Having fun reading a brain teaser

This has been doing the rounds as a meme on WhatsApp. It’s good fun, interesting too.

Note the words below. Initially, you will have difficulty reading them. However, gradually your brain will interpret the words correctly. Please give a chance for these words to speak to your brain. 

Here we go!

7H15                    M3554G3

 

53RV35          7O      PR0V3

 

H0W         0UR      M1ND5      C4N

 

D0         4M4Z1NG       7H1NG5!

 

1MPR3551V3            7H1NG5!

 

1N        7H3       B3G1NN1NG

 

17        WA5      H4RD      BU7

 

N0W,       0N    7H15       LIN3

 

Y0UR         M1ND      1S

 

R34D1NG 17         4U70M471C4LLY

 

W17H0U7            3V3N

 

7H1NK1NG      4B0U7     17,

 

B3      PROUD!        0NLY

 

C3R741N          P30PL3     C4N

 

R3AD           7H15!

 

PL3453         F0RW4RD     1F

 

U      C4N      R34D      7H15

This is a very good example of a brain study: If you can read this, your mind is still young and has no Parkinson, congrats!

Lovely brain teaser.

Try reading it over meaningfully. You will really enjoy...

A Christmas cake that arrives in Mid-April

This week’s Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

My Christmas cake arrived last Wednesday week. No, I have not lost my mind.

Indeed, it reminded me of fadó fadó when the family turkey would arrive by post in December. My granduncle never failed to send us a turkey for our Christmas dinner.

Back to the story of the April delivery of a Christmas cake. When I first went working at The Kerryman newspaper I became friendly with the mother of a Dominican colleague. Paul Lawlor is a Dominican, now working in Newbridge but spent many years at the Irish Dominican Priory in Tehran. 

I had the great privilege on one occasion to visit Paul in the Islamic Republic of Iran. I visited the holy city of Qom and was also in Isfahan and Shiraz, what a beautiful country and what amazing people.

On my return from Iran I was able to tell Paul’s mother, Lally, all about Paul, the great work he was doing and how he so loved the people and the country. It meant we became great friends and then when she moved to a nursing home I’d regularly call to see her and subsequently met other members of her family. 

I struck up a friendship with her daughter, two other sons and a daughter-in-law. It might have been my charm, but I doubt it, Lally’s daughter-in-law, Marianne at one Christmas went to the great trouble of making me a Christmas cake. 

And ever since it has become ‘custom and practice’ that I have a Christmas cake delivered to my door either immediately before or after Christmas. It’s a treat I have now become accustomed to and indeed, I’d be quite annoyed, I would even take umbrage if Marianne’s cake was not delivered to my door.

It was a given every year before Covid struck. Inter-county travel was prohibited. I couldn’t get to Kerry and Marianne or members of her family could not get to Dublin. During one of the breaks when restrictions were lifted Marianne’s son Cormac went down to Kerry.

He brought the cake back to Dublin just before Christmas. What happens? The five kilometre rule comes into play. We live more than five kilometres apart, so no cake delivery.

Within days of the five kilometre restriction being lifted last month Cormac arrives at my door with his mother’s Christmas Cake. At last I have it. It’s wrapped in many layers of greaseproof paper and tinfoil. Cormac has checked it and assures me it is in perfect condition. And so it is. 

That same evening I do an official cake-cutting ceremony. It’s the usual high standard and now I’m looking forward to Christmas cake-eating in May.

Having taken off the layers of protective covering I go looking for a suitable tin in which to place the cake. I eventually find the very same tin in which my mother kept her Christmas Cake. Older people may remember those green and white round tins with Marsh Mallow written on them.

I’m thinking of my mother, I’m thinking of my granduncle. So much of our lives revolve around our memories and what we did and didn’t do. And then that extraordinary bond with our parents and family. 

A day never passes when I don’t think of my parents.

Not a passport in the house and nowhere to go

There has been a significant backlog in issuing passports.

In mid-April there was a backlog of 92,000 but by Thursday of last week that number had been reduced to 89,000.

According to media reports 44,000 of the applications in the backlog were from people living in the Republic of Ireland.

Covid is a significant contributing factor to the backlog. Brexit too is not helping.

But why right now would anyone want a passport?

Today is World Press Freedom Day.

The future for children expelled from school

Two thirds of prisoners in English jails were expelled from school.

According to an 1997 study 77 per cent of prisoners  never sat a public examination, 80 per cent left school before the age of 16, 71 per cent were users of hard drugs, 81 per cent never married and 72 per cent had fathered children.

The Red flag flies high over Berlin on May Day 1945

On this day, May 1, 1945 a

German newsreader officially announced that Adolf Hitler had "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery  fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany”. 

That same day a soldier of the victorious Red Army raises the Soviet flag over that same Reich Chancellery.

The world could breathe again. The job was done. 

RTÉ interruptions while the station closes its DAB service

RTÉ Radio is announcing these days that it is carrying out technical work at its Three Rock transmitter and is advising people in the Dublin area served by Three Rock that there will be interruption to service and they should retune into the Kippure transmitter.

On April 1 RTÉ discontinued broadcasting on its DAB system.

This month German radio magazine Das Magazin has an editorial on the move over to DAB+. It points out how slow the changeover from FM to DAB is taking and says that all cars since the end of 2020 must be fitted with DAB radios.

What exactly is RTÉ doing by closing down its DAB transmission, which has been available for a number of years in the Dublin, Cork and Limerick areas?

And there has been little or no news coverage on this topic.

The unbelievable easiness of a revolution

Last evening ARD, German television  showed a wonderful film about a group of young people, tired and disappointed with life in the former GDR.

The protest began with an environmental aspect, with the young people objecting to the solution in the rive Pleise in Leipzig. They met in a Protestant church in the city. At first the minister objected to their political overtures.

They were all young, some of them still in school. Some went to jail on trumped up charges.

In the end their enthusiasm, their idealism, their youthfulness won out and defeated an old worn-out establishment that had nothing more, nothing new to offer the people.

Watching it, it was impossible not to think in sadness of the state of churches today in Ireland.

Arms of the poor are being bypassed in favour of the rich

This is a startling reality.

People living in high- and upper middle-income countries represent 83 percent of all those who have received Covid vaccination.

A mere 0.2 per cent of Covid vaccines have been administered in low-income countries.

From the moral high ground to the ditch

This week’s Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

In November 2018 I stopped driving my 00 Toyota Corolla. In 14 years it had never once let me down. 

During the previous 12 months I had clocked up less than 700 kilometres. When it came to insuring it on the first day in December I gave it a miss and the car was parked up outside my door for a number of months before a friend of mine collected it and brought it down to West Kerry. The plan was that I would use it when I was down in the summer but that never materialised. I’m told it’s in good running order and the perfect car to drive to Sunday Mass.

I managed fine without the car, that is until Covid descended on us. Over the last year I have been a little nervous about using public transport.

I decided I needed a car and bought one in February.

Since the Christmas lockdown I have been unable to go hill-walking so every Saturday afternoon I have gone for an approximately 10 kilometre urban walk with a friend. We’ve had great walks and I have learned interesting aspects about nearby buildings, roads and bridges.

Saturday, April 17 was the first day I had the opportunity to drive the new car more than five kilometres from my home.

The plan was to walk around the two lakes at Bohernabreena, which is just a few short kilometres outside Tallaght. En route I collected my walking friend.

It was a stunning day. But my worst worries were confirmed. There was not a space to be had in the small car park. We drove off, planning to head up around the side of the lakes and out on over the 

Featherbed and over towards Kippure for a walk.  

We were on an extremely narrow road. A car with a larger than life L plate comes against us. It is not a question of being on the other side of the road as there is only one side to this laneway.

The L driver is hesitant to retreat so I decide I better reverse. 

Everything about my car is new to me. I’m nervous. The handbrake is an electric button, which I haven’t yet managed to master. My friend jumps out of the car and guides my reversing. As I’m slowly reversing, the cars in front and behind begin to build up. Three big motorbikes come towards me, one of the bikers gives me a dirty look, which doesn’t help.

I’m hugging the ditch until I hug it too closely and hear that scratching sound. Nothing to do but drive the car forward and out of the ditch before reversing again. Ever so slowly I inch backwards until I find a space where I can allow the oncoming traffic to pass. 

Am I glad to see them all head off into the sunset.

I decide not to get out and see if I had marked the car. My friend assures me it is a very slight scratch. I have enough of traffic and driving. I turn the car around and drive home.

Isn’t it extraordinary I never missed a Saturday walk since Christmas and the first Saturday I can use the car I have to abandon my walk. 

There’s a moral somewhere in that story.

At least when I had no car I felt I was on some sort high moral ground instead of the ditch.

€1.48 trillion spend on weapons while Covid surges

There was a fire in an Iraqi hospital at the weekend, which caters for Covid patients.

At least 29 people were killed in the fire.

The Indian hospital system is unable to cope with the current Covid surge.

And the Indian story is being replicated in other countries around the world.

Has it dawned on any of us the billions we spend on weapons of destruction?

The money that has been wasted on weaponry in Iraq is a scandal. India is a world nuclear power.

Across the world we see pictures every evening of old, outdated dirty hospital equipment.

Isn’t it time the world made a decision to spend money on keeping people alive, and keeping them alive in a manner in keeping with human dignity, rather than keeping them in poverty and killing them. 

Global spending on weapons reached record levels last year despite the economic ravages of the coronavirus with China, where the pandemic  began, leading the arms race in Asia by a considerable margin.

Research carried out by The International Institute for Strategic Studies  (IISS) shows that the amount spent on defence  globally went up to  €1.48 trillion, a rise of almost four per cent in real terms over 2019. 

Boris Johnson - a ‘vacuum of integrity'

Dominic Grieve was Attorney General for England and Wales from 2010 to 2014. He was an MP from 1997 to 2019.

Grieve was a staunch EU supporter and lost his seat in 2019 when he stood as an independent candidate for Beaconsfield, where he had been sitting MP since 1997.

On Dominic Cummings blistering attack on UK prime minister Boris Johnson, Grieve described Johnson on a BBC radio 4 news programme yesterday as ‘a vacuum of integrity’.

It is brilliant. And when we meet such people, people we suspect to be dishonest, crooked, malevolent this description of Grieve's makes such perfect sense. 

The real meaning of service

The Thinking Anew column in The Irish Times today.

Michael Commane

I’m writing this column on a stunning April day. Summer beckons. 

Over two million people in Ireland have been vaccinated. New life is at a fledgling moment. Blossoms make their first appearance of the year, reminding us to be gentle with our environment.  

Sheep give birth and the newborn lambs are gambolling in the fields. 

Tomorrow’s Gospel of the Good Shepherd  (John 10: 11 - 18) throws a welcome light on the strange time in which we are living.

I have seen first-hand over the last 12 months the dedicated service of hospital staff and how they have come through as good shepherds during this Covid crisis. Their work is replicated across the country.

In the first reading in tomorrow’s liturgy (Acts 4: 8 - 12) Peter – exuberant about Jesus rising from the dead and filled with the Holy Spirit –  tells the rulers and elders that they should not be surprised how kind he and his companions are. Their kindness knows no bounds. They manage to cure a cripple but quickly point out that it is through the power of Jesus Christ that they do it.

The Gospel is the story of the Good Shepherd, the person who lays down his life for his sheep. We are all called to be Good Shepherds.

During Holy Week I was ‘surfing’ religious sites and came across a saying from  Fr Leo Trese, born 1902 - died 1970, a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit. He said this: “The only epitaph a priest should want on his headstone is that he was kind.’ Fr Trese’s life spanned great events including two world wars. 

Every generation sees changes. We in Ireland have seen major changes over the last 50 years, including significant changes in our attitudes towards our faith. The church is in crisis. But maybe the church of its nature needs to be in a state of crisis?

There are many facets to this crisis of faith. There is a palpable division within Christian communities. There are serious divisions within sacramental priesthood. There is a growing polarisation, which manifests itself when it comes to discussion on the celebration of the sacraments. Some young priests see their older colleagues as having let down the church  and are now attempting to return to a pre-Vatican II era. That can only lead to further division and failure.

In the second reading from the First Letter to St John (3: 1 - 2) we are told we are all God’s children. All Christians are part of the priesthood of the baptised.

People with different opinions and ideas must  speak to one another, in a spirit of openness and respect.

What’s the job of the priest? To live and speak about the Gospel? But isn’t that the task of all baptised Christians?

Priesthood has to do more than that, to give service, a service that entails nudging people towards God. The priest does this through the celebration of the sacraments with specific emphasis on the Eucharist, where he acts in the person of Christ. But the sacraments should be  celebrated in a way that make sense to the Christian community. 

In last week’s Gospel (Luke 24: 35 - 48) Christ’s  disciples recognised him in the breaking of bread. Has the Eucharist a similar significance for us? Sacraments link the human with the divine. 

There is urgent need for dialogue, for a forum where all baptised people can talk openly and honestly and respectfully  about their search and journey towards God. The kindness of St Peter and his companions must play an important part in the life of every Christian and suffuse our dealings with each other. 

One of the striking characteristics of Peter and his companions, who act in the person of Christ, was their kindness in bringing comfort and healing to the sick. 

The Good Shepherd, the Christ-like figure at the back of the queue might well play a far more significant role than we acknowledge. 

The Good Shepherd embodies the real meaning of service. When we encounter faith-filled service we know we have been privileged to witness the un-showy  work of the Good Shepherd. And we encounter it in so many different forms, places and settings.

Tomorrow’s Gospel is a timely reminder for us to thank all those who have helped and shepherded us to get through these, the strangest of times. 

Fr Martin Bormann with Dominican connections

On this day, April 23, 1945 Martin Bormann and Joseph Goebbels advised Hitler that the telegram sent by Hermann Göring to Hitler asking permission to take leadership of the Third Reich was treasonous. 

Bormann died by suicide as the Red Army advanced on Berlin Mitte. His body was later found at Lehrter Rail Station, where now stands Berlin’s Main Rail station

Martin Bormann’s son, called Martin Adolf, converted to Catholicism, joined the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and was ordained a priest in 1958.  He spent some time working in the Belgian Congo. He also taught in an Austrian boarding school.

In 1969 he had a near fatal road accident. As a result of that accident he met Dominican Sister Cordelia, whom he married in 1971.

In 2011 Bormann was accused by a former pupil of raping him. Bormann was suffering from dementia and no case was taken against him. Other former pupils accused him of physical violence.

Bormann died in 2013 in Herdecke in North Rhine Westfalia.

The three of them

After a difficult day to come out the main door of the hospital to see this. What’s

to be said or done?

And they were so cheeky about everything. They took no notice of anyone near them. People tried to separate them, no chance.

Nature.

Today is Earth Day.  https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2021/

The East German car called after Martin Luther

The Irish Times of Tuesday carried an article by theologian Gessa Thiessen titled ‘Luther was willing to die for his belief in God'.

In the piece she quotes from his famous speech at the Diet of Worms. The last sentence in that speech goes: “Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen’.

That has sometimes been translated as: “Here I stand; I can go no further.’

During the life of the German Democratic Republic the two most popular cars were the Trabant and the Wartburg, the Wartburg being the more ‘luxurious’ of the two.

The Wartburg was built in Eisenach, which is near the Wartburg castle where Martin Luther translated the Bible.

One of the tools the East Germans had for surviving and turning a blind eye to their government was to make jokes about their poor standard of living. 

They nicknamed the Wartburg ‘The Martin Luther Wagen’ because just as Luther could no no further, the Wartburg too could go no further. In other words its best-known attribute was to break down.

Council gloves that proved the perfect fit

This week’s Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

I keep saying it, it’s the small things that make the difference. And so often we can be oblivious to them.

Jesuit priest Peter McVerry was interviewed on the Tommy Tiernan Show on Easter Saturday. At one stage during the interview Tommy asked Peter what advice would he give when one encounters someone begging on the street. Peter McVerry made an interesting point. He said that even if we don’t want to part with any of our money, any time we pass someone begging we should make a point of saying hello to them.

Being pleasant never goes amiss.

Some days earlier I had an eye test at 8.30am. It was one of those extremely cold days. It was a five kilometre cycle from house to destination and unwisely I had never thought of taking a pair of gloves with me.

It was freezing. In fact it was quite extraordinary. I  seldom if ever wear gloves even in deep winter and yet on this morning in early April my fingers were numb. 

Just as I parked my bicycle outside the shop I met a council worker pushing one of those electric rubbish carts. He was wearing standard safety gloves for the job. The cheeky person that I am I asked him if he might have a spare pair as my hands were freezing. He went to the trouble of looking in the different compartments of the cart, unfortunately he could find nothing. But he was so nice and friendly.

We had a chat about the cold day. And we both agreed that it was most unseasonable weather.

We had parted company and I was a few metres away when he called me back. He found a pair of disposable plastic gloves in his pocket and offered them to me. He said they would do the job as they were waxed. I was delighted with myself as I had another five kilometre cycle to work so the gloves would do the job.

Sitting in the waiting room for my eye test I could not believe how cold my fingers still were.

I appreciated my new disposable wax gloves. Okay, I can hear you say that the man should not have given me the gloves as they were the property of the council. Correct and technically speaking I should not have taken them. But really is that the world we want to live in? 

It might be the world of good practice and propriety but really is it not a tad draconian?

I still remember in philosophy class fadó fadó the lecturer introducing us to the word epikeia. It’s that principle in ethics which says that a law can be broken to achieve a greater good. My refuse cleaner knew his philosophy.

Some days later I told a council worker the story of the gloves. He smiled and told me he often gives gloves on cold mornings to homeless people when he passes them in on the street.

I was back thinking of what Peter McVerry had said on the Tommy Tiernan Show.

A kind word, a kind act never goes astray. And think also of the great marketing job those two council workers did. At least for me, their kindness far surpassed any slick marketing campaigns or expensive advertising.

Disaster headlines can be seductive

Pat Leahy in his column in The Irish Times on Saturday wrote:

“The lure of disaster headlines is great but it pays to pause, consider the context and take a breath before making decisions or pronouncements."

A day in the life

On this day in 1941 the President of Ireland was born. Eight years later, 1949 also on April 18 Ireland was declared a republic.

On April 18, 1964 Scottish historian Niall Ferguson was born.

German-American engineer and physicist Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955

Today is International Day for Monuments and Sites.

Tempus fugit.

Russia sends troops west during historic days

On this day, April 17, 1945 the Soviet Army made its final push on Berlin.

They attacked from the south and the east, encircling the city after successful battles at Halbe and on the Seelow Heights.

On Hitler's birthday, April 20 Georgi Zhukov's First Belorussian Front began to shell the city centre.

On April 23 Helmuth Weidling took charge of all German forces in Berlin.

On April 25 the Red Army joined up with the US Army at Torgau on the Rive Elbe.

The Red Army lost 100,000 troops in the Battle of Berlin. German casualties are unknown.

Is it a coincidence that Russia has in these days sent over 80,000 troops to Crimea and the Ukrainian border?

Priest favours Xi Jinping over Micheál Martin

Below is a link to a Mass celebrated yesterday in the Dominican church in Newbridge, Co Kildare.

In the sermon the celebrant, Fr John Harris says the Irish Government treats the Catholic Church in a more draconian way than the Chinese government under the leadership of Xi Jinping treats Chinese Catholics.

Is this a first for Micheál Martin to be compared in such terms to Xi Jinping?

Is it Covid that is making people say strange things? Probably not.

https://youtu.be/njSvkUmHjAo

John Allen speaks kind words about Ratzinger and Küng

This is an interesting piece by Catholic observer John Allen.

It includes pieces on Pope Benedict and Hans Küng.

Pope Benedict is 94 today.

https://youtu.be/LyQAnHuag38

A worrying error on new Dublnbikes app

Dublinbikes have launched a new app.

But there is at least one major fault with the app, which causes great worry and concern to Dublinbike users.

In the My Usage Statistic it gives details of one's usage. But the facts, figures and details are all incorrect. It shows the times and duration of your usage. These statistics are all incorrect.

Dublinbikes is aware of this error and continues to leave the app available. It should be corrected immediately.

A customer could easily think that their card has been cloned and that they are paying for a service they have not used.

Any attempt to phone Dublinbikes is a torturous experience.

A number of the new battery assisted bikes are now available at all stations.

It will be interesting to see will the new battery- operated bikes be successful.

The picture above shows one of the new battery assisted Dublinbikes.

"Little England has always been for the little people"

The Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole had an interesting piece in his paper yesterday.

He writes about Prince Philip and how he was in fact a rootless cosmopolitan, about which the culture warriors of the right have ignored.

He "reminds the reader how during the Brexit debate the then prime minister Theresa May attacked those who "have more in common with international elites than with the people down the road."

O'Toole retells how May warned the electorate "if you believe you're a citizen of the world, you're a citizen of nowhere."

He explains how the story around Prince Philip allows us to see how bogus the whole anti-elitist, anti-cosmopolitan, anti-European, anti-immigrant discourse around Brexit really is.

A powerful final sentence: "Little England has always been for the little people."

Ominous signs coming out of China

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

On April Fool’s Day I read a report in a national newspaper about RTÉ reporter Yvonne Murray packing her bags and leaving China. Unfortunately it was anything but an April Fool’s joke. Instead it is a true story that I for one find extremely frightening and should cause the world great concern.

For over a year or so Yvonne has appeared on our television screens reporting from China and giving first-hand accounts and analysis of what might have happened at Wuhan where Covid-19 first reared its ugly head.

Her husband is well known BBC correspondent John Sudworth.

The couple, who have been living in China for nine years left the country at the end of March and are now living in the nearby island of Taiwan.

They left the People’s Republic of China because they were getting concerned about their safety.

It was becoming more and more difficult for them to renew their visas and then the day they left home to go to the airport to travel to Taiwan they said they were followed all the way to the airport by Chinese security services.

Mainland China claims ‘ownership’ of Taiwan which is also known as the Republic of China. Since 1971 the United Nations recognises Mainland China and today most of the big powers have diplomatic relations with Mainland China and no embassies in Taiwan. The Holy See is one of a small number of countries who continue to have an embassy in Taiwan.

The Holy See is currently in negotiations with the Beijing government in setting up diplomatic relations. In 2018 the Vatican and the Chinese government did a deal on the appointment of bishops in China. 

The story of the Catholic Church in China is complicated and right now the Vatican’s top diplomat Cardinal Pietro Parolin is in delicate negotiations with Beijing. Indeed, he has many critics within the church for his diplomatic overtures towards the Communist government in China.

Xi Jinping has been president of the People’s Republic since 2013 and in 2018 the Chinese legislature reappointed Xi as president but on this occasion there is no time limit to his period of power. 

He’s China’s strong man.

Since 2015 the government in Beijing has interned over one million Uighers. The Uighers are Chinese Muslims who mainly live in the northwest of the country. 

Beijing claims all that they are doing is trying to put a stop to Islamist terrorism and the camps are places of re-education. The Uighers, opposition Chinese journalists and their counterparts in the West claim the camps are more akin to concentration camps.  The stories coming out of the camps do not make for pleasant reading.

It would seem that China is becoming an ever more secret and dark place.

It has reneged on the agreement it made with the UK over the governance of Hong Kong.

These days it is making loud noises about its claims on Taiwan. Indeed, it can’t be long before it makes moves on its neighbouring island.

How long will it be before Yvonne Murray and her family will have to pack their bags and move yet again?

Johnson’s lies and inaction offer no help in Northern Ireland

This piece by Jonathan Powell is one of the best pieces yet written on the current violence in Northern Ireland.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/11/boris-johnson-posturing-has-put-northern-ireland-fragile-peace-at-grave-risk

Live simply and love generously

"Live simply, love generously"

Peter McVerry, Jesuit priest who works with and for the homeless in Dublin.

The comment was made on RTÉ's Tommy Tiernan Show on Saturday evening.

Killenaule woman makes history at Aintree

As Minella Times was being led into the winner's enclosure at Aintree yesterday, having won the Grand National, winning jockey Rachael Blacmore was asked a question about being the first woman to win the race replied smilingly: " I don't feel male or female, not even human. This is just unbelievable."

Later in an interview, together with trainer Henry De Bromhead, she said when she was a child she never imagined sh'e get a ride in this race. "This is the race that captures every young person."

"Jumping the second last I was thinking I'm still going well here. I slightly let myself think it might happen but you have to cross the line too.

"It is an unimaginable feeling, you can't even get close to dreaming about it."

Winning trainer Henry de Bromhead gave Rachael her great praise, adding with a laugh: "She might become a bit of a prima donna.

Just before she headed off for her next race, Rachel said: "I can't believe I'm Rachael Blackmore. I never thought this would be possible for me."

When asked what advice she would give young girls, she said: "Keep your dreams big."

It makes no sense to say the media is truly free

This comment was posted in response to a blog on The Future of the Media Commission on March 10. It deserves mention.

In 1960 AJ Liebling wrote that the freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one. 

Freedom of the press, as we normally understand it, does not guarantee access of the public to the press, nor the truth of what is written or said. 

The reality is that the press is not truly free. The media tend to be in thrall to their owners or shareholders. 

Business interests are consistently reflected in the choices media make when reporting. 

There is scant coverage of poverty. In fact, celebrities garner far more coverage than the poor or homeless. 

We have no guarantee that society will be well served by the press. Look at tabloid journalism in the UK, or Murdoch’s media empire in Australia, or the political cesspit that is AM radio in the USA. 

These are all perversions of what a free press ought to be, yet their outputs are consumed daily by millions.

Ireland has already headed down the path of “infotainment” and so-called “reality tv”. Neither promises us much for the future.

Investigation into behaviour of Polish Dominican priest

This is a link to an article in the current issue of Crux.

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2021/04/dominicans-in-poland-launch-investigation-of-abusive-priest/

RTÉ hands out licence payers' money in defamation case

According to a report in yesterday's media RTÉ has paid in excess of €150,000 to Sinn Féin TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire in settlement of a defamation case.

The Cork South Central TD took High Court action against the State broadcaster last summer following comments made about him on the Joe Duffy Liveline programme.

In another case RTÉ agreed to pay €20,000 to a charity for comments they made  about the murder of Lyra McKee.

Before Monday evening's Prime Time there was much razzmatazz about the new format of the programme. The set was confusing and far too busy. What did anyone learn from the show?

It was difficult to know exactly what Heath Minister Stephen Donnelly was trying to say with all the interruptions from Sarah McInerney.

The programme was worse than a damp squib.

RTÉ is a public service broadcaster.

Is the licence payer getting value for money?

It's relatively easy for RTÉ to pay out other people's money for defamation cases.

World renowned theologian Hans Küng dies in Tübingen

World-renowned theologian and church critic Hans Küng died on Tuesday in the German city of Tübingen. He was 92 years of age. He had been suffering from Parkinsons for a number of years.

Pope John XXIII appointed Küng an adviser at the Second Vatican Council (1962 - 1965) along with the then Joseph Ratzinger.

The president of the German Bishops Conference Georg Bätzing praised Küng as a recognised and combative researcher, who stood by his convictions.

The president of Baden-Württemberg, Green politician Winfried Kretschmann praised Küng for his work in dialoguing between religions and cultures.

He saw him as a guiding inspiration for many people, including himself and recognised his world-status in questions of faith, in matters concerning ethics.

Küng was born in Switzerland in 1928. He began his theological studies in Rome when he was 20. After a short period as a curate in Luzern he started out on his academic research in Münster.

In 1960 he was appointed a professor in Tübingen where he was to spend the rest of his life.