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The Sunbeam pictured after the storm [Image: Seán Mac an tSíthigh]
THE NATIONAL MONUMENTS Service is taking steps to protect the wreck of a 150-year-old schooner dislodged from its century-old resting place off the coast of Kerry and washed up on a beach as a result of last weekend’s storms.
The ‘Sunbeam’ — built in England in 1860 — was driven ashore amid high winds while on a voyage from Co Cork in 1903 with no loss of life.
Over the intervening decades, the wreck has become something of an attraction on Rossbeigh Beach, with photographers regularly making trips to the site to capture images of the ship’s skeletal remains poking from beneath the sand in the shallows.
Local photographer Matthew Murphy, who lives nearby, believes he may have captured the last image of the ship before it was dislodged:
[Image: Matthew Murphy Photography]
He gave an account of the scene on Saturday evening via Facebook:
I took this last Saturday evening just as the tide was coming in. I literally had a minute to get a shot. No time for composition or anything like that and between the wind and splashes I was lucky to get anything. It was crazy weather and the tide was coming in faster than I had ever seen it. I literally had to run out of there.
I’m just glad that I had captured something that evening, because who would have know that just a short while later and after 111 years The Sunbeam would move again.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Murphy said that concerns had been raised locally after several planks and fittings from the wreck went missing.
Officials from the Monuments Service have been carrying out an inspection of the site this morning, and will then decide on the next steps to be taken. One of the options being considered is reburying it once again at a site close to its original resting spot.
Gardaí are warning people not to interfere with the wreck while it’s on the beach, as the ship is protected under the National Monuments Act. The penalty for a breach of the act includes a fine of up to €50,000 and/or a term of up to 12 months in prison.
Another view of the post-storm Sunbeam [Image: Martin Ficken]
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Typical us president bad news at home , emails over Ukraine , start a war to deflect
@bmul: the movie Wag the dog comes to mind, except unfortunately this is real.
@bmul: The Iranians have been stoking the fires in Iraq for some time. Soleimani was the man who directed all Iranian backed terrorist activity in Iraq and beyond.
An American contractor was recently killed during a rocket attack committed by a terrorist group who take their orders from this man.
Many would say he got was was coming to him.
You play with fire, you get burned!
Also, an all out war with Iran is very unlikely as the Iranian regime knows it would not survive it. They will revert to their usual role of pulling the terrorist strings in the background. The Islamic regime is too busy killing their own people at the moment and trying to put an end to country wide protests over the state of the economy. Iran is in a precarious situation economically due to years of crippling sanctions.
Plus, the Iranians know now that they are not dealing with Obama. There will be no appeasement. Soleimani’s death will have all high profile members of the regime extremely worried.
Trump doesn’t need a war anyway. Killing this high profile terrorist is more then enough to play to his base.
As for problems at home. Trump doesn’t seem to care about impeachment. He knows the Senate will never convict and unless the Democrats get their act together he’s looking at another 4 years in office.
@bmul: Iran’s modus operandi under Soleimani was to focus on building a regional power-base in order to make a US presence in the region more costly, less sustainable. This policy extended to “militia groups” under the indirect control of the Qud’s Force and extended to these groups not attacking American interests outside of the Middle East, which they have largely adhered to. No longer, I suspect.
Which is what makes this such a surprising move. Given the primary purpose of fighting this war in the Middle East was to avoid fighting it at home this is possibly the most counter-productive move the US has made in the last 20 years. American people and their interests outside the Middle East, possibly even America itself, will now be viewed as legitimate targets by people with actual means to strike at them.
The American response to such attacks is predictable to the extent that I suspect we have already passed the point of no return and a new Gulf War is fast approaching.
@John Considine: That last should have been @Will, obviously!
@John Considine: “a new Gulf War is fast approaching.”
The only way a war happens is if the Iranians decide to commit suicide. They are too calculating for that. Do you honestly see the Mullahs going all in for war based on the death of one general, no matter how loyal he was?
The western media seems to want a war just so they can blame Trump for it.
@Will: that’s the kind of confident assessment that assumes all wars are begun based upon rational decisions. You also seem to fail to take account of the standing this man had in iran. He was at least the second most popular figure in iran and his assassination will almost definitely invoke some response from iran. And as any student of history can tell you, tit for tat attacks are what lead to war. Iran is well used to enduring suffering and your assumed suicide of them for any response seems to discount their tenacity as well as cultural differences. I dont know if this will lead to all out war but I certainly wouldn’t be espousing your level of confidence that it wont.
@bmul:
Yeah, sure it is.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2020/01/02/leader-of-iranian-backed-siege-of-us-embassy-once-visited-obama-white-house/amp/
What was Obama up to inviting terrorists to the WH?
@Will: Pervious American adventures in the Middle East have always begun from secure footholds in friendly territory with the backing of regional and international allies. Even with these advantages the US wasn’t able to secure either Afghanistan or Iraq.
Iran offers a much tougher proposition:
Unlike previous conflicts Air Superiority is unlikely to obtained without grievous cost as the US would have to fly vs the upgraded S-300 platform for the first time. They will lose planes and pilots, there is a reason that even Israel doesn’t try to penetrate Iranian airspace, as much as they would like to. Not cost-effective – no certainty of success, modern planes are very expensive.
Of greater concern in terms of a ground invasion is that, again unlike previous conflicts, the US will have no soft staging area to build up and prepare for an Iranian invasion. On top of which, continuing instability and previous strategic errors mean they are now desperately short of local allies and frankly I don’t see their traditional European partners rushing to help them this time either.
Overall I believe you are conflating the ability to do something with the will to do it. I don’t think the US has another Vietnam in them and the Iranians would be fighting to defend their way of life. The US wouldn’t be able to divide and conquer like they could with a massively unpopular ruler such as Saddam or in the lawless tribal badlands of Afghanistan where loyalty is just a suitcase full of cash away.
@Raven: Do you even read the sources you post, it’s actually laughable. I get you’re trying to deflect but Al-Amari was an ally of the USA and minister in Iraq in 2011, an Oval Visit would have been completely normal. Fast forward 8 years and the Iraqi’s are sick of the basket case US occupancy, killing their own in airstrikes. Imagine that, he no longer supports the USA and is supporting the will of the Iraqi people.
@John Considine: Israel has flown its F35 undetected into Iranian airspace. It photographed a few bases and gathered intel early last year. The commander of the Iranian airforce got fired over concealing it. Strangely Khamenei said he believed Russia assisted Israel with “codes” for the S300 missile system.
@Clifford Brennan: Yeah, the F-35′s provide a first strike capability alright, but they are also in short supply. The Israelis only have 1 squadron for example, and the US themselves only have 1 squadron currently active in theater, also operating out of Israel. They can’t base them just anywhere either in order to keep the stealth tech secret as long as they can. I’m not convinced the Navy version is fully combat ready yet either but I suppose they could use them if they had to, I believe they claimed as much last year anyway.
Even then though, they have to break stealth to release weapons, so while you may well get them to target undetected you’re certainly not guaranteed to get them all home again.
@bmul: Obama used more drone attacks then any other president and yet no one cared.
For the Donald defenders, the big one was he hasn’t started a war. Well there you have it, an invading power, assassinating a military general while visiting an ally. Uncanny resemblance to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Turkey that started WW1. Iran are allied to Russia and China. Trump has isolated his friends in Europe as well as waging economic war on China. Brought Korean relations to the worst since 1953. He destroyed relations with his next door neighbours in Canada and Mexico. The USA have no friends left and has just started a war a long way from home. It takes decades to build up allies and good international relations, but only 3 years to undo it all apparently. Nice work Don the Con and fair play to anyone who supported him.
@Tom Cullen: not to be picky but FF was assassinated in Sarajevo
@Tom Cullen: Apologies, Bosnia not Turkey. Don’t know why I wrote that. Christmas dinner still on the brain.
@gm_cmanning: You got there before I could correct myself :)
@Tom Cullen: There will be no war with Iran. The Iranians can’t afford it and the Americans don’t need nor want it.
Also, Iran is not allied to either Russia or China. They do business, that’s about it.
A high profile terrorist just met his untimely end, that’s about all that happened.
@Will: Trump pulled out of the JCPOA against the will of the EU and strongly against the wishes of Russia and China. The US then imposed unwarranted sanctions against Iran, a country 8000 miles away and attempted to arrest a prominent Chinese business woman for violating the US self imposed sanctions. Then we move on to the BS that was the Gulf of Oman (2019′s Gulf of Tonkin). Where they messed up was the staged attack on a Japanese Tanker, the same day Shinzo Abe was meeting Ali Khamenei. The target made literally no sense and wasn’t believed by anyone internationally. Then the USA tried to blame the oil refinery attacks in Saudi on Iran, even though Yemeni rebels claimed them and substantiated their claims. Trump is frothing for a war with Iran, but nobody internationally is backing it.
@Tom Cullen: best to stay neutral on this one, leave the fight to other nations as usual and then reap the financial benefits. The Irish way…
@Tom Cullen: they have the UK …….. (Tumbleweed blows)
@Will: Trump is literally action for action, doing what he claimed Obama would do in order to get re-elected for a second term because he “couldn’t negotiate”. Then Obama championed a deal internationally heralded to be a window for peace in the middle East, leaving Trump looking like a smuck.
@Will: I think everyone needs to look at this short clip from 2011. It is a moment that was almost prophetic in the way Trump has led his administration since day one. He was roasted hard in front of the power of the USA in a single room. His body language is one of pure rage as his ego clearly can’t handle it. After getting into power, his policies have been driven by dismantling almost everything Obama did, be them good or bad, it didn’t matter. His hole tenure has been a two fingers to Obama, plain and simple.
@Tom Cullen: If a U.S soldier fell & broke his neck the Americans would say that it was an Iranian Ninja’s that came in the night
@LIAMO B: You forgot the part where they sue Iran and rule $100 million in the soldiers favour, then freeze Iranian assets to pay the compensation.
@Tom Cullen: the brits will follow him where ever he goes.
@Derek Lyster: I’m actually not 100% they will this time. The Iraq war was massively unpopular, they have a massive NHS deficit so can’t afford increased military expenditure, economic uncertainty around the corner with Brexit and just too many domestic problems. In saying that a BS war might be the perfect distraction away from all of the above.
@Tom Cullen: no worries :)
@Tom Cullen: UK did £38 Billion on military 2018.
I’m sure if they needed help to jump in on a war outing the Donald would part with some of his $650 Billion dollar budget would you not think.
@Paul Darby: What do you mean by reap the financial benefits in this case?
@Paul Darby: what’s it got to do with us Irish. We did not drop the bomns in the middle east. Neither are we murdering or starving millions of children to death just to get our hands on their oil
Attacks US forces. Shock and horror when US forces attack back. Did he think he could stare down such a brittle ego as Trumps with these escalating attacks? Very volatile times ahead.
@Clifford Brennan: attacks US forces? Forever reaching, Clifford.
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: Dry your eyes Cormac.
@Clifford Brennan: It’s about proportionate response.
What they have done is the equivalent to assassinating Mike Pompeo.
How exactly is this going to solve ANYTHING!?
@Tricia G: I didn’t claim it would solve anything Tricia. I only asked why he would poke the notoriously fragile ego of Trump?
Not exactly a proportionate response to recent events. Am sure it has nothing to do with Trumpys domestic issues
AMERICA F%€K YEAH!!!
@Randle McMurphy: foff
I THINK BREXIT IS TO BLAME
American foreign policy has not changed one bit over the last 60 70 years even though they have had many presidents. The US foreign policy of Bush, O’Bama and Trump is more or less the same. More bombs, more bullets, more drones record profits for US companies supplying the Dept of defence. Dropping bombs on poor people makes rich people richer.
Most USA politicians & intel are bipartisan pariahs. That’s all there is to say . Ordering assassinations of leaders on behalf of their proxies, starting wars, performing coups , applying ilegal sanctions around the world. They should indeed build a wall but to quarantine themselves.
Time to attack USA, enough is enough. Interfering too much.
@Nicholas O’Halloran: After you Rambo.
@Clifford Brennan: ok trump supporter
@Nicholas O’Halloran: Nope. Please return to your calls for war. Clown.
@Nicholas O’Halloran: how do ya think that’ll go?
@Clifford Brennan: apologies didnt realised Trump could do whatever he wants. P.s I rather be a clown than trump supporter
@Nicholas O’Halloran: Congratulations, you’ve just succeeded in the clown part
@Nicholas O’Halloran: “Time to attack USA”
Are you under 10 by any chance?
@Nicholas O’Halloran: Stop with the hate speech. You could find yourself before the courts.
@Nicholas O’Halloran: strangely enough, if war visited US shores, it might stop the Ametican people from continuously voting for it.
@Nicholas O’Halloran: yea. right.
The biggest treath to peace in the middle East is the U.S.
@LIAMO B: is say it’s Religion. Sunni , Shiite, Christian, Jew.
Trump was only raging that he couldn’t get to join the army years ago because of those pesky bone spurs, now at last he has a chance to play at being at war.
My entire life right back to the 1980s has been Iran & Iraq and how long the US has been pouring petrol on them.
At what stage will we learn?
One thing is certain if there is a war, Donald will be safe while the idiots are getting killed.
@KJmadra.: Without these idiots there can’t be a Memorial day weekend. You have to keep adding fodder.
Beware the trolls on here, seeking to defend the indefensible ie the US and Israel…. and their murderous plotting and scheming, putting innocent populations at risk…
None of u know what u are talking about… How many times have u met the man… None… Exactly so don’t talk about what u don’t know….how many years have u spent in Iraq… None…. So basically u all know nothing….. Anyhow my thoughts and best wishes are with his family and friends… May he rest in peace…..
The Iranians have lost their most important tool against the United States. This is going to weaken them either actually or seemingly and either is not good when they’re waging a major proxy war in Yemen against US allies. They cannot afford at any time to seem weak. I reckon the first thing they will attempt is to blockade some/all US shipping in The Strait of Hormuz. Their capability to organise further attacks alongside the PMU in Iraq and in Yemen are going to be seriously curtailed and they’re going to need to strike out at something, anything, to as to keep looking strong
See my point of view here:
https://creativeself.org/an-explosive-constellation/
have your say