Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Garda Vetting system is a shocking waste of resources

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

I want to explain to you something the Irish State is doing that is beyond ridiculous. I have written about it before but it urgently needs to be brought into the public forum and the exercise must be stopped immediately. It is the complete nonsense of the current system of Garda Vetting.

Let me explain my experience.

My job requires that I be Garda vetted every number of years to ensure that I have no criminal record. That makes perfect sense as my work can involve my interacting with children and vulnerable adults. I understand why I need Garda clearance for my job.


But the way the State is currently doing it is worse than preposterous. And what a waste of money and human resources.


On January 9 this year I received notification from the Dominican Order that having completed the Garda Vetting application form my records showed that I had no criminal record. In order for that Vetting Disclosure to be made I had to complete a form giving all my addresses from the day of my birth until then. Each address had to include full postal details and the length of time I spent at those addresses. In my case that is 14 addresses.


Earlier this month I received notification from my employer, this time not the Dominican Order,  that to continue in my employment I had to be Garda vetted.  Some days later I received the Garda Vetting application form. And guess what, I had once again to fill out all my addresses since my birth. 


I have no idea how many times I’ve done this exercise since it was introduced on April 29, 2016. And each time the applicant’s application form has to be studied and examined by heaven knows how many people. What a complete waste of money. How many people are employed in this exercise?


I  was told by the State only on January 9 I had no criminal record, which implied I could continue in ministry as a priest in the Dominican Order. 


And now, just less than three months since I had been told I had a clear criminal record, I have been required to ask the State once again whether or not I have a criminal record.


I know someone who was required in a two-week period to complete three separate Garda Vetting application forms for three different employments.


Honestly, it is insane. Why not ask me only for my addresses since the last time I applied for Garda clearance? If Social Welfare can give me so much information about myself why can’t the Garda Vetting system have a similar system in place?


Why does the person who requires Garda Vetting have to be vetted for each different employment? Why does the Garda Vetting system not have a universal application?


Who thought up this system? Probably, whoever they are, has retired on a multi-thousand severance package.


Why are people not objecting to the current system? Has anyone ever phoned the Joe Duffy Show about it. It would make a great topic on which Joe could chew. Someone, please call Joe.

Monday, March 18, 2024

Donald Trump in Ohio and Adolf Hitler in pictures

The link below is Donald Trump’s speech in Dayton Ohio on Saturday.

It is excruciatingly boring, a rant but a mix of so much. At times it is vile, other times ignorant and rude. The man uses extreme vulgar words and on one occasion sexual words that are not fit for the gutter.

But note the adoring crowds, watching and listening in adulation to every word he says.

Every time he denounces people the crowd screams. The young women and men, adoring every word he says. They are in their element.

Last evening RTÉ2 Television screened an hour-long documentary, titled ‘Hitler: A Life in Pictures’.

Hitler in Pictures complements Trump in Ohio. Frightening.

It’s has always been considered taboo and journalistically kitsch ever to compare anyone to Hitler. But the day is here and the reality is happening in front of our eyes.

On Saturday Trump uses the word ‘bloodbath’. Listen to him, watch him. 

https://youtu.be/-oVCoN74hjw

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Yulia Navalnaya asks all Russians to vote at midday

Yulia Navalnaya takes up her husband’s cause.

She has called on all Russians to protest today. She asks Russians to go the polls at midday. By doing so at that moment they will show Putin and the world how strong their protest is.

The  three day ‘election' across 11 time zones ends tonight. The result is already known, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin will be the next president of Mother Russia. Term of office is for six years, after which he is eligible to be ‘reelected’.

 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/yulia-navalnaya-urges-russians-election-day-protest-putin-rcna141994

Happy St Patrick's Day to all readers.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Irish law concerning rape victims makes no sense

A victim of rape whose case goes to court is considered by Irish law to be a witness and not a victim.

State authorities have access to the person’s therapist’s notes.

Strange law, strange rules.

Friday, March 15, 2024

Matt Fradd's comments leave much to be desired

Matt Fradd is a Catholic speaker, evangelical in style. He is creator and host of the 'Pints With Aquinas' podcast. He is the author and coauthor of several books including Does God Exist? A Socratic Dialogue on the Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas. 

On his website there is a picture of him smoking what seems to be a giant cigar.

Mr Fradd is a convert to Catholicism. Having attended a World Youth Day in Rome he became a Catholic.

He has many videos on YouTube, including one called Defending The Faith.

In this 34-minute talk he tells the story about chatting with  Jehovah Witnesses who call to his home in San Diego. He refers to them as being 'beautiful Jehovahs Witness' and then says: "They weren't  terribly attractive physically, but I am sure they had good hearts, I'm not actually terribly sure of that either, I'm just trying to be charitable, they were decent people probably, maybe not, I don't know, didn't have a long in-depth conversation, so the two men,[the crowd laugh, he says 'shut up'], showed up with Bibles and we started talking about the faith."

It's not impressive, indeed anything but. And right through his talk on several occasions he uses profanities and vulgar words.

It was a comment he made while explaining about logical fallacies.

Matt Fradd is currently giving talks in Ireland.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson as seen by Channel 4

Channel 4 concludes its four-part series on the Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson this evening at 9pm.

The series clearly shows that Boris Johnson is a supreme chancer.

Jeremy Corbyn in the programme describes him as someone with a very intelligent mind inside a strange dishonest persona.

Johnson’s prorogation of parliament was judged illegal by the Courts.

It’s striking how quickly we can forget outrageous behaviour.

Tune in this evening at 9pm.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Cillian Murphy is the worst celebrity in the world

This is a lovely story. To recognise genius and then speak about it in these words is powerful, so clear, brilliant.

Thank you Emily Blunt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE0SkPNO9p4

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Obscene language can sound so angry and violent

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column


Michael Commane

I never heard either of my parents say the f… word, indeed, my parents did not use bad language. 


I watched a few minutes of RTÉ’s drama series Blackshore and in that short time I heard a number of fs… being said.


There are people who will say they are simply words. But have you ever noticed when you hear people raising their voices and fighting on the street when they use bad or obscene language how awful and vulgar it sounds?


And then there’s the daily use of obscene words, the f word is used in every second sentence, used as a noun, adjective, verb, every possible part of speech.


Comedians tend to use dodgy words and it seems to get them more laughs.


Is there anything wrong with vulgar or obscene language?


I’m sure I’m using more bad language today than I did 10, 20, 30 years ago. And that’s not a good idea. I certainly know my parents would not approve of some of the words I have said.


Come Ash Wednesday I often find myself scratching my head and wondering what I should or should not do for Lent. This year I made a timid decision to try to stop saying all bad words. We are now into the fourth week of Lent and guess what, I’m not doing too badly.


Any time I do say an expletive these days I’m reminded of my Lenten intention and reprimand myself for what I have said. Especially at home when I curse in my own space I’m simply not happy with my behaviour.


I was made aware of the horror of bad language last week. I was walking to work. Rain was forecast and just as I was leaving home I noticed a drop of rain, which meant I decided to take an umbrella with me. The rain stayed away so there was no need to use the umbrella, at least to protect me from he rain. It was morning rush hour, heavy commuter traffic. 


I was on the footpath passing an entrance to a large apartment block when a black SUV came right out in front of me. I spontaneously and immediately lifted my umbrella in the direction of the car to tell the driver to stop and that I had right of way. Had we both kept going he would have knocked me down.

 

On seeing the raised umbrella he opened his window, and in a rage, screamed expletives at me. He was verbally abusive. I was shocked but not shocked enough to run away. Instead I simply said that his foul language was in keeping with his general  bad behaviour and dangerous driving. That made him even more crazy, shouting more expletives at me as he drove off in a most aggressive fashion.


It all sounded so violent and angry. The moment he drove off I was saying to myself what must life be like inside his home. How must he treat his partner and other members of his family. Does he use that sort of language at work, every time things don’t go his way?


That driver in his SUV has been a great help to me to continue on my Lenten resolve, indeed, to give up all bad language for good.


Is Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) correct when he says death is the only thing we haven’t succeeded in completely vulgarising?

 

Monday, March 11, 2024

Ukraine rebut Pope Francis’ call for peace talks

It is estimated that 29,000 Russian troops were killed or wounded in Ukraine in February, their heaviest loses since the invasion began two years ago.

What horror that is for the women and men and their extended families. It sure is some 'Special Military Operation'. It’s ‘special' to lose a limb. 

It is said over 100,000 Russian lives have been lost in the battle to date.

A senior EU official was quoted last week as saying that it is no  longer a case that there could be a full scale war in Europe but rather when.

Pope Francis’ comments as reported last evening of his calling for talks to begin has upset the Ukrainians and many of its allies.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Referendums that should never have taken place

Two referendums that should never have happened. Why The Citizens’ Assembly? Is the Oireachtas not the place to legislate?

These referendums will give impetus to the far-right.

How much did the entire operation cost?

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Joe Biden is by no means dead and buried

US President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.

He seems fit and well. Compare his words with those of his predecessor.

https://youtu.be/cplSUhU2avc?si=giMDFkzWQclMIZE-


Friday, March 8, 2024

The night Nelson was toppled in Dublin

On this day, March 8, 1966

the people of Dublin woke up to discover that ‘the pillar’ was almost gone.

During the night Lord Nelson had been toppled. Dublin’s Nelson's Pillar had been blown up and all that was left was less than half the structure. It was purportedly blown up by the IRA.

The Irish Army, using explosives, removed the rest of the structure. It’s said that the army did not do as neat a job as the original bombers.

In its place today stands the Spire.

Thursday, March 7, 2024

The unfairness of the world of supermarkets

Supervalu sells a 500g pot of Glenilen Farm natural yoghurt for  €1.75. Lidl sells the same product for €2.25.

A number of people were told the Supervalu price and then asked what it was selling for in Lidl. One hundred per cent of those asked guessed it was selling cheaper in Lidl.

That’s a large markup, close to 29 per cent. Is it fair?

Many shoppers are both money and time poor. They have not the time nor inclination to ‘shop around’. People go into a shop, get a trolley and fill up.

People with little resources need to be helped and supported and not exploited by the tricks of wealthy business.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

The unspeakable horror of Gaza

Last evening Channel 4’s evening news carried a report on children dying in Gaza as a result of starvation. The pictures were horrific. One tiny child suffering from cerebral palsy, his desolate mother standing by his bed. At the end of the clip we were told the child had died. His eyes, his legs, no child should suffer this.

The programme went on to interview a Palestinian politician who had been released from prison. He spoke about how he had been stripped naked and humiliated while in an Israeli prison.

And then at the end of the programme a former member of the Knesset was interviewed. She spoke about the evil and horror that Hamas inflicts on the people of Israel and on its own people. She denied that prisoners are humiliated in Israeli prisons and blamed Hamas for the suffering of the Palestinians. She also said that the UN does not favour Israel.

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Michael O’Regan a gentleman and a journalist

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ colum.

Michael Commane

It must have been in the

mid-1990s that I asked my provincial if I could go back to college and do a post grad in journalism. I presumed he’d say yes. I was correct, he did. I was delighted and did a year’s post grad in the then DIT, now TU Dublin in Aungier Street. 


After the course I spent a few months working at The Irish News in Belfast and then got a job with the Newry Democrat. It was sometime around the time of the death of Princess Diana that I saw an ad in The Sunday Independent where The Kerryman newspaper was looking for journalists. I answered the ad, got the job and spent a number of extremely happy years working as a sub editor at the newspaper. 


It was my job to edit texts, put stories and pictures on pages. It was a pressurised job and I by no means was the fastest sub editor in the world but I learned so much about words and how to string sentences together. The job gave me a great feel for words and how important they are.


Every Monday morning Michael O’Regan’s weekly column would land in my inbox. The sad death of the proud Kerryman on Sunday, February 18 has received wide coverage in the national media and in The Kerryman. 


Michael was parliamentary correspondent for The Irish Times but took great pride writing his brilliant weekly political column in The Kerryman, where he started out on his journalistic career. It was my job to sub it and then place it on the page. In all the years I did that job I don’t think I ever had to change a word and if, on the odd occasion, I had a question for him he always dealt with it in such friendly way. 


Michael O’Regan never for a moment thought his words or full stops were the most important in the world. As a result of working with him on that column we became friends over the years. 


Any time I wanted advice about something I was writing I always knew Michael was at the end of the phone. In the close to 30 years I have known him he was always so kind and helpful to me.


And then in recent years when he fell ill with cancer we had some great chats.


Michael had that wonderful gift of making me feel important. He never stood on ceremony and always had time to listen and consider a different view than his own.


Only in January I called him to go over some legal issue pertaining to a piece I was writing. He was so helpful. He went through it with me, and by the time the call ended I found myself taking his advice and then editing the piece accordingly.


I attended Michael’s funeral Mass in Holy Cross Church, Dundrum. The Mass booklet was a fabulous production, which included John B Keane’s poem ‘My Father’. It was a true Christian goodbye to a man who had spent his life in courage and sensitivity, always trying to tell the story in as an objective and truthful a manner as possible. In doing so he could often be funny but never nasty. 


He was a people’s person, who enjoyed observing them. I shall miss him. A gentleman and a great journalist.


Monday, March 4, 2024

Jesus and the money changers in the Temple

The Gospel reading at yesterday’s Mass made for an interesting read. It was the story of Jesus throwing the money lenders out of the Temple.

Menionted earlier in this blog, the three wealthiest men int he US own the worth of half the population of the United States.

A modern fighter jet can cost up to $300 million dollars. 

The shares of the Düsseldorf armaments facility, Rheinmetall have soared since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The company is in existence since the end of the 19th century.

The rights and wrongs of the world of money is always a nuanced subject in Catholic teaching and the pastoral letters of bishops.

And yet when it comes to most, if not all, matters of personal sexuality, ‘grave sin’ is the main menu.

Confusing, to say the least?

Jesus is usually understanding and sympathetic with the poor, weak and marginalised. He shows a different side when it comes to his relationship with money and power.

Is that what the churches do?


Sunday, March 3, 2024

Award-winning broadcaster blazed a trail in Irish radio

Below is an obituary of Máire Ní Mhurchú. It appears in weekend edition of The Irish Times.

Máire is/was the sister of Dominican priest Canice Murphy.

What it doesnt say in the obit is that the man she married at 69 was an old childhood fling of hers.

Obviously, just like her brother she must have been a super person, kind, honest and very smart.


Cork-based RTÉ broadcaster Máire Ní Mhurchú has died aged 91. She was an award-winning presenter and later head of regional radio broadcasting in Cork city during the time when Raidió Éireann offered a radio service for Cork listeners for a few hours each day.

The Echo Boys, a profile of the newspaper boys who sold the Evening Echo on the streets of Cork city and Someone To Love, a two-part radio series on the harsh life in a convent orphanage in the 1960s, were among her most celebrated documentaries.

In 1969, she won a Jacob’s Award (Irish television and radio awards) for what was described as her “intuitive sympathy” for those she spoke with and her enthusiasm for broadcasting.

She was also responsible for launching the careers of a large number of well-known contemporary RTÉ broadcasters including Mary Wilson, Tony O’Donoghue, Eileen Whelan, Ger Canning and Marty Morrissey.

Following Marie Murphy’s death (she took on the Irish version of her name when she joined RTÉ), many of her former colleagues and mentees recalled her beautiful, gentle radio voice, her quiet dignity and her elegance.

RTÉ Radio 1 broadcaster and Morning Ireland presenter Mary Wilson said it was Ní Mhurchú who first hired her along with Eileen Whelan and Tony O’Donoghue. “We had the run of the Union Quay – as the HQ of the RTÉ Radio Cork opt-out, Cork 89FM, was known. Under Máire’s guidance and under the direction of the station’s three excellent producers, Pat O’Donovan, Aidan Stanley and Dan Collins, we were given opportunities to report on stories the length and breadth of the country, many of them of national significance,” said Wilson.

Reflecting on those years, Wilson added that Ní Mhurchú was managing a radio station long before women were seen in such roles in Ireland. “She certainly blazed a trail for others to follow. She gave us the opportunity to break into broadcasting and I like to think that she looked at the careers we each carved out in RTÉ with some pride. She wasn’t given to micromanaging but she did tell me it was important to put ‘a smile in your voice’. Good advice that I try to follow.”

Sports commentator Ger Canning said he owed his career as a sports journalist to Ní Mhurchú. “In 1978, I trained as a newsreader in RTÉ but I declined the offer to become a newsreader as I wanted to get into sport. I went back to Cork and she welcomed me in and gave me my first-ever full-time commentary at the Cork county hurling final between Blackrock and Glen Rovers. The day before she rang me to say, ‘Do your best, get the scores right and it will be okay’.”

Radio presenter Alf McCarthy, who grew up close to Ní Mhurchú in Cork, also worked with her and remembers the strict, hierarchical atmosphere that existed in the Cork office at the time. “Raidió Éireann was very much part of the Civil Service at that time and she brought a sense of order. When we arrived as the young and groovy presenters, there was a clash of cultures in a sense. I took over from Mark Cagney when he moved to 2FM,” recalls McCarthy.

Ní Mhurchú began her radio career in RTÉ Cork local radio in the 1950s. At that time, the Cork station was on air for a limited number of hours a week, relaying the national radio service at other times. It remained the only local radio station in Ireland until the pirate radio stations and later the independent stations began.

Enthusiastic right from the start, Ní Mhurchú carried the heavy Uher 4000 DS portable tape recorder to schools and homes to record hours and hours of interviews with children for several series. These included Young Munster on the Air, Munster Journal and Children Talking. She also worked with broadcaster Síle Ní Bhriain on a series entitled A Woman’s World.

And, with a team of helpers, she put together the annual hour-long programme about the Cork Choral Festival, which attracted choirs from around the world for a number of years.

Her piece for radio on the Echo Boys was filmed for television in 1977. The boys told her how they earned tuppence for every copy they sold and how the best stand was down by Ford’s car factory. Remarking on the young age of some of the sellers, Ní Mhurchú was told by one of the main distributors in Cork that he, too, was selling the papers at seven and eight years of age and that the experience helped give him a sense of the outside world.

In 1989, Ní Mhurchú was promoted to divisional head of Cork Local Radio, which was rebranded as Cork 89FM when the first independent radio stations were being licensed. She retired in 1998.

The radio station was subsequently closed down as a loss-making enterprise years before the current RTÉ television and radio studios in Cork city emerged as the country’s second biggest broadcasting hub.

Máire Ní Mhurchú was born in Dublin, the eldest of five children of Nora (nee McCarthy) and Lieut Col John Murphy. The family moved to the Cork suburb of Ballinlough when she was 13 when her father took up a role in the Defence Forces there.

His subsequent death while the children were still young meant that following her secondary school education at St Aloysius’ Girls School in Carrigtwohill, Ní Mhurchú began her working life to bring income to the family. Before joining RTÉ Cork local radio, she worked with the Dutch consul for a time. She remained in her family home to look after her mother until her death in the early 1990s.

After her retirement, Ní Mhurchú stayed in Cork and at the age of 69, she married a widower, retired Lieut Col Paddy Kelly.

She spent the last number of years of her life in Bishopscourt Residential Care in Liskillea, Co Cork.

Ní Mhurchú is survived by her husband, her two stepdaughters Toni (Marie) and Carol-Anne, and her brother Pádraig. She was predeceased by her sister Sr MF de Chantal and brothers John and Fr Canice (Michael) Murphy.

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Martin’s colleagues should be praising her openness

Justine McCarthy’s column in The Irish Times yesterday. It makes perfect sense.

For as long as audiences find ventriloquists entertaining, our politicians will never be out of work. Their talent for speaking not only out one side of their mouths but out both sides simultaneously truly is a wonder to behold. And, by golly, did we behold it on Tuesday night when a marathon Oireachtas committee interrogation of Minister for Media Catherine Martin produced a virtuoso performance of political doublespeak.

The State’s public-service broadcaster is swirling crazily in the rapids of unprecedented scandals, at risk of capsizing and being swept away. The Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media is rightly concerned and demanding “full transparency” from RTÉ.

But when the Minister appeared before them, the committee members accused her of being too transparent altogether. The 3½-hour encounter in committee room two boiled down to one question for Martin: What on earth possessed you to go on the telly and tell everyone the truth?

Martin was summoned by the committee after she refrained on Prime Time from expressing confidence in RTÉ’s chairwoman, Siún Ní Raghallaigh. This was followed within hours by the latter’s resignation.

Repeatedly and incorrectly

It has since transpired that the former chairwoman had repeatedly and incorrectly assured the Minister during meetings on Monday and Wednesday last week that she and the RTÉ board had played no role in rubber-stamping goodbye deals worth hundreds of thousands of euro to the broadcaster’s former director of strategy, Rory Coveney, and financial director Richard Collins.

Thus, on Monday evening, Martin had unwittingly misinformed journalists at a press conference that the board was uninvolved in the controversial agreements, the details of which remain under the seal of legal confidentiality clauses.

It was not the Minister alone who had been misled but every citizen of the State, who are the owners of RTÉ through the Minister’s sole shareholding.

The right thing to do was to correct the public record. Doing so would make it obvious that Martin had been misinformed.

Politicians have been rushing to media microphones advocating the people’s entitlement to know how much the pay-off packages cost. The committee – to its credit – had discovered the previous week that Rory Coveney, the brains behind the Toy Show the Musical flop, received a farewell handshake which is reckoned to be about €200,000, despite his departure from Montrose last summer having been presented as a resignation. By Tuesday night, though, some committee members seemed to have decided that the less juicy matters of procedures and accountability were best left to a discreet silence.

“You were very forthcoming with the answer when Miriam O’Callaghan put it to you about the role of the board. In other words, it didn’t have to be dragged out of you,” remarked Christopher O’Sullivan, a normally impressive first-time TD. “Do you regret being so open and honest about it live on air?” Then he added, as if general absolution is a given for political subterfuge. “But, sure, look, all politicians are accused of being experts at evading questions.”

“What was the hurry about going on Prime Time? You didn’t need to be there,” said Thomas Gould, after Martin stated she had made a commitment two days earlier to appear on the programme.

“You could have backed out of Prime Time ... This is politics,” said Senator Shane Cassells.

“A little bit of misinformation” was how Senator Timmy Dooley characterised Ní Raghallaigh’s persistent denials that she or RTÉ’s board had been involved in agreeing secret walking-away money.

The barminess of the situation would have fitted right into a Callan’s Kicks sketch. Here were politicians baying for full disclosure from RTÉ and decrying its “drip-feed” of information amid a welter of scandals distinguished by secrecy and cover-up while, at the same time, chastising the Minister for her public candour.

If RTÉ had been truthful about Ryan Tubridy’s payments in the first place and if the organisation had operated with openness and frankness, the series of unfortunate events that has unfolded in the past eight months would not have happened.

“I believe a Minister must be truthful,” Martin countered with a riposte as shocking to the body politic as an electric volt. Maybe “it’s a problem”, she posited, that politicians are accustomed to evading questions.

The doublespeak did not stop with the selective dispensability of transparency. That the departed chairwoman had not given her Minister accurate and relevant information about three different matters on “numerous” occasions, according to Martin’s version of events, seemed not to bother the questioners, with the exception of Senator Micheál Carrigy.

Dogged professionalism

One of the constant refrains emanating from Leinster House since June has been concern that RTÉ’s cosy inner circle and its corporate recklessness rebound on the majority of its employees. Oireachtas members have praised staff for their dogged professionalism in the unrelenting storm of scandals.

But on Tuesday night these sympathetic politicians were berating the Minister out the other side of their mouths for not abruptly cancelling her scheduled television appearance. Had she done so, after learning on her way to the studio that the press was about to report that Ní Raghallaigh had misinformed her, she would have left the Prime Time team in the lurch, frantically trying to fill its main slot as the programme was about to go on air.

We are living through a dangerous time of propaganda, of accurate information being arbitrarily dismissed as misinformation to suit biased narratives, and of lies being peddled as truths. The damage this disregard for honesty can inflict is visible in the flames that have been licking buildings around the country that were targeted, in various instances, because some anti-immigrant agitators falsely claimed they were earmarked to house asylum seekers. There is a tinderbox in our midst that grows bigger and more explosive the more facts are relegated. In this climate, Martin’s Leinster House colleagues should be lauding her for her openness, not using it as a stick with which to beat her.

She summed up the hypocrisy succinctly when she asked the committee: “What was the alternative? For me to conceal the facts?”

The answering silence rumbled as ominously as an approaching superstorm.


Thursday, February 29, 2024

Yulia Navalnaya promises to continue her husband’s work

Powerful words from Yulia Navalnaya after the death of her husband Alexei Navalny:

 "I will carry on Alexei Navalny's fight. I will continue to fight for our country. And I urge you to stand by my side. To share not only bitterness and endless pain but also rage, anger and hatred towards those who dared to kill our future.

"I am addressing you with the words of Alexei, in which I believe very much: 'It is not a shame to do little, it is a shame to do nothing, it is a shame to allow yourself to be intimidated.

"We must use every opportunity to fight against war, corruption, and injustice, to struggle for fair elections and freedom of speech, and to fight to get our country back.

"Keep on fighting, and do not give up. I am not afraid - and you should not be scared of anything either.”

The funeral of  Alexey Navalny will be held in Moscow on Friday.

Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya announced the funeral date yesterday. She said she was unsure if it would pass off peacefully and that plans for a civil memorial service had been blocked.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Bishop clarifies nature of blessing given to same-sex couple

Confusing is one word that comes to mind. Aspects of this must remind the reader of fadó fadó when ‘dodgy’ Catholic weddings took place in the sacristy early in the morning.

There’s always that underlying thinking, once no scandal is given it’s ok. ‘The faithful must not be scandalised.'

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-americas/2024/02/bishop-clarifies-nature-of-blessing-given-to-celebrity-same-sex-couple/

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

All your bets are off in posh bookmakers’ shops

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regionals newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

Have you ever been inside a bookmaker’s shop? I have on a number of occasions of late and I have been surprised with what I have seen. 


Before my current visits to the shop my last time would have been fadó fadó. Back then they were dingy places, people smoking, maybe sawdust on the floor and an all-round offending smell. For the non-gambler like me at the time they were not a nice place to be.


No, I have not taken to gambling. I’ve been visiting this particular betting shop while I wait for my bus. 

The bus stop is across the road from the shop. I’m wondering how long it will be before they realise I’m not a betting man and throw me out.


It’s a great place to wait, especially if it is raining. There are lovely soft seats and always a day’s newspaper at hand and indeed, some bookie shops offer free coffee.


The shop I visit has panels of screens showing racing and football games all over the world .You can gamble on anything. I saw one ad offering money back if your team is at any stage two goals up.


I have never been in the shop on my own, there is always someone there and I have never seen a woman betting in the shop. 


On one occasion I was there I counted 10 men fully focused on the job at hand. Silence reigned, as did a great sense of seriousness. There was a newspaper on a table beside a man. He was not reading it but I was scared to ask him if I could have it. And once a bet was won or lost, it was on to the next bet.


Over the last few weeks I have heard on radio and television a number of people speak, about their gambling addiction. 


The gambling problem in Ireland is said to be far worse than feared. Addicts are spending over €1,000 a month on gambling and one in 30 adults have a problem with gambling.


We spend €5.5 billion on gambling in Ireland every year, and half of that sum is spent by people who experience ‘multiple negative effects’ from betting. 


Approximately 12 per cent of Irish adults bet weekly with a bookmaker.


More than 40 per cent of us regularly play the National Lottery. I seldom do it but when I do I’m inclined to do it again the following week. The same goes with the Lotto scratch cards. If I buy one and win €4, I’m inclined to gamble again. I often wonder how close I am to becoming an addict. But so far Alleluia, it hasn’t happened. When Francis was elected pope I put a fiver on Cardinal Mauro Piacenza. Maybe fortunately, for more reasons than one, I lost my bet.


And then there’s the phone. I’ve seen people on trains gambling on their mobiles. And it’s so easy to set up an account and off you go. I wonder do phone gamblers realise that a mere five per cent of phone gamblers come out winning. Gambling is a mug’s game and can be a human disaster.


A number to call if you want to rid yourself of the addiction is 1800 936 725. Good luck and don’t be afraid to seek help. Good luck.

Featured Post

Garda Vetting system is a shocking waste of resources

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column. Michael Commane I want to explain to you something the Irish State is doing that is...