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IRISH PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins is today visiting Christchurch in New Zealand to witness the reconstruction efforts in the city which was devastated by an earthquake in 2011.
185 people died in the earthquake, including two Irish citizens. Owen McKenna and John O’Connor lost their lives when buildings collapsed on them. Christchurch GAA renamed and rebranded itself Christchurch McKenna GAA Club in honour of Owen McKenna, from Co Monaghan.
The centre of the city was largely levelled and a massive rebuilding project has been undertaken in recent years.
Around 1,600 Irish-born people were living in the greater Christchurch area in 2013. Over half arrived after the earthquake.
President Higgins will meet with members of the Irish community in Christchurch, including the spouses of John O’Connor and Owen McKenna. He will also visit the Re: Start Mall, a shopping centre made from shipping containers in the wake of the disaster.
He will also visit the Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial, the Bridge of Remembrance and an exhibition called Quake City.
Yesterday Higgins met with New Zealand’s Prime Minister-elect Jacinda Ardern.
A statement said that the President “thanked the Prime Minister-elect for the warm welcome he had received in New Zealand and spoke of the close ties between the two nations, the decision of each country to open an embassy in each other’s capital, and the values they share, including their work at the United Nations”.
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No, you hang up first. Net! You hang up first!
@Hugh Morris: good one lol
‘Errr Mr. President…’ ‘Yes, what is it?’ ‘We haven’t switched on the monitor yet!’ ‘Then who in the name of Kamala have I been squaring off against?’ ‘That’s your reflection Mr. President…’ ‘Dammit, I thought I had him right where I wanted him. He looked so tired and beaten looking. Who is that guy?’
@William Tallon: Brilliant
@William Tallon: it’s the cabinet’s shadow
Well, at least the US did not buy into Russia’s threats. Time to wait for Russia’s announcement that Ukraine attacked them or Luhansk/Donetsk, and they have no choice but to start active war against Ukraine to defend their people. They gave out Russian passports to nearly one million people in that region in the last 6 years, hoping to repeat their game in South Ossetia in 2008.
@Clay Pigeon: I don’t think “Russia’s threats” is quite the right way to look at it. Ukraine is on the Russian border. Imagine if this were Russia inviting Mexico or Canada into a mutual defence pact, bordering the USA. This is playing out on Russia’s doorstep, a place from which they can not escape peacefully. If your viewing time-frame is days, the “threat” is Russian; but if your time-frame is anything longer, the threat to peace comes from NATO.
@Fachtna Roe: So Russia doesn’t pose a long term threat? A corrupt authoritarian regime right beside the EU not a threat? If it weren’t for Putin and pals, there’d be no need for NATO. Also, when did Russia seize Crimea? Days ago was it?
@Clay Pigeon: they gave out passports to people who consider themselves Russian
@Bill Spill: Check out the Concert of Europe. And no, ABBA didn’t perform at it.
The timing of an invasion of Ukraine with a Chinese invasion of Taiwan in early 2022 is highly likely as there is no way a weak President , the oldest in US history , will be able to respond in any meaningful way . The times they are a changing ….
@Tony Duffy: How incredibly ageist of you.
@Tony Duffy: you fo know that he wouldn’t be actively engaging with the Russians or Chinese right? Just giving an order.
The sexual tension between them is palpable
@Adam Rekio: ya Putin will ride him sideways!
@Adam Rekio: ya Putin will ride him sideways
America land of the gun
Isn’t the us defense budget up for a vote, big up a BS security bogey man for more money,
And remember this is the team in the state department that brought us Libya Yemen and Syria
@Pablo Lord: US got Russia to mass troops on Ukraine border so they could win a budget vote?
@Bill Spill: One needs a worthy boogeyman to justify a huge budget. One could not really justify buying new high tech, including stealth weaponry, if one was confronting the enemy such as they have been concentrating on in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere where the enemy was in small groups and armed with small arms. Big budgets need big enemies that pose (real or fictitious) threats to one’s security.
@Bill Spill: One of the recent political absurdities in Europe was a stage-managed photo sequence of Britain’s foreign minister Liz Truss posing boldly but comfortably with her head and shoulders poking out of the turret of a British army tank. The pathetic charade took place in Estonia, close to Russia, when she visited British troops deployed there as part of the U.S.-Nato buildup along Russia’s western frontier. She was on her way to attend a meeting of foreign ministers of the U.S.-Nato military alliance held on November 30 in Riga, the capital of Latvia, some 300 kilometres from Russia
@Pablo Lord: So you won’t answer my question? How about this: was that photo of Truss taken before or after Russia annexed Crimea?
@George Vladisavljevic: With China on the scene as an actual potential superpower (Russia is not), US definitely doesn’t need Russia as a boogeyman at all. One would think.
@Bill Spill:Bush put offensive missiles in Romania in 2004, told Russia they were aimed at Iran,
Crimea voted to leave Ukraine in 1990 and 1996 or so, that’s 3 referendum in under 30years so they wanted out, also Ukraine was spilt down the middle by the austro Hungarian empire and imperial Russia the west Christian the eastern half orthodox like Belarus the western half are poles the eastern Russian, after the end of first world war Eastern Europe stayed in conflict peoples and borders stayed in flux, through out the revolutions and civil wars, many of the boarders where drawn up in Moscow,
You’re on mute
US will lead the charge and like in all other actions, will suffer no consequences.
have your say