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Russian military reportedly dropped heavy bombs on a steel plant and hit an “improvised” hospital PA Images

Ukraine receives missiles from Norway amid warning Mariupol defenders are facing 'last days'

Commander Serhiy Volyna said his marines are “maybe facing our last days, if not hours”.

LAST UPDATE | 20 Apr 2022

A COMMANDER OF forces holding out at a steel plant in the besieged port city of Mariupol in Ukraine has issued a desperate plea for help, saying his marines are “maybe facing our last days, if not hours”.

“The enemy is outnumbering us 10 to one,” Serhiy Volyna, from the 36th Separate Marine Brigade, said.

In the latest ultimatum issued in its seven-week battle to capture Mariupol, Moscow urged the city’s defenders to surrender by 2pm local time (11am Irish time).

It was today confirmed that Norway has given Ukraine around 100 French-made Mistral anti-air missiles.

The Mistral launchers and missiles, which have already been delivered, had until now been mounted on Norwegian navy vessels, the defence ministry said in a statement today.

Built from the end of the 1980s by defence group Matra, which later merged with European missile developer MBDA, the Mistral is a very short-range surface-to-air missile. It can be used on vehicles, ships and helicopters, or be portable.

In a video speech to the Norwegian parliament at the end of March, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had asked Oslo for anti-air missiles, albeit the more modern NASAMS type made by Norway’s Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.

“The (Mistral) missile is to be retired from the Norwegian military but it is still a modern and efficient weapon that will be of great use to Ukraine”, Norway Defence Minister Bjorn Arild Gram said in the statement.

“Other countries have also donated similar weapons systems”, he said.

Since the start of the Russian invasion on 24 February, Norway has already provided Ukraine with some 4,000 anti-tank weapons and other smaller military equipment.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon in the US today said that Ukraine recently received fighter planes and parts to bolster its air force while declining to specify the number of aircraft and their origin.

Kyiv has asked its Western partners to provide MiG-29s, which its pilots already know how to fly, and a handful of Eastern European countries have.

European Council chief Charles Michel, representing EU member states, arrived in Kyiv today.

“In the heart of a free and democratic Europe,” Michel wrote on his Twitter account, accompanied by a photo taken at a train station in the Ukrainian capital.

Hospital bombing

Ukrainian troops earlier accused Russian forces of bombing a hospital sheltering some 300 people in Mariupol.

The deputy commander of the Azov regiment, who was among the troops remaining in Mariupol, said the Russian military dropped heavy bombs on the steel plant and hit an “improvised” hospital.

Serhiy Taruta, the former governor of the Donetsk region and a Mariupol native, also reported the bombing of the hospital, where he said 300 people, including wounded troops and civilians with children, were sheltered.

The reports could not be independently confirmed.

The eastern cities of Kharkiv and Kramatorsk also came under deadly attack. Russia also said it struck areas around Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro west of the Donbas with missiles.

Zelenskyy said the Russian military was throwing everything it has into the battle, with most of its combat-ready forces now concentrated in Ukraine and just across the border in Russia.

“They have driven almost everyone and everything that is capable of fighting us against Ukraine,” he said in his nightly video address to the nation on Tuesday.

Despite claims that they are hitting only military sites, the Russians continue to target residential areas and kill civilians, he said.

“The Russian army in this war is writing itself into world history forever as the most barbaric and inhuman army in the world,” Zelenskyy said.

Weeks ago, after the abortive Russian push to take Kyiv, the Kremlin declared that its main goal was the capture of the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years.

A Russian victory in the Donbas would deprive Ukraine of the industrial assets concentrated there, including mines, metals plants and heavy-equipment factories.

Military experts said the Russians’ goal is to encircle Ukrainian troops from the north, south and east.

Key to the campaign is the capture of Mariupol, which would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, seized from Ukraine in 2014. It would also free up Russian troops to move elsewhere in the Donbas.

A few thousand Ukrainian troops, by the Russians’ estimate, remained holed up in a sprawling Mariupol steel plant, representing what was believed to be the last major pocket of resistance in the city.

Russia issued a new ultimatum to the Ukrainian defenders to surrender on Wednesday after a previous ultimatum was ignored. The Russian Defence Ministry said those who surrender will be allowed to live and given medical treatment. There was no immediate response from the Ukrainian troops, but they have repeatedly vowed not to give up.

Peace needed urgently – Coveney

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney yesterday urged the UN Security Council to do all it can to secure an urgent peace in Ukraine, amid the all-out Russia offensive in the Donbas region.

Coveney also accused Russian forces of showing an “utter disregard” for international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians.

He told the Security Council that he was aware that leaders were meeting “in the shadow of a renewed offensive by Russian forces on eastern Ukraine”.

“I hear the narrative, from far too many quarters, that peace is only possible after the battle for Donbas. I can’t accept that logic – a logic that leads directly to further death, further suffering, further displacement.

“This Council must challenge that thinking, today and every day. We must demand more.”

Coveney also spoke in New York about the horrors he witnessed during a recent visit to the town of Bucha. He described the scenes he witnessed as “profoundly shocking”.

“Hundreds of family homes, shops and other civilian infrastructure: blackened, burnt, looted, damaged, and in some cases completely destroyed. Family cars, riddled with bullets, windshields smashed, bloodstains still evident.

“I’ve been around long enough to know the difference between truth and staged propaganda when I see it. There was nothing fabricated about what I witnessed.

“I stood at the edge of one of the mass graves, where the work of carefully exhuming bodies continued. Five hundred and three civilians had been identified at that stage – and just four soldiers.”

He said that what he witnessed during the visit “speaks to an utter disregard by Russian forces for international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians”.

“There’s no spinning that reality away with disinformation.”

Coveney said that Ireland will not remain silent on the “senseless and devastating” war in Ukraine nor on the impact it is having on some of the poorest countries around the world.

He said that the UN Security Council cannot afford to remain silent either. He referenced depleted wheat reserves in Palestine, as well as the economic impact of the war on the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.

Coveney had confirmed earlier that just under 25,000 Ukrainians had arrived in Ireland as refugees, with 85% of that number women and children.

“Ireland is a small country,” he said. “We’re not a member of any military alliance. We’re no superpower. But we fought to take a seat at this table and we earned the right to be here.

“We did so because we fundamentally believe that, despite all the well documented flaws of this Council and there are many, it is the ultimate arbiter on matters of war and peace.”

2.66388715 Simon Coveney is shown the site of mass graves where more than 50 bodies were found in Bucha Department of Foreign Affairs / PA Department of Foreign Affairs / PA / PA

Coveney took the opportunity to call on Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, to end the war.

“As it was on the 25th of February, so it is today – this is a war of choice. It can end immediately if president Putin so decides.

“And yet, instead we are seeing a renewed and upscaled offensive in eastern Ukraine. This is madness that history will judge very harshly.

“We have to find a way to stop this war. I want to call today on Russia directly – agree to an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, commit to negotiations, respect this Charter.

“We know that some progress was made in Istanbul between the key parties. There is clearly a basis for a peace agreement.”

Contains reporting from Press Association

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    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Franny Ando
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:38 PM

    Tickets to gain entrance to nightclubs this is turning into a right farce. It’s getting beyond ridiculous now.

    325
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    Mute lelookcoco
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:44 PM

    @Franny Ando: No it’s the minimum that should be required given the increase in case numbers. That places are opening at all is a bonus. You need to accept the old ways are gone for now.

    206
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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:44 PM

    @Franny Ando: I know, right?! And who ever heard of being asked to show ID to get in to a nightclub?! It’s madness I tell ya!

    117
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    Mute Will Roche
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:47 PM

    @Franny Ando: I wonder if nightclubs who are opening tonight knew about this? If not tonight is going to be a mess.

    27
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    Mute Franny Ando
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:51 PM

    @Will Roche: They just announced it won’t come into effect till Monday.

    20
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    Mute Tom Bombdadil
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:53 PM

    @Franny Ando: there won’t be a single ticket given out. That’s a fact

    18
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    Mute Franny Ando
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:53 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: There’s a bloody big difference asking for I.D and being made by tickets. A covid cert and photo I.d is ample proof. Dont try to be smart because you generally fail abysmally.

    62
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    Mute Life in no motion
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:54 PM

    @Franny Ando: stop your moaning

    57
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    Mute Franny Ando
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:55 PM

    @lelookcoco: A covid cert with photo I.d is more then enough for gaining entry. Tickets are of no benefit whatsoever.

    44
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    Mute Mac Muinteoir
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:55 PM

    @Franny Ando: reminds me of when they announced the new 5 levels of lockdown, and then when they were asked which level we were in, they said “3 and a half”.

    59
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    Mute Franny Ando
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:56 PM

    @Franny Ando: buy

    5
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    Mute Kevin
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:58 PM

    @Franny Ando:

    I suspect the nightclubs & bars will be closed again within 6 weeks if the current hospitalisation rate continues. The government know this as do NPHET but they had to give a (temporary) concession given how badly affected this industry has been over the past 17 months.

    41
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    Mute lelookcoco
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:01 PM

    @Franny Ando: It’s to facilitate contact tracing. Do you only read the news items that allow you a good moan?

    42
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    Mute Franny Ando
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:01 PM

    @Mac Muinteoir: I lost count of the many variations of lockdown:):)

    16
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    Mute Paul Mcnevin
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:02 PM
    14
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    Mute Melissa OHara
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:04 PM

    @Franny Ando: they say the tickets are for contract tracing but sure how are they going to know who is a close contact in a nightclub?! Also everyone has to be vaccinated anyway and when you are vaxed and a close contact it makes f all difference because you just go about you life as normal.

    47
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    Mute Franny Ando
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:18 PM

    @Life in no motion: Oct 22nd was when most restrictions were to be removed. A plan should have been in place well before 7pm on the 21st. A plan for reopening and a secondary plan if they had concerns about numbers. But that would require actual competent ministers something most have known for a long time are in extremely short supply. All the plans put in place by these venues after 22 months all gone skew ways.

    34
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    Mute Hugo Bugo
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:21 PM

    @lelookcoco: no we don’t have to accept anything of the sort, not all of us roll over so easily

    35
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    Mute Hugo Bugo
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:22 PM

    @lelookcoco: contact tracing, lol, so you’re still trying to contain it, good luck with that

    21
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    Mute Cian
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:26 PM

    @lelookcoco: surely your a troll there actually can’t be people with this view point is there? How unworkable the ticket system is. how are small Family run nightclubs going to set up this online ticketing service? Without having to pay an external company.

    28
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    Mute lelookcoco
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 10:34 PM

    @Cian: No Cian. I’m not a troll. I’ve been commenting here for 7+ years. Family run nightclubs? Where do you live, the Aran Islands?

    14
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    Mute Robert Clifford
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    Oct 23rd 2021, 1:09 AM

    @lelookcoco: People like you should be put in the stocks.

    4
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    Mute SmallbutMighty
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    Oct 23rd 2021, 9:11 AM

    @Cian: event brite is free and you can set up an account in about 2 minutes. I sincerely hope that if someone can run a nuteclub they can manage the Internet.

    5
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    Mute SmallbutMighty
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    Oct 23rd 2021, 9:14 AM

    @Hugo Bugo: thought you had given up on the Journal after your dramatic that’s it I’m leaving last week. Didn’t last long before you’re back moaning.

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    Mute Maria Clery-Breen
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    Oct 23rd 2021, 9:47 AM

    @Kevin: thinking the same thing ,,,they should not have opened them .

    4
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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Oct 23rd 2021, 9:15 PM

    @SmallbutMighty: Ahahahaha he didn’t say that, did he? Raging I missed that. No need to announce your departure, Hugo, it’s not an airport.

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    Mute Jacqui Curtis-owens
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:25 PM

    Watch this space….bye bye Christmas

    105
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    Mute Stuart Birney
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:32 PM

    @Jacqui Curtis-owens: We heard you the first time!

    5
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    Mute Hugh
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:35 PM

    These cl0wns are in charge of an €86 billion budget. Let that sink in

    96
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    Mute Garreth mc mahon
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 8:40 PM

    @Hugh: I’m more worried about the 200 billion defecit

    26
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    Mute Aranthos Faroth
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 10:00 PM

    @Hugh: jaysus sure if you’re so confident why haven’t you gone into politics? Or you just like judging but not actually doing anything?

    17
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    Mute Ian O Hara
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:02 PM

    Dancing maskless, boom covid controlled…….

    44
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    Mute JMcB
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:53 PM

    Hand sanitisers on every table is not a bad thing IMO

    40
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    Mute Mark
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:55 PM

    @JMcB: until fellas started drinking it hahahah they’ll be blind as bats

    75
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    Mute Stuart Birney
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:29 PM

    @Mark: Bat’s aren’t blind Mark but nice try!

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    Mute FrustratedASDMum
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 9:56 PM

    @JMcB: Jesus, never thought of that. You just know there are going to be knob heads in pubs and clubs this weekend who will drink some ‘for a laugh’ and end up wasting time & resources in A&Es around the country after poisoning themselves.

    6
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    Mute Robert Clifford
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    Oct 23rd 2021, 1:34 AM

    @Stuart Birney: I’d say you’re a real hoot at parties.

    5
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    Mute Rochelle
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 8:03 PM

    I mean I get why there’s so much red tape but the amount of protocol and fuss would really put me off going out at all.

    25
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    Mute Seymour business
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:57 PM

    This all makes sense to me, at least the effort to protect all vital services are being put to priority. Unlike the sh!t show across the water. Well done all.

    29
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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Oct 23rd 2021, 12:14 PM

    @Seymour business: ha ha maybe ya should change your name to ‘see less business’ —- what ever happened to the 100m we spent on the HSE covid tracing app ? This was suppose to be the 21st century solution to contact tracing – using mobile tech like they did in south korea to retrace movements yada yada -anyone remember all that -of course not – Ireland is tieing itself up in a farcical red tape bubble being created by bureaucrats – it’s almost as if they. are setting it up to fail – heres a list of things we need you to do in order to ‘be incompliance’ and then in another month – ah we have to shut them down they are not abl to operate in compliance – i get it people who dont care much for clubbing etc on here pontificating – but for the vast majority of younger people pub club owners and operators – this just makes a laughing stock of the ‘vaccine bonus’ conversations that Govt and Health officials touted 6 months ago – people need to start demanding representatives get theor sh*t together and get this mess sorted – it is beyond farcical they had over a year to PLAN for club reopenings – could the administrators not have used all them ‘working from home on full pay’ meetings on zoom to work all this out in advance – 630pm on day of opening – seriously????

    4
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    Mute Maria Clery-Breen
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:53 PM

    I know of someone going out tomorrow not vaxed ..how they are going to get in anywhere .,.

    14
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    Mute Franny Ando
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:56 PM

    @Maria Clery-Breen: A negative test result.

    36
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    Mute Mo
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 6:59 PM

    @Maria Clery-Breen: You should definitely report them, awful behaviour altogether /s

    25
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    Mute lelookcoco
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:02 PM

    @Maria Clery-Breen: Hopefully they won’t

    21
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    Mute Sarah Lou
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:07 PM

    @Maria Clery-Breen: correction… you know someone who intends to go out tomorrow night….cant wait to check in Sunday and see where let them in!

    25
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    Mute Maria Clery-Breen
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 9:14 PM

    @Mo: I’m not in Ireland

    5
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    Mute Robert Clifford
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    Oct 23rd 2021, 1:37 AM

    @lelookcoco: Pull up a chair everyone. lelookcoco is saying daft stuff again.

    7
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    Mute John Keane
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 8:35 PM

    Im just interested to know what your solution is! Please share it. Do you want a freedom day? Look where that got them. People will die in more numbers again, there is no back to normal solution there wont be for a long time if ever. Unless we just all take our chances and may the strong survive. Maybe thats what darwin meant.

    13
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    Mute John Keane
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 8:55 PM

    @John Keane: that was meant for Franny Ando at the top.

    4
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    Mute finbarr walsh
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:37 PM

    Do I need to show covid cert if staying in a hotel ?

    7
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    Mute Giovanni cans
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 7:50 PM

    @finbarr walsh: no drive on eat and drink all you like there covid doesn’t affect hotels

    44
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    Mute Franny Ando
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    Oct 22nd 2021, 8:15 PM

    @finbarr walsh: No.

    10
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