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A SENIOR FIGURE from the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland is to address the Seanad at Leinster House on Tuesday.
Drew Nelson, who is the Grand Secretary of the group, will give his historical address at noon on 3 July. It will be the first time a member of the Orange Order will formally speak in front of senators at the Dáil.
The invitation was extended to the Unionist leader earlier this month ahead of preparations for the centenary commemorations which will take place over the coming years.
Speaking after the decision was made, Seanad chairman Paddy Burke welcomed the move, stating it was “another step on the path to sustained peace and reconciliation”.
“It also presents an opportunity for our people to learn and build understanding about the Orange Order,” he said.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin was also positive about the invitation to Nelson. “This is an important moment for the country and it further strengthens the relationship and respect that continues to grow amongst all communities on our island.”
Nelson told the Belfast News Letter that such an invite would have been “unthinkable” up until a few years ago.
The Government has put together a group of historians and academics to advise on the best way to mark the 100th anniversary of the defining period of Ireland’s modern history. A comprehensive and inclusive programme of events is being worked towards and it is hoped that a non-triumphalist tone will be found.
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If the US and UK are off the list, well then they should not be allowing flights or ferries from them countries enter here.
@Linda Hegarty: that would make sense but I very much doubt they will stop them
@Linda Hegarty: We can’t go there because the USA & UK are covid-19 hotspots. An Irish resident/tourist could bring the virus back with them and Ireland’s health service wouldn’t be able to cope with the infection rate and deaths. However, the government thinks that people traveling from either hotspot are likely to be immune? Makes absolutely NO SENSE and shows a lack of common sense.
@Linda Hegarty: A significant proportion of our imports come on these flights and ferries so it wouldn’t be feasible to ban them.
@lelookcoco: We are not talking about goods and services but tourist’s and other passenger’s.
@Linda Hegarty: stop the boats and planes with freight or is it just the passengers you have in mind – but allow Irish home, or people travel for medical reasons or because their contact has completed or they work on the odd shore oil rigs in the north sea or crewmen on a ship or people who’s visa or work or study permit has expired… No country had, to my knowledge, currently barred it’s own citizens from returning and, despite what someone posted yesterday, there is no EU ban on flights from hot spots.
Your call anyway but we cannot stop international trade much of which is done by lorries on boats.
We just need to have mote teeth and be more proactive on quarentine upon entry. Maybe get the local gardai to call at the place of quarentine.
@Linda Hegarty: absolutely, it’s a risky and crazy decision to allow US travellers to come here. A friend was shocked to find that elderly neighbours over 75 are hosting their daughter and grand daughter who arrived a few days ago from their abode in the US.
They took one of the elderly parent shopping in Castlebar, her first day out since lockdown. My friend was so incensed she called the Gardai in Claremorris, they refused to do anything unless she Made a complaint and gave all her personal details, said it wasn’t their job to check.
She gave the elderly couple’s name and address.not good enough it’s seems, she doesn’t have the daughters full name…if my friend gave her own details, given it’s a rural area it wouldn’t take long for her name to be revealed. All she was given was a first name for the Garda who took her call with great irritation. The lesson here? Don’t look out for your elderly neighbours, throw them to the dogs and uninterested Gardai. They know there are exceptions to the current right of US visitors to roam the country.
@helen walsh: I’d say your friend who rang the Gardai is the curtain twitcher of the Neighbourhood.
@helen walsh: And I’d also add that the Gardai wouldn’t get involved as no law was being broken provided the relevant paperwork was filled in prior to arrival. Self isolation is not mandatory by law, only the Covid form is.
That form isn’t required if they travelled from the North into the South. So save the poor me attitude here.
@helen walsh: personally I’m happy that an elderly couple saw their daughter and grand child regardless of where they came from. Your friend obviously doesn’t know her neighbours very well if she didn’t even know their daughters surname. How does she know they didn’t have a negative test before exposing their elderly relatives or when exactly they arrived? Total busy body. Tell her to get a hobby and stop annoying the guards.
@helen walsh: she……. rang the police?
The ports and airports should have been closed to tourists from day 1. They dropped the ball there
@Nicola Monaghan: imported cases are a mere 1.68% of all cases in this country since the beginning .
@Isabel Oliveira: I suppose the virus got here all by itself did it?
@Damien Leahy: the virus has been in Europe since late last year . What did you expect ? That we live here like Robinson Crusoe, isolated from the world? How do you know it didn’t come from an essential worker bringing food into the country and not a tourist ? Some perspective please. The numbers are there very clearly : 1.68%.
@Isabel Oliveira: if you want to go to a country that’s riddled with the virus fine you can stay there. Minimizing risk would be to stop tourists going and coming from badly infected countries that’s just logic. How can we eradicate the virus from the public if we let in every tom dick and Harry without doing any checks. There’s your perspective you can have your numbers. Bottom line if we closed the borders in time there would be alot of people here today that died from the virus.
@Damien Leahy: i cant believe i have to say this but one of the 1st cases was a schoolgirl. In your dystopian hellscape where do the rights of this child figure? Would she still be in Italy now?
@Damien Leahy: I think we should close the borders now, and forever. You know, there will be other viruses in the future and you know, they dont just get here all by themselves. So I think it is very logic, and grounded on evidence, that we should lock ourselves away from the world for the rest of existence. It is very plausible too.
@Pablo Rojas Coppari: we have no vaccine. Wake up. The world was absolutely unready for a pandemic of this scale. How much money is spent on ear and how much is spent on preparing for pandemics?
@David Clements: was she a tourist? I suppose there was little or no known cases in Italy at the time. Would you send you son/daughter on a school trip to America/england/italy at the moment?
@Isabel Oliveira: that’s historically. Since travel has opened up a bit more the percentages are higher. It just takes 1 imported case to set off a chain reaction.
@Damien Leahy: what do we want ?
Close the borders!
When do we want it?
Now !
What do we want ?
Close the pubs! Close hairdressers !
Funding for our health-system now !
Oops sorry , no revenue for that .
Damien I don’t know what is happening to people that they can’t see what is staring them in the face. 22% unemployment rate in June covid adjusted.
Did you propose leaving your citizens out in the airport like Tom Hanks forever? The virus has been in Ireland far before March 2020.
Shall we now live isolated from the world and several other sectors closed and fundamental rights suspended because of covid or any other future virus that we now have far more tools to live with ?
Here is some perspective: 2050 undiagnosed cancers and pre cancer cases in lockdown period.
@Aidan O’ Neill: it’s the accumulated data from March the 1st when airports were at full capacity until July 15%. So it is a reliable 1.68% and Pablo just kindly provided me with EU rate by land and air : 3%.
@Isabel Oliveira: are you seriously saying a foreign holiday is essential? There is no vaccine….no cure. What is the point of a lockdown if we make the same mistakes over and over again.
@Damien Leahy: the virus is in the community . Travelling or not is indifferent . You cannot eradicate the virus . You can only manage it with non restrictive measures that don’t breach every right or jeopardise employment or other public services in the country . Most other european countries are doing just that & they are managing just fine.
Also , Travelling is not only for holidays : it’s for holidays , business and visit family . It also assures 11 % of Ireland’s workforce isn’t unemployed . 250 thousand people .
If you think it’s ok to lock people in Ireland until 2021 is ok I don’t know what to tell you . We don’t travel now as we did in March.
@Isabel Oliveira: how did new zealand eradicate then? And how did it come back after they opened their borders? Where did I say workers couldn’t travel? We’re on about tourism. It can’t be justified if we can’t open up our country to ourselves how can we open it to tourists? There’s no logic behind what you’re saying. Plenty of business shut down due to lockdown and some are still shut what’s the point of all that? Are we saying to he’ll with all that, to he’ll with people’s lives over a holiday? Simply can’t be justified. Essential travel only.
@Isabel Oliveira: my sister is in Scotland and would be a person of high risk against the virus. I can’t just pop over to see if she’s ok. That’s the reality we’re in.
@Damien Leahy: no vaccine will stop deaths or infection. We have a flu vaccine and people still get flu and die. We have no guarantee that we won’t get sick, you reduce your risk as much as possible and get on with your life. Locking everyone up won’t stop a virus, it merely delays infection. It’s here, get used to it.
@Damien Leahy: Wasting you’re time there Damien. Logic and common sense don’t get inside her head.
@Damien Leahy: it got here primarily through Irish people returning from abroad.
@2wittersux: With a mentality like that we would never have cured anything ever.
@Gerard Smith: what’s your argument?
@Damien Leahy: A pandemic of what scale?It’s got an IFR of a bad seasonal flu.
Next NPHET/government meeting…..”okay lads the first item on the agenda today is…did anyone come across any good ideas/suggestions/advice on the Journal comments sections or social media even, that we could try out?” “Anonymous fella/lady here says close all airports and borders as the Wild Atlantic Way was full of Texans and tourists from the UK yesterday supposedly….and he/she has well over 200 Likes!” “How come we didn’t think of that? Who was in charge of airports?” “Oh that was me, sorry….will we do that so? Hang on a sec there…. I’ll just left click on this button here and that’ll sort that….and….done! Airports and borders closed!”
@Joe Kennedy: comment of the day
@Joe Kennedy: Best comment I’ve seen on here in a long time.
@Joe Kennedy: Brilliant – absolutely love that comment.
and it wont stop any tourists coming in and travelling round . just restrict irish residents.
The UK infection rate for the past 14 days stands at 11.73 per 100k inhabitants. Well below the ECDC recommended threshold of 20 per 100k
How about ‘ informing people of their obligations ‘ before they got ON the plane, as we have to do when flying to the states.
You can’t stop people travelling from the UK. As long as they travel via the north.
@Adam Conroy: nobody is stop anyone from traveling anywhere.
Arrived in Dub from Sydney this week . Apart from completing the locator form on the plane before landing there was no screening / questioning / health authority staff presence nothing !
I might apply for one of those checking up on people jobs. Backhanders would make it a nice little earner.
Delete journal app.. for your own good
Sensitivity keeping U.K. out of the list but no sensitivity of keeping EU countries out of the list .
Funny arbitrary criteria although cases in U.K. fulfil the safety criteria.
People were driven into a frenzy and this is the reaction . Since the official beginning of the epidemic in Ireland imported cases amount to a mere 1,68% of the total .
@Isabel Oliveira: and the corresponding figure for the EU is 3%. That involves all means of transport (not just flights) in an area with 450 million inhabitants where borders have been open again for over a month. It is clear that travel is not a risk factor.
@Pablo Rojas Coppari: thank you for those stats Pablo . I didn’t have the whole EU figures . We should also factor that travelling now is not the same as March so the number would likely decrease even more .
@Isabel Oliveira: this is the latest Risk assessment from the ECDC below.
But of course people here prefer to take advice from Prof lunatic-so-and-so who wants to jail tourists.
ECDC does not consider travel restrictions within and to the Schengen area as an efficient way to reduce transmission within the EU since community transmission is already taking place in the EU/EEA and data from The European Surveillance System (TESSy) show that, in June 2020, only 3% of confirmed cases were likely infected in a country different from the reporting country.
@Pablo Rojas Coppari: thank you for link . I agree . All Objectivity has gone out the window.
Professor “ jail the tourists “ has a speech, on the state broadcaster of all places , with undertones that bring memories of pre 74 Portugal which for me is the most alarming .
Very easy solution here . Anyone entering the country from a country that is not on the list let them give an address where they will stay for next 2 weeks. Them attract an ankle tracker bracelet and Bob’s your uncle
Can’t put a foot over the border so?
Completely irrelevant to leave the UK off the list when there’s a massive loophole 100 miles up the road. Not a hope in hell anyone that’s travelled in either direction between here and the UK has isolated themselves over the last couple of weeks
What will be the story with travelling up to the North so ?
@Bernard Mc Grath: it’s in the UK but this only applies to Britain is my reading of it…
@David Clements: I think that is a correct reading but if so, the guidance is on dubious legal ground. The UK and the Common Travel Area are well established entities for travel regulation but I don’t think there is any precedent for separating out NI for travel regulation. In any case, it’s very difficult to distinguish a GB person passing through NI or an Irish citizen who resides in GB – or indeed an Irish person who has briefly passed through the UK to follow the shortest route between two Irish counties.
Arrived in Dub from Sydney this week . Apart from completing the locator form on the plane before landing there was no screening / questioning / health authority staff presence nothing !
@Mairéad O’Brien: but you know what the requirements are so hopefully you’ll comply. This is a large percentage of those coming in seemingly – returnees, Irish residents.
Also you’ll have to get get used to the Journal app. It tells you there’s a problem posting where there isn’t.
@Sara McS: happily self isolating – 11 days to go
Does this include the North though? They have been doing decent with cases and not many deaths over the past while. Scotland and the North are doing better than England and Wales.
@Paul Cunningham: I’m wondering about this. Scotland (where is live) have an r rate of 0.4-0.8 and 1 death in 8 days. I’d like to travel home and I think it’s safer here than Ireland from what i read. Issue being you will never see them treat Scotland different to England or Wales.
@Mairéad O’Brien
I didn’t get that can you repeat it
Irish Should banned usa,brazil and other countries where high case for not allow come to Ireland and be safe for Irish people protection come first
Green List is a joke, Irish go to a country on the green list and meet up with people from America or uk, collect virus and bring it home.
Arrived in Dub from Sydney this week . Apart from completing the locator form on the plane before landing there was no screening / questioning / health authority staff presence nothing !
@Mairéad O’Brien: That will be some serious jet lag if you’ve done the return journey four times in a week.
If they don’t make the green list… Why o why, are they a allowed in to Ireland at all.
Anyone know if Portugal will be on the list ? Trying to get a refund for September. ..nightmare.
@Steve Crowley: I wouldn’t say it would cases still high there
@Steve Crowley. NO:
No poo sherlock..!!!.
Céad mile fáilte a thing of the past.
Arrived in Dub from Sydney this week . Apart from completing the locator form on the plane before landing there was no screening / questioning / health authority staff presence nothing !
@Isabel Oliveira:
Arrived in Dub from Sydney this week . Apart from completing the locator form on the plane before landing there was no screening / questioning / health authority staff presence nothing !
I’m from Canada. I come over every 2 months. I last left Ireland March 7.just in time. Do I wish I could come back? I can. Without self isolating. Where I live we have had 349:cases, 7 deaths and we now have 10 active cases. There’s 1.345 million people who live in my province. Will I come over ? No. Not until next year. Common sense. Americans shouldn’t be over there. Period.
As long as Iceland makes the cut for my trip in September, then I am okay with this.
Arrived in Dub from Sydney this week . Apart from completing the locator form on the plane before landing there was no screening / questioning / health authority staff presence nothing !
East European countries have compulsory quarantine. You are put on a bus and taken to a quarantine center – an unused holiday resort.
You are told to stay in your room and meals are delivered to the door.
The fine for leaving the room is €7,000.
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