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EACH WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie bring you five stories you really should check out by 5pm.
1. #RIOTS: Prime minister David Cameron has given police free rein to use rubber bullets if they deem them necessary in dealing with any more violence, and said that “phoney concerns over human rights” would not stop the government publishing pictures of people involved. An Ealing man is fighting for his life after being beaten by rioting yobs while he attempted to put out a fire.
Rev Hayley Matthews, a chaplain in Salford, has written about her experiences trying to get home in Salford, outside Manchester, yesterday afternoon. Meanwhile, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (yes, really) has called on the UN Security Council to take action and side with the British people in the riots – saying the country is on the verge of civil war.
The riots have also claimed another surprising victim: the Irish music industry. The fire at a Sony warehouse outside London has destroyed thousands of records owned by independent labels.
2. #MARKETS: It seems the worst may still be to come on the world’s stock markets. After opening brightly this morning, investors had hoped European markets could lead the way out of the current crash – but American markets have plunged in their first few hours of trading, completely wiping out yesterday’s gains and causing even more nervousness in the global economy. Hooray(!).
3. #CONGESTION CHARGE: Transport minister Leo Varadkar has ruled out introducing a Congestion Charge in Ireland’s larger cities, saying they don’t have the public transport necessary to deal with the extra load it would cause. The charge had been recommended by the National Transport Authority, which warned that the volume of cars on the road would become unmanageable otherwise.
4. #CENSURED: A website which sold a range of child-size T-shirts bearing Kate Moss’s controversial “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” motto has been censured. Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint against Zazzle.co.uk, saying its ads were “irresponsible and could cause harm to children”.
5. #FAMILIAR FACES: RTÉ has announced a slew of new programmes in its Autumn schedule – but with many of its same old familiar faces. The likes of Grainne Seoige, Craig Doyle and Zig and Zag will all be back on Irish screens this autumn, joining the likes of Jedward and Mike Murphy, who is coming out of retirement for a new interview series.
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Fascinating as always.
Great article. Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhuit!
I needed to read something like this today. Thank you.
Today, above all other days, we are redefining what it means to be Irish. Our proud, culturally-rich country will rise again, as it has many times before.
For now, a very happy St Patrick’s Day to all of you. Stay safe.
I’ve fed my family by selling Leprechauns (other stuff as well!) in our little Galway shop – we decided to close it for the time being yesterday, safer for staff, immunosuppressed family members and for the general public.
In normal times people from all over the world get to hear me ráméis about Leprechauns and we all enjoy the interaction.
I prefer telling them about Newgrange, Poulnabrone, Gráinne Mhaol, our Poets, our writers and the people of 1916 but the much denigrated Leprechaun is an innocent part of the overall package and, while never giving me a pot of gold, has enabled me to feed a family, pay rent and taxes and allow my suppliers and their employees do the same.
The Tourism business looks like it’s totally screwed this year, just hoping the scraps from our online sales will keep us going.
Beidh lá eile againn!
Great article. Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhuit!
I love these articles by Darach, way more please!
I think we need to break this association of the aos sídhe and fairies. Fairies are a mythological Germanic creature, usually depicted as very diminished in size – typically the size of an outstretched hand – with wings. The aos sídhe were of human size (we don’t know enough about the lúchorpáin) and had no wings. They looked exactly like humans although they were from the Otherworld or the Western World. Tír na nÓg, for example, was a home of the aos sídhe. The banshee is literally a bean sídhe. Sídhe, itself, refers to the mounds and not the mythological creature. Aos sídhe, daoine sídhe, na daoine maithe, etc are all other terms for them.
leprechaun economics
That leprechaun is unnaturally tall.
@D’oh: or those children are unnaturally small. They are mine!
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