be integrated, providing a mix of age, class, race and tenure. This is the challenge that members of the city council should address rather than arguing about whether height should be restricted to 24m, 28m or 50m.
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With our recovering economy, and the city coming under increasing development pressure, this may be our last chance to get it right.
Paul Keogh is a founding partner of Paul Keogh Architects and a former president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/in-the-dublin-high-rise-debate-size-matters-less-than-quality-1.2769492?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/0b85b0325a2b099d6485a6c12c150d64d9e37878dd3047cfb0c016beb29412dd.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T04:52:43 | null | 2016-08-31T05:40:00 | With 205 bedrooms, a Bank of Ireland and a Spar, these are no ordinary student digs | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Fmontrose-student-residence-beside-ucd-on-sale-at-41-5m-1.2772162%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773185.1472568236!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Montrose Student Residence beside UCD on sale at €41.5m | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The Montrose Student Residence located beside the UCD campus at Stillorgan Road, Dublin 4, is expected to be of interest primarily to international investors when it goes for sale from today at a guide price of over €41.5 million.
The first purpose-built student accommodation of its kind to come on the market in Dublin will show an income yield of around 5.4 per cent after standard acquisition costs, according to Fergus O’Farrell of selling agents Savills. The gross rent roll is forecasted to reach €2.91 million per annum.
The Montrose is based on the former three-star hotel of the same name which has been converted at a reported cost of €22.5 million by a Scottish company, Ziggurat Student Living. It bought the hotel at the depths of the property crash in 2012.
The redeveloped 1960s building now has 205 ensuite bedrooms over five floors, including a two-bedroom penthouse, which are almost fully booked for the upcoming academic year. The 777sq m (8,363sq ft) on the ground floor have been let as complementary neighbourhood services including a Bank of Ireland branch, a Spar convenience store and a thriving Insomnia cafe. The grounds include 52 surface car-parking spaces.
Savills is forecasting that the student accommodation will bring in rental income of around €2.69 million. What Ziggurat describes as “classic” bedrooms are to be let at €245 per week, superior bedrooms at €275 and twin bedrooms at €300. The commercial units will account for a further €220,000 per annum, bringing the overall rent roll to €2.91 million.
Active market
Fergus O’Farrell said he expected that a very active student accommodation market in Dublin would evolve to compete with other commercial investment asset classes across Ireland as more sales come to the market over the next year or two.
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Marcus Roberts, head of student investment at Savills, said the chronic undersupply of purpose-built student accommodation, together with strong rental growth prospects and the prime location of the Montrose scheme beside UCD made it a “very attractive investment”.
UCD is the largest university in Ireland, with a student population of over 32,000. Savills says there are currently 90,000 purpose-built student bedrooms in Dublin including university-owned units and privately built stock. There are a number of large-scale student blocks currently under construction in the city.
Ziggurat has also bought a number of sites in Dublin’s north city centre as part of a €400 million Irish expansion plan after completing the Montrose project. The company has already announced plans to build several of its own developments including a 380-bed facility in Dublin’s north inner city; a 420-bed centre adjacent to the DIT Grangegorman campus and a 200-bed facility on Cork’s Western Road near UCC. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/montrose-student-residence-beside-ucd-on-sale-at-41-5m-1.2772162?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/186c07723d7b323aa6272879c15eaa8f4d542a19b49bed66710492bf48a9f8e1.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T02:51:53 | null | 2016-08-30T02:20:00 | Redmond’s position was similar to that articulated recently by Gerry Adams on the difficulties Brexit causes in Northern Ireland. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fgerry-adams-has-more-in-common-with-john-redmond-than-he-might-think-1.2772204%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772202.1472491239!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Gerry Adams has more in common with John Redmond than he might think | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Politics goes in circles. One hundred years ago this summer John Redmond, Edward Carson and their colleagues played out the final denouement in the Home Rule crisis.
Following the Easter Rising and a subsequent Irish visit from Herbert Asquith, David Lloyd George was asked to attempt once more a settlement of the Irish problem. He made considerable progress and reached an outline agreement with both nationalists and the Ulster unionists.
The agreement was reached by virtue of a fudge around whether the exclusion of six Ulster counties from the Home Rule Parliament was to be temporary or permanent.
Clearly depending on whom he spoke to, Lloyd George’s emphasis changed, though his commitment about the endurance of partition had been afforded in writing to Carson. However, the draft Headings of Settlement leave it an open question.
Nonetheless, both parties, Ulster unionist and nationalist, fought hard for the deal.
Carson, fighting with unionists about the immediate establishment of Home Rule in the aftermath of the Rising and the ceding of three Ulster counties, and the Redmondites – faced with stiff opposition from the Healyites – had to sell temporary partition to unenthusiastic Northern nationalists.
The scheme was ultimately brought down by English Tories, now in government, at the behest of southern unionists. In the literature Lloyd George’s ambiguous approach is often held responsible.
Negotiate separately
But it is difficult to believe either Irish side was unaware of the other’s position or that Lloyd George’s decision to negotiate separately was anything other than pragmatic given the experience at Buckingham Palace two years previously. His decision not to keep cabinet fully informed has also been described as a fault, but it too seems justified by some Tories’ reaction.
Constructive ambiguity was not the plan’s weakness, it was what made it possible at all.
The calculation on the nationalist side seems clear enough. Establish the Home Rule Parliament and see what happens. It was to be the game changer Redmond so badly needed given the decline in his standing since the war began – further undermined by the British response to the Rising. For the Irish Party this was the last throw of the dice. The best way to persuade unionism was to show it the Home Rule Parliament in action.
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But for all his burgeoning unpopularity Redmond was a genuine 32-county man. His unpopular positions during the war were taken on two bases: the need to keep the British sweet to deliver on Home Rule and his view that, in the long term, fighting together would bring a divided Ireland, nationalist and unionist, closer together.
So come forward 100 years and compare Redmond’s position with that articulated recently by Gerry Adams on the difficulties Brexit causes in Northern Ireland.
While Sinn Féin, he said, remained committed to the Republic and a unitary state he was open to looking at other arrangements in an “interim and transitional” fashion.
Obligation
Adams argued there was an obligation on the Southern State to think about how to make Irish unity more “attractive” for unionists, albeit not exclusively for unionists – a recognition of the challenge involved in persuading the South to consider unity as a viable proposition.
This year we commemorate the Easter Rising as a stepping stone on the road to the establishment of the Irish State. That is right and proper.
But the Rising effectively marked the beginning of the end of a search for an all-island solution. As the Irish position became more committed to advanced separation from Britain, the possibilities of any arrangement with Ulster diminished. The Lloyd George initiative of 1916 was possibly the closest we got to an arrangement that might have kept all those balls in the air.
Adams will not like the comparison with Redmond, and it should not be overstated, but there are similarities. The position he adopts is arguably more advanced than that of the New Ireland Forum, the last time these issues were discussed by nationalism.
The difficulty is that while Redmond was open to a more positive association with Britain, Adams is not. Nor is he alone in that. Redmond, like Parnell before him, had underestimated the attachment of unionism to its British identity. But it is well established now. The challenge, post-Good Friday agreement and the consent principle, is how that British identity can be reconciled with a republican view that nothing positive emerged from our past membership of the UK?
It is a while since the Irish State or politicians grappled with these issues. We talk about the financial obstacles to unity but surely when there is a will a way can be found. It might be that we find the cult- ural challenge too demanding?
Redmond will be 100 years dead in 2018. The issues he grappled unsuccessfully with are no less complex today. No generation of Southern republicans has resolved them and Adams is grappling with them now. Redmond dealt with them in honour and in good faith, and remained committed to being a persuader for an all-island settlement. In the end Redmond failed, but he has not been alone in that.
Rónán O’Brien was a political adviser to the last government | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/gerry-adams-has-more-in-common-with-john-redmond-than-he-might-think-1.2772204?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/0d17dccf357f762c012ef0aeef5f14abf2164498e49fabd1ab876849e084ceb7.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T14:49:05 | null | 2016-08-26T13:57:00 | Job cuts will form part of the $1.4 billion of annual savings Anheuser-Busch is seeking | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcompanies%2Fanheuser-busch-to-cut-5-500-jobs-after-sabmiller-takeover-1.2769447.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769446.1472220112!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Anheuser-Busch to cut 5,500 jobs after SABMiller takeover | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Anheuser-Busch expects to cut about 3 per cent of its enlarged workforce in the three years after its takeover of SABMiller as it seeks to maximise savings from the combination of the world’s largest brewers.
The reductions will be implemented gradually and in phases, the companies said in documents related to the acquisition published Friday.
About 5,500 positions are likely to be eliminated, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.
The job cuts will form part of the $1.4 billion of annual savings that Anheuser-Busch has said it’s seeking from the takeover, equivalent to almost a tenth of SABMiller’s $15 billion in annual revenue.
Brewers of mass-market beer are trying to cut production and distribution costs as they lose market share to smaller independent brands in Europe and North America.
SABMiller last year doubled its own savings target to $1.05 billion by 2020.
The level of savings that AB InBev is seeking from its combination with SABMiller is less than in some previous deals.
It achieved cost reductions representing about 16 per cent of sales when it bought both Anheuser-Busch Cos. in 2008 and Mexico’s Modelo in 2013.”
AB InBev is known for running their breweries very efficiently and their front-of-office very efficiently,” Javier Gonzalez Lastra, an analyst at Berenberg, said by phone.
“They will do the same as they did at Modelo, where they found that the job that was being done at AB InBev by two people was being done by four.”
AB InBev shares rose 0.6 per cent to 112.50 at 11:56 am in Brussels.
The world’s largest brewer said the estimate for job cuts doesn’t include areas such as sales, where it hasn’t made advanced plans for integration due to regulatory restrictions.
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The company said SABMiller’s head office will be integrated into its headquarters in Leuven, Belgium, and management office in New York.
– (Bloomberg) | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/companies/anheuser-busch-to-cut-5-500-jobs-after-sabmiller-takeover-1.2769447 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/25c06ff0716353c48f6fbf24668496a09a4e28005fb4341b51262dc5cc98c92d.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T14:49:27 | null | 2016-08-31T09:21:00 | iPhone maker disputes ‘extremely misleading’ EU sums in Q&A document for investors | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Fapple-claims-it-paid-800m-tax-on-european-profits-in-2014-1.2774094.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774093.1472651616!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Apple claims 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 2003-2014, after ruling that the iPhone maker received special Irish tax advantages that amounted to state aid.
According to EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestage, 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 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.
Escrow account
Both Apple and the Irish Government plan to appeal the EU’s decision. The California-based group also 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.
Shares in Apple fell 0.8 per cent to $106 on Wednesday in New York, giving the group a market capitalisation of $571.2 billion (€511.5 billion), as investors weighed the EU ruling against the company’s $230 billion-plus cash balance and the fact that the appeal process will take years.
However, other blue-chip technology stocks, including Microsoft, Facebook and Alphabet (the parent company of Google), all ended up declining as well.
“Globalisation has allowed multinational companies to base a large part of their operations in lower tax regimes. Indeed, many countries have openly courted big companies in the hope that investment and jobs would be higher as a result,” said Jim Reid, a macro strategist with Deutsche Bank.
“While corporate tax rates around the world have generally fallen, budget deficits have generally increased,” he said. “Although there are other reasons, lower corporate tax rates have not helped government finances.
“It does seem that in a world of low growth, high deficits, generally high corporate cash balances and low corporate tax rates, companies have been vulnerable to a change in the political wind,” Mr Reid said.
Irish tax surge
Meanwhile, Davy economist David McNamara said Apple’s change to its corporate structure last year may partially explain the surge in Irish corporation taxes in recent times.
When the Government moved in 2014 to close a loophole that allowed companies to be Irish-registered but not based anywhere for tax purposes, Apple closed the “stateless” arm of its Apple Sales International unit in Dublin, Mr McNamara said.
Last month the Irish Central Statistics Office raised its 2015 Irish gross domestic product growth estimate to 26 per cent, partly due to multinationals based in Ireland moving assets “onshore” in this country.
“Nevertheless, with much of the national accounts data redacted, we cannot be certain which multinationals drove the 26 per cent growth,” Mr McNamara said. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/apple-claims-it-paid-800m-tax-on-european-profits-in-2014-1.2774094 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/9c711daaf339b1cf4b21f23b7b1ff4282d82063533de252a0e0a2b10642cb95f.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T18:52:12 | null | 2016-08-30T19:30:00 | Ireland’s first luxury sleeper train costs a tidy €7,722 a head for a six-night trip | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fdelux-belmond-grand-hibernian-train-makes-debut-trip-1.2773453%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773451.1472581791!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Delux Belmond Grand Hibernian train makes debut trip | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | What is billed as Ireland’s first luxury sleeper train - the Belmond Grand Hibernian - set off on its inaugural tour of the country today, with 40 passengers boarding at Heuston Station in Dublin.
Sporting the famous midnight blue livery of sister train the Venice Simplon Orient Express, the now longest train in Ireland (252 metres) began its maiden journey at 4.20pm towards Cork. The first journey will be six days, visiting Cork, Kerry, Galway, Mayo, Down, Dublin and Waterford.
Stops along the way will include the Jameson Distillery at Midleton, boating on Lough Leane, a walking tour in Galway, falconry at Ashford Castle, Titanic Belfast, then to Waterford and Curraghmore House. The journey ends in Dublin next Sunday.
Sold out
The train will operate until the beginning of November, and services until then are sold out. The service will begin again next year in April for six months.
Two-day trips cost €3,160, four days cost €5,420 and six days cost €7,722. On board the passengers will have double or twin cabins with goose feather and Irish-made down bedding.
Each evening, dinner will focus on Irish produce.
Skeaghanore duck with rosemary and orange sauce
Tuesday night’s menu is Beara scallops, Skeaghanore duck with rosemary and orange sauce followed by tarte tatin with Midleton whiskey sauce.
After dinner, guests are to be entertained in the observation car by singer-songwriter Roy Buckley, musician Gerry O’Connor, harpist Floriane Blancke and storyteller Pat Speight.
Two years ago, Belmond Ltd approached Irish Rail to purchase 10 old Mark Three carriages, and this service is the result.
Belmond already operates the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, the Eastern and Oriental in South East Asia and the Hiram Bingham in Peru, among other luxury trains. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/delux-belmond-grand-hibernian-train-makes-debut-trip-1.2773453?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/8cc0ecff4adf75744b72329f18fc8c60a93ed110d5dfbedc2d6a49b83257b204.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T00:50:41 | null | 2016-08-27T01:01:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fsocial-affairs%2Freligion-and-beliefs%2Fthinking-anew-the-light-shines-in-the-darkness-1.2768582%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2768580.1472147666!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Thinking Anew - ‘The light shines in the darkness’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A hospital chaplain bringing Holy Communion to bedridden patients came across a cleaner on her knees scrubbing a granite staircase. When she saw the chaplain, she gathered up her things in silence and almost cowered against the wall. The chaplain stopped to ask her did she think that what he was doing was important. She assured him she did. He then asked her did she think that what she was doing was important, and she said not really. He then told her that her work was just as important; a dirty hospital would be a dangerous place for any sick person; her work was very important.
Martin Luther King believed that everybody could be great because anyone can serve. “You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermo-dynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
In tomorrow’s gospel we are told how Jesus uses a social occasion to explain that service makes demands. While a guest at a meal he offers this advice to his host: “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.”
This is not just a story about sharing food nor is it a demand that we abandon the enjoyment of family and friends; Jesus himself enjoyed family and friends. Rather it questions the tendency we all have to live in bubbles – social, cultural, religious, political, economic, with little or no engagement with or understanding of the world that exists beyond.
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The Epistle reading goes further by urging us to show hospitality to strangers and concern for those who are in prison.
This suggests that we do not have to like or approve of those we are called to reach out to, and that can be very demanding.
David Nott, a vascular surgeon working in London, has also served regularly with Médecins Sans Frontières in war situations such as Bosnia, Gaza, Iraq and more recently Syria. Nott, a committed Christian, describes an encounter he had with Isis fighters in Syria who forced their way into a hospital in Aleppo where he was operating on a wounded man. A colleague told him to say nothing as these aggressive men would have killed him instantly if they discovered he was a Christian. He tells how he trembled with fear as his colleague told them the patient – one of their own men – would die if they distracted the surgeon. In 2014 Nott received an award from Queen Elizabeth and was invited to lunch at Buckingham Palace where he was seated beside Queen Elizabeth. She was keenly interested in his work but when she asked him to talk about it he became upset and found it impossible to talk about his terrible experiences. She, realising that he was distressed, sent for the corgis and for the next 20 minutes they quietly fed the dogs while everyone else enjoyed lunch. Charming as that moment of royal sensitivity was, it arose from the trauma that David Nott experienced in Syria.
Our world is a nasty place right now as we see every boundary of human decency abandoned in Syria and many other countries. It is tempting to become despondent but thanks to thousands of people like David Nott love and human compassion refuse to give in even in the darkest of times. St John’s gospel assures us that that is how it will always be: “The light [Jesus Christ] shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/thinking-anew-the-light-shines-in-the-darkness-1.2768582?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4d625bec86251bdfdeab5e27eafc2e73778a21d320963eb0730abaac046dd2ac.json |
[
"Bernard O'Donoghue"
] | 2016-08-27T04:50:39 | null | 2016-08-27T05:00:00 | Broadening perceptions of Heaney via his prose and place in European intellectual thinking | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fbooks%2Fabsolving-seamus-heaney-from-any-charge-of-simplification-1.2759256%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2758146.1471443449!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Absolving Seamus Heaney from any charge of simplification | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Seamus Heaney: “poetic thinking” leavens the rational with the emotional, and to understand the richness of Heaney’s answers to his own questions it is necessary to see him in the wider context of European thought. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh/The Irish Times
Book Title:
Seamus Heaney as Aesthetic Thinker. A Study of the Prose ISBN-13:
9780815634485 Author:
Eugene O’Brien Publisher:
Syracuse University Press Guideline Price:
£38.95
Eugene O’Brien’s primary purpose in placing Seamus Heaney as a thinker in the tradition of what he calls European aestheticism is to absolve him of the charge of simplification or “safeness” that was sometimes levelled at him. So by definition this is a complicating enterprise.
The central argument here is that Heaney’s work in every area is more nuanced (to use a fashionable term) than is always recognised. To argue his case, O’Brien is returning to the question that preoccupied him in the opening chapter of his book Seamus Heaney: Searches for Answers in 2003, the chapter called Preoccupying Questions: Heaney’s Prose.
It is often remarked that Heaney was a major writer of prose as well as poetry, but understandably it is the Nobel Prize winner’s poetry that has received most of the critical attention. In his new book, O’Brien is returning more single-mindedly and extensively to the prose. He establishes a wide context of ideas to frame the prose, drawing on a formidable range of theory and theorists.
Of course he recognises that what Heaney has to say about poetry and the development of the poet is what gives crucial significance to his prose discussions. Hence Heaney’s questions, raised at the start of his first collection of essays Preoccupations in 1980 and repeated in the preface to Finders Keepers in 2002: “How should a poet properly live and write? What is his relationship to be to his own voice, his own place, his literary heritage and his contemporary world?”
Historical perspective
O’Brien’s contention is that Heaney’s answers to these fundamental questions are by no means simple. There are two deficiencies O’Brien finds in traditional critical approaches to Heaney, both corrected by a recognition of what he calls “poetic thinking”: the first deficiency is the general failure to pay enough attention to the prose; the second is to read both the prose and the poetry as more single-minded than it is.
“Poetic thinking” is a way of thinking that leavens the rational with the emotional, and to understand the richness of Heaney’s answers to his own questions it is necessary to see him in the wider context of European thought. More than once O’Brien calls Heaney “the poet as thinker”. In fact the context of “aesthetic thinking” that he provides for Heaney is in a very grand historical perspective, in a line that can be traced back to the Greeks. Early in the book he suggests that the dualism of Cartesian thought led to a damaging binarism in approaches to ideology, a binarism whose narrowing he suggests has been modified by psychological theory. And the post-Cartesian context extends from Kant and Hegel to Derrida.
In his earlier discussion of the prose in 2003, O’Brien’s primary objective was to show that Heaney’s writing is significant in its attempt “to problematise simplistic concepts of identity, language and culture” by setting up “more fluid and complex structures where borders and limits are transformed and transgressed”.
There are obvious places where such transgression and testing of borders are salutary for the Northern Irish writer and thinker of Heaney’s era. For example the term “deterritorialisation” is borrowed from Gilles Deleuze to describe what O’Brien calls the “opening out” of Heaney’s thinking from the constrictions of the “home place”, a development which is evident from Heaney’s earliest essays, from Mossbawn onwards.
Once again the central figure is Jacques Derrida whose name has figured prominently in the indexes of O’Brien’s two previous books on Heaney, but here he is found in a constellation of theoretical luminaries: Heidegger, Adorno, Agemben and many others. He now reads Heaney through “a widening optic” which sees his work in a complex of connexions with each of these thinkers, without suggesting that there is any overall worldview that connects them with each other.
Binaries
One of the virtues of O’Brien’s deployment of his extensive regiment of thinkers in this context is that he avoids any claim of direct influence by drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’s botanical image of an interconnected rhizome rather than a direct root-connexion.
O’Brien works hard to find such nuancing figures, invoking Heaney’s own “quincunx” of Irish castles used to redress head-to-head ideological conflicts, showing them as all facing each other in one manifestation but not in others. These are elaborate models, but they enable O’Brien to link Heaney with various predecessors (poets as well as theorists) without committing to a single line of connection.
Some of the more poetry-friendly metaphors that O’Brien brings into play are genuinely enlightening, especially the idea of “a field of force”. This too is a nuancing image, working well for the idea of a productivity in poetry which can’t be logically traced, linking with the idea of poetic thinking which operates emotionally rather than logically.
The discussion of translation in the last chapter also benefits from these ideas of creative anti-dogmatism. The history that the book’s title proposes of an aesthetic tradition rather than a rational, logical one works well for many of the binaries that O’Brien shows that Heaney wants to complicate: English-Irish, Protestant-Catholic, unionist-nationalist, loyalist-republican. Outside the political sphere the principal binary is home-other, an opposition that O’Brien returns to after his discussion of it in his other early Heaney book, Seamus Heaney and the Place of Writing in 2002.
Some of these oppositions are precedented in Joyce; the web of thinkers that Heaney relates to is not only composed of theorists. O’Brien ends with two of Heaney’s aesthetic mentors, Dante and Eliot. For the more traditionalist Heaney reader this is maybe more comfortable company. But it is good to be reminded so forcefully of Blake Morrison’s warning in one of the earliest books on Heaney against a “simplified version of his achievement”. O’Brien’s correctives are very salutary in that way.
Bernard O’Donoghue’s most recent book of poems is The Seasons of Cullen Church (Faber & Faber) | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/absolving-seamus-heaney-from-any-charge-of-simplification-1.2759256?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4fd7aa42b4a0450a434c130e7c61b5acc29360e13ab772291e6c0dacb3e6d0f0.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T14:50:36 | null | 2016-08-26T14:00:00 | As IMMA’s courtyard is turned into a model village, a new project explores the lives of female teenagers in 1916 and today | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fpeople%2Fgirls-of-the-revolution-a-look-at-life-for-irish-teens-over-100-years-1.2768339%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2768337.1472137191!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Girls of the revolution: a look at life for Irish teens over 100 years | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | In a year of remembering a revolution, a School for Revolutionary Girls sounds like a long overdue Irish institution. Luckily, the assembly bell on such a revolutionary school is about to ring at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA).
It’s also been a year where feminist conversations have become increasingly lively and diverse in Ireland, particularly in relation to the ripples the Waking The Feminist movement has caused, along with the expanding grassroots elements of the Repeal the 8th movement, seeking legal abortion for women in Ireland.
Many of these topics will feed into the School for Revolutionary Girls at the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s latest project, A Fair Land.
A Fair Land seeks to examine the usefulness of art in 2016, as well as “echoing the role artists played in creating a new vision for Ireland pre-1916.”
It’s a big brief, and the project takes a particularly dynamic form, reimagining IMMA’s courtyard in Kilmainham as a model village. The village installation is open until August 28th, and brings together several dozen collaborators to create projects that are as immersive as they are curious.
There’s a “creative fitness” exercise routine at 7am and 4.30pm each day, a barn being built from straw bales, and a Food School teaching lessons about growing and preparing produce.
There are also family workshops and horticultural trails, debates about the function of creativity in our lives, and teams whipping up housing manifestos for Ireland, produced by the Irish Architecture Foundation. The renowned American artist Suzanne Lacy and the Irish historian Liz Gillis are collaborating on the School for Revolutionary Girls project.
Lacy has created performance art pieces on the visibility of women since the 1970s, and her work with teenagers in The Oakland Projects brought young people together to discuss issues, such as injustice and police brutality in their communities. For the School of Revolutionary Girls at IMMA, a group of teenage girls have been part – learning and thinking about lives of girls in 1916, and how that correlates with the experience of girls in Ireland now.
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The project will culminate in the girls developing their own performance and proclamations or manifestos of sorts around these issues, which will be presented to the public.
Lacy says she feels a “deep kinship” with women in Ireland, having spent time in the country in the 1990s, and she has especially enjoyed, “finding out more of the revolution and the way Irish women were so prominent in key ways and how it ties into the suffrage movement.”
The centenary year of 1916 has offered many opportunities for young people to engage with the authors of and the actors within the Rising. And when it came to this project, “It was quite obvious that I would work on the revolution and women,” she said.
The project will be both pedagogic and performative, with Lacy seeking to create “a rich educational environment” for everyone involved.
“We want to accomplish two things,” she said over the phone from California, “one is a meaningful and educative, or I guess you’d call it personal solidarity building, but let’s say ‘educative experience’, and then it’s also an art work. It has to be more than a workshop.”
Regarding the issues the girls will discuss, Lacy mentioned equal pay, bodily autonomy and said, “I also think it’s very important to talk about body image and the way women do or don’t join in solidarity with other women. The internet culture of competition that gets established – that’s a fairly large concern… I want to make one thing really clear: we aren’t going to be promoting a particular agenda.
“I’m not interested in telling the young girls [what to think or say], I would simply try to support young women to listen to each other, pay respect to each other, but also interrogate their positions.”
Liz Gillis is the author of The Fall of Dublin, Revolution in Dublin, and one of the finest and most accessible books on revolutionary women in Ireland in the early 20th century, Women of the Irish Revolution.
Her experience in engaging with young people this year in the context of the centenary has been “amazing.”
Gills, who was a tour guide in Kilmainham Gaol for nearly 10 years, said when it’s not dictated to young people what to produce, they tend to produce things that are incredibly honest. “They don’t have any political agenda, they’re just seeing it for what it is, men and women who fought in a revolution… they’re going back and asking their parents questions, looking at their family history, looking at their own community, realising something important happened where they lived, they’re starting to look at things a little bit differently,” she explained.
“The kids will ask the difficult questions because they want the honest answers. They’re the most honest and brutal audience, and they won’t be fobbed off.
“Give them the facts and try not to give them your personal impression on it, and let them decide for themselves.”
Gillis’ work with young people is probably bolstered by the fact that she insists she doesn’t have an academic approach to history.
“It’s more for the people who think they’re not interested in history,” she said. She hopes that the school will spark an interest in history among the girls and also help them realise “that these women, although they’re 100 years apart, have similarities, that they were ordinary girls like them today, that the issues that affected them, are they still relevant today? To make them aware about what the women went through, and that they’re an essential part of society and should be treated as such.”
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The School will also visit Richmond Barracks where 77 women were held.
“It’ll be interesting to see what they produce themselves,” Gillis said, “they might realise their lives weren’t that different.”
The School for Revolutionary Girls will showcase its work on Sunday, August 28th from 2pm to 4pm. See imma.ie
WHAT THE GIRLS SAYS
We asked some of the teenage participants what the idea of a Revolutionary School for Girls means to them, and what other revolutionary change they feel needs to occur in Ireland.
What does the idea of a Revolutionary School for Girls mean to you? “A school where girls are encouraged to think for themselves. It would have been very unusual for girls to be educated in 1916 and to be in a revolutionary school must have been amazing – they would be allowed to speak-up, and voice their opinions and stand up for women’s rights. I hope to get a real feeling of how their lives were. I would love to gain a better understanding of what it was like for a 16-year-old girl back then. It will be great to see history reenacted, not just in a book. It will bring the era alive for me and I can’t wait to participate.” – Lydia Ardill, 16
“A place for young women with similar interests to come together to discuss changing modern society. To be honest, I always keep my expectations low to avoid disappointment, but I’m really excited at the prospect of talking about relevant and important issues with like-minded people. I hope to feel a bit more involved, because although I call myself a feminist I often feel that I’m just observing from the sidelines. I think it will be a great opportunity to have a voice and change perceptions, even if that means one person will think a little more about how they act or what they say.” – Juno Kostick, 14
What other kinds of revolutionary change do you think Ireland needs? “I think Ireland is up to date on many human rights issues but it saddens and angers me to say that Ireland is the last country in the EU that doesn’t have legal abortion and I think this needs to be changed as soon as possible.” - Juno Claffey Hegarty, 14
“Ireland has made great strides towards a more inclusive society, gay marriage and Waking The Feminists are prime examples of this. However, we need to continue this fight until there’s equality for all. People should be paid the same wage for the same job, irrespective of their gender, race or sexuality. There needs to be an immediate repeal of the Eighth Amendment and separation of Church and State. Ireland needs to move towards a more secular society.” – Aoife Bracken, 15 | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/girls-of-the-revolution-a-look-at-life-for-irish-teens-over-100-years-1.2768339?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b5a69c3ca7e123afa72e1d9727c7f508dc70c46913deaa58c6bd58b5d91a0e46.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:53:24 | null | 2016-08-31T06:00:00 | The English writer’s 17th novel is narrated by an unborn baby. Is it a prequel to Hamlet? | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fbooks%2Fian-mcewan-shakespeare-should-be-celebrated-or-railed-against-1.2773235%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773232.1472571075!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Ian McEwan: ‘Shakespeare should be celebrated or railed against’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | “So here I am,” Ian McEwan’s new book begins, “upside down in a woman.” The English writer has always taken a keen interest in the condition of human beings who have been stretched to breaking point and beyond, but his 17th novel takes him right into the core of the human story, for Nutshell is narrated by an unborn baby.
The idea was conceived a couple of years ago, when McEwan was talking to his heavily pregnant daughter-in-law. “We were talking about ‘the baby’ – they didn’t want to know whether it would be a boy or a girl,” he recalls. “And it flitted through my mind; what would it be like to be overhearing all this? A little later I was re-reading Hamlet, and thinking how helpless Hamlet was, and it crossed my mind again that the most helpless human being is the one that’s about to be born.”
Shortly afterwards, trapped in a spectacularly dull meeting, the first sentence of the novel arrived in his mind, pretty much fully formed. There it was: the novelist’s “aha” moment. “It was the challenge of writing a revenge drama from the point of view of the most helpless human you could conceive.”
For a writer the drawbacks of such a restricted narrative perspective are obvious but, McEwan insists, there are compensations. “He’s always in the room. And he actually has a very privileged point of view. He hears the pillow talk. He’s in bed with the lovers. So, novelistically, he’s quite ideal. He overhears everything, and no one suspects a thing. It’s a bit like deciding to write a villanelle, or submitting to the very strict rules of a sonnet that has three quatrains and a couplet – it’s a set of problems. But they were rather fun to solve.”
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Shaped by his father
This, the reader swiftly discovers, is one well-informed baby. He is well up on Kant and Confucius and has a working knowledge of the Higgs boson. His vocabulary includes “solipsism”, “Leviathan” and “aetiology”.
He’s also a bit of a Sancerre snob. Much of his knowledge has been gleaned from the audiobooks beloved of his expectant mother – among them a 15-part series entitled Know Your Wine – and podcasts on everything from maggot farming in Utah to the physics of tennis.
His ideas about his mother’s appearance, meanwhile, have been shaped by his father, a poet by the name of John Cairncross, who likes to recite his work aloud – especially when it describes his beautiful wife’s “wild curls” and “shoulders the white of apple flesh”.
But here’s the rub: baby’s mother (Trudy) is having an affair with baby’s uncle (Claude). Which would be bad enough for baby, who is forced to get up close and personal with their enthusiastic lovemaking – “I’ve no choice, my ear is pressed all day and night against the bloody walls” – but there’s worse: he is also a witness to the treacherous pair’s plan to kill his father.
If the names haven’t given McEwan’s game away – Trudy and Claude, aka Gertrude and Claudius? – there are further clues in the book’s title, and its Shakespearean epigraph: “Oh God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself king of infinite space – were it not that I have bad dreams.”
Is Nutshell, then, a novelistic recasting of Hamlet, in the manner of the Hogarth Shakespeare series currently being produced by a rival publisher? “No. It’s a sort of raising the hat,” McEwan says. “I started in 2014, and to be quite honest I’d completely forgotten that we were running towards a significant anniversary. It was only when I was about halfway through, in 2015, that I heard someone mention that Peggy Atwood was doing a Shakespeare, and then I heard that Howard Jacobson, or someone else, was doing one, and I thought, Oh my God.
“But it doesn’t worry me. I mean, let everyone pile in. Those of us who write in English – whether we like it or not, and whether we know it or not – live in Shakespeare’s shadow. He’s so formative for the English language that it’s right, I think, that he should be celebrated or railed against or whatever.”
While Hamlet formed “a sort of skeleton plot” for Nutshell, the play very quickly fell away as McEwan’s storyline developed. Certainly, Shakespeare never concerned himself with the excesses of the London property market, a central motif in Nutshell.
“But still, it derives its title from Hamlet, and it’s always slightly working with it or against it. It’s always aware of it, I suppose. But once I was launched I was in another realm,” he says.
The fact that his precocious narrator listens to so many news broadcasts allows for plenty of rumination about the state of the world beyond the bedchamber. And it’s not good. “Things always seem to be getting worse,” McEwan agrees. “But we’re probably wrong about that. Let’s take a specific issue – of terrorism in western Europe. Fewer people died in terrorist attacks this year and last than they did in the mid-1970s. So I think it’s part of our nature – especially among intellectuals – to think we live at the end of time, and in the worst of times. It’s a sort of reflex. And it’s not an unreasonable one, because we look for the things that we think we can solve – and then despair about it. But yeah. In my pessimistic moments I think . . . well, take climate change as an issue. The state of things has never been worse and has now exceeded expectations. I was just reading ice-melt figures for Antarctica and Greenland yesterday. Filled me with horror. So on that front I think we are staring down the barrel of a gun.”
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After Brexit, McEwan wrote an article for the Guardian that was, effectively, a riff on the moment in James Joyce’s Ulysses when Stephen declares that “history is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake”. Has he awoken yet? “I’m still in denial,” he says. “I still cling to a notion that it’s not gonna happen. That it will quietly unwrap itself. That the EU might well loosen up on free movement of labour. That we’ll be in recession, public mood will have changed, what’s on offer when Article 50 is negotiated will not satisfy those who wanted to leave.
Upending ourselves
“I suppose my objection is that these are such massive realignments that to run them on a 4 per cent majority is against all notions of parliamentary democracy. If we were rewriting our constitution, we’d expect a two-thirds or a three-quarters majority on any referendum. I never thought we should be upending ourselves so thoroughly with a plebiscite.
“Some of my friends who wanted to remain have knuckled down, and probably they’re realists. I still cling to the notion that it is just a bad dream and we will wake up from it.”
Into a world, though, that features Donald Trump as president of the US?
“I think he’s toast,” comes the brisk rejoinder. “I think he’s Trump on toast. My fantasy is that, in a few years’ time, we’ll talk about him almost in fond remembrance as, again, a terrible dream which is now over. I think he’s simply too awful to succeed.
“But then, I said that about George W Bush. And I said it about Ronald Reagan – who, in retrospect, looks like Descartes and Yeats rolled into one. Ask me again in November.” We might just do that. Unless, of course, we’re too busy raising a celebratory glass. Of Jean-Max Roger Sancerre, naturally.
Nutshell by Ian McEwan is published by Jonathan Cape
NOVEL NARRATORS: THE WEIRD AND WONDERFUL
The Famished Road
By Ben Okri
The 1991 Booker Prize-winning tale is narrated by a Nigerian abiku, or “spirit-child”, who is poised between the worlds of body and soul. Okri’s dreamlike novel is said to have inspired the Radiohead song Street Spirit (Fade Out).
The Collector Collector
By Tibor Fischer
According to his publisher’s website, Fischer’s third book is “unquestionably the best novel ever narrated by a bowl”. And not just any bowl, but a 5,000-year-old Sumerian one that can read memories, dispense advice and deliver any amount of snazzy one-liners.
Like Mother
By Jenny Diski
Both hilarious and disturbing, this slim volume is narrated by a baby called Nonny (short for Nonentity) who was born without a brain. A mother- daughter novel that definitely doesn’t feature girlie shopping weekends.
My Name Is Red
By Orhan Pamuk
This study of 16th-century Ottoman miniaturist painters, which was published five years before the Turkish novelist won the Nobel Prize, boasts a plethora of narrators including a tree, a coin, a dog, Satan, and the eponymous colour: “I love illuminating the wings of angels, the lips of maidens, the death wounds of corpses and severed heads bespeckled with blood . . .” Sublime stuff. | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/ian-mcewan-shakespeare-should-be-celebrated-or-railed-against-1.2773235?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/eabcb79320df405cc125d3c99166a62ca629825455a0420702f28c264337775c.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T04:49:20 | 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.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 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/2bcb12e14bac053d98469064b0ba85b3a99cc967682672e9a621caf5ed67f20f.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T04:52:06 | null | 2016-08-30T05:00:00 | Can it defend formula it has presented for calculating what US tech giant owes? | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fcantillon-commission-faces-intense-pressure-on-apple-ruling-1.2772270%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772258.1472495783!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Cantillon: Commission faces intense pressure on Apple ruling | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The European Commission faces one big job as it presents its ruling on Apple. Can it defend the formula it has presented for calculating what Apple owes?
The commission has accused the Irish Revenue Commissioners of having no proper technical basis for tax rulings made in relation to Apple in 1991 and 2007. In fact, its preliminary findings were that a kind of reverse engineering went on, under which both sides worked out how much tax Apple would pay, and a way was then found to achieve this.
But has the commission itself managed to come up with a defendable basis for what the bill should have been? The Government here will claim, with some force, that it has not and that its action in trying to do so is unprecedented and has no sound legal basis.
As the commission’s own deliberations have dragged on and on, and huge pressure from the United States has already been applied, it remains to be seen whether the competition directorate has come up with a clear formula which has a legal basis that will stand up in the European Court of Justice, which is where this is all going to end up.
It will face intense pressure in the days ahead of explaining the basis for its decision, with tax and legal experts immediately searching for holes. It remains to be seen just how robust the conclusions prove.
That is not to say that Ireland does not have a case to answer in the way Apple has been treated. Ministers and officials have tended to dismiss the investigation out of hand, rather than engaging in the detail of what actually happened. A key part of their response will be that the many of the key tax reliefs used by Apple and other US multinationals have now been closed off.
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Really what is going on here is a fight for tax dollars. The US wants more tax from its companies, and other European countries will argue that some of the tax which Ireland will be asked to collect actually should be going to them.
Apple, meanwhile, will say that it has applied the letter of the law. It is a mess, and how on earth the European courts will deal with it is anyone’s guess. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/cantillon-commission-faces-intense-pressure-on-apple-ruling-1.2772270?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e3701ce51f868a6b9e76a40aef70b0916e18f6ce9ea1e996c41a3ec24745cd5b.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T06:51:37 | null | 2016-08-29T05:00:00 | Analysis: even a figure in low-single-figure billions would be damaging for the State | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fireland-set-for-damage-limitation-over-eu-decision-on-apple-tax-1.2771210%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771235.1472448813!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Ireland set for damage limitation over EU decision on Apple tax | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The wagons are being circled in Dublin as the signs grow that a final decision from the European Commission is due shortly in relation to Ireland’s tax deals with Apple. There is no question but that the decision will be that Ireland offered the US giant illegal state aid. The question, however, is how much the commission will suggest Ireland has to raise from Apple, and how its final decision relates to Ireland’s tax code today.
There is no question but that the decision will be negative and will, for a time at least, put Ireland in the firing line. Much will depend on the amount of cash involved. When the affair broke first, there were estimates from investment bank JP Morgan that the amount of back tax involved could be up to €19 billion, were the commission to decide to go back to shortly after Apple established here.
A bill of this size never looked likely, and the indications are that what is in prospect is only a fraction of this. However, this figure has been in circulation and featured in media reports so often since the preliminary negative decision from the commission in 2014 that it is inevitable that it will frame some of the reaction.
One issue for the commission and competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager is that a much lower figure may lead to accusations, rightly or wrongly, that political pressure from the US had an impact on the decision.
The length of time spent reaching a final decision also surely reflects the highly political nature of what has gone on behind the scenes. Sources in Dublin contend that the commission is on shaky legal ground – a case also made by the US treasury in a special White Paper on the subject of EU tax investigations into US companies, published last week.
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Formula
In Dublin, the hope is that the final figure will be in the hundreds of millions, rather than the billions, but nerves remain on edge. Sources believe that the commission will come forward with a formula it believes the Revenue Commissioners here should use, and possibly an estimate of what it believes this should raise. Even a total in the low-single-figure billions would be hugely damaging for Ireland.
Either way, Ireland is likely to face a public relations hit, despite measures taken in recent years to start to close off some of the more aggressive tax loopholes exploited by Apple and a number of other multinationals to funnel profits earned in Europe through Ireland and out to offshore tax havens.
The controversial double-Irish tax scheme, for example, is being phased out by 2020 and a loophole used by Apple – which effectively moved cash through a company with no tax residency anywhere – was also closed off. Close attention will be paid to how the text of the judgments reflects on tax practices still in place here.
As well as the Government, Apple has been anticipating the decision. It has ended the practice of moving cash through a “stateless” company and is believed to have moved the intellectual property rights for the sales of many of its key products into Ireland over the past year. Its tax bill for money moving through Ireland has risen. The Government will hope that Apple’s decision to move key intellectual property rights here is a sign of ongoing commitment to Ireland.
So the Government – and Apple – will both claim that they broke no laws, but will also indicate that policy and practice has changed in recent years.
This is unlikely to stop international criticism. As shown by the US treasury report, the American side says the commission may oblige Ireland to collect tax revenue at the expense of Washington. This neatly avoids a central issue, which is that the US way of taxing corporations lies behind much of the legal tax-avoidance structures.
US election campaign
Irish officials express some fears that the Apple case could get caught up in the US presidential election campaign, where multinational tax is a big issue. And, ironically, there may also be criticism from elsewhere in Europe. What is at issue is how Ireland taxes profits which, while they accrued to Apple subsidiaries here, related to product sales across Europe. Many other European countries may thus feel that the tax revenue is rightly theirs, rather than Ireland’s.
For all these reasons, the Government will feel obliged to appeal the decision. The bigger the amount of money involved, the trickier this may be politically, as pressure will come on the Government to collect the cash and spend it. Ministers will argue, however, that not appealing would be at the cost of inward investment in future.
Whatever the sum involved, sources here believe it will be a large figure, albeit one that is not financially significant for Apple. In response, Ministers will continue to insist Ireland did not offer Apple a special deal, and that our corporate tax system is open and transparent. In an era where corporate tax payments are a big issue, however, the Irish side will realise that this is now about damage limitation. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/ireland-set-for-damage-limitation-over-eu-decision-on-apple-tax-1.2771210?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e8b35deeb28b874fed49b5bfe53dea87e47a62c55144923e005e5c9a297663e6.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:51:39 | null | 2016-08-29T01:06:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Fbanning-the-burkini-1.2769822%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | Banning the ‘burkini’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sir, – Patricia Mulkeen rightly abhors the idea that women would be compelled to wear a particular item of clothing (August 26th).
In instances where men require women to wear a burkini, the freedom of the women in question is severely compromised.
However, banning the burkini risks engaging in exactly the type of behaviour that is so antithetical to a liberal society. Compelling women to wear or not wear particular clothing due to the concerns of public morality, and doing so with the threat of the coercive power of the state, is precisely the characteristic of certain Middle Eastern societies we detest.
Restricting the freedom of those whom we seek to protect is no way to proceed. – Yours, etc,
CHRISTOPHER
McMAHON,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/banning-the-burkini-1.2769822?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/9f137cd0ce82308abca4977e58982b6f444a84de0ceef52e767f15949b259e2f.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T10:51:47 | null | 2016-08-29T07:40:00 | Dollar gains made after Fed’s Janet Yellen indicated a US interest rate increase remains on the cards | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmarkets%2Fasian-share-markets-tumble-on-federal-reserve-s-rate-comments-1.2771796%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771795.1472462290!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Asian share markets tumble on Federal Reserve’s rate comments | 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.
Uncertainty
“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 US 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.
Stimulus
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 per cent on Friday, its biggest one-day slide since July 15th. 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 co-operate in upcoming producer talks in September if other exporters recognised Tehran’s right to regain market share lost during international sanctions that were only lifted in January. US crude futures dropped 1.5 per cent 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-on-federal-reserve-s-rate-comments-1.2771796?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b2badf5235174caa05e6f1d50522893e056163b8f58c98c179202b4c6dc205fa.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T18:51:17 | null | 2016-08-28T18:45:00 | Spaniard snatches the red jersey with a crucial break 600m from the finish | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fother-sports%2Fdavid-de-la-cruz-leads-tour-of-spain-after-dramatic-stage-nine-win-1.2771191%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771183.1472405661!/image/image.jpg | en | null | David De la Cruz leads Tour of Spain after dramatic stage nine win | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Spain’s David de la Cruz snatched the red jersey in the Vuelta a Espana with a dramatic stage nine victory.
Etixx Quick-Step rider De la Cruz staged a breakaway with just 600m of the 164.5km stage from Cistierna to Oviedo remaining to leave Dries Devenyns 27 seconds in his wake and Moreno Moser a further six seconds back.
The gap he established over race leader Nairo Quintana was enough to leapfrog him in the overall standings, and he will take a 22-second advantage into stage 10.
Quintana finished in a group with Britain’s Chris Froome, Johan Esteban Chaves and Alberto Contador two minutes and 56 seconds behind the winner.
Froome’s Team Sky colleague Leopold Konig was among the same clutch of riders as it crossed the line.
Quintana’s Movistar team-mate Alejandro Valverde lies in third place in the overall standings with Tour de France winner Froome in fourth, 49 seconds behind the leader.
“I wasn’t thinking about the (overall) lead at the end. I was so close to winning the stage, that was my main objective,” said De La Cruz.
“It was very hard to ride with Devenyns because he was hard to beat, but I am the leader as well. I can’t believe it. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/david-de-la-cruz-leads-tour-of-spain-after-dramatic-stage-nine-win-1.2771191?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/522010a3064ea016d2c0f9cbc0c49f5086b2882b82dfeed87c16a9259f16415a.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T12:52:59 | null | 2016-08-31T12:06:00 | Money in such instance goes back to member state and it makes its own decision on how to use it | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fcommission-says-no-legal-obligation-to-use-apple-tax-cash-for-debt-1.2774229%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774226.1472645350!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Commission says no legal obligation to use Apple tax cash for debt | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The European Commission has said there is no legal obligation for countries to use recovered state aid to pay down national debt.
Speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, in the wake of a record ruling by the European Commission against Apple, a spokesman for the European commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that, like all state aid cases, “the amounts that are recovered by a member state in a state aid investigation simply go back to the member state’s budget and they can then, of course, use it for their own decisions.”
EU sources told The Irish Times that, while the European Commission could not legally instruct Ireland how to use the recovered falls, it was likely to strongly recommend that windfall gains are used to pay down the national debt.
In its most recent country-specific recommendation for Ireland, which marked Ireland’s exit from the EU’s excessive deficit procedure, the European Commission said Ireland should “use windfall gains from strong economic and financial conditions, as well as from asset sales, to accelerate debt reduction”.
In addition, the country should “reduce vulnerability to economic fluctuations and shocks, inter alia by broadening the tax base . . . enhance the quality of expenditure, particularly by increasing cost-effectiveness of healthcare and by prioritising government capital expenditure in R&D and in public infrastructure, in particular transport, water services and housing.”
Policy recommendation A high-ranking source in the European Commission explained there is a “policy recommendation, not a legally binding requirement” that Ireland should use any windfall cash for debt reduction.
He pointed to the “long-standing policy recommendation” of the commission that Ireland’s high level of debt should be reduced with any windfall, rather than using the cash for current or capital spending. This was reiterated as recently as earlier this year when the Commission published its recommendations for Ireland.
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They found that Ireland should: “Use windfall gains from strong economic and financial conditions, as well as from asset sales, to accelerate debt reduction.”
This is not a legal requirement, although any budget spending would have to conform to EU rules which limit the amount of current spending increases in any given year.
The revelation is likely to strengthen the hand of those arguing for the government to retain the Apple cash. Government ministers had previously insisted that even if Ireland kept the money, it would have to be all used for deficit reduction.
Unprecedented
While the established procedure in EU state aid cases is that recovered money returns to the national exchequer, officials pointed out that the Apple ruling is unprecedented in size. The previous record for an EU state aid judgment was a €1.3 billion ruling in 2014 involving Nürburgring racetrack in Germany.
The Apple judgment is also the first finding of its kind since the EU’s two-pack and six-pack rules were introduced at the height of the financial crisis. Like other bailout countries, Ireland is subject to additional layers of fiscal scrutiny than most other euro zone countries because it is continuing to repay bailout loans to other euro zone member states through the ESM fund.
All euro zone countries must submit their budgets to the European Commission by October 15th this year.
After more than three years of investigations, the European Commission ruled on Tuesday that Ireland had helped Apple to artificially reduce its tax burden for over two decades through two tax rulings it offered the company in 1991 and 2007.
Decision
EU politicians widely welcomed the European Commission’s decision. The centre-left Socialist and Democrats group in the European Parliament congratulated the commission on the finding and called on the EU to establish a common corporate consolidated tax base (CCCTB) that would be mandatory across the EU. Ireland has previously opposed such a move. A revised CCCTB proposal is expected from the Commission by the end of this year.
The payment of €13 billion, plus interest, demanded by the European Commission covers the years 2003 to 2014, though Ireland will be permitted to keep the payment in an escrow account pending appeal.
An appeal by Ireland and Apple could take up to six years according to European Commission officials as it is likely to go through both the General Court and European Court of Justice. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/commission-says-no-legal-obligation-to-use-apple-tax-cash-for-debt-1.2774229?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/12b4f5193c0d0c4497ec9f8e362a7aaac0855a63812abc2fb59d5194d0404b2e.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T10:49:09 | null | 2016-08-30T05:55:00 | Modest increase will come as disappointment given expensive marketing campaign | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fretail-and-services%2Fguru-fails-to-predict-poor-lotto-figures-1.2772274.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772272.1472550838!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Guru fails to predict poor lotto figures | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Recent figures show revenue from the lotto’s new online channel grew by a modest 4 per cent last year.
Not particularly great when you consider sales in scratch cards, a relative dinosaur of the trade, rose by 4.5 per cent.
And not when the newly privatised franchise spent heavily on a marketing campaign, involving a sequence of expensive TV adverts featuring a guru high up in the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks comically failing to predict the next day’s lotto numbers.
The figures show the online channel only accounted for a meagre €23 million or 3.4 per cent of overall revenue, which is only marginally higher than before the channel was opened up as part of the privatisation process.
The franchise was sold in 2014 for €405 million to Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI) principally on the untapped potential of online.
Under the old system, operated by An Post, online registration process was cumbersome and the operator was forbidden from marketing the online channel.
The Government did away with these restrictions in parallel with the privatisation process.
However, PLI’s Canadian paymasters Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan won’t exactly be popping champagne corks on foot of these numbers.
PLI’s sister group in the UK, Camelot, had a similar growth for online but their offering accounts for nearly a fifth of overall revenue.
The operator here will, of course, point to the growth in interactive players, which rose by 61 per cent to over 225,000 in 2015 but the hoped for revenue windfall from online hasn’t materialised just yet.
Total Irish sales across all platforms last year was €670.4 million, representing a drop of 2.5 per cent on the €687.6 million in revenues throughout 2014.
This suggests the lottery is not benefitting from the pick-up in consumer spending and remains mired in recessionary metrics.
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Has the new minimum ticket price of €4, albeit for a two-line play, been a factor?
Either way, PLI will have to halt this spiral if it is to justify the €405 million shelled out for the licence. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/retail-and-services/guru-fails-to-predict-poor-lotto-figures-1.2772274 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/9bed6a362826f471d31243145649f7e46b635b69c422521433db7f5e4d03c1ea.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T10:50:57 | null | 2016-08-28T10:46:00 | Linus and Sabina Jack used flashlight and message in the sand to attract help | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fasia-pacific%2Fsos-pair-found-after-week-stranded-on-pacific-island-1.2770918%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770916.1472377563!/image/image.jpg | en | null | SOS: pair found after week stranded on Pacific island | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Two people stranded for a week on a remote Pacific island have been rescued after signalling for help with a flashlight and an SOS message in the sand.
The couple, who had “limited supplies and no emergency equipment”, were found on uninhabited East Fayu island in Micronesia by a US navy air crew, who discovered them on the beach near the makeshift sign, which was spotted by search aircraft, the coast guard said.
The search team had responded to reports that someone on the island was using a flashlight to attract attention.
“The search and rescue operation for Linus and Sapina Jack has been successfully completed,” the US embassy in Kolonia, Micronesia, posted on its Facebook page.
“Since the island was potentially uninhabited and knowing [THEY]had a flashlight in their boat, we directed our search aircraft to overfly the island.”
The couple had set out from Weno island in Micronesia in a 16-foot boat on 17 August but the alarm was raised when they did not arrive at Tamatam island the following day as expected.
During a week-long search, the coast guard said it used 15 vessels and two aircraft to cover nearly 16,600 square miles (43,000 square kilometres) of ocean.
The couple were picked up by a patrol boat and taken to Nomwin atoll.
Agencies / The Guardian | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/sos-pair-found-after-week-stranded-on-pacific-island-1.2770918?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d32097a5441accb86948847bcafcc58759fd0bb684e7b6c903c66691287c4ff6.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T20:47:35 | null | 2016-08-26T20:39:00 | Tax deal found to be illegal state aid but Apple’s tax bill to Ireland will be far less than originally suggested | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Feu-to-rule-against-ireland-in-apple-tax-case-1.2769865.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769864.1472244159!/image/image.jpg | en | null | EU to rule against Ireland in Apple tax case | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The EU Commission is preparing to issue a final ruling that Ireland’s tax deal with Apple represented illegal state aid.
However sources believe the amount of tax Ireland will be asked to collect from the US giant will be much less than the billions of euro which had been originally suggested by some analysts.
Court challenge
The Government and Apple will immediately signal that they will challenge the ruling in the European courts, a process that could take some years. Sources say that government and the US company remain in “lock step” on the issue.
When the EU Commission issued its preliminary adverse finding in 2014, which was that it believed that the Irish government had given Apple illegal state aid, some estimates were that it would seek to oblige Ireland to collect as much as €18 billion to €19 billion in taxes dating backing to the 1990s.
Smaller sum
Sources now believe the likely outcome will involve a much smaller sum. While the precise terms of the EU Commission decision - and whether it will mention an actual figure - remain unclear, sources believe that the sum involved is likely to be in the hundreds of millions rather than the billions. One suggestion is that Ireland could be pressed to recoup somewhere between €500 million and €1 billion from Apple. However the final terms of the commission decision are not yet fully clear.
While this amount of money would not be significant for Apple, both it and the Irish government are believed certain to appeal any ruling. Both Apple and the Government have denied any wrongdoing.
Earlier this year the EU Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, told the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, that the decision could come in September or October. Sources now believe it may emerge late next week or early the following week.
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White paper
The Apple case has become a highly controversial issue between the EU Commission and Washington. Earlier this week, the US Treasury published a White Paper arguing that the EU Commission was exceeding its powers in its tax investigations.
In what was seen as a clear reference to the Apple case, it also made a strong argument that the EU Commission should not seek to recoup back tax dating back years from the companies involved.
Apple is just one of a number of companies whose tax affairs the Commission is investigating, but it is by far the most high profile of the cases involved.
An adverse ruling is likely to heighten tensions between Brussels and Washington. The white paper suggested that the treasury was considering retaliatory measures, and also that the tax disputes could have a “chilling” impact on any trans-Atlantic investment.
The Irish government has repeatedly insisted that Apple did not get any “special” date, but the low level of tax paid by Apple of profits moved through Ireland - often 2 per cent or less - has proved highly controversial. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/eu-to-rule-against-ireland-in-apple-tax-case-1.2769865 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/ca0ef42694a570e6c5bc360504e24d986981b1063c4cc25ecafac9692d4c38c1.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T14:51:32 | null | 2016-08-29T15:26:00 | Bodies of man, woman and their three sons - aged 13, 11 and 6 - discovered at Ballyjamesduff | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Ffamily-of-five-found-dead-at-house-in-co-cavan-1.2772011%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772010.1472481595!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Family of five found dead at house in Co Cavan | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The bodies of five members of the same family have been found at a house in Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan.
Gardaí said they were a man in his 40s, a woman in her 30s and their three sons, aged 13, 11 and 6.
The bodies were found at a house in Oakdene, Barconey on Monday morning.
Gardaí said an investigation is ongoing but at this stage they are not looking for anyone else in relation to the deaths.
A press conference will be held this evening at Ballyjamesduff Garda station. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/family-of-five-found-dead-at-house-in-co-cavan-1.2772011?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/9c4d347a98e667f45065aaed4a5208aaadf659e1d2f662792b993bfd4c8ff57f.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T06:47:50 | null | 2016-08-27T06:15:00 | As both companies vie for broadband business, Eir piles on pressure to use ESB pylons | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Feir-wants-esb-to-share-its-toys-1.2769537.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769536.1472223030!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Eir wants ESB to share its toys | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Nobody is more intimately acquainted with the ESB and its extensive network of pylons than its telecoms cousin Eir.
Eir’s chairman Padraig McManus was the former chief executive of ESB , until last year, while its recently retired head of networks, John Shine, was the ESB’s deputy chief executive as recently as 2013.
Confused? Welcome to the merry-go-round of Irish business. Eir’s insider knowledge of the electricity utility could come in handy with both companies vying for a slice of the action under the National Broadband Plan (NBP).
The ESB entered the telecoms market last year via its joint venture with Vodafone, Siro.
Under the EU’s shared utilities directive, infrastructural companies are now obliged to open up their networks to other operators to facilitate the construction of vital telecommunications networks such as the NBP.
As part of its fibre broadband roll-out, and under the auspices of its NBP bid, Eir has already submitted five “access requests” to ESB seeking to use its infrastructure.
Such use could mean a significant cost-saving for Eir, which is forced to drop poles along the country’s circuitous road network unlike the ESB which enjoys a legal right to access private lands.
However, with the ESB bidding against Eir for the NBP contract, it remains to be seen if the electricity company will be sufficiently motivated to facilitate these requests, potentially enhancing its rival’s bid.
“At this point we have made over five requests to the ESB but have received no satisfactory response to date,” an Eir spokeswoman said. The ESB declined to comment.
The ESB could, in theory, seek access to Eir’s network via the same directive but there is an asymmetry in the relationship between the State’s two big utilities.
For one, the ESB’s network is more extensive than Eir’s and is in better condition having benefited from an €8 billion upgrade in recent years.
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Eir can’t boast the same level of upkeep and has suffered from years of underinvestment, which critics link to privatisation.
The escalating friction between these two sectoral incumbents makes for an interesting spectacle. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/eir-wants-esb-to-share-its-toys-1.2769537 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/0dd428fa6a7299f57738b71e4568897ac9d1e4329392347e5a59aac8ea9cf484.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T04:50:17 | 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%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.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?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/00ddc308cf149b9e4548a606391468c2d515d7a34986211c97bd087628e0f2f7.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T14:49:31 | null | 2016-08-26T08:57:00 | Doubts raised on London’s access to European market as capital seen as ‘attractive’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ffinancial-services%2Feurope-s-top-stock-exchange-bats-eyeing-dublin-post-brexit-1.2769253.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769252.1472221280!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Europe’s top stock exchange Bats eyeing Dublin post-Brexit | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Europe’s biggest stock exchange Bats Europe could open a base outside London following Brexit, its head told Reuters, voicing doubts about whether the City of London would secure sufficient access to the European market. While no decision has been made, he has identified Dublin as an attractive location as its legal framework was similar to the United Kingdom.
Bats Europe accounts for about 24 per cent of daily trading in European shares and a shift of UK operations of one of the financial sector’s biggest success stories would be a blow to London’s prestige as a global financial centre.
Barring a clear sign that Britain will get full access to the single European market, Bats will begin work on setting up a second base next year if Brexit is expected in 2019, Bats Europe chief executive Mark Hemsley said.
He said while no firm decision had been made on whether to relocate some operations to the European Union if Britain leaves the bloc, there was no real alternative as things stand.
“If I look at the current scenarios, the only one that does give certainty to your customers is to actually have an entity within an EU country,” Mr Hemsley told Reuters, citing Dublin in Ireland as a possible location.
“Until we see a path that tells us otherwise, that will be the most likely outcome at the moment.”
Britain voted to leave the European Union in a June referendum although the government has yet to trigger the official departure process, which is referred to as Brexit.
Uncertainty about what kind of trade deals Britain will be able to negotiate with Brussels is forcing many companies with pan-European businesses to come up with contingency plans.
The comments by Bats Europe’s chief executive are the latest sign firms are wary about waiting too long for fear of losing customers.
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Financial firms based in London use a so-called EU passport to offer services across the bloc from one base, but few expect to have continued full access to Europe’s single market after Brexit.
While Britain will negotiate new trade terms with the EU Mr Hemsley said all the scenarios aired so far – being part of European Economic Area like Norway, bilateral deals like Switzerland and Canada, “equivalence regimes”, or relying on World Trade Organisation rules – were problematic.
British prime minister Theresa May has talked of a “bespoke” deal with Europe but so far there have been no details and much hinges on what terms EU member states will accept.
Bats Europe was created in 2011 when US Bats snapped up Chi-X Europe, then a four-year-old trading platform that had became one of Europe’s biggest exchanges, eclipsing national exchanges that are centuries old in some cases.
Mr Hemsley said he was open-minded about which country Bats would chose but said Dubin was attractive.
“We are looking at the underlying legal framework of a country and Ireland is quite attractive because it’s the most similar to the UK structure,” Hemsley said.
“We look at local tax environments, labour laws, availability of personnel. We are open minded, but Dublin is attractive on a number of those levels.”
Consultants and lawyers have warned of a logjam as London-based banks and financial firms queue at the doors of regulators in other EU countries to obtain a financial services passport.
Bats only obtained its full passport as an exchange in 2013 from Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority and Hemsley said an awful lot of the documentation needed for a new passport was already at hand.
“Whilst there are going to be quite a lot of banks moving, when you come to moving exchanges, there are probably not going to be an awful lot of them,” Mr Hemsley said, adding that a second base in the EU would have “some regulatory and legal presence”.
“I still think London is going to be a substantial trading hub even if there is more fragmentation of trading across Europe because of Brexit,” Mr Hemsley said. “From a physical point of view we would still have substantial operations in London.”
– (Reuters) | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/europe-s-top-stock-exchange-bats-eyeing-dublin-post-brexit-1.2769253 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/2dfc825ccffe337b17c7c4329e9c9f216d44c26bf7b2fd74656443005528024a.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T04:49:28 | null | 2016-08-31T05:10:00 | Food premises has been trading as a green grocer since 1933, earning a reputation as a specialist in fruit and gourmet products | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Froy-fox-premises-in-donnybrook-for-sale-at-over-400-000-1.2772885.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772883.1472547520!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Roy Fox premises in Donnybrook for sale at over €400,000 | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The well-known Roy Fox gourmet food premises in the heart of Donnybrook village in Dublin 4 is on the market at over €400,000 through Vincent Finnegan Commercial.
Located in a pretty enclave just off Donnybrook Road, the shop has been trading for over 50 years in an area that has long been a destination for gourmet food lovers. It is beside Molloys fish shop and opposite Bective, Wesley and Belvedere rugby clubs, Bective and Donnybrook tennis clubs and Merrion Cricket Club.
The Roy Fox premises is a single retail unit with 57sq m (613sq ft) of retail space. It has been trading as a green grocer since 1933, earning a reputation as a specialist in fruit and gourmet food products.
It comes to the market with vacant possession and has a ratable value of €20,900 which gave a rates bill for 2016 of €5,350.
The shop was run for many years by Des Donnelly, an ebullient greengrocer who died in 2008.
Its colourful display of fresh produce bursting out of its premises was a much-loved sight in Donnybrook.
The property is zoned “Z4 District Centres” with the objective to “provide for and improve mixed-services facilities” in the current Draft Dublin City Development Plan 2016-2022. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/roy-fox-premises-in-donnybrook-for-sale-at-over-400-000-1.2772885 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/71c3e5d5b93123f1cd489eb24df8545e75bd6c7d42efb3ec46d3a2b057ff6cd2.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:52:24 | null | 2016-08-30T14:07:00 | Issuance of bond type vehicle peaked at €121bn in 2007 but slumped thereafter | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ffinancial-services%2Finvestors-shunned-irish-private-placements-in-wake-of-financial-crisis-1.2773051%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773050.1472562451!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Investors shunned Irish private placements in wake of 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 a re a sub-set of total bond issuance.
Back 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. However, by end-2014, the scale of 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 condence, made it more dicult 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-wake-of-financial-crisis-1.2773051?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/8f5430547223d6d94812716543d534ace74c0aed6ca051b21b7b5c8c128976df.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T20:50:15 | null | 2016-08-26T21:02:00 | Controversy opens up rift in government ahead of next year’s presidential election | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Ffrench-court-rules-burkini-ban-infringes-rights-1.2769879%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769866.1472241743!/image/image.jpg | en | null | French court rules ‘burkini’ ban infringes rights | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A French court has overturned a local “burkini” ban, saying the attempt to stop people wearing full-body swimsuits on beaches was a clear infringement of their fundamental rights.
The decision by the Conseil d’État, France’s highest administrative court, sets a precedent and will result in similar bans being lifted or ruled illegal in about 30 coastal towns. The outcome, consistent with recent decisions from the court, takes some of the heat out of a controversy that caused global consternation and exposed the depth of political divisions over Islam and secularism in France.
In a case taken by two human rights groups, the three-judge court in Paris overruled a “burkini” ban in the Riviera town of Villeneuve-Loubet. It concluded that the ban had “seriously infringed, in a manner that was manifestly illegal, fundamental liberties such as the freedom to come and go, religious freedom and individual freedom.”
It also rejected the “public order” justification put forward by the local mayor, saying the swimwear posed no threat to public order in the town.
The original decree in Villeneuve-Loubet forbade swimmers from wearing clothes that showed a religious affiliation. Similar orders were introduced in at least 30 other seaside towns – most of them in the southeast, a stronghold of the populist right.
The controversy had opened a rift in François Hollande’s socialist government, where prime minister Manuel Valls was broadly supportive of the bans but at least two senior ministers strongly opposed them. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy had also defended the bans, but the government had avoided taking a clear position in advance of the court hearing this week.
The Great Mosque of Lyon said the Paris court’s decision should make Muslims feel “proud of France”, while the French Council of Muslims welcomed it as “a victory for law and for wisdom”.
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‘Slap for PM’
The council’s secretary general, Abdallah Zekri, said of the ruling: “This is a slap for the prime minister and a kick up the backside for Sarkozy.”
With a presidential election due next year, the political cleavage reopened by the “burkini” debate will continue to dominate debate in France.
Mr Sarkozy, who hopes to contest the 2017 election, responded to the court’s decision by calling on parliament to introduce a national “burkini” ban. The current government, which has a majority in parliament, has already ruled that out, so any change would require a shift in the political balance of power.
While the Socialist Party welcomed the court’s ruling, saying it hoped it would calm tensions, the mayor of Villeneuve-Loubet, Lionnel Luca of Mr Sarkozy’s Les Républicains party, said it would make things worse.
“We need to decide if we want a smiley, friendly version of sharia on our beaches or if we want the rules of the [French] republic to be implemented,” he said.
In its ruling, the Conseil d’État noted that a local mayor had to maintain peace and good order while respecting the civil liberties safeguarded by French law.
“In Villeneuve-Loubet, there is no evidence that safeguarding peace and good order on the beaches had been jeopardised because some swimmers were wearing certain types of clothes.
“Without such evidence, the mayor couldn’t decide that such persons would not have access to the beaches,” the court found. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/french-court-rules-burkini-ban-infringes-rights-1.2769879?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f733feb698e90a8df5886540625cd53aaca849dc82271277b4095db6ae7986ac.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:52:18 | null | 2016-08-30T15:10:00 | Our decades old economic strategy based on low corporation tax is probably doomed anyway | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Ffintan-o-toole-we-should-collect-apple-s-13-billion-and-change-ireland-1.2773136%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773133.1472567827!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Fintan O’Toole: We should collect Apple’s €13 billion and change Ireland | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The old British game show Take Your Pick! culminated in the contestant being faced with a dramatic choice: take the money or open the box. The money was the little windfall the contestant had earned by answering questions earlier in the show. And the box contained - well, who knew? The studio audience, and those of us watching at home would chant “Open the box! Open the box!” because that was where the fun was. The box might contain what counted in those days as a fabulous prize - a new car or a foreign holiday. Or it might be a bag of boiled sweets or a box of matches. For the contestant, the choice was agonising - settle for a nice few quid or gamble and risk losing it all. The agony of indecision was highly entertaining.
And Ireland is now the winning contestant in an unlikely gameshow, puzzling over what prize to take. A political culture that likes to avoid big decisions is now faced with a choice of profound consequence. The European Commission’s ruling that Ireland must recoup the staggering sum of up to €13 billion in unpaid taxes from Apple is arguably the greatest single challenge to the State’s economic policy consensus since T.K. Whitaker and Sean Lemass engineered the abandonment of economic nationalism in 1958. It is not just about the potential windfall, vast as it is. It is about what kind of State we have and what kind of future we see for ourselves as a republic.
Take the money or open the box? Stick with what we have or risk getting a booby prize? The “take the money” option is to hold fast to what we know: a State that is perhaps more closely allied than any other democracy with the interests of global transnational corporations. Since the Whitaker/Lemass revolution, the unspoken rule of all Irish policy has been - don’t do anything that in any way threatens to upset the huge, mostly US-based corporations whose investments shape both the economy and a remarkably enduring political consensus.
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This is not mere cravenness. If Ireland has sold its soul to the corporations, it has arguably got a very good price for it - not just jobs and tax revenues but a relatively peaceful transition from conservative nationalism to global modernity. It is not surprising that the entire Establishment is of one mind on the Apple ruling - there must not be the width of an ultra-thin sheet of silicon between Apple and Ireland on this. The tricolour has an Apple logo in the centre and we will all rally behind it to ensure that the tax bite out of the apple is as tiny as the corporation wants it to be.
And the “open the box” option? Unlike the gameshow contestant, we now have a reasonable idea of what the box might contain. After weeks of spinning from official sources that the Apple tax bill would be at most a few hundred million euro, we have that eye-watering figure of €13 billion, possibly rising to €19 billion with interest. It is not a definite sum, of course. But it gives us an order of magnitude that has radical implications. Size, in this, matters enormously. A few hundred million is probably not worth upsetting ourselves or our corporate allies over. Something of the order of €13 billion most certainly is.
Why? Because it could be life-changing. Used properly and rigorously, a sum of that order could, for example, wipe out child poverty in Ireland in a decade - an epoch-making, transformational intervention whose benefits would be felt by the whole society for generations to come. The State has been given an unexpected and weirdly unwanted opportunity to reinvigorate itself. It has been presented with a one-off chance to create the kind of public project that would entitle Ireland to call itself a republic.
But, mainstream opinion will insist, even this vast windfall might in fact be a booby prize. If we take this money from Apple, we will make the corporations angry. When the government talks of “reputational damage” it ostensibly means damage to Ireland’s reputation from the EU ruling’s implication that the State was being used as a tax haven. But the reputational damage it actually fears is quite the opposite - damage to our well-earned reputation among corporations for facilitating tax avoidance on a global scale.
And it is indeed true that refusing to appeal the ruling and collecting the taxes that Apple owes would open a box full of uncertainties. For 58 years, we have been governed by a single mindset. We have lived by, and lived off, the idea that Ireland’s place in the world is as a haven for global corporations - sometimes for their productive, job-creating facilities, but sometimes just for their mobile, tax-fugitive billions.
This is what we know and the thoughts of having to rethink it terrifies us. It is easy to understand why the State would tell its citizens to resist the allure of a short-term bonanza and hold fast to a way of functioning that has, broadly, worked.
But in reality, we do not have a choice between the sober certainty of doing what we’ve done for 58 years and taking the plunge into the unknown for the sake of a one-off windfall. For the certainty that is being held out as the reward for sticking by Apple and appealing the ruling is already gone. The EU ruling is itself a symptom of a much bigger shift: amid a longterm crisis in global capitalism, massive corporate tax avoidance is becoming politically unsustainable. And a vision of Ireland that places the facilitation of that tax avoidance at its heart is therefore not sustainable either.
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Michael Noonan tells us that collecting the tax that Apple owes would be like “eating the seed potatoes”. This encapsulates a mindset: Whitaker and Lemass planted the crop 58 years ago and we just have to keep sowing the same strain. But in truth the ground is shifting fast. Ireland’s place in the world is being complicated by the global reaction against corporate tax avoidance, by Brexit, by the growing tensions between the US and the EU.
To say that we will fight to the death to preserve the Irish order as it was in 1991 and 2007, when Apple got its sweet deals, is not hard-headed realism. It is the indulgence of a fantasy that the way it was then is the way it will always be.
That’s why the Apple ruling is a huge moment of decision for Irish society as a whole. We can go on insisting that our collective identity lies in being the world’s best pal for global corporations - and therefore plant our flag firmly in the past. Or we can say that we are part of an international order in which those corporations have responsibilities, including the duty to pay fair taxes.
At the very least, we should not be railroaded into lodging an appeal against the ruling that will define us, for the rest of the world, as the tax-avoider’s crazy little sidekick. We have some big thinking to do - and the cabinet’s job on Wednesday morning is to open up that process of deliberation, not to insist that any democratic decision that Apple does not like is unthinkable. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-we-should-collect-apple-s-13-billion-and-change-ireland-1.2773136?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b96b95b0e443f13d0178aa10679f0b88ed8c6dbecc82c5dffe39d13daa644050.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T10:52:27 | null | 2016-08-30T11:08:00 | Chelsea striker Patrick Bamford has joined Burnley on a season-long loan deal | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Fenglish-soccer%2Fadrien-silva-keen-on-leicester-but-sporting-insist-he-s-not-for-sale-1.2772930%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772929.1472551721!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Adrien Silva keen on Leicester but Sporting insist he’s not for sale | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sporting midfielder Adrien Silva has indicated he wants to join Leicester but the Portuguese club insist they expect him to stay at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.
The Premier League champions are reported to be interested in signing Silva, along with his Sporting team-mate striker Islam Slimani.
Silva, who started every match for Portugal during their successful Euro 2016 campaign from the knock-out stages onwards, spoke of Leicester’s interest in an interview with the Portuguese newspaper O Jogo.
He said: “Yes, I confirm this proposal. Leicester is very interesting and corresponds to my career goals.
“After the past 15 years at Sporting, this opportunity is something exceptional for me and can allow me to express and impose myself in another championship, and also to evolve in the Premier League, which is a stunning league.
“I love Sporting as a family and I dedicated myself to the club since I was 12 years old. At 27 years old, and after so many years of loyalty, I think that no one will criticise me for wanting to embrace this challenge.”
However, Sporting have responded with a statement on their official website, saying they expect Silva to honour the new contract he signed this year and finish his career at the club.
“The player renewed his contract in February 2016 in a deal involving significant sums of money, making it absolutely clear that the extension to his contract would mean that Adrien Silva would say at the club until the end of his career,” the statement read.
“Never during recent months has anything been said to the president or has any proposal been made for the transfer of Adrien Silva and the president has not met with the player’s father or representatives for that purpose.
“Sporting and its president will always defend the interests of the club and will also defend the club’s assets.”
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Meanwhile Burnley have announced the signing of Chelsea striker Patrick Bamford on a season-long loan.
The 22-year-old, who has been unable to force himself into the first-team picture at Stamford Bridge, has had previous spells at MK Dons, Derby, Middlesbrough, Crystal Palace and Norwich.
Bamford arrives at Turf Moor after the club signed Steven Defour from Anderlecht a fortnight ago and deals for Jamie Thomas, Robbie Leitch, Nick Pope and Johann Berg Gudmundsson earlier in the summer.
Bamford, a graduate of the Nottingham Forest Academy, caught the eye in the 2014-15 season when he scored 17 times in the Championship for Boro.
He also scored in a memorable FA Cup win at Manchester City that season but missed out on a European Championship spot with England Under-21s through injury.
He played in the Premier League with both Palace and Norwich last season but neither spell proved fruitful. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/adrien-silva-keen-on-leicester-but-sporting-insist-he-s-not-for-sale-1.2772930?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4a57e3dc9f37d200d77b09a6f50404d21aeaba059114f375e16fe4c91c1ae886.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T10:51:29 | null | 2016-08-29T10:12:00 | Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy denies ‘knee jerk’ reaction by party following UK referendum | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fo-brien-criticises-sf-call-for-border-poll-in-wake-of-brexit-1.2771832%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771831.1472461933!/image/image.jpg | en | null | O’Brien criticises SF call for Border poll in wake of Brexit | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sinn Féin’s decision to call for a Border poll in the wake of the Brexit vote was a strategic mistake, the Fianna Fáil spokesman on foreign affairs and trade, Darragh O’Brien, told a public meeting in Dublin yesterday.
However Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy said parties that wanted to see a united Ireland cannot be seen as a threat just for seeking to achieve their objectives.
He rejected Mr O’Brien’s description of the Border poll as a “knee jerk” reaction to the result of the UK referendum.
Mr O’Brien said there were lots of negatives to be seen in the Brexit vote but one positive was that the people of Northern Ireland had voted against it. This showed that the majority there wanted to look “forward and outwards”.
Consensus
However Sinn Féin in the wake of the result ignored this and called for a Border poll. While his party wanted to see a united Ireland, he believed it was important to build a consensus first, and to work with the Unionist people in addressing the issues thrown up by the Brexit vote.
“People have had enough of the politics of gestures,” he said.
Brexit posed a threat to all of Ireland, he said, and everyone should work together to mitigate its effects.
Mr McCarthy said the majority of the people in Northern Ireland wanted to remain in the EU and everyone needed to work together to uphold that democratic decision. “It is my view that the best way to do this is through a united Ireland.”
Brexit showed the need for an informed, respectful debate on re-unification. “This is the time to plan and build,” he said. He rejected that it was “divisive” to raise the issue of re-unification in the context of the Brexit vote.
Mr McCarthy said his party was very critical of the EU and many supporters of the party had been “holding their noses” when they voted remain in the Brexit vote. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/o-brien-criticises-sf-call-for-border-poll-in-wake-of-brexit-1.2771832?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/fcaa6e311a19dcfbd26006b629e21d8868cb0daa56b29a3868a0379da6520353.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T04:50:46 | null | 2016-08-27T04:30:00 | The power of the novelist’s work lies in its control and transformation of powerful feeling into understated art | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fmodern-ireland-in-100-artworks-2008-molly-fox-s-birthday-by-deirdre-madden-1.2769535%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769531.1472222726!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 2008 - Molly Fox’s Birthday, by Deirdre Madden | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Early in Molly Fox’s Birthday the unnamed narrator, who is a playwright, contrasts her own art with that of her friend Molly, an actor. Molly, she says, “begins from the general and moves to the particular”. She herself, on the other hand, begins with mere intimations: “the creation of a character is like listening to something faint and distant. It’s like trying to remember someone one knew slightly, in passing, a very long time ago, but to remember them so that one knows them better than one knows oneself.”
There is an element of artistic self-portraiture in this: listening for the faint and distant is, for Deirdre Madden, a way of not being deafened by the insistent noise of the Troubles. She approaches the conflict, when she does so at all, through silence and loss: “Sometimes,” says the narrator of Molly Fox’s Birthday, “the most important element is an absence, a lack, a burnished space in your mind that glows and aches as you try to fill it.”
Born in 1960 into a Catholic family, Madden grew up in Toomebridge, on the shores of Lough Neagh in Co Antrim. Her father was a sand merchant and her mother a former teacher. Like the narrator of Molly Fox’s Birthday she studied English at Trinity College Dublin. She then did the creative-writing course at the University of East Anglia. She married the poet Harry Clifton and travelled widely, living for a decade in Paris before settling back in Dublin.
Madden’s childhood was lived through the Troubles, and though her work is not directly political it is deeply troubled. Violent events loom in the background, especially in her early books. In her first novel, Hidden Symptoms (1986), Theresa is trying to live on after the brutal murder of her twin brother. In her second, The Birds of the Innocent Wood, which won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1989, Jane grows up in the shadow of the sudden loss of her parents in a fire.
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One of the central characters of Molly Fox’s Birthday, Andrew Forde, is a working-class Belfast Protestant whose brother was murdered in a loyalist paramilitary feud, and Andrew himself has been nearly killed by a bomb.
The narrator, recalling the moment when Andrew told her of his brother’s death, confesses that such events had become so commonplace that “One became numb to them and only became aware of the full creeping horror when, as now, there was a personal connection”.
Andrew has become an art historian. As in the work of John Banville (see the entry in this series for 2005) art often functions in Madden’s work as the focus for a yearning to transcend the pain of life and history. Inside the eponymous actor in Molly Fox’s Birthday the narrator sees “a whole magma of dark emotion that could have destroyed her but that she had controlled and made central to her art”. This could be a good description, too, of any of Madden’s novels: their power lies not in the emotion they express but in the control and transformation of powerful feeling into carefully achieved and understated art.
Molly’s dark emotion, we eventually learn, flows from her seventh birthday, when her mother left the family. And her need to deal with this trauma is quietly paralleled to Andrew’s making of a television series on memorials to the dead in which he argues for the continuing need “to redeem suffering through beauty”. His own suffering as one of the bereaved of the Troubles is not mentioned in his TV series, and the narrator suspects that “he himself was not fully convinced of the arguments he was making”.
To make an argument would be to move from the general to the particular, which Madden, in her elegant reticence, does not do. But her work, in its own restrained way, does open the possibility of redemption from the consequences of violence.
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks is a collaboration between The Irish Times and the Royal Irish Academy. Find out more at ria.ie | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/modern-ireland-in-100-artworks-2008-molly-fox-s-birthday-by-deirdre-madden-1.2769535?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/0fa25889e14db3a236b4f909bbc300155ad49102ab5196ffc8c067c5b4622947.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T12:49:21 | null | 2016-08-31T12:06:00 | Money in such instance goes back to member state and it makes its own decision on how to use it | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fcommission-says-no-legal-obligation-to-use-apple-tax-cash-for-debt-1.2774229.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774226.1472645350!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Commission says no legal obligation to use Apple tax cash for debt | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The European Commission has said there is no legal obligation for countries to use recovered state aid to pay down national debt.
Speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, in the wake of a record ruling by the European Commission against Apple, a spokesman for the European commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that, like all state aid cases, “the amounts that are recovered by a member state in a state aid investigation simply go back to the member state’s budget and they can then, of course, use it for their own decisions.”
EU sources told The Irish Times that, while the European Commission could not legally instruct Ireland how to use the recovered falls, it was likely to strongly recommend that windfall gains are used to pay down the national debt.
In its most recent country-specific recommendation for Ireland, which marked Ireland’s exit from the EU’s excessive deficit procedure, the European Commission said Ireland should “use windfall gains from strong economic and financial conditions, as well as from asset sales, to accelerate debt reduction”.
In addition, the country should “reduce vulnerability to economic fluctuations and shocks, inter alia by broadening the tax base . . . enhance the quality of expenditure, particularly by increasing cost-effectiveness of healthcare and by prioritising government capital expenditure in R&D and in public infrastructure, in particular transport, water services and housing.”
Policy recommendation A high-ranking source in the European Commission explained there is a “policy recommendation, not a legally binding requirement” that Ireland should use any windfall cash for debt reduction.
He pointed to the “long-standing policy recommendation” of the commission that Ireland’s high level of debt should be reduced with any windfall, rather than using the cash for current or capital spending. This was reiterated as recently as earlier this year when the Commission published its recommendations for Ireland.
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They found that Ireland should: “Use windfall gains from strong economic and financial conditions, as well as from asset sales, to accelerate debt reduction.”
This is not a legal requirement, although any budget spending would have to conform to EU rules which limit the amount of current spending increases in any given year.
The revelation is likely to strengthen the hand of those arguing for the government to retain the Apple cash. Government ministers had previously insisted that even if Ireland kept the money, it would have to be all used for deficit reduction.
Unprecedented
While the established procedure in EU state aid cases is that recovered money returns to the national exchequer, officials pointed out that the Apple ruling is unprecedented in size. The previous record for an EU state aid judgment was a €1.3 billion ruling in 2014 involving Nürburgring racetrack in Germany.
The Apple judgment is also the first finding of its kind since the EU’s two-pack and six-pack rules were introduced at the height of the financial crisis. Like other bailout countries, Ireland is subject to additional layers of fiscal scrutiny than most other euro zone countries because it is continuing to repay bailout loans to other euro zone member states through the ESM fund.
All euro zone countries must submit their budgets to the European Commission by October 15th this year.
After more than three years of investigations, the European Commission ruled on Tuesday that Ireland had helped Apple to artificially reduce its tax burden for over two decades through two tax rulings it offered the company in 1991 and 2007.
Decision
EU politicians widely welcomed the European Commission’s decision. The centre-left Socialist and Democrats group in the European Parliament congratulated the commission on the finding and called on the EU to establish a common corporate consolidated tax base (CCCTB) that would be mandatory across the EU. Ireland has previously opposed such a move. A revised CCCTB proposal is expected from the Commission by the end of this year.
The payment of €13 billion, plus interest, demanded by the European Commission covers the years 2003 to 2014, though Ireland will be permitted to keep the payment in an escrow account pending appeal.
An appeal by Ireland and Apple could take up to six years according to European Commission officials as it is likely to go through both the General Court and European Court of Justice. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/commission-says-no-legal-obligation-to-use-apple-tax-cash-for-debt-1.2774229 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/11041ebbbc78c3f408fb9652b0ebca14058752ec69d3808f53cdafc022589e7b.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T06:50:34 | null | 2016-08-27T06:36:00 | INM chief Robert Pitt warns online publishers on use of annoying interstitial ads | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia-and-marketing%2Fcantillon-intrusive-ads-fuel-for-the-ad-blocking-fire-1.2769817%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769815.1472243771!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Cantillon: Intrusive ads fuel for the ad-blocking fire | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Independent News and Media (INM) chief executive, Robert Pitt, warned on Friday that online publishers need to be careful about the type of ads to which website users are exposed, or in some cases, subjected.
In recent weeks, visitors to Independent.ie have been confronted with a so-called interstitial ad – one that covers the whole screen and must be swiped away before you can look at the content you came to see – for Eir Sports, featuring Leicester City footballer Riyad Mahrez.
In the ad, Mahrez reached for the camera facing him and the screen of the viewer’s smartphone appeared to crack. If regular visitors to Independent’s homepage had to keep negotiating this form of annoying ad, one can imagine how the screen could be cracked in reality after the iPhone was flung against a wall in frustration.
Pitt quite rightly pointed out that interstitials – used by many publishers, and not just INM – and other intrusive ad types rub customers up the wrong way. “We need to find less intrusive ways; there had to be a balance,” he said.
Intrusive ads are the fuel for the ad-blocking fire. Hordes of customers annoyed by unwanted ads go on to install software that rebuffs all advertisements, which is a putative disaster for the online publishing industry. Pitt said the potential impact of ad-blocking software on the industry is overblown.
But what about network-level ad-blocking, where network operators such as mobile phone companies install software that weeds out all ads, all of the time? Three is testing this technology in the United Kingdom. Three is also the second biggest network in Ireland. Wouldn’t this be a disaster for Irish publishers?
“It would be very problematic,” said Pitt, with no little understatement.
Perhaps the most vocal proponent globally of network-level ad-blocking is Denis O’Brien, who has rolled it out across all of Digicel’s network, as part of his battle to get a slice of Google and Facebook’s advertising revenues.
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O’Brien is, of course, by far the biggest and most influential shareholder at INM. His right-hand man chairs the board. If the billionaire succeeds in his aim of rallying other mobile operators to install ad-blocking software, it may rebound on his Indo investment. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/cantillon-intrusive-ads-fuel-for-the-ad-blocking-fire-1.2769817?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e0e02b7ce5b25c43de98b3929edf133510d95f3d3d3f86d8a31f0b3a987541c8.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:48:42 | null | 2016-08-29T01:00:00 | Analysis: even a figure in low-single-figure billions would be damaging for the State | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fireland-set-for-damage-limitation-over-eu-decision-on-apple-tax-1.2771210.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771235.1472410684!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Ireland set for damage limitation over EU decision on Apple tax | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The wagons are being circled in Dublin as the signs grow that a final decision from the European Commission is due shortly in relation to Ireland’s tax deals with Apple. There is no question but that the decision will be that Ireland offered the US giant illegal state aid. The question, however, is how much the commission will suggest Ireland has to raise from Apple, and how its final decision relates to Ireland’s tax code today.
There is no question but that the decision will be negative and will, for a time at least, put Ireland in the firing line. Much will depend on the amount of cash involved. When the affair broke first, there were estimates from investment bank JP Morgan that the amount of back tax involved could be up to €19 billion, were the commission to decide to go back to shortly after Apple established here.
A bill of this size never looked likely, and the indications are that what is in prospect is only a fraction of this. However, this figure has been in circulation and featured in media reports so often since the preliminary negative decision from the commission in 2014 that it is inevitable that it will frame some of the reaction.
One issue for the commission and competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager is that a much lower figure may lead to accusations, rightly or wrongly, that political pressure from the US had an impact on the decision.
The length of time spent reaching a final decision also surely reflects the highly political nature of what has gone on behind the scenes. Sources in Dublin contend that the commission is on shaky legal ground – a case also made by the US treasury in a special White Paper on the subject of EU tax investigations into US companies, published last week.
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Formula
In Dublin, the hope is that the final figure will be in the hundreds of millions, rather than the billions, but nerves remain on edge. Sources believe that the commission will come forward with a formula it believes the Revenue Commissioners here should use, and possibly an estimate of what it believes this should raise. Even a total in the low-single-figure billions would be hugely damaging for Ireland.
Either way, Ireland is likely to face a public relations hit, despite measures taken in recent years to start to close off some of the more aggressive tax loopholes exploited by Apple and a number of other multinationals to funnel profits earned in Europe through Ireland and out to offshore tax havens.
The controversial double-Irish tax scheme, for example, is being phased out by 2020 and a loophole used by Apple – which effectively moved cash through a company with no tax residency anywhere – was also closed off. Close attention will be paid to how the text of the judgments reflects on tax practices still in place here.
As well as the Government, Apple has been anticipating the decision. It has ended the practice of moving cash through a “stateless” company and is believed to have moved the intellectual property rights for the sales of many of its key products into Ireland over the past year. Its tax bill for money moving through Ireland has risen. The Government will hope that Apple’s decision to move key intellectual property rights here is a sign of ongoing commitment to Ireland.
So the Government – and Apple – will both claim that they broke no laws, but will also indicate that policy and practice has changed in recent years.
This is unlikely to stop international criticism. As shown by the US treasury report, the American side says the commission may oblige Ireland to collect tax revenue at the expense of Washington. This neatly avoids a central issue, which is that the US way of taxing corporations lies behind much of the legal tax-avoidance structures.
US election campaign
Irish officials express some fears that the Apple case could get caught up in the US presidential election campaign, where multinational tax is a big issue. And, ironically, there may also be criticism from elsewhere in Europe. What is at issue is how Ireland taxes profits which, while they accrued to Apple subsidiaries here, related to product sales across Europe. Many other European countries may thus feel that the tax revenue is rightly theirs, rather than Ireland’s.
For all these reasons, the Government will feel obliged to appeal the decision. The bigger the amount of money involved, the trickier this may be politically, as pressure will come on the Government to collect the cash and spend it. Ministers will argue, however, that not appealing would be at the cost of inward investment in future.
Whatever the sum involved, sources here believe it will be a large figure, albeit one that is not financially significant for Apple. In response, Ministers will continue to insist Ireland did not offer Apple a special deal, and that our corporate tax system is open and transparent. In an era where corporate tax payments are a big issue, however, the Irish side will realise that this is now about damage limitation. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/ireland-set-for-damage-limitation-over-eu-decision-on-apple-tax-1.2771210 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/44207675641dc0397068737b37d7e7c1e809c14785d4874dc5b4b86134dfeba8.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T10:53:13 | null | 2016-08-31T11:09:00 | Unemployment remained at record low of 6.1 per cent in Europe’s powerhouse economy | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fgerman-jobless-rate-continues-to-decline-despite-brexit-1.2774149%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774148.1472638189!/image/image.jpg | en | null | German jobless rate continues to decline despite Brexit | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | German unemployment continued its decline in August, signaling that consumption driven by a strong labour market may cushion the blow to Europe’s largest economy from Britain’s decision to leave the EU.
The number of people out of work fell by a seasonally adjusted 7,000 to 2.675 million, data from the Federal Labour Agency in Nuremberg showed on Wednesday. Economists in a Bloomberg survey forecast a drop of 4,000.
The jobless rate remained at a record low of 6.1 per cent.The sign of job-market resilience comes after German business sentiment unexpectedly declined the most in more than four years and company executives raised concern that political uncertainty related to Brexit threatened to damp output.
Policy makers have expressed confidence that the economic recovery will continue, bolstered by private spending, a pickup in investment and solid export growth.”The labour market continued to develop favorably overall,” Frank-Juergen Weise, president of Germany’s labor agency, said in a statement.
“The demand for workers, measured by employment and reported openings, continues to be strong.”The number of people out of work fell by 1,000 in western Germany and decreased by 6,000 in the eastern part of the country, the labor agency said.
Unemployment is likely to climb in the coming months as hundreds of thousands of job seekers, who arrived as migrants last year, prepare to enter the labor market. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/german-jobless-rate-continues-to-decline-despite-brexit-1.2774149?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/1020e35da8bc336888c385fd31d6f4cf9c13062cbead84aaa7efc0fe56b9adc6.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T12:51:28 | null | 2016-08-29T12:21:00 | Gifted forward applied the coup de grâce to Kingdom with his final point | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgaelic-games%2Fgaelic-football%2Fplayer-watch-irrepressible-connolly-escapes-kerry-s-shackles-again-1.2771911%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771909.1472469643!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Player Watch: Irrepressible Connolly escapes Kerry’s shackles again | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | To the end first. Peter Crowley just had his bowels opened by Kevin McManamon. No free. The ball spills loose. Diarmuid Connolly, gliding past his afternoon shadow, stoops to whisper sweet nothing. Crowley struggles to regain equilibrium, as the medic and physio plead with him to lie down.
Crowley is desperate to find Connolly so he breaks from their despairing grasps, but it is too late.
Sixty metres downfield Connolly, in full glorious flow, hammers the last nail into Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s Kerry. It’s deep in injury time when that point, his third, confirms Dublin’s utter dominance over their greatest rivals.
Connolly is and has been central to it all. Every moment he plays nowadays deserves watching.
After Amhrán na bhFiann others – Ciarán Kilkenny, Paul Flynn, James McCarthy – shake hands with the first among equals. He goes onto Crowley at centre forward but quickly slips to the right wing. Crowley obediently follows.
With barely a minute gone Connolly’s right boot draws first blood.
Dogged diligence
Crowley takes a dogged diligence to this man-marking duty but that retreating arching run of Connolly always lands him on possession with chest open, facing the posts. Another point goes over with Crowley hanging off him.
Referee David Gough had already blown up. Dean Rock obliges to continue his near flawless free-taking display.
Dublin lead by two, seemingly coasting, as Connolly rearranges the shop – Kilkenny, Flynn and Brian Fenton take instructions before flying off in different directions.
Kilkenny catches a Brian Kelly kick-out and feeds Connolly. Second point, Dublin 0-9 to 0-4, certainly coasting now.
High, diagonal balls rain down on Gooch Cooper and Kieran Donaghy but Johnny Cooper and Philly McMahon deny them clean possession.
When it turns sour for Dublin Connolly cuts an increasingly frustrated, statuesque figure upfield as Kerry press and turn the stroll into an epic contest.
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He edges towards the tunnel as Colm Cooper makes it 2-8 to 0-9. No Dublin score since his last in the 24th minute.
The whistle goes and a livid -looking Connolly heads for cover but is obstructed by unwise linesman Paddy Neilan who thinks there is more time to play. His raised palm is swathed away.
Connolly and Dublin return with renewed loyalty to their way of playing this game, and to the values Jim Gavin constantly preaches. He arcs and turns to find David Byrne who gifts Bernard Brogan a point.
Rare moment
Connolly is laid down by Colm Cooper. Stays on the grass long enough to be unmarked. Then he sees the value in it as medics attempt to examine him. He leaps up in a rare moment of freedom but Dean Rock doesn’t need him as Dublin keep chipping into Kerry’s lead.
Connolly berates the other linesman, Joe McQuillan, for doing nothing about the Cooper incident. The crowd drowns out his roar and McQuillan looks away. A Connolly wide off his left is followed by more Rock points before a Brian Fenton score levels it up.
The game is beginning to pass Connolly by, and Kerry are all the better for it. James O’Donoghue puts them three clear with 10 minutes remaining.
Rock keeps Dublin alive, the latest free coming after Paul Murphy fouls Connolly.
David Gough is not black guarding any man today.
Another Diarmuid Connolly wide. Maybe the shot was rushed, but there seems to be a lack of power in his legs. In this awfully draining affair as he must also mark Bryan Sheehan on Kerry kick-outs.
Maybe he is fading, maybe Dublin are spent.
Alan Brogan wrote earlier this year, “The bigger the challenge, the better we see from Diarmuid.” It’s true, he was magnificent the last time Dublin lost in championship, against Donegal in 2014, but those earlier runs have dried up. He is just standing there now more often than moving.
Crowley seems happy by his side.
Enthralling duel
It’s a heavy day for everyone as the clock strikes 70 minutes. Connolly demands the ball off Brian Fenton, who is in an enthralling duel with David Moran. Connolly gathers, solos, picks out Kevin McManamon, always McManamon.
Kerry’s bane strikes again.
It goes to the wire. Connolly takes his customary yellow card after scragging an advancing Barry John Keane. No choice there. Theme of the game. Get them before they into range.
Next, McManamon empties the advancing Crowley. Play on. Diarmuid goes past his prone marker and way up the field. The legs are fresh now, the strike when it was needed most is strong and true.
Come Gough’s final shrill, Connolly gives Crowley a quick hug – Crowley rushes the referee but Gooch intercedes – before embracing each and every Kerry defender as he wades towards a rolling Hill 16.
Connolly bows his head as the blue wave crashes down upon him.
Drenched in a rare feeling and well on course for the footballer of the year award that has been cruelly and, some may agree, wrongly denied him.
Lee Keegan’s up next. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/player-watch-irrepressible-connolly-escapes-kerry-s-shackles-again-1.2771911?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/dc9b671762d041ee7d83a988344f9c619436eb01560d8e2145abf77bc599a074.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:52:19 | null | 2016-08-30T01:00:00 | Shoppers can order in advance and wander ‘design dream’ showrooms | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fflat-pack-in-carrickmines-ikea-collection-store-opens-next-week-1.2772352%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772351.1472506050!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Flat-pack in Carrickmines: Ikea collection store opens next week | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | In what the company has claimed is “a new way of shopping with us”, Ikea customers in south county Dublin will, from next Monday, be able to wander their “design dreams” – a series of showcase rooms in Carrickmines.
From next week, the venue at the Park in Dublin 18 will feature an “order and collection point”.
It is not a new concept – Ikea has already trialled its order and collection format in the UK, in both Norwich and Aberdeen, and is set to open a similar outlet in London, as part of an effort to make Ikea “more accessible to many more people”.
Included in the “inspirational planning space” is a coffee shop selling Ikea’s range of healthy fruit and vegetable juices and cakes. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/flat-pack-in-carrickmines-ikea-collection-store-opens-next-week-1.2772352?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/429492093e339295273bb076913c06ef65a341c4e0af8b7e3a2090f149efe121.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T00:50:34 | null | 2016-08-27T01:01:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Flord-preserve-us-an-irishwoman-s-diary-on-marmalade-and-dundee-1.2769615%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769613.1472226189!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Lord preserve us - An Irishwoman’s Diary on marmalade and Dundee | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | When the new bridge was being built across the Abbey river in Limerick, a dam was constructed to allow the base of the columns to be put in place.
With the water held back, the underbelly of old Limerick came to light. There were bicycle frames, animal bones, tin cans, 17th-century cannon balls and a conglomeration of unrecognisable bits and pieces trapped in the mud of this ancient city.
Pottery jar
A heap of that rubbish was put on display in the city museum and sitting on top was an old pottery jar bearing the inscription, “ James Keiller & Sons, Dundee. Marmalade”.
A couple of years ago, when I stepped off the train at Dundee in Scotland, I had fulfilled a long-time ambition by crossing the amazing railway bridges over the Firth of Forth and Firth of Tay.
‘Road to Dundee’
I suppose it was also a sort-of pilgrimage to see the places my father loved to sing about. No, he wasn’t Scottish but the songs suited his voice. The Northern Lights of Aberdeen, the Bonnets of Bonnie Dundee and The Road to Dundee were his party pieces. I swear that I could hear him singing softly on a zephyr that touched my face as I walked from Dundee station towards the town.
But Dundee is more than just a lilting ballad. Its claim to fame is three “Js” – “Jute, Journalism and Jam”. If you want to learn about the processing of jute for the manufacture of sacks, matting and string, there’s an interpretive centre to inform and educate you.
The biggest journalism money-spinners were the Beano and Dandy.
And the jam? That’s marmalade.
Aroma
Marmalade, they tell me, was invented in Dundee. Strange. I always thought that my mother invented it. How many times did I watch her up to her elbows in misshapen oranges and the kitchen full of that exquisite aroma.
“Only the very best Seville oranges for marmalade,” she’d say, as she washed each one carefully and sliced it in half.
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She showed me how to squeeze out the juice on the spiked glass juicer while she removed the peel and sliced it finely.
Then she tied the white pith and the pips into a piece of muslin because while they flavour and set the marmalade, they can look unsightly in the glass jars.
Once I picked up a piece of orange from the table and bit into it. It was so bitter that I ran for water to rinse out my mouth.
My mother laughed. “Seville oranges are for cooking only just like there are eating and cooking apples,” she told us, as she gathered all the ingredients and put them into a big bowl to marinate overnight.
The following morning the careful cooking and bottling began. Of course, my mother didn’t invent marmalade, and I had to travel all the way to Dundee to be told exactly who did.
And this, they tell me, is how it happened. Once upon a time, in the late 18th century, a fierce storm raged in the North Sea. All along the east coast, fishing boats and great trading ships scurried into safe port for shelter. A Spanish vessel foundered somewhere outside Dundee’s harbour wall and its cargo of oranges was washed up on to the shore next day.
Crate
A member of the Keiller family brought home a crate of those oranges thinking that his large family would enjoy the treat. But just like me, they found the oranges bitter to taste and full of pips.
It took the resourceful Mrs Keiller to turn the crate of oranges into several pounds of what she called marmalade, from a Portuguese word, marmelo, which means a boiling and preserving of fruit.
Mr & Mrs Keiller, in fact, ran a grocery and confectionary business so it was no wonder that her new concoction found its way onto the shelves of their shop.
The Scots took a great liking to marmalade and from such small beginnings a huge industry developed.
Medals
Keiller’s Marmalade won medals for quality in Vienna and London in the late 19th century. James Keiller & Son took full credit for the making of marmalade, despite the fact that Mrs Keiller did all the work.
The reason why we spread marmalade on our toast at breakfast today is also a Scottish custom, for they found it to be a warming and cheap alternative to the traditional early-morning shot of expensive whisky in their porridge. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/lord-preserve-us-an-irishwoman-s-diary-on-marmalade-and-dundee-1.2769615?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/9fb0f551a1a2f1201658340e5ca1015b025a4916cc6a469f2d88adc77bd716d9.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:49:58 | null | 2016-08-26T16:56:00 | The Ireland junior double scull finished ahead of Britain to make it to the semi-finals | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fother-sports%2Fpaul-o-donovan-west-cork-s-predator-wants-world-championship-gold-1.2769628%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769627.1472226977!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Paul O’Donovan, West Cork’s predator wants World Championship gold | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | He came all the way from Rio de Janeiro, then fought his way through three tough races to reach the A Final at the World Championships in Rotterdam. Paul O’Donovan should be proud of himself, but only if he steps up to receive a gold medal as the best lightweight single sculler in the world will he be completely content.
Any doubt about this is punctured when The Irish Times asks him a simple question: He could have reached the final by a different route - why did he expend so much energy in each of his three races to win each one?
“You can’t let them (his opponents) see there is any chink in the armour,” he says. He may be known for #PullLikeaDog, but inside the West Cork man with the Olympic silver medal is a bigger predator.
He identifies Peter Galambos and Rajko Hrvat as rivals in the final, but the one he must master is the competitor who has come through his races winning all the way: Lukas Babac of Slovakia. The reigning European champion is 31 and would love to claim the scalp of the internet sensation who is nine years his junior.
O’Donovan trained on Friday and looked calm and relaxed. He joked that having spoken to his team-mates Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll he is happy to be on a break away from the celebrations at home - he is unsure what it will be like returning to the “madness” of the welcome he and Gary will receive in Skibbereen on Monday.
O’Driscoll and O’Donovan are the Ireland lightweight pair and they go in their A Final just minutes after the lightweight single test. There are three Irishmen in the race, and the Britain crew which includes Coleraine’s Joel Cassells are hot tips to retain their world title. France, Ireland and Denmark will be in the hunt for medals - a very good row for Ireland could make it a very special day.
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The spirit in the Ireland camp has been excellent. Yet it is still rare to see an Ireland team take out a British one in a head-to-head battle. Daire Lynch and Ronan Byrne did it here.
The Ireland junior double scull needed to finish in a top-three place in their quarter final to make it to the semi-finals. Italy and Turkey gained control of the first two places by the middle of the race. Behind, Ireland and Britain were locked together on exactly the same time at 1,000 metres, but then Byrne and Lynch moved. They left Britain behind and seriously challenged Turkey - missing out on second by seven hundredths of a second.
Lynch is a good example of the modern, successful, rower. He is 18, but he did not celebrate his birthday because he was preparing to compete in the junior single at the Irish Championships. He won.
The Ireland women’s junior double of Aoife Casey and Emily Hegarty also qualified for their semi-final. They finished second in their repechage behind Italy.
These two crews compete in semi-finals towards the end of the Saturday’s programme. By then Paul O’Donovan will have reached the end of his exceptional odyssey. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/paul-o-donovan-west-cork-s-predator-wants-world-championship-gold-1.2769628?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/83bb3533723b24a39012e1f03b1802d89b0dd6cb7de69583977d1d0cec997a91.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T22:50:16 | null | 2016-08-26T22:28:00 | It was a second pre-season win ahead of next weekend’s Pro12 bow against Scarlets | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Frugby%2Fseven-try-munster-convince-against-worcester-1.2769939%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769938.1472250488!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Seven-try Munster convince against Worcester | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Munster 52 Worcester Warriors 21
Tries from James Cronin, Simon Zebo, Darren Sweetnam and a penalty try before the interval saw Munster cruise to a convincing win over Worcester Warriors in their final pre-season warm-up.
Jean Kleyn marked his Munster debut and 23rd birthday was a storming first half for Rassie Erasmus’s side, while outhalf Tyler Bleyendaal was unerring from the tee and also kicked beautifully from hand throughout.
His replacement Ian Keatley capped a fine evening for Munster when he ran in an intercept try from his own 22. Overall it was an impressive win for the home side.
In total Munster ran in seven tries as they earned a second pre-season win ahead of next weekend’s Pro12 bow against Scarlets.
Former Munster great Donncha O’Callaghan had a difficult night on his return to Cork as his side looked sloppy a week out from their season opener against Saracens at Twickenham, although he was treated to a standing ovation from the Cork crowd when he was replaced after 48 minutes.
The four first-half tries saw Munster lead by 31-0 at the break, while Ronan O’Mahony, Cian Bohane and Keatley all got in on the act in the second period.
SCORERS – Munster: J Cronin, pen try, S Zebo, D Sweetnam, R O’Mahony, C Bohane, I Keatley tries; T Bleyendaal four cons, pen; I Keatley three cons. Worcester Warriors: J Adams, GJ Van Velze, P Humphreys tries; R Lamb three cons.
MUNSTER: S Zebo; D Sweetnam, D Goggin, R Scannell, R O’Mahony; T Bleyendaal, D Williams; J Cronin, N Scannell, J Ryan; J Kleyn, B Holland (capt); D O’Callaghan, T O’Donnell, J O’Donoghue. Replacements used: J Andress, D Casey, P McCabe, B Scott, C O’Shea, T O’Leary, D O’Shea, C Oliver, R Copeland, D Foley, I Keatley, A Wootton, C Bohane, S Fitzgerald, J O’Donoghue.
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WORCESTER WARRIORS: J Willison; D Hammond, W Oliver, M Stelling, C Vuna; T Heathcote, J Arr; V Rapava Ruskin, N Annett, J Johnston; D O’Callaghan, D Barry; A Faosiliva, C Kirwan, GJ Van Velze (capt). Replacements used: M Mama, N Leleimalefaga, M Daniels, J Bregvadze, T Cavubati, J Adams, C Scotland-Williamson, R Lamb, P Dowson, L Baldwin, P Humphreys, J Shillcock. Referee: Dan Jones (WRU). | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/seven-try-munster-convince-against-worcester-1.2769939?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/41487bdb59cdb70acd8b3d4475a0ae3330cecf66ff9e47773dc7d3c08f357a31.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T20:51:16 | null | 2016-08-28T20:21:00 | Company owned by US fund pays no tax on €2.65 million a year in rent, says Sinn Féin | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fcentral-bank-landlord-a-vulture-fund-paying-no-irish-tax-says-sf-1.2771263%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771261.1472412059!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Central Bank landlord a vulture fund paying no Irish tax, says SF | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The Central Bank is paying millions in rent to a vulture fund that pays no tax in Ireland, Sinn Féin finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty has alleged.
Mr Doherty revealed that Cedar Real Estate Investments Plc is paid €2.65 million a year rent in relation to office space leased to the Central Bank and pays no tax on this income.
He said the anomaly arose as the company is structured as an Alternative Investment Fund and would be classified as an investment undertaking according to Irish tax legislation.
Mr Doherty pointed out that the Central Bank regulates Cedar.
He accused successive governments of having designed the tax law is such a way that it allows for foreign-owned property funds to have no tax liability on the millions of euro in rental income they receive in Ireland each year.
Starwood Property Trust
Mr Doherty said Cedar is ultimately owned by Starwood Property Trust Inc, an American vulture fund, and as such its owners are not resident in the State.
This structure and ownership model allow for it, through Irish tax legislation, to be exempt from tax in the State, he said.
He added: “At a time when our ordinary families and squeezed with a cost-of-living crisis and public services are under-resourced, these vulture funds are paying little or no tax, and now we learn the State is paying millions to at least one of them.
“Even more infuriating is that it is the very body that is tasked with regulating these funds, the Central Bank, that is paying them. The State’s policy on vulture funds is going from scandal to farce.
“Minister [for Finance Michael] Noonan needs to act urgently to amend the tax designation of non-resident property funds in the interests of fairness and the public purse.”
There was no response from the Central Bank at the time of going to press. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/central-bank-landlord-a-vulture-fund-paying-no-irish-tax-says-sf-1.2771263?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/cb3e5d147c4a0434b87dbc227e299808d2c96197e755bf105835e9c882ee5019.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T04:49:16 | null | 2016-08-31T05:25:00 | Site has town centre zoning under development plan which has been extended to 2020 | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Ftown-centre-site-in-tullamore-for-1-8m-1.2772925.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772922.1472551073!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Town centre site in Tullamore for €1.8m | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A substantial town centre site in Tullamore, Co Offaly, with obvious development potential has come on the market through Cushman & Wakefield and Sherry FitzGerald Lewis Hamill. The joint agents are guiding €1.8million for the 4.32 hectares (10.66 acres) which are to be sold on the instructions of receivers Michael Madden and Michael Coyle of HWBC Allsop.
The lands are partially occupied by a detached car showroom extending to 945sq m (10,167sq ft). The remainder of the site was recently cleared of a number of warehouse buildings and is on the northern side of Church Road immediately west of Tullamore Shopping Centre which is anchored by Dunnes Stores.
The site has town centre zoning under the local development plan which has been extended to 2020 and favours a mixed use development.
In 2009 planning approval was granted for a mixed-use development of 29,229sq m (314,619sq ft|) ranging in height from three to six storeys over basement. The planning permission was extended to 2014 and, according to the selling agents, a lower density scheme may now be favoured by the various interests. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/town-centre-site-in-tullamore-for-1-8m-1.2772925 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/0f312a5b8e52536963f8683deb9ebb0f39d757a914f1d9f9e099744dd57172d9.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T14:50:59 | null | 2016-08-28T14:00:00 | Micheál Brett’s first book features a dog who was inspired by his support worker’s pet | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fhealth-family%2Fa-boy-s-dream-of-being-a-circus-ring-master-turns-into-a-magical-book-1.2759358%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2759357.1472215858!/image/image.jpg | en | null | A boy’s dream of being a circus ring master turns into a magical book | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Micheál Brett laughs a little nervously as he explains his children’s book Micheál and the Magical Circus came about because he always wanted to be a ringmaster in his own circus.
Sipping coffee in Athlone Town Centre, a few weeks short of his 23rd birthday, he describes how, as a child he had a “circus mat” with a star emblazoned on it. He would lay it out at home, putting on shows for his family. Like the character in the book, he pestered everyone to help him become a ring master.
But he was just a boy. A boy with intellectual challenges. When Brett became an adult he realised being a ringmaster was probably not going to happen. So he did the next best thing: he wrote a children’s book about his dream of owning a circus.
Lavishly illustrated by local artist Sara Brennan and printed by Athlone’s Temple Printing, Micheál and the Magical Circus was inspired by the shows he put on as a child and an active imagination fostered by the farm animals and fields around his home as he grew up.
The book features “magnificent Johnny” and his dog Miley Moo – who Brett says was inspired by Miley, the dog of his support worker Louise Kenny.
Kenny works for the Midlands-based Muiriosa Foundation which provides Brett with 65 hours of support a week, visiting him in his independently rented flat and helping with his projects. His mum Di helps him with his craft work including Christmas decorations such as Yuletide logs, which he makes and gift wraps, adding model birds and battery operated lights, throughout the year. He sells them in the run-up to Christmas, at markets around Athlone.
Brett says putting the story together was not difficult and he is looking forward to his next one – a comment which brings a laugh from Kenny. “Let’s get this one finished first,” she says, going on to explain Micheál and the Magical Circus is currently being reprinted. The print run is 500 copies, twice the original one.
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They might even do more, Brett says, and again mentions a second book, perhaps a sequel.
“We might just have break first,” laughs Kenny who nevertheless says it is a possibility.
The Muiriosa Foundation’s Person Centred Wing which delivers Brett’s support was set up in 2009 to work alongside people using the Muiriosa Foundation and their families so as to “figure out what a full and inclusive lifestyle would look like”, according to the foundation.
Operating across seven counties in the Midlands, the approach is to focuses on individual needs so people get the opportunity to create the life they want for themselves. “What people want is usually very ordinary but seen as extraordinary if you have a disability,” the foundation says.
Its experience is that what most of the people it supports want are a circle of friends that includes people who do not have disabilities; being homeowners; being active club members; and doing work placements and paid jobs.
Since the book was published Brett has become a bit of a celebrity – with a book launch in Athlone, book signing, and articles in the local press. There has even been a puppet show of the magical circus and guests were entertained by storyteller Paul Timoney. “It is very busy,” he says.
Micheál and the Magical Circus is available from the Bastion Gallery, Athlone; Celtic Roots Studio, Ballinahown, Co Westmeath, or from online store Etsy (€8), using the title Micheál and the Magical Circus or the identifier “mblimited”. The website describes it a “ mesmerising rhythmic tale of a young boy who dreams of becoming a ringmaster [and] receives the best birthday present allowing him experience the most magical journey of his life. A tale to be shared with all those special little people in your life.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/a-boy-s-dream-of-being-a-circus-ring-master-turns-into-a-magical-book-1.2759358?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/8dd95ba48bf2cd84669f647bea6043b2cf6c07d27bd9f5ea008e12688db64706.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:53:24 | null | 2016-08-31T06:00:00 | An extract from 'Game of Throw-ins' by Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, published by Penguin Ireland on 1st September | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fpeople%2Fross-o-carroll-kelly-bucky-is-pinning-me-to-the-deck-i-feel-like-i-m-trapped-under-rubble-1.2771826%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2348861.1441989042!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Ross O'Carroll-Kelly: 'Bucky is pinning me to the deck. I feel like I’m trapped under rubble' | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The other players are checking me out in a big-time way. We’re in the dressing room in Seapoint – well, let’s be honest, Ballybrack – and I can feel them all just, like, staring at me. It’s like your first day at school. Or your first day in a new job, for people who have to work for a living.
They’re all even younger than I thought they’d be – we’re talking, like, late teens and early twenties.
I’m seriously feeling my age here.
The famous Byrom Jones goes, “Alroyt iverybodoy, lusten up. I want to introjoyce yoy to someone whoyse goying to boy troyning with us tonoyt. I want yoy all to give a vurry spicial Seapoint willcome to this goy here.”
Someone goes, “Who the fock is he?” just sending me a message that reputations count for very little out here.
“His noym,” Byrom goes, “is Russ Akerell-Killoy. Naah I’ve talked to one or toy poyple in the goym and lit me till yoy this goy was a vurry bug doyl indoyd back in the 1990s.”
“Yeah, so were his boots,” someone goes – he’s a big dude, we’re talking 22, maybe 23 years old. I’m guessing he’s either a loosehead or a tighthead prop? Everyone laughs. “Sorry, Dude, what the fock are you wearing on your feet?”
I look him straight in the eye. I go, “They’re Adidas Christophe Lamaison Pro Fly Eight-Studs,” and I say it in a real fock-you kind of way.
He’s there, “Christophe Lamaison? Who the fock is Christophe Lamaison?”
The worst thing is that he seems to mean it? I just look at him as if to say, you obviously know fock-all about history if you can ask question like that.
Byrom’s like, “Guv hum a broyk, Bucky.”
The dude – Bucky, he’s obviously called – goes, “Look, as the captain of this team, I think I’m entitled to ask who the fock he is and why the fock he’s training with us?”
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Byrom goes, “We noyd someone to full un for Rowellsoy. He’s got a broyken toy.”
“Whoa, you’re talking about putting this dude between me and Maho in the front row?”
“Thut’s royt.”
“For fock’s sake – he must be, like, 40.”
I’m there, “I’m actually 35.”
He laughs and he turns to the rest of the dressing room. “Correction,” he goes, “he’s 35!” like there’s no real difference.
He’s being a real dick.
He goes, “Look, no offence, whatever your name is, but we can’t afford to carry middle-aged men who are trying to rediscover the glory of their youth. This is Division 2B of the All Ireland League.”
“Correction,” I go. “It’s the bottom of Division 2B of the All Ireland League.”
Whoa! That’s softened his focking cough. There’s suddenly, like, deathly silence in the dressing room.
He goes, “Repeat that.”
“I said it’s the bottom of Division 2B of the All Ireland League,” I go. “I’ve seen the table – ten matches, zero points.”
He goes, “You’ve got a focking nerve,” and he makes a move towards me.
Some other humungous dude steps in between us, going, “He’s not worth it, Bucky. Save it for out there. Let’s see how good he is.”
Bucky just glowers at me. I’ve pissed him off – there’s no doubt about that.
So we all trot out onto the pitch. It’s a dork, freezing cold night in January and it straight away brings me back to my school days.
No one talks to me during the warm-up. I try to strike up a conversation with one or two of the younger players while we’re doing our Dynamic Stretches, except they all just, like, blank me. I’m just some old fort to them. Then I just think, fock it, I’m not here to make friends anyway and I get on with my lunges and my squats and my various other bits and pieces.
We do some ball-handling work – which I love – then Byrom splits us up into backs and forwards and, purely out of habit, I end up wandering over to where the backs are standing.
“Yeah,” this Bucky dude shouts at me, “maybe ten focking years ago!” and I suddenly realize my mistake.
I walk over to where I’m supposed to be.
We do some work with the scrum machine. It turns out that Bucky is the tighthead and the dude who stopped us going at it in the dressing room – Maho – is the loosehead. As the three of us are doing the whole binding thing, Bucky squeezes my shoulder and goes, “Jesus Christ, you’ve no muscle there. It’s just focking fat.”
It’s just, like, mind games. I ignore it.
“Crouch!” Byrom shouts and we all get into formation. “Pause! Engage!”
Badoom!
We put our shoulders to the pads and we stort shunting the thing forwards.
The entire time, Bucky is in my ear, going, “Are you not going to put any meat into it? You might as well sit on the focking thing and let us push you around!”
This goes on the entire time that we’re scrummaging.
Twenty minutes, maybe half an hour later, Byrom says he wants us to switch to lineouts, which is what we do.
This is where I end up winning over possibly one or two of the doubters, because I’ve got an unbelievable throw and I always did. Even back in the day, my lineout throws were better than Oisinn’s and he was our first choice hooker.
I’m not good enough for Bucky, of course. Every time he goes up for the ball, he deliberately drops it. He goes, “He’s putting a wobble on it.”
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I’m like, “There’s no wobble on these balls I’m throwing.”
He goes, “What, you’re saying I can’t catch a ball cleanly in an uncontested lineout?” and he says it like his next line is going to be a punch.
I’m there, “I don’t know what you can and can’t do, Bucky. All I do know is that, the way things stand, you’re going to be doing it in Division 3B of the All Ireland League next season.”
He just, like, stares me out of it.
Byrom claps his hands together and goes, “Alroyt, Oy think we’ve done enough work for tonoyt.”
I don’t mind telling you that by the end of the session I’m focked. The old man was right. The game has moved on. These goys are just kids, but they tackle twice as hord as we did and they run for twice as long.
The session ends with what they call the Captain’s Run? Basically, the coach stands down and the entire team spends, like, ten or fifteen minutes, running lengths of the field, passing the ball from man to man in two or three groups, just to shorpen up everyone’s handling.
Byrom calls me to one side. He goes, “Good work, moyte. They were prutty haahd on yoy, thoy.”
I’m there, “Hey, if I was Bucky and some total randomer was suddenly parachuted into my team, I’d probably react the same way. It’s port and porcel.”
“Yoy stroyk moy as being a prutty strong goy – mintally, Oy moyn.”
I’m there, “Yeah, no, not a lot would faze me – at least on the rugby field. I’ve seen most things.”
He nods. He goes, “Bucky’s a good bloyk. Uf he gits to loyk yoy, he’d walk throy a ployt glass windoy for yoy.”
“Well, he doesn’t seem to like me.”
“Oy’ll till you something, thoy – what you sid to hum before, abaaht boying bottom of the All Oyerland Loyg, it shook hum aaht of hus comfort zoyne. Shook thum all. That’s the bist they’ve troyned for a long toyme.”
I’m there, “Well, I’m glad I helped, even if that ends up being my only contribution.”
“What do yoy moyn?”
“Look, it’s pretty clear that I’m not welcome here. And maybe I have to also accept that game has moved on? The intensity and blah, blah, blah.”
“What uf Oy told yoy I wanted yoy to ploy against Bictov at the woykend?”
“Bective?”
“Bictov. At hoym. Oy’d toytally understind if yoy thought it was beyond yoy. But Oy’ve soyn something here tonoyt. Yoy shook thungs up. Oy loyk that abaaht yoy. Ut’s what this toym noyds.”
“I don’t know. I think I just pissed a lot of people off.”
“Good, moyte. That’s what Oy want. Look, we’re gitting relegoytud – nothing surer. We’ve got, like, eight mitches luft in the soyson. We need to wun foyve of them to have any hoype of stoying up. Loyk Oy sid, what’s more likeloy to happen is that we goy throy the whoyl year without wunning a sungle mitch and we drop daahn a divusion next year and moyst of these goys will just druft away from the goym.”
“I wouldn’t want to see that. I was a major loss to the game myself.”
“Thin doyn’t guv up naah. Moyte, Oy’ve soyn something in yoy and Oy’m a prutty good judge of a ployer. Alroyt, you’re not twinty or twinty-toy loyk the rist of the goys. But yoy’ve got the toy moyst important attribyoots we’re looking for…”
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“Is one of them the option I offer as a back-up kicker?”
“Naah, what Oy’m talking abaaht is experience and goyle.”
“What was the second word?”
“Goyle.”
“Oh, guile.”
I’ve never really known what that even is. He can see I’m still in two minds.
And that’s when he says the most unbelievable thing.
“Moyte,” he goes, “Oy doyn’t care uf yoy doyn’t beloyve yoy can doy thus – Oy beloyve you caahn.”
Father Fehily used to say something similar to us: “Of course there’ll be times when you’ll stop believing in yourself. In those moments, I’ll just have to believe enough in you for both of us.”
So what else am I going to say in that moment, except, “Okay, I’ll see you Saturday.”
I join the Captain’s Run then. I join the backs, rather than Bucky’s group. So it’s just, like, me and four or five or the goys are just running lengths of the pitch in formation, feeding the ball to each other.
Senny, the team’s number ten, happens to be the player inside me. I was watching him practice his kicks earlier. I turn to him and I go, “I was looking at you splitting the old chopsticks earlier on. I hope you don’t mind me mentioning it, but I noticed one or two things you could improve on in terms of your technique.”
And that’s when it happens. Someone hits me from behind. At first, I think someone has driven a van onto the pitch and knocked me focking down, because that’s literally what it feels like? All of the wind goes out of my body and I hit the deck.
I swear to fock, for a good thirty seconds, I’m lying there on my back wondering am I actually dead.
I can feel this, like, heavy weight bearing down on me. When I finally dare to open my eyes open, I discover that Bucky is on top of me, pinning me to the deck. He’s a big dude as well. I genuinely feel like I’m trapped under rubble.
“We might be bottom of Division 2B of the All Ireland League,” he goes, “but if you ever call me out like that again in front of my teammates, I will focking finish you. Do you understand me?”
I’m like, “Yeah, fock, whatever.”
He gets up off me.
He goes, “Okay, everyone – the Captain’s Run is over.”
Everyone drifts off in the direction of the dressing room. I’m lying on the flat of my back in the middle of a field in let’s be honest Ballybrack. I’m staring up at the stors, but at the same time, I’m still buzzing on what Byrom Jones said to me.
It takes me a good, like, thirty seconds for me to get back up, then I quite literally limp back to the cor.
I’m beyond exhausted and in serious pain. And I haven’t felt this happy in a long, long time.
Extracted from 'Game of Throw-ins' by Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, published by Penguin Ireland on 1st September. Take your photo with the pack: you will find the scrum in bookshops, tweet your pic to @rossock using #prettiestpack or email prettiestpackinireland@gmail.com to be in with a chance to win a trip for two to Rome to see Ireland V Italy in the Six Nations | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/ross-o-carroll-kelly-bucky-is-pinning-me-to-the-deck-i-feel-like-i-m-trapped-under-rubble-1.2771826?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/ec6164cd524e1a0e4df0731841f3a7caf4d3e73d4b6ab8f61c3314c22941b99d.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:49:59 | null | 2016-08-26T16:00:00 | There are gems and junk aplenty on late-night radio, from challenging chats to tunes | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Ftv-radio-web%2Fpanti-sets-out-her-stall-for-a-tv-gig-in-radio-s-twilight-hours-1.2769285%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769284.1472203892!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Panti sets out her stall for a TV gig in radio’s twilight hours | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | There’s a certain anarchy to late-night radio, fuelled by Red Bull-drinking taxi drivers, night-shift workers, insomniacs and procrastinating students. That divilment is evident this week with a new “late-night cabaret of conversations”.
What a difference a couple of years makes. It seems like only yesterday that Panti Bliss was embroiled in #Pantigate with RTÉ. Now the drag artist has a night-time radio programme on RTÉ Radio 1 called Pantisocracy (Wednesday).
Is anyone better pitched as a presenter than a “national f***ing treasure”? (Her words.) Pantisocracy is essentially a TV chatshow on radio – and surely, at this stage, it’s a precursor to just that. There are moments when the production could be a little slicker, but this is a programme that understands the simple things that make good radio: smart people talking about interesting topics, all steered by a presenter as capable as the guests.
Those guests include the surfer Easkey Britton, discussing her time in Iran, along with the writer and actor Mark O’Halloran talking about his experiences there. O’Halloran decided to go to Iran after seeing his doppelganger, its former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on television saying that there were no gay people in the country. “F*** that,” O’Halloran thought. “I’m going to go to Iran and find the gays.”
Thus followed a fascinating conversation about gay culture in Iran, where O’Halloran found himself asking where homophobia comes from. “Homophobia and misogyny are the same thing,” he concludes.
Late-night chat can sometimes meander, but this skips along. Panti pulls at the threads of conversations, deftly tying together seemingly disparate topics. There’s a chat about diversity in Canadian classrooms from the actor and musician Maria Doyle Kennedy, a conversation in which Panti excels at the skill of positive interjection.
“It’s almost annoyingly perfect,” Panti says of Canada. She describes a time when she was in an eastern town, “the Nova Scotian version of Tourmakeady”. Even in this relative backwater the local bookshop had a “lesbian health” section.
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“I had a Canadian boyfriend for a while,” O’Halloran adds, “and we never had good, proper arguments.”
“Is ‘Pantisocracy’ a real word?” Doyle Kennedy asks. Panti says yes: “It’s a form of government or a way of organising society in which every member is equal.”
Of course, the foundation of late-night Irish talk radio is not discussions about the Iranian gay scene but shouty phone-in shows. Even they seem to get softer in the summer, however.
On The FM104 Phone Show with Chris Barry – sample tag lines: “The Bitch Is Back” and “SHOCK TALK” – on Wednesday, Barry seems to have given up. Instead of roaring he plays clips from Mrs Brown’s Boys. When he tries to get a rise out of one caller, who is on to praise Brendan O’Carroll, Barry is swiftly shut down: “We’re always right, us mammies.” You can’t argue with that.
From old dears to youngsters, and with Chris Greene not around for Chris and Ciara (2FM, Sunday-Thursday) Ciara King has been drafting in cohosts. The station sometimes falls into the trap of shows designed by committee, lurching towards the middle ground at every opportunity. But, left to its own devices, Chris and Ciara can be cracking, with the energy that late-night radio requires, and great chemistry between the presenters. Without that twosome the show stumbles at little, but on Wednesday there’s the welcome addition of the whip-smart comic Joanne McNally.
Unfortunately, late-night radio can also be a repository for items that wouldn’t get on air at any other time, or perhaps shouldn’t at all. In programming aimed at young people idiocy is often mistaken for edginess. And, sadly, Chris and Ciara is spoilt by a crude and unfunny segment with some eejit who calls himself the Galway Player plugging his social-media platforms and giving advice on the etiquette of having sex with women in their parents’ houses.
While King tries to steer the conversation into a vaguely palatable area, the Galway Player ends with a tip about bringing a woman’s parents a gift, a gesture that he feels says “thanks for creating this wonderful princess . . . so I can bang her”. Juvenile and ignorant doesn’t begin to cover it.
Too much late-night talk can be a bad thing, which brings us to the tunes this week. One of the most dependable music shows on national radio is The Paul McLoone Show (Today FM, Monday-Thursday), which motors along just fine without inane observations or forced listener interaction.
McLoone tends to lean heavily on the brooding-hero line that stops at Pearl Jam, The National, David Bowie and Bob Dylan. Still, where else on mainstream Irish radio will you hear Christine and the Queens, Warpaint, Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin, as is the case on Tuesday night?
Farther from the middle ground Cian Ó Cíobháin continues his nightly eclectic musical educations with An Taobh Tuathail (RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, weekdays), a programme that thrives even when the world has Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music at its fingertips. The keys, of course, are O Cíobháin’s curation and the trust he instils in listeners.
As a sunny Monday turns into night, Bon Iver, Pavement, Fourt Tet and Deaf Joe rattle through the wireless.
Moment of the week: Depressing trolls
Michelle Marie, who was recently tweeting from the @ireland account, was subjected to a barrage of horrific racism that is now depressingly familiar from angry white men on the internet. On Tuesday she speaks to The Anton Savage Show (Today FM). Marie’s resolve and strength are admirable. Her racist, sexist attackers should be ashamed of themselves. | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/panti-sets-out-her-stall-for-a-tv-gig-in-radio-s-twilight-hours-1.2769285?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f590e854c06fa87b0292afebf9ea769cc5d192c196abc6666a877241516255c2.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T12:51:42 | null | 2016-08-29T10:48:00 | ‘Help-to-Buy’ scheme will likely exclude returning emigrants who bought property abroad | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fwhat-we-know-about-the-new-first-time-buyers-package-1.2771852%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771851.1472468245!/image/image.jpg | en | null | What we know about the new first-time buyers package | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | First-time buyers are expected to get a filip this October, with plans afoot for a new incentive-type scheme which should help them get a first step on the property ladder.
The so-called “Help to Buy” scheme for first time-buyers (FTBs) will be outlined by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan on budget day, and should offer some form of monetary incentive for beleaguered homebuyers stymied by restrictive mortgage lending rules and exorbitant rents.
The Help to Buy initiative is part of the Government’s overall housing strategy, which aims to increase the number of homes built a year to 25,000 by 2021, as well as providing 47,000 social housing units in the same period.
Previous efforts to incentivise first-time buyers through Dirt-free savings have failed to take off, so will the Government strike the right note with its new plan?
All will be revealed when Budget 2017 is announced, but here are some preliminary pointers:
1) It will be revealed on budget day: Minister for Housing Simon Coveney has indicated that the new scheme will be revealed on budget day, October 11th, 2016.
2) It could be worth up to €10,000 a couple: In its manifesto, Fianna Fáil previously proposed a type of special saving incentive account (SSIA) scheme, which would see the Government give people €50 for every €200 they saved towards a mortgage deposit. The incentive would be capped at €5,000 for a single buyer and €10,000 for couples. However, while the Government’s scheme is thought to be of a similar order, it is understood to work around a tax rebate scheme. This means that rather than incentivise people to save for a deposit for a property, the Government will give you money back once you purchase, something akin to the home renovation incentive scheme, which gives you 13.5 per cent VAT refund on new kitchens/extensions etc. The new scheme could, however, be a combination of the two. The UK’s Help to Buy scheme, for example, gives those saving for a home a 25 per cent reward on savings of up to £3,000, so a maximum reward of £750. However, while the scheme was originally understood to be introduced to help those saving for a deposit, it now appears that the reward can only be used once the property is purchased.
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3) It will be backdated to July 19th. Announcing the scheme on July 19th, Mr Coveney said that any incentive will be backdated to this date, which should reassure FTBs who are hoping to buy before the budget. However, it is not yet clear what this date actually means – ie, does it apply to property buyers who go sale agreed after this date? Or does it apply to mortgage drawdowns? This could potentially exclude FTBs who bought a property in June, and drew it down in August.
4) The scheme may be limited to particular homes: Conal Mac Coille, economist with Davy Stockbrokers, notes that the scheme may be limited to homes under a certain value and/or new build properties only. Given that the scheme is to be introduced to “incentivise the construction of more starter homes”, the latter could make sense, while a cap on values is pretty much a certainty. As Mr Coveney said when launching his housing plan in July, “We’re not in the business of supporting the purchase of mansions.”
5) It could push up house prices: If, as is expected, the rebate is as much as €10,000 for a couple, when this is set against an average mortgage loan of €197,000 for the second quarter of this year the rebate “could push up house prices significantly”, Mr Mac Coille says. The aforementioned Help to Buy scheme in the UK, for example, is said to have added an average £8,250 to the cost of a home.
6) It’s for first-time buyers only: Under Revenue rules, a FTB is someone who has never – either jointly or individually – purchased or built their own house in Ireland or abroad; intends to live in the property; and won’t earn rent on the property apart from letting a room under the rent-a-room scheme. If the Government applies this understanding of a FTB to its new scheme, it means that if your partner previously purchased a property and you now hope to buy one together, you won’t be entitled to avail of the scheme. Moreover, if you’re a returning emigrant and previously purchased a property abroad, you won’t be considered as a FTB either.
7) It’s part of a review of mortgage-lending limits: The Department of Finance is working on the scheme in conjunction with the Central Bank, as part of its review of its mortgage lending limits. Whether or not this means changes to the mortgage lending review remains to be seen, however.
8) Mortgage insurance may be part of the scheme: In its housing plan “Rebuilding Ireland”, the Government noted that the goal of Help to Buy is to provide “affordable mortgage finance or mortgage insurance” for FTBs. Mortgage insurance is a way of allowing homeowners borrow more than the 80 per cent or so of purchase price allowed under the Central Bank’s new rules, as some of the mortgage risk is transferred from lenders to insurers. However last year a senior economist with the Central Bank expressed concern about the potential cost of mortgage insurance, warning that it could “act counter” to the regulator’s lending rules. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/what-we-know-about-the-new-first-time-buyers-package-1.2771852?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/036f16408955b6f86b38775ad8369594325faaae4dae54d73095b8319b3e9bd3.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:52:30 | 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%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.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?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/9580fcfd1a2baf96ef2689c430335badcb8ae324e06021e959d8906cc32fa3e8.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T10:49:03 | null | 2016-08-30T10:40:00 | Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations ‘have failed’, Germany says | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Ffrance-joins-calls-to-halt-to-trade-talks-with-us-1.2772911.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772910.1472550036!/image/image.jpg | en | null | France joins calls to halt to 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 United States over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on behalf of France at next month’s meeting of European Union trade ministers in Bratislava.
“There should be an absolute clear end so that we can restart them on 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.
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, the bloc’s executive, and the US Trade Representative 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.
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-to-trade-talks-with-us-1.2772911 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/959d22146bd1c2fa9abb4f136fcbcd70c4f55cd0ab767a5c47fdd9de2ceaa9ad.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:48:47 | null | 2016-08-29T17:29:00 | Firm and Government to appeal whatever decision is arrived at | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Feuropean-commission-expected-to-announce-apple-decision-early-on-tuesday-1.2772178.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772176.1472488144!/image/image.jpg | en | null | European Commission expected to announce Apple decision early on Tuesday | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The European Commission is set to announce early on Tuesday that tax agreements between Apple and Ireland represented illegal state aid to the US multinational. The long-awaited decision will say that Ireland should collect a significant sum in tax from the US multinational.
The decision is expected to contain a direction to the Irish Revenue Commissioners outlining how the commission believes that it should calculate the amount of money which Ireland should recoup from Apple. The Commission is also expected to give an approximate figure which it believes that the company owes in taxes.
Both the Government and the company are expected to say that they will appeal the decision to the European courts, a process likely to take some years. However the Irish Revenue may be obliged to issue a tax demand to Apple while this appeal is proceeding.
Investigation
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/european-commission-expected-to-announce-apple-decision-early-on-tuesday-1.2772178 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/0e60d3a8ed6baefa8d5f5466fa7cf738d2e2b29accade900e6a7c4c3dca5d662.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:15 | null | 2016-08-31T01:00:00 | Members of Independent Alliance uneasy about challenge given previous stance on tax rates | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Fsize-of-apple-tax-windfall-leaves-some-tds-uncertain-on-appeal-1.2773650%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773648.1472594068!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Size of Apple tax windfall leaves some TDs uncertain on appeal | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The scale of the European Commission’s €13 billion ruling in the Apple State aid case unnerved some members of the Independent Alliance, the group of TDs which form part of the Government.
The disclosure of the amount completely threw the group, according to one of the members, and created an element of doubt as to whether or not it would support a Government appeal.
The five Independent TDs in the group had met Minister for Finance Michael Noonan on Monday in advance of Tuesday’s decision.
They were extensively briefed by the Minister and his officials about the implications of the ruling. The meeting lasted 1½ hours and the Independents were also provided with a comprehensive briefing paper.
In a private meeting that afternoon, there was strong differences of opinion as to how they would respond to the adverse ruling. Some of the TDs felt uneasy about supporting an appeal against the decision when they had been very vocal opponents of very low rates of corporation tax when in Opposition.
However, most were reassured by Mr Noonan, who indicated to them the Government’s estimate was that the ruling would involve Apple having to pay between €7 billion and €8 billion in back taxes.
Most of the group were outside Dublin on Tuesday but they spoke frequently by telephone.
A short statement issued on its behalf stated: “Members of the Independent Alliance are shocked by the European Commission’s decision that Apple owes €13 billion in taxes to the Irish State.
“We are reviewing the commission’s statement issued today. We will consult further with Minister Noonan, his officials, Revenue, and our own independent experts.”
A spokeswoman confirmed on Tuesday night that there had been ongoing contacts with Department of Finance officials and the group had consulted with a number of people with tax expertise. It declined to identify who they were.
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With mounting pressure from the Opposition to retain the €13 billion, an Independent source accepted that it would take a big “political hit” if it were to support Fine Gael. However, the source added that the alternative could have very serious repercussions for the survival of the Government.
Quandary
A former member of the alliance Michael Fitzmaurice said the decision threw up an interesting quandary for its leader Shane Ross, who has been outspoken in the past about tax avoidance measures by multinationals in Ireland.
As of Tuesday night, the group had yet to take a decision on its position, even though the indications were it would not oppose an appeal in the end.
The five TDs are expected to hold further conversations in advance of the Cabinet meeting, where Mr Noonan will present a memorandum recommending an appeal.
Minister of State at the Office of Public Works Seán Canney said the alliance would not be making any “rash judgements. We need to look at this carefully.”
Another Independent Minister Finian McGrath pointed out that even if Ireland were to keep the money, it would not be in a position to get it for three years. “We would love to get it,” he said but added: “We need to deal with the realities.”
The two other Independent Ministers, neither of them members of the alliance, indicated they would support the appeal. Denis Naughten told The Irish Times that Ireland needed to send a message in relation to foreign direct investment that when it set corporation tax rates it must defend them. He also said there was a question of the commission “overstepping the mark”.
Katherine Zappone told reporters on Tuesday: “My understanding is that Revenue is saying yes, Apple paid the amount of tax that was requested, that was established by law, so I think that’s not in dispute.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/size-of-apple-tax-windfall-leaves-some-tds-uncertain-on-appeal-1.2773650?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f80c03661110c99d85fd238a6a3cacb4c3b268b254c35cfcd05fa6af20078203.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T12:50:23 | null | 2016-08-27T11:48:00 | World Champion serving a 30-place penalty following changes to his engine on Friday | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fother-sports%2Flewis-hamilton-to-start-belgian-grand-prix-from-very-back-of-grid-1.2770751%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770750.1472294927!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Lewis Hamilton to start Belgian Grand Prix from very back of grid | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | World champion Lewis Hamilton will start the Belgian Grand Prix from the very back of the grid after serving a mammoth 30-place penalty following changes to his engine on Friday.
Hamilton, who leads his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg by 19 points in this year’s championship race, was already staring at a grid drop after his team confirmed he had taken on a number of new engine components, and thus exceeding the allocation the sport’s complicated rules permit.
Indeed his penalty could yet rise to as high as 75 places should Mercedes opt to fit further new parts to his engine — in order to ensure he does not incur any further penalties in the remaining races this season — before qualifying on Saturday.
But with only 22 drivers on the grid, the size of Hamilton’s punishment actually matters little with the world champion simply ordered to the back of the field, and not incurring a further timed penalty.
He will be joined there by McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, who will serve a 30-place grid drop for also using more engine parts than is allowed.
It means Hamilton may now choose to run only once in qualifying — he has to set at least one competitive time — with his grid position for Sunday’s race already sealed.
But such a scenario will come as a blow to the thousands of British fans who have travelled in excess of 300 miles to Belgium in anticipation of seeing a straight fight between the world champion and Rosberg for pole position.
They will however, be provided with the tantalising prospect of watching Hamilton storm back through the field in Sunday’s race.
“It was a straightforward day for me but a tough one for the guys in the garage with the engine change,” said Hamilton, who was off the pace in practice as he concentrated solely on his race strategy as he bids to become the first driver in Formula One history to win from last on the grid.
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“Massive respect and a big thanks to them for all their hard work. The important thing is that we got through our programme smoothly today and can start focusing on the rest of the weekend.”
The engine penalty has been looming over Hamilton after he encountered several failures in the opening rounds of the season.
Hamilton’s Mercedes team had been weighing up whether to take the grid drop here at Spa-Francorchamps or at next Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, with both circuits expected to offer him the best chance of fighting back through the field.
But a decision was taken by Formula One’s all-conquering team to incur the penalty on the sport’s return to action following its traditional mid-season break.
The Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo led the way in practice on Friday, but Rosberg will be expected to secure pole as he bids to get his championship challenge back on track after seeing Hamilton win six of the last seven grands prix. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/lewis-hamilton-to-start-belgian-grand-prix-from-very-back-of-grid-1.2770751?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/9c4e362c312cdecd606b82b132513e87cf4f90192bacfa46b138bdc5ed7a591b.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T06:50:30 | null | 2016-08-27T06:00:00 | The ‘Café Au Lait’ dahlia is a rock-star flower, with its extravagantly-ruffled blooms the colour of a milky coffee, but it might have had its day in the sun | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fhomes-and-property%2Fgardens%2Fchanging-fashions-in-dinner-plate-dahlias-1.2767156%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2767230.1472058782!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Changing fashions in dinner-plate dahlias | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | If the world of floraculture has its rock stars, then the dahlia variety known as ‘Café Au Lait’ is definitely one of them. This summer Instagram is abuzz with flower farmers and wedding florists the world over proudly posting dreamy images of its extravagantly-ruffled blooms, each one as big as a dinner-plate and as befits its name, the colour of a milky coffee, but with subtle hints of blush-pink.
Indeed, so hugely popular is this particular dahlia that most American and European specialist suppliers of its fleshy tubers (which are planted in late spring) quickly sold out of it this year, resulting in anguished online pleas from gardeners.
The seeds of its global popularity were sown a few years ago when the flower featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, the American bridal magazine. Nowadays you’ll see its larger-than-life blooms featuring in countless bridal bouquets (just one flower is large enough to form a spectacular solo bouquet) as well as swanky wedding table arrangements.
So where did Dahlia ‘Café au Lait’ come from? And is some clever, modern plant breeder getting rich on the profits of its worldwide sales?
To find out, I contacted UK dahlia tuber suppliers, Peter Nyssen, wh which is always on the look out for interesting varieties. It turns out that this great big show-off of a dinner-plate dahlia has been knocking around since the late 1960s, and was bred by the Dutch firm Bruidegom. Nyssen’s chief buyer, Karen Lynes, first saw it in a Dutch grower’s plot about 20 years ago and fell instantly in love with it: “It has all the characteristics you want in a dahlia; great flower shape, size and colour and a strong, bushy growth habit.”
It’s since become one of Nyssen’s bestsellers, its dreamy-coloured flowers the perfect accompaniment to the nostalgic shades of ivory, peaches, apricot and cream that are all the rage amongst brides in recent years. Flower fashions come and go, of course, and already there are mutterings of dissent from some florists who find its huge flowers too unwieldy or too insipid in colour. Are there, I asked Lynes, any new or emerging dahlia stars that might take its place? Turns out there are. Move over ‘Café au Lait’, there’s a new dinner-plate dahlia with some serious va-va-voom in town. Its name is ‘Belle of Barmera’. | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/gardens/changing-fashions-in-dinner-plate-dahlias-1.2767156?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/bf048a5ab15d2b9d9b300765ee71fb42b3ec19294cdb324bcd77ff079d8b3fa0.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T22:52:16 | null | 2016-08-30T22:16:00 | The Candystripes veteran found the net in the first half at Tallaght Stadium | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Fnational-league%2Frory-patterson-strike-the-difference-as-derry-see-off-rovers-1.2773641%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773640.1472591800!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Rory Patterson strike the difference as Derry see off Rovers | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Shamrock Rovers 0 Derry City 1
Rory Patterson kept Derry City’s quest for Europe on course with a first half winner at Tallaght Stadium.
The impressive victory moves Derry five points clear of fourth-placed Rovers, who do have two games in hand.
Rovers’ promising start came to nothing as Derry, once Aaron McEneff brought a sublime one-handed save from Craig Hyland from a free kick on 13 minutes, dominated the first half, deservedly going in their match-winning goal up at the interval.
Hyland had to produce further heroics to keep out another free-kick from McEneff and then react well to deflect Ronan Curtis’s follow up out for a corner.
That wasn’t fully cleared with Hyland again getting down well to push McEneff’s low drive round a post.
Derry’s pressure then told on 36 minutes. Right-back Conor McDermott whipped over a terrific cross to the near post for Patterson to power home a header for his 12th goal of the season.
Rovers regained the initiative into the second half. Madden had a penalty claim for handball waved away before Brandaon Miele passed when well placed to shoot after a surging run from Gary Shaw.
Visiting keeper Ger Doherty then made his only real stop of the game on the hour, deflecting Shaw’s shot out for a corner after Miele had played the striker in on goal.
Derry remained dangerous on the counter and really should have extended their lead on 67 minutes. Patterson dummied a cross from Schubert to set up Barry McNamee who ballooned his shot over the top.
Rovers pressed late on with Trevor Clarke just failing to meet substitute Dean Clarke’s low cross.
But Curtis might have added to Derry’s winning margin on 87 minutes, but for another stunning one-handed stop from Hyland.
Shamrock Rovers: Hyland; Hanney, Cornwall, O’Connor; Madden, Miele, Cregg, K. Brennan (McCabe, 65), T. Clarke; Boyd (Dobbs, 71), Shaw (D. Clarke, 71).
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Derry City: G. Doherty; McDermott, Vemmelund, Jarvis, McClean; McEneff, McCormack (Monaghan, 66); Schubert (Boyle, 72), McNamee, Curtis (B. Doherty, 89); Patterson.
Referee: Ray Matthews (Longford). | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/national-league/rory-patterson-strike-the-difference-as-derry-see-off-rovers-1.2773641?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/859c73bf55f31fccd67c04f6963b958fc3e8e3a0ee1bd0f5ecef19e046c37fe2.json |
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