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A “STANDING DOWN” ceremony is to take place at St Stephen’s Green for the Hauntings Soldier statue in Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green, that was vandalised with red paint in the early hours of yesterday morning.
The statue was erected to commemorate 100 years since the end of World War One. It’s been at the main entrance to the iconic Dublin city park since 4 November, and will be there until next Monday, 26 November.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Liveline programme this afternoon, Minister for Defence Paul Kehoe said he was horrified by the vandalism at the statue.
He said: “It doesn’t deserve much time talking about the people who’ve done that. The lowest in society would carry on like that.
As Minister I have decided we will have Defence Forces personnel and a piper available at the ceremony on Sunday. I think it’s only right and proper.
He said that the anniversary of Armistice Day was marked with respect all over Ireland a number of weeks ago, and that the people responsible for the vandalism represented a very small section of Irish society.
Staff from the Office of Public Works completed a clean-up of the sculpture yesterday.
Sabina Purcell, who brought the sculpture to Ireland, told TheJournal.ie that “it doesn’t reflect us as an island. We’ve moved on from this”.
“I was absolutely devastated because there’s tremendous good will. Thousands of thousands have seen this every weekend coming from all over the island of Ireland
Whoever did this, they’re not us. Dissenting voices are welcome but vandalism is just disgraceful.
With reporting from Gráinne Ní Aodha
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I stopped reading at “85% of jobs available in 2030 haven’t been invented yet”. There’s slightly more than 8 years left in that prediction and I doubt if it’s anywhere near true. The prediction itself is 5 years old so we should be close to 40% new jobs never before heard of. (And probably that’s 100% in the private sector because government hasn’t changed much since the 19C.)
Maybe covid slowed it down.
My prediction for 2030 – there will be construction workers, shop workers, plumbers, electricians, drivers, nurses, port workers, chefs, waitress, government workers, accountants, real estate agents, accounts and office workers in general (most of whom will be doing what they do now). I’m sure there will be some new jobs, too
The tech industry is full of hype.
@john smith iv: Totally agree. F$(k coding. Science and nature all the way.
@john smith iv: naw, they might change the names but they’ve already been invented ,, people are getting more niche that’s all. We are still going to need plumbers electricians etc.. still need farmers , doctors the world has always moved on.. even without us on it..
Stick to farming. Energy crises are guan be common.
We also need artists jewellery makers, cabinet makers, singers, songwriters, writers, poets, philosophers, naturalists, palaeontologists, dreamers, inventors, sculptors, architects, blacksmiths, farriers.
It’s a bad idea to focus on STEM as if those subjects were an end in themselves.
@Nick Caffrey: While I wholeheartedly agree we need people in all of those roles, the reality is that digital skills are hugely beneficial or maybe even required for most of them going forward.
Many design and craft roles can use digital skills to support or improve their business.
The ability to programme in a language like Python opens vast new landscapes of expression to artists, jewelers and architects.
The best explorations of the limits of digital tools like CAD, CNC machines and 3D printers that I’ve seen are by artists and craftspeople thinking outside the box.
In fact there are ongoing projects in Ireland looking opening opportunities at this area (Craft 4.0 and iAtelier)
Digital skills are not just STEM, they can be part of STEAM with arts in the mix.
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