The Irish Post - May 27, 2023

BY GERARD DONAGHY

TRIBUTES have been paid to Smiths bassist Andy Rourke, who has died at the age of 59.

Rourke died at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Care Center in New York after a lengthy illness with pancreatic cancer.

Rourke’s father was from Ireland, and the bassist came to prominence in the Manchester-based band The Smiths alongside fellow Manchester Irish, singer Morrissey born Steven Patrick Morrissey, John Martin Maher, who changed the spelling of his surname to Marr to stop people mispronouncing it, and Michael Joyce.

Smiths bandmates Morrissey, Mike Joyce and Johnny Marr have since paid tribute to Rourke, with the latter describing him as ‘one of those rare people that absolutely no one doesn’t like’.

“Throughout our teens we played in various bands around South Manchester before making our reputations with The Smiths from 1982 to 1987, and it was on those Smiths records that Andy reinvented what it is to be a bass guitar player,” wrote Marr. He added: “We maintained our friendship over the years, no matter where we were or what was happening and it is a matter of personal pride as well as sadness that the last time Andy played on stage was with me and my band at Maddison Square Garden in September 2022.

“It was a special moment that we shared with my family and his wife and soul mate Francesca.”

Rourke, joined The Smiths in late 1982.

The four second-generation Irishmen released their debut eponymous album in 1984, which reached number 2 in the British charts.

Three more albums followed, including 1985 charttopper Meat is Murder, while the band’s singles included This Charming Man, Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now and Panic

The band split up before the release of their 1987 album Strangeways, Here We Come

Two years after the group disbanded, Rourke and Joyce started legal proceedings against Marr and Morrissey for a greater share of the band’s profits, having each only earned 10 per cent of performance and recording royalties.

Rourke settled for £83,000 and 10 per cent of future royalties, while Joyce persisted with his claim and in 1996 was awarded £1m in backdated royalties and 25 per cent thereafter.

Rourke, meanwhile, was declared bankrupt in 1999.

Mike Joyce said his former bandmate’s legacy would live on through his music.

“Not only the most talented bass player I’ve ever had the privilege to play with but the sweetest, funniest lad I’ve ever met,” he posted on Twitter.

Kielty lands Late Late gig

Smiths bass player dies THIS WEEK they said...

PATRICK Kielty has been confirmed as the new host of RTÉ’s The Late Late Show

The Co. Down native will replace current host Ryan Tubridy from next season as presenter on the long-running programme.

Kielty will become the show’s fourth permanent host in its 61-year history, following in the footsteps of Gay Byrne, Pat Kenny and Tubridy.

In 2002, he presented BBC talent show Fame Academy, which he co-hosted with his future wife, Cat Deeley.

He has been a familiar face on the small screen since then, appearing regularly on panel shows and serving as guest presenter on British programmes such as The One Show and This Morning.

“These results are a positive endorsement of Sinn Féin’s message that workers, families and communities need to be supported, and that the blocking of a new Assembly by one party must end.”

Several names were bandied around after Tubridy announced in March that he would be stepping down at the end of this season after 14 years at the helm.

Claire Byrne and Sarah McInerney were among the favourites to take over but after ruling themselves out, Kielty became the frontrunner.

Kielty, who will make his debut as host in September, said he was ‘humbled’ to be taking the reins.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be the next host of The Late Late Show,” he said.

“To follow in the footsteps of Gay, Pat and Ryan as the next custodian is a real honour and I can’t thank RTÉ enough for giving me the chance to be a part of the next chapter of such an iconic show.

“I’m also genuinely humbled to become part of Friday nights for so many Irish people, at home and around the world.

Kielty, 52, grew up in Dundrum and was a talented Gaelic footballer before making his first foray into comedy at Belfast’s Empire Laughs Back comedy club.

He hosted the Saturday morning show Sus on UTV in 1993 before fronting his own chat show, PK Tonight, on BBC One Northern Ireland.

Kielty, whose father was murdered in 1988 during the Troubles, won a Grierson Award for Best Documentary Presenter for 2018’s BAFTA-nominated My Dad, the Peace Deal and Me

Later this year, he will star alongside Seana Kerslake in his first feature film, Ballywalter.

Despite his latest appointment, Kielty is expected to continue presenting his Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 5

Live. Commenting on the Late Late’s new host, RTÉ Director of Content Jim Jennings hinted the change could also herald a re-shaping of the flagship show.

“Patrick Kielty is undoubtedly one of Ireland’s finest comedians, a fantastic presenter with a depth of experience, and a range of talents that will bring an exciting new dynamic to the show,” he said.

“Patrick’s personality and passion is sure to connect with audiences and I look forward to it bursting on to screens in September.

“We have very definite ideas for the show already in the works and we’ll be busy behind the scenes shaping the series for launch.

“We’ll be back in August to tell you all about it.”

Tubridy’s last episode as Late Late host is this Friday, May 26.

Humanitarian message from President Higgins

The Famine has echoes with the plight of today’s refugees

BY MAL ROGERS

PRESIDENT Michael D. Higgins has said Ireland has a ‘moral duty’ to those seeking asylum and refuge.

Mr Higgins was speaking at this year’s National Famine Commemoration in Milford, Co. Donegal last week, where he said the legacy of An Gorta Mór was one of ‘involuntary

emigration, cultural loss, demoralisation and loss of confidence’.

During the event, the president also joined those laying wreaths at the site of the old Milford workhouse to remember all those who died or were displaced by the Great Famine.

President Higgins said the impact of the famine on Ireland meant the plight of those suffering similar

hardships today would resonate with Irish people.

“The strong commitment of the Irish people to humanitarian aid and relief is of course strongly related to our own past struggle with hunger, engrained in our collective memory,” said the president. “It is an example of the Irishness we wish to be known by, one grounded in decency, in ethical principles, taking our share of

global responsibility.

“We have a moral and ethical responsibility to support our global family in dire need, to help with sustainable solutions to ending all famines, wherever they occur on our shared, vulnerable planet, and to provide a decisive response to climate change which itself is leading to an increased incidence of famines globally... “The parallels with An Gorta Mór and the mass displacement it caused 175 years ago must not be lost on us.

First Minister Designate Michelle O’Neill, after Sinn Féin’s historic victory in the local elections.

“Evidence from countries where assisted suicide or euthanasia is legal shows that vulnerable people feel pressured to end their lives through fear of being a burden. In such situations the option of assisted suicide is less about having a ‘right’ to die and more about feeling the full weight and expectation of a duty to die.”

Bishop John Keenan, Vice-President of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, joined other faith leaders at the Scottish parliament to sign a statement urging MSPs to vote down a proposal to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland.

“The government has acknowledged that there are ongoing challenges in the Naval Service and these are being addressed as part of a planned approach to regeneration of the Naval Service.”

Tánaiste Micheál Martin, speaking in light of the presence of recent sightings of Russian ships off the coast of Ireland.

“The proposed measures risk fragmenting the internal market by deviating from EU harmonised labelling rules. They also represent a disproportionate trade barrier not justifiable under EU law based on the public evidence put forward.”

A statement from European alcohol trade bodies spiritsEUROPE and The European Committee of Wine Companies (CEEV) crticising Ireland’s proposals to introduce health warnings to alcoholic drinks labels.

“We were able to show that European ancestry in Newfoundland and Labrador is mainly descended from Irish and English settlers in the time of the late 1700s to early 1800s.”

Dr Edmund Gilbert, one of the authors of the study “Newfoundland and Labrador: A mosaic founder population of an Irish and British diaspora from 300 years ago.”

Patrick Kielty and Cat Deeley Picture: Getty Images

Man who supplied fraudulent passports to criminals jailed

Anthony Beard admitted supplying a false passport to Christy Kinahan, the Dublin-born gangland boss

BY GERARD DONAGHY

A MAN who admitted supplying a fraudulent passport to Irish crime boss Christy Kinahan has been jailed in Britain for providing similar documents to a raft of dangerous criminals.

Anthony Beard, 61, from Lewisham in London, was sentenced to six years and eight months at Reading Crown Court last week.

He had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and conspiracy to make fraudulent documents on the first day of his trial in January.

Beard’s co-defendants Christopher Zietek, 67, of Sydenham, London and Alan Thompson, 72, of Sutton, Surrey were jailed for eight years and three years respectively.

On March 17, the pair were found guilty of being involved in a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, conspiracy to make fraudulent passports and Latvian ID documents and money laundering.

“The service provided by the defendants in this organised crime

group enabled serious criminals, including drug and firearm traffickers and murderers, to go on the run as fugitives to evade detection and conduct criminal business internationally under false identities,” said Giorgina Venturella, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

The defendants were involved in a criminal enterprise which provided fraudulent British passports and ID documents to criminals trying to evade justice, enabling them to cross borders and conduct illegal business undetected.

The alleged crimes of those they assisted ranged from drug trafficking to murder.

The group specialised in supplying fraudulently-obtained genuine passports (FOGs) that are issued authentically but have been applied for using false information.

The group would source individuals — often vulnerable people willing to sell their personal details — who were around the same age as the group’s clients and had similar facial features.

They were paid for providing their expired passports and their details were used to apply for new ones with photographs of the criminals.

The gang also paid others to countersign passport applications.

His fingerprints were found on many of the forms, while contact numbers he included were for numerous ‘burner’ phones he operated.

Handwriting experts established he completed most of the application

forms and a voice recognition specialist determined Beard called HM Passport Office to chase up applications pretending to be the people named on the forms.

As well as pleading guilty in January to the charges he faced, Beard also admitted supplying over 70 FOGs used by criminals including Kinahan, Stephen Lawrence murder suspect Jamie Acourt and firearms trafficker Richard Burdett.

Craig Turner, Deputy Director of

Row brewing over alcohol labelling plan

BY GRAINNE CONROY

EUROPEAN alcohol trade bodies spiritsEUROPE and the European Committee of Wine Companies (CEEV) have slammed Ireland’s proposals to introduce health warnings to alcoholic drinks labels.

Under the Irish Public Health (Alcohol) Bill the Irish government wants all alcoholic drinks to carry harsh warnings similar to those on cigarette packets, highlighting the risks of liver disease and fatal cancers associated with alcohol..

Under government proposals all alcohol products in Ireland would be required to carry three warnings:

n that alcohol causes liver disease;

n that alcohol is a risk to the foetus during pregnancy;

n that there is a link between alcohol and fatal cancers.

In open letters to the European Commission, spiritsEUROPE and the CEEV said the Irish Public Health (Alcohol) Bill represented a breach of EU treaties. spiritsEUROPE confirmed on their website that it has submitted a formal complaint asking the European Commission to open an infringement procedure against Ireland for breaching EU law with the labelling move.

The statement said: “The proposed measures risk fragmenting the Internal Market by deviating from EU harmonised labelling rules. They also represent a disproportionate trade barrier not justifiable under EU law based on the public evidence put forward.”

spiritsEUROPE believes that the proposed labelling would hamper the free movement of goods as drinks manufacturers outside Ireland would be forced to have a two tier bottling system — one bottle with the warnings for Ireland; and another for the rest of the global market.

“In practice, the new rules would prevent economic operators from selling alcoholic beverages legally sold in all other EU member states in

Ireland unless the products were re-labelled with additional information.”

Such a move, they believe, would make it considerably more complex and more expensive for non-Irish producers and distributors from within and outside the EU to make their products available to Irish consumers.

The planned restrictions would therefore undermine the integrity and functioning of the EU’s Single Market and hamper trade with third countries.

The latest proposals were made last June under Ireland’s draft Public Health Regulations 2022.

The Irish government notified the World Trade Organisation (WTO) about the moves, because of the implications for international trade.

The deadline for comments on the proposals passed this month on May 7, 2023.

Last year, nine EU member states submitted detailed opinions extending the standstill period to six month period, which expired on 22 December, 2022. Despite the objections raised, the EU Commission did not block the proposal.

But Irène Tolleret MEP, co-chair of the parliamentary intergroup on Wine, Spirits and Quality Foodstuffs, said the Irish proposal set a “dangerous precedent” on the healthy functioning of the single market and warned that legal action could be justified.

the NCA, described the FOGs as ‘golden tickets’ for criminals. “We have identified a chronic, under-theradar conspiracy that enabled drug and firearm traffickers, murderers and fugitives to evade justice, and we have worked across borders to dismantle it and to bring the masterminds to account,” he added. “The NCA continues to protect the UK from the serious and organised criminals who present a threat to our security, people and economy.”

Two Irishmen are jailed in France over cannabis bust

TWO Irishmen have been jailed in France after being caught with cannabis worth an estimated value of €380,000.

The Irish Mirror reports the men were stopped in the area round Beziers in the southeast of the country

The men, aged 41 and 44 — whose identities have not yet been released by the gendarmerie — were driving a British registered lorry when they were stopped during a routine customs check.

The pair, who have no previous convictions, were each sentenced to five years in prison and told that they will be barred from French territories once they are released.

JAILED: Christopher Zietek and Anthony Beard Pictures: Courtesy of the National Crime Agency

SLAINTÉ! Enjoying a pint in Dublin Picture: Getty Images

Should the veto be vetoed?

Public services in the North suffer while the Assembly remains locked in political stalemate. Perhaps it’s time to change the rules of engagement

MALACHIO’DOHERTY

THE fundamental problem with our political arrangement here in the North is that we have two big parties which have higher priorities than the smooth running of government.

Both Sinn Féin and the DUP, and the Ulster Unionists before them, have been willing to bring down the Assembly altogether and jeopardise public services to force a political argument. Some things, for them, were more important than reform of the health service, a viable education system, safe roads and hedge trimming.

For Sinn Féin the indispensable issues have been the devolution of justice and an Irish Language Act.

For the Ulster Unionists it was the demand that the IRA decommis-

sion its weapons.

For the DUP it has been Sinn Féin endorsement of policing, IRA involvement in a murder and the Northern Ireland Protocol of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement which, by their analysis, erodes the union.

In putting, essentially, their ideological positions and the dignity of their support community over the health service and education they appeal to their electoral bases, their vote banks, and they thrive.

All of this would change if voters had higher priorities themselves but apparently they don’t. Rallying your community against the other community is good electoral strategy, even when the cost of doing so damages essential services.

In putting, essentially, their ideological positions and the dignity of their support community over the health service and education they appeal to their electoral bases, their vote banks, and they thrive

You might argue that issues like the devolution of justice or the Protocol are not communal issues, yet that’s what the parties have made of them.

It is these same voters, dividing communally, who fill the hospital waiting lists, who send their children to underfunded schools, who drive the unsafe roads and who suffer from deficient government, but they do not, in sufficient numbers put these concerns over their fear that the party they most vehemently oppose will gain some advantage over them.

This is a ghastly situation. It’s what’s wrong with Northern Ireland and the parties which benefit by it have no incentive to fix it.

Currently the party on strike is the DUP. It has pulled out of the Stormont Assembly in protest against the Protocol but previously it was Sinn Féin. Michelle O’Neill as health minister in 2016 was fully aware of the calamitous state of the health service here and had committed herself to implementing painful reforms. Yet she abandoned that project and led her party through a three year strike in a demand for an Irish Language Act which was apparently more important.

And her party’s vote increased

when she took that stand, as did the DUP’s when it bullishly resisted.

What are we to do about this vulnerability in the Good Friday Agreement, that a party in a power sharing coalition can pull the whole thing down by walking out, and especially when the issue on which they are walking out is a minority concern within the wider community?

One prospect ahead of us is that the DUP will not come back into the Assembly and that power-sharing will have failed so the opportunity to fix this will have passed.

The majority of DUP voters tell pollsters that that is what they want.

Both parties may be more keen to move on to the next round in the wrangle over the constitutional question.

Sinn Féin in that circumstance will play hard for greater Irish government involvement in Northern Ireland, and may relish that battle over the routine of governing, especially when governing won’t be easy.

The DUP would seem to have the weaker hand to play. What chance has it got of manoeuvring Westminster into more fulsome support for the Union?

Sinn Féin, on the other hand, has a serious prospect of governing in the Republic before long and will agitate for progress towards joint authority – at least – and then Irish unity.

It would be great if we could have a substantial reform of the Good Friday Agreement that denies big parties the right to force everyone else out along with them.

But that would seriously contradict the fundamental principle of the Good Friday Agreement, that power must be shared and exercised in co-operation with the rival community. The unanswered question though is how rival communities can govern or be governed when they are in deep disagreement. Can a polity function if groups which fear and suspect each other have to agree before anything can be done?

And you may ask, what is the point of bringing Stormont back if the two parties compelled to share power with each other both care more about their identity concerns and their constitutional ambitions than about efficient and compassionate governing?

What faith can we have in the system working if both remain willing to pull the whole house down, over and over again, to get their way?

Surely the minimum we must require of these parties before Stormont is restored, in any package of measures to appease them, must be a commitment to staying in office and doing their jobs.

Perhaps a starting point, when and if the DUP come back, would be for all parties to pledge not to use their vetoes again. And they might do that if they can grasp that much of the electorate has already lost faith in a system that routinely falls apart.

STORMONT STANDSTILL: The government buildings with no governing going on inside Picture: Courtesy of Tourism Northern Ireland

Bishop Keenan speaks out against assisted suicide

LAST week Bishop John Keenan, Bishop of Paisley and Vice-President of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, joined other faith leaders at the Scottish parliament to sign a statement urging MSPs to vote down a proposal to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland.

The joint statement expresses “deep concern” that assisted suicide “inevitably undermines the dignity of the human person” and that it could “put pressure on vulnerable individuals to opt for assisted suicide.”

The statement ends with a firm commitment by the Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic Church, and the Scottish Association of Mosques to oppose assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Bishop John Keenan said: “Assisted suicide attacks human dignity and results in human life

being increasingly valued on the basis of its efficiency and utility. Implicit in legal assisted suicide is that an individual can lose their value and worth.

“Evidence from countries where assisted suicide or euthanasia is legal shows that vulnerable people feel pressured to end their lives through fear of being a burden. In such situations the option of assisted suicide is less about having a ‘right’ to die and more about feeling the full weight and expectation of a duty to die.”

The other faith leaders were the Rt Rev Iain Greenshields, Moderator of the Church of Scotland and Imam Shaykh Hamza Khandwalla, Imam of Dundee Central Mosque.

Bishop Keenan is the son of Irish immigrants Joseph and Philomena Keenan. He was born in Glasgow, one of five children.

Naval chiefs meet in Cork to discuss increased Russian maritime threat

BY CATRIONA GRAY

MEMBERS of EU and NATO naval services gathered in Cork last week to discuss, among other matters, the Russian threat in European waters.

The annual Chiefs of European Navies (CHENS) meeting is described by the Irish Defence Forces as an “informal, independent and non-political forum”.

The 27-member group is open to any European nation which is a member of the EU or NATO and has a navy. Ireland, although not a member of NATO, currently holds the presidency of the CHENS conference having last hosted it in 2001.

The meeting is seen as timely in light of recent incursions by Russian warships into, or near, Irish waters.

The threat is not just from conventional combat ships. Modern warfare is just as likely to entail enemy action directed at IT or communications networks using what is called ‘disruptive technologies’.

Both Ireland and Britain are deemed to be at risk due to their being islands – underwater cables are still a vital part of the communications network. It is believed that Russia has developed, or is developing, new weapons of disruptive technology such as AI modules that can hunt for underseas cables.

Flag Officer Commanding the Naval Service,

Commodore Michael Malone told RTÉ News that CHENS “continues to be a valued platform to ensure naval relevance in a rapidly changing future as we continue to find innovative solutions to our shared challenge of leading navies that are always moving forward, modernising and diversifying”.

Next month a public forum will be held in Ireland on the topic of the country’s long-standing neutrality. Tánaiste and foreign minister Micheál Martin, speaking in the Dáil, sad: “We will discuss what our current policy of military neutrality means, whether it is fit for purpose in the current global security environment and whether we need to define more clearly what we do, and do not, mean by military neutrality.”

A far-flung diaspora

A new academic study has found that a substantial proportion of the population of Newfoundland and Labrador has strong genetic connections to Ireland and southwest England

BY MAL ROGERS

A STUDY of the modern population of Newfoundland shows that a significant proportion is descended from Irish stock, and from incomers from southwest England some 300 years ago

The founder population of Newfoundland and Labrador – that is, the original European settlers in that area – is a unique genetic resource, in part due to the area’s geographic remoteness

and until recently, cultural isolation.

Historical records show a migration of European settlers, primarily from Ireland and England, to the area in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Newfoundland and Labrador make up the most eastern Canadian province – Labrador is on the Canadian mainland, and the island of Newfoundland lies off the coast in the North Atlantic.

A new study by RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, based in Dublin, and

Sequence Bio, a genomics and precision medicine company based in St. John’s in Canada, has produced a genetic analysis of people living in the province.

The study, entitled “Newfoundland and Labrador: A mosaic founder population of an Irish and British diaspora from 300 years ago,” has been published in Communications Biology.

By studying the genetic profiles of 1,807 volunteering individuals from Sequence Bio’s Newfoundland and Labrador Genome Project (NLGP), and comparing the results to reference datasets for Ireland and England, scientists have shown that a significant proportion of the European-derived population of NL can be traced back to settlers who primarily migrated from southeast Ireland and southwest England around three centuries ago.

“In looking at the ways Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are genetically related to each other, and to present day Irish and English individuals, we were able to show that European ancestry in NL is mainly descended from Irish and English settlers in the time of the late 1700s to early 1800s,” Dr. Edmund Gilbert, the first author on the study said. His team used what he called “well-characterised’ population reference datasets like the Irish DNA Atlas to link English and Irish ancestry in Newfoundland. to specific regions in Ireland, and to track how social and geographical isolation influenced NL communities at the level of their DNA.

According to the study the genetic analysis supports the historical accounts that around 25,000 European settlers came to Newfoundland in the 18th and 19th centuries, mainly from Ireland – predominantly Waterford, Wexford, south Kilkenny, southeast Tipperary, and southeast Cork – and from Dorset and Devon in England as well as fishing ports such as Dartmouth, Plymouth, or Southampton.

Professor Gianpiero Cavalleri, Professor of Human Genetics at RCSI said: “In the study, we could see that Catholic background in Newfoundland and Labrador is still today strongly associated with Irish genetic ancestry as is Protestant background with English genetic ancestry.”

Chaplaincy CEO with a gift for Ambassador

EDDIE Gilmore presented Ambassador Martin Fraser with a signed copy of his new book The Universe Provides, sub-titled “finding miracles and inspiration in unexpected places”. Eddie is CEO of Londonbased charity Irish Chaplaincy which supports Irish prisoners, Travellers and seniors.

He draws on his professional as well as his personal and musical experiences in his new book, which collects stories of hope and uplifting encounters from his travels around a global community rediscovering itself following the isolations of the coronavirus.

Eddie’s first book Looking Ahead with Hope – stories of humanity, wonder and gratitude in a time of uncertainty was published in 2021 and was endorsed by former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. For more information go to https://www.dartonlongmantodd.co.uk/titles/2373-97819154 12485-universe-provides

PRESENTATION: Ambassador Martin Fraser and Eddie Gilmore

Icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland Picture: Getty Images

Military Ops Russian Warship 545 on manoeuvres off the coast of Ireland Picture: Courtesy of Irish Air Corps

minutes with...

The Remedy Club’s third album Back To You is launched this week on May 26.

Recorded in the Orphan Studios in Wexford, KJ McEvoy and Aileen Mythen are joined by Aongus Ralston on bass from The Waterboys, and Michael Buckley and Ronan Dooney on brass from the Van Morrison band.

Their music, Americana and roots, takes the road out of Wexford and heads towards Memphis and New Orleans.

KJ McEvoy answers our questions.

THE REMEDY CLUB

remedy for all that ails the soul and the club being the idea that although it is essentially the two of us, the real magic happens when an audience enters the room.

How did you get started in music?

My older sister, Marion turned me on to the guitar when I was 12 years old and two years later I had somewhat of an epiphany when I saw two guys playing acoustic guitars, trading licks back and forth. Suddenly the music that I had absorbed as a younger kid – T Rex, Slade and Status Quo – all made sense to me.

What are your roots?

What are you up to?

Writing out chord charts for a rehearsal for this week’s album launch. We’re gearing up for the release of our third album Back To You and confirming tour dates for our Irish and English tours in the summer and September 2023.

Which piece of music always sends a shiver down your spine?

Nick Cave’s Push The Sky Away. Cave uses the imagery of the sky falling in upon you as an analogy for when life gets really difficult. Coupled with the plaintive organ playing of Warren Ellis and the simple stark arrangement this song never fails to cut right through directly to the soul.

Which musician has most influenced you?

Let’s imagine, for a moment, we could distil three musicians into one as The Holy Trinity: Bob Dylan, Keith Richards and Billy Gibbons.

Easy one this time: what is the greatest American country song?

It has to be Sunday Morning Coming Down by Kris Kristofferson.

Who would be in your ideal band?

Levon Helm on drums, Muddy Waters on vocals, John Paul Jones on bass and I will fight off Keith Richards for the position of lead guitar player. As incongruous as it may seem alongside the aforementioned, I’m going to go for Jimmy Smith on Hammond organ with guest appearance by Miles Davis on trumpet and our own Dave Murphy aka ‘Steely Dave’ on pedal steel from Cork.

Why are you called The Remedy Club?

Aileen plucked it out of the blue one day and I immediately loved it. It seemed to encapsulate everything we’re about down to its essence; as in music being a

I’m from the northside of Dublin. However, our family always seemed to have had some connection to Wexford with long lost relatives and visits to mysterious cousins along the way. Aileen comes from Ferns in Wexford..

Have you ever lived outside Ireland?

I lived in New York city for eight years, one year in two different neighbourhoods in Brooklyn and the other seven on the lower east side in Manhattan, right in the thick of things.

What would be your motto?

Love is all you need.

Who’ll act you when they make a film of your life?

Daniel Day Lewis

Have you a favourite line from a song? Many. But I’ll go for: “I used to care but things have changed” – Bob Dylan.

In terms of inanimate objects, what is your most precious possession?

I’m not sure if I would describe a guitar as an inanimate object, but if so then my customised designed Thompson Telecaster.

What’s the best thing about where you live?

The people are really friendly and most things are within walking distance. ... and the worst?

It’s not anywhere near Nashville and doesn’t have many original music venues to speak of.

What’s the greatest lesson life has taught you? Don’t give up!

What gives you the greatest laugh? Apart from my wife and my daughter, anything by Sharon Horgan and Diane Morgan.

Who is the greatest love of your life? My wife, Aileen Mythen.

Funds raised for RNLI in Waterford

The organisation, entirely supported by charity, keeps a watchful eye on everyone on the water

THE volunteer crew members of Dunmore East RNLI in Co. Waterford successfully conquered the challenge of climbing a vertical mile in a single day in May as part of the charity’s Mayday Mile fundraising event. The team’s achievement has raised vital funds and awareness for the RNLI. The crew, including Hugh O’Sullivan, Peter Grogan, Oscar Stafford, Adam Sweeney, David O’Halloran and Luka Sweeney, tested their strength and stamina by summiting the highest peaks in both the Comeragh and Knockmealdown mountains, ascending a vertical mile over the course of the day. They faced this challenge wearing their full lifeboat kit.

We’re incredibly proud of our team for successfully completing the Vertical Mayday Mile challenge

The funds raised through the Mayday Mile will help RNLI lifesavers to be fully equipped for the summer season – usually a busy time as the warmer weather draws people to the water.

Adam Sweeney, crew member, said, ‘We’re incredibly proud of our team for successfully completing the Vertical Mayday Mile

challenge. It was a tough and gruelling day, but our determination to support the lifesaving work of the RNLI kept us going. We’re grateful for the generosity of the public who have supported our efforts and contributed to our fundraising campaign.”

People can still support Dunmore East RNLI’s efforts by making a donation or getting involved through the Mayday Mile fundraising page. For more information on the Mayday Mile challenge, or to make a donation, please follow the Dunmore East RNLI social media channels.

 Mayday Mile Page: royalnationallifeboatinstitution. enthuse.com/pf/dunmoreeast-lifeboat-crew

Aileen Mythen and KJ McEvoy

PEAK CHALLENGE: The lifeboat crew, more used to heavy seas than high mountains Picture: Ian O’Brien

The roll call of disgrace

When it comes to choosing the worst NI Secretary, there’s been plenty of competition

KEVINMEAGHER

THE Spectator magazine recently asked:

‘”Is Chris Heaton-Harris the worst Northern Ireland Secretary yet?”

The right-wing magazine took umbrage with remarks he made recently at Queen’s University Belfast during the commemorative events for the Good Friday Agreement.

According to HeatonHarris, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness deserved to be remembered “for the courage and leadership shown in persuading the republican movement of peace”.

In The Spectator’s view, this was “without question one of the most ahistorical and profoundly stupid things ever uttered by a Northern Ireland Secretary”.

style left-wing party.

One that now stands on the threshold of heading governments in both Belfast and Dublin.

Chris Heaton-Harris revealed a mature understanding of the dynamics of the Troubles and should be applauded for what he said.

[Karen Bradley] compounded her gaffe by mentioning that she had previously no idea that “people who are nationalists don’t vote for unionist parties and vice versa

For good measure, the DUP’s Gavin Robinson, MP for East Belfast, described his sentiments as “more akin to a speech by a clueless Irish American congressman rather than a UK government cabinet minister”.

But the historical reality is that Adams and McGuinness should be remembered for their courage and leadership.

They played an enormous part in ending the Troubles, transitioning a Marxist, guerrilla army into a mainstream European-

And while provocation is The Spectator’s stock-in-trade, Robinson is guilty of the most appalling double standard.

Back in 1998 his party leader Ian Paisley stood outside while the Good Friday Agreement was being negotiated, barracking those inside the multi-party talk – those who were trying to plot a way forward for the people of Northern Ireland.

The institutions that resulted have been mothballed for more than a third of the time since – and are currently Heaton-Harris’s responsibility to fix. But that still doesn’t make him the worst person to hold his office.

Not by a long shot.

Let’s face it, there’s plenty of competition.

Including the current incumbent there have been 24 Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland since the role was created in 1972.

For every Mo Mowlam, popularly regarded

as playing a vital role in the Good Friday Agreement process, there is a Francis Pym.

The Tory briefly served as minister for a few months between 1973-74. (So briefly, in fact, that he didn’t bother mentioning it in his own memoirs).

Many, it is fair to say, have left little mark on the place.

Labour’s Roy Mason (1976-79) was truly atrocious. A preening little man whose hardline security crackdown and lack of interest in a political settlement simply stored up problems for the future.

The instantly forgettable Humphrey Atkins (1979-81) presided over the 1981 Hunger Strike. It took his successor, the bluff but

decent Jim Prior (1981-84) to agree to the prisoners’ demands.

Karen Bradley (2018-19) was by far the most hapless.

During a memorable interview shortly after she was appointed, she admitted to being ‘slightly scared’ about coming to Northern Ireland.

She compounded her gaffe by mentioning that she had previously no idea that “people who are nationalists don’t vote for unionist parties and vice versa”.

When it comes to the worst people Westminster has sent to govern Northern Ireland, I’m afraid poor old Chris Heaton-Harris doesn’t even merit a podium spot.

Change is coming – according to NI statistics

THERE were some workforce statistics published recently from the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.

The snappily titled 32nd Fair Employment Monitoring Report was hardly a Dan Brown-style pageturner, but had a dramatic ending, nevertheless.

It showed there are now as many Catholics of working age (43.4 per cent) as there are Protestants (43.5 per cent) in Northern Ireland.

Thirty-two years ago in 1990, when they started measuring these things, just 35 per cent of the workforce was Catholic and 65 per cent Protestant.

And just 20 years ago, the figures were still 68-42 per cent

A combination of creeping demographic change, as well as the impact of anti-discrimination

legislation, has now levelled the pitch.

The figures are part of an emerging picture – underlining the essential point that Northern Ireland is changing – and the implications are now enormous.

Indeed, last year’s census was a watershed.

For the first time since it was created in 1921, there are officially more Catholics than Protestants making up Northern Ireland’s 1.9 million population – 45.7 per cent compared to 43.5 per cent.

Okay, it’s marginal at this stage, but the underlying issue is the one that really matters – Catholics are younger and Protestants tend to be older.

This means there were more births than deaths for Catholics and, well, more deaths than births for Protestants.

This all matters because

the place was infamously created to lock-in a Protestant-Unionist ascendancy at the time of partition.

Created by cleaving-off the three counties of Ulster with bigger Catholic populations, Northern Ireland was a rigged system from the start.

With Catholics on the losing side of the deal, facing fifty years of appalling discrimination in jobs and housing – not to mention the denial of their voting rights due to gerrymandered council boundaries.

Courtesy of the unionist

government at Stormont.

Anyway, the times they are a-changing.

The statistics from school admissions are even more significant.

Catholic children now heavily outnumber Protestants. And it’s a yawning gap.

In 2019, figures from Northern Ireland’s education department showed that Catholic children made-up nearly 51 per cent of all enrolments in nurseries, primary and secondary schools.

The equivalent figure for Protestants was 33 per cent. (The remainder were ‘other’).

In electoral terms, it means today’s fourteenyear-olds will be voters at the time of the next assembly elections.

My own hunch is that over the next handful of years we are likely to see a

jolt forward in the numbers voting for nationalist parties, who will go on to eventually vote for Irish unity in a border poll. This is guaranteed in the Good Friday Agreement when it looks likely there is a demand to test the mood.

Now, of course, not all Catholics vote for the SDLP or Sinn Féin and want to see a united Ireland, with all Protestants favouring the exact opposite. But we still know that, well, broadly they do.

So, what we’re seeing is Northern Ireland tilting slowly but decisively away from its original purpose – with a border poll possible by the end of this decade.

So each set of statistics –innocuous tables on a spreadsheet – now have enormous implications. They tell us that slowly but surely, we are potentially on-course to see Northern Ireland voted out of existence by its own people.

SPOT-ON SPEECH: Minister Chris Heaton-Harris at QUB PIcture: Getty Images

TICKING THE RIGHT BOX: Voting in Ireland PIcture: RollingNews.ie

Spring Craic with the IYF

PICTURES BY MALCOLM MCNALLY PHOTOGRAPHY

THE Irish Youth Foundation (UK), along with the London Irish Business Society (LIBS) and the Women’s Irish Network (WIN), held ‘The Spring Craic’ at Daffodil Mulligan in London .

The well-known Irish restaurant and bar in London’s Old Street played host to the event with an evening of culinary delights. Music and dancing too – with the band Hungry Grass.

During the evening, Nancy, Pat and Trina Hickey were announced as the inaugural members of the IYF (UK) Patrons Club, in

appreciation of their tremendous support and fundraising efforts over the years.

The Hickey family received the award from IYF (UK) Chair John Dwyer and Patron Adrian Dunbar.

The IYF (UK) was established in 1989 and is the only national charity in Britain specifically aimed at helping disadvantaged young Irish people and their families.

The sponsors were:

Fenchurch Insurance Brokers

Jawbox Gin Hunters Architects and Building Consultants Redbreast Irish Whiskey

Richard Henry and Kelly and Michael Doyle Enjoying the evening

Entertainment was provided by Hungry Grass

John Dwyer, Nancy Hickey, Adrian Dunbar and Trina and Pat Hickey. The Hickey family are the inaugural members of the IYF (UK) Patrons Club

Richard Willis, Mick Roddy, Sandie Stanley, Adrian Dunbar and John Nugent

Trina Hickey, Paul Smith and Tara Cronin

Irish nurses sought for the NHS

A CAMPAIGN to attract Irish student nurses to Britain hopes to address the reduction in numbers of overseas students coming into the country following Brexit.

Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is encouraging student nurses from Ireland to take up its degree courses at its Chelmsford, Cambridge and Peterborough campuses.

“Since Brexit there’s been a fall in Irish students travelling to the UK to train as nurses, although students from Ireland, unlike other members of the EU, can still enjoy the same access to higher education, pay the same fees and receive the same SUSI grants as students living in the UK,” the university claims.

Heading the charge to recruit more student nurses from Ireland is Ian TuveriEllis. The Limerick native is a Senior Lecturer at ARU.

“Our three-year nursing degrees are recognised across the world,” he said.

“Our campuses offer state-of-the-art skills labs, where students can learn on

simulated mannequins gaining a firstclass education.

“We also support our students with their wellbeing, all are assigned a personal tutor to help them with the rigors of a nursing degree.

“Students are also sent on a wide range of placements in the region’s NHS and private hospitals as well as community settings.”

He added: “Learners benefit from a full student experience, our campuses are based in thriving cities and are also close to London, which provides a world-class cultural offering, from top theatres and museums to nightlife.”

According to recent surveys by the Grabjobs job search site, nursing is the eighth most in demand job in Ireland and work as a healthcare professional is ranked in the top ten of most popular careers in the country.

ARU is hoping Irish students wishing to pursue a healthcare career at home will consider their establishment for

their training and educational needs – with the university offering undergraduate study in adult nursing, child

mental health nursing, plus nursing associate courses.

Accommodation blow to tourist season in Kerry

A shortage of places to stay is the latest snag to hit the tourism season in Ireland, and it’s a double blow for the Skellig Islands lying off the coast of southwest Kerry

BY NICK BRAMHILL

IT’S the world-famous UNESCO world heritage site that has become a bucket list destination for Star Wars fans due to its use as a location in the series. The final scene of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was shot on Skellig in July 2015, with additional filming taking place for The Last Jedi, the following film in the series. The remains of the Skellig Michael monastery appear in the film, representing an ancient Jedi temple.

But tourists planning to visit Skellig Michael over the summer have been warned that it’s not just bad weather that could derail their plans this season, but a shortage of hotel space on the Kerry mainland.

The protected, monastic island –which is often inaccessible due to stormy seas, and rockfalls – opened up mid-May for a restricted fourand-a-half month visitor season, as reported in The Irish Post last week.

But tourism chiefs and business owners on the southwest Kerry mainland have identified their biggest hurdle this season as the shortage of hotel rooms and holiday homes.

Their concerns mirror a similar gloomy outlook for the tourism industry nationwide, after a recently leaked government memo claimed Ireland’s tourism sector could lose more than €1bn this year due to hotel shortages.

Figures released from the Department of Integration reveal that

almost one in three tourism bedrooms in regional Ireland is contracted to the government to house refugees and asylum seekers. Nowhere is the impact of the unavailable tourism bedrooms felt than in the small coastal towns and villages of southwest Kerry, whose businesses rely on the constant

footfall and overnight stays of visitors to Skellig Michael.

Gerard Kennedy, who runs the Moorings Guesthouse and Bridge Bar in picturesque Portmagee – the coastal village from where most Skellig-bound boats depart – said: “The big problem tourists who are planning to visit Skellig Michael are facing is finding accommodation. We are already at around 80 per cent capacity for the season in terms of rooms that have been booked up, whereas normally at this time we›d be around the 50 per cent mark.

“I’m having to turn a lot of people away already who are looking for rooms, because there just aren’t any available. The problem is that they’re struggling to find rooms elsewhere, because other hotels and many holiday homes in the region are currently unavailable to tourists.

“For someone visiting Skellig Michael, they need somewhere to stay because it’s so remote. Also, all those people who would holiday here in Portmagee would be coming for lunch, or going to coffee shops or buying a souvenir. We’re not going to see a lot less of those tourists this season if there’s nowhere for them to stay.”

He added: “The accommodation shortage has also made it even harder to find staff. It’s hard enough as it is, but if you’ve nowhere for them to stay, they simply won’t come.”

Jamie Duff, one of four boat

operators who run Portmagee-based Skellig Coast Adventures, also pinpointed the accommodation shortage as the biggest challenge of the season. “We’re not back to pre-Covid levels yet, and last season we lost a lot of days due to bad weather and a rockfall on the island, But I think this year there›s going to be less people around, because so many of the holiday homes and hotel beds aren’t available.” Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae said: “This is a very big problem, and as far as I can see, it’s only going to get worse.

“On the one hand if there’s no accommodation for tourists then they won’t come. But you can’t tell people to leave a hotel or a holiday home unless you’ve got somewhere for them to go to. I just don’t think the government have a plan in place to deal with this.”

Skellig Michael has become a mecca for Star Wars in recent years after featuring in two recent blockbusters. However, visitor numbers have still not returned to the pre-pandemic highs that were recorded up to 2019.

According to official figures released by the OPW, approximately 14,200 people visited the isolated outpost over last year’s four-and-ahalf month season.

But the monastic outpost had to be closed off to visitors for a total of 51 days during its already-restricted season – 31 due to poor weather and sea conditions, and a further 20 days as a result of a rockfall.

nursing and degrees combined with

LAND AHOY! Nearing the Skellig Islands Picture: Courtesy of Tourism Ireland

ON CALL: The call has gone out for more Irish nurses to join the NHS Picture: Getty Images

The buck stops here

Over 80 per cent of respondents to the first major public consultation into the impact of wild deer in Ireland say that the national herd is damaging biodiversity, with similar numbers complaining about damage to farm crops and road safety. The public consultation heard from over 1,500 people, and was conducted as part of an ongoing deer management strategy.

Broadband breathes life into remote island

DONEGAL

INIS Mhic an Doirn (Rutland Island), lies off the Donegal coast about half a mile from Burtonport Harbour.

It has now become one of the first offshore islands to be connected as part of Ireland’s National Broadband Plan. Until recently, just one house was occupied full-time on the small island, which has no running water or a regular ferry service, reports RTÉ

But the availability of high-speed broadband has prompted one couple to relocate to the island from Dublin.

Ian Blake, originally from Letterkenny, and his partner Sian Conway from Dublin, swopped their €700 a month rental room in a shared three-bedroomed house for an 18th century stone property on the island.

Mr Blake’s great-grandmother was born on Inis Mhic an Doirn and his grandfather purchased the house there.

Now fibre broadband has allowed the couple to be able to work remotely.

Complaints over effusive tributes at graveside LIMERICK

A FAMILY has removed wreaths and floral tributes from the grave of a young man after complaints were made to Limerick City and County Council.

The Limerick Leader /Limerick Live was contacted by a member of the public regarding the display in Mount St Oliver Cemetery in memory of the deceased who passed away in tragic circumstances. A council spokesperson said on foot of their concerns and in response to complaints from members of the public

regarding “funeral wreaths and floral tributes extending out beyond a family grave, we wrote to the family concerned, requesting they remove these items off other graves”.

The spokesperson said: “The family concerned have responded to our concerns. Wreaths and floral tributes have been removed from all other graves.”

Dangerous driver jailed for two and a half years

A MAN who was banned from driving, rammed garda cars, endangered other motorists, and drove the wrong direction through the Jack Lynch Tunnel in Cork, has been jailed.

Tony Caulfield appeared before Cork Circuit Criminal Court having pleaded guilty to the offences of endangerment of life, dangerous driving and criminal damage.

Cork Beo reports that the 26-year-old pleaded guilty to endangering life when he drove against oncoming traffic in Co. Cork causing risk of death or injury.

He also pleaded guilty to intentionally ramming two

garda cars on the same day. Damage to one of the cars was put at €7,000. The other at €3,000.

Mr Caulfield also pleaded guilty to causing €6,000 in damage to a patrol car at Mallow Road in Cork on the same date.

The court also heard how on November 18, 2021

CORK

Caulfield drove down narrow city streets in Cork at high speed, going through several red traffic lights and four stop signs.

Mr Caulfield also drove down pedestrian steps in the city in an attempt to avoid

being apprehended. Oncoming vehicles were forced to take evasive action as he drove on the wrong side of the road.

Caulfield was also driving without insurance and while under two different disqualification orders.

In sentencing, Judge Dara Hayes said that Caulfield’s actions were “contemptuous”. She said: “This was an appalling litany of driving offences covering large swatches of Cork city. He drove the wrong way through the Jack Lynch Tunnel when unsuspecting maintenance workers were entitled to presume the absence of traffic.”

Brennan brothers put top flight hotels up for sale

KERRY

BRENNAN brothers Francis and John are selling their Kenmare sister hotels, the five-star Park Hotel and The Lansdowne. On the market for €20.5million, the hotels can be bought separately or together.

The 46-bed Kenmare Park Hotel, situated on the banks of the Kenmare River, is co-owned with Fergal Naughton, executive chairman of Glen Dimplex.

Facilities at The Park include five dining rooms, a champagne bar, a cocktail bar, a spa, pool, tennis courts and croquet lawn.

Guests have included members of the Rolling Stones, Woody Allen, Mia Farrow,

Nicholas Cage and John Travolta.

The Brennan brothers bought the 1790s Lansdowne out of receivership in 2020, and invested several million euros in refurbishments to both hotels just as Covid bit deep into the hotel sector. Trading has since recovered well.

According to the Irish Examiner, Francis Brennan bought The Park out of liquidation in 1986, having managed it for two years beforehand.

But he is now ending his long career in the trade, as he’ll soon turn 70.

Francis and his brother John continue to present the RTÉ TV show At Your Service which advises struggling hospitality owners.

People smugglers abusing the CTA are jailed

TWO members of an organised crime group who smuggled more than 40 migrants into the UK have been jailed. At Laganside Crown Court, Belfast Mohamed Awad, aged 25, of London, was sentenced to two years and eight months for his part in facilitating the unlawful immigration of 41 Syrian nationals.

His co-accused, Ahmad Omar, aged 40, from Belfast, was jailed for two years in March for his role as a paid driver in the criminal organisation.

Omar had settled in Belfast in 2020, securing a job at a pizza takeaway in the south of the city.

BELFAST

The pair were caught following an investigation by the Home Office’s Criminal and Financial Investigations (CFI) unit which found the international smuggling gang were charging migrants around £5,000 per journey.

It is estimated that the gang made more than £200,000 for facilitating the Syrian nationals into the UK over 16 days in November 2021.

The gang provided false identity documents and arranged flights from Belfast to Britain to facilitate the illegal entry of the migrants through abuse of the

Common Travel Area (CTA) between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Officers from the Home Office’s Immigration Enforcement, along with Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), carried out search warrants at addresses in Belfast and London in March 2022.

The defendants both pleaded guilty to assisting unlawful immigration.

Ben Thomas, Deputy Director from the Criminal and Financial Investigation unit, said: “We are committed to dismantling peoplesmuggling networks, and will stop at nothing to bring them to justice.”

Picture: Rolling News.ie

MALROGERS Hard news the easy way

VOLODYMYR HEADS FOR THE VATICAN

The Tory from Monaghan

THE Troubles began with sticks and stones back in the 1960s and finished with SAM Missiles in the 1990s. In fact the Bother lasted so long that the hostilities almost became a history of weaponry.

Peter Brooke came along just as the last of the old Thompson machine guns were being replaced by AK47s in the IRA.

Brooke, who has died at the age of 89, arrived in the North in 1989. He was the first secretary of state to boast any Irish connections, with strong ties to Ulster. His family had moved to Co. Monaghan from Cheshire in the 16th century, part of the AngloIrish ascendancy. His cousins were the Brookes of Fermanagh, one of whom became Northern Ireland’s longest-serving premier, Lord Brookeborough.

Peter Brooke also liked to point out that his ancestor, the poet Caroline Brooke, was the first to use the term Fenian in the English language – and not in a derogatory sense.

Brooke was widely seen as not hindering the peace process, and indeed his statement in 1990 that “The British government has no selfish strategic or economic interest in Northern Ireland” was widely seen as key in helping start the peace process.

He might have done even more for the land of his forebears but

for an awful case of what is known locally as the head staggers. On the day in 1992 when eight Protestant workmen were killed by a bomb in Tyrone, Brooke appeared on The Late Late Show. We’ll probably never know what possessed the man but after some gentle cajoling by Gay Byrne – who had wanted him to sing Danny Boy – Brooke launched into Oh My Darling Clementine. Egged on by Gay he sang of his darling being “lost and gone forever.” And of course they were, times eight. The unionists were enraged and never forgave Brooke. It was bad enough appearing on the airwaves in the Republic in the first place, but to do a song was inexcusable. By the end of the year he was gone.

Of course there are those who say the whole thing was a carefully executed plan on Brooke’s part to get shot of the job, and that he probably would have offered to dance a jig with Gay in order to depart from the Northern Ireland job.

On a related note, I see that the current Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said that implementing a deadline for the restoration of the Stormont executive would be “deadly”. This has puzzled some participants. Did Heaton-Harris mean “deadly” in the Dublin sense, or the dictionary sense?

Racing certainty

I’VE always thought that the first-past-the-post system was an ideal way – an absolutely exemplary way, in fact – of deciding horse races. Not so good, however, for determining which political party should govern your country.

My letter of the week award therefore goes to Robert Court of Derbyshire, who wrote to The Times: “May I add my voice to the plea for The Times to take a lead on proportional representation? We are out of step in retaining the first-past-the-post voting system: the only other European country to use it to elect the lower house of its legislature is Belarus. The Conservative Party and Labour leadership should be perturbed at the company they are keeping, although admittedly we at least wait for the electorate to cast its votes before counting them.”

VOLODYMYR Zelenskyy threw his arms round Rishi Sunak when he met him last week. It probably wasn’t really any sign of affection; the Ukrainian leader was probably just relieved that it was the same prime minister as last time. Anyway, he appears to have extracted a promise of more kit from the British to help Ukraine’s fight against the Russians. Then it was off to meet the Pope for Volod. Whether Pope Francis offered him any kit, I couldn’t say. But I did notice that the Swiss Guards – who are responsible for security round the Vatican – looking a bit nervous. No, surely not – Francis wouldn’t have promised him a battalion of Swiss Guards? Still, those spears or bayonets that the Guards carry do look impressively dangerous.

The drenched lieutenant’s woman

THIS weekend, on May 27, is the anniversary of the start of the filming of John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman in Lyme Regis, Dorset, in 1980.

Sadly, the weather was suboptimal that day. It began raining on the very morning that filming began and more or less continued throughout the summer.

The rough seas that accompanied the inclement weather did have one advantage, though – it was perfect for the brooding, dramatic first scene. Meryl Streep, playing the part of Miss Sarah Woodruff walking along the Cobb, as the sea wall is known there.

PONTIFF’S PROTECTORS: Swiss Guards on duty at the Vatican Picture: Getty Images

A not so divine swine line

JUST had a quick trip back home, and visited friends in Co. Antrim. Even went for a walk on Slemish. South Antrim suffers somewhat from having such spectacular neighbours to the north – the Glens of Antrim and the Giant’s Causeway. Yet South Antrim includes the whole area of St Patrick’s early days in Ireland – it was here he tended livestock on the slopes of Mount Slemish just north of Carnalbanagh. Slemish, standing some 437 metres (1437 ft), is visible for miles around. A well-marked path leads to the top. It’ll take you the best part of an hour – but the views are superb. The same views that St Patrick would have enjoyed, in fact. Mind you, fact that our patron saint was a pigherd is often overlooked. I suppose it just doesn’t sound that romantic. I mean “The Lord’s my shepherd” is a lovely line, a great piece of poetry. “The Lord’s my pigherd” just doesn’t have the same lyricism.

But it actually wasn’t Meryl.

United Artists forbade their A-lister to walk the Cobb; the risk to such an asset was too great. So a lowly assistant director called Fred pulled on her cape and lashed himself to the quayside as the waves crashed around him.

I hope that knowledge doesn’t in any way detract from the film the next time you watch it.

If you should be walking in that area of the beach, watch out for something odd. In amongst all the sandpipers scurrying around like wind-up toys, you’ll see battalions of kids and adults searching among the pebbles and rocks littered along the Jurassic Coast. The clue is in the name – they were on a fossil quest, for this is one of Europe’s most important paleontology sites, officially recognised as a World Heritage Site. Many of the earliest discoveries of dinosaur and other prehistoric reptile remains were made here – for further elucidation head for the Lyme Regis Museum (lymeregismuseum.co.uk)

They are currently celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mary Anning, a local woman who through her discoveries of fossils on the beach here, became a trailblazer for women in science – and one of the most important palaeontologists of all time. Go along – you never know what you might find.

The secret of the universe

THE Armagh Observatory has been in the forefront of examining particles in space which appear to be composed of a tar-like substance. I was trying to work out what the likely significance of this unusual finding could possibly be. I mean, is it possible we are approaching the coned-off area of the universe?

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF A SAINT: Slemish Picture: Wikimedia Commons

The voice of the Irish in Britain since 1970

A sea change in the North

LORD Brookeborough, prime minister of Northern Ireland, who was a cousin of former Northern secretary Peter Brooke who died earlier this month, once addressed members of an Orange institution, saying: “Many in this audience employ Catholics, but I have not one about my place.. If we in Ulster allow Roman Catholics to work on our farms we are traitors to Ulster... I would appeal to loyalists, therefore, wherever possible, to employ good Protestant lads and lassies.”

There are Catholics about the place now, and are in the political ascendancy throughout the North.

The local elections in Northern Ireland last week are arguably the most seismic in the hundred-year history of the jurisdiction.

Not only did Sinn Féin emerge as dominant political force in the North, it was the first time the unionist vote was less than the nationalist vote.

Further, the nationalist bloc gained a majority of the vote in both Belfast and Derry for the first time.

In the wake of these results the DUP leader Sir Geoffrey Donaldson has called for unity among the unionist parties. But last week’s results have shown that even if a highly implausible realignment of the unionist parties emerged so that there was only one bloc, this single monolithic unionist party would not get sufficient votes to counter the nationalist bloc.

In short, change is coming to the North.

Ireland’s defence budget must be increased

MEMBERS of EU and NATO naval services gathered in Cork last week to discuss the Russian threat in European waters.

Ireland has figured on nuclear threats from Russia, and Russian warships have been spotted on several occasion near or inside Irish waters. According to some observers in Moscow, Ireland is seen as the “weak link’ in the EU defences.

But in reality, although the nuclear threat cannot be discounted (it is one that many East European nations have learned to live with) the likeliest course for continuing hostilities with Russia – or any other aggressor – will involve information technology and communications systems.

Ireland and Britain, both being islands, rely heavily on underwater cables for their IT infrastructure.

These are a prime target for aggression and sabotage by ‘disruptive technology’, as the weapons that attack these systems are called.

It has now become apparent that Ireland’s expenditure on its Defence Forces, and in particular its Naval Service, needs to be stepped up dramatically. This is a depressing philosophy, but sadly it is the reality that we are now living in.

Editor reserves the right to edit all letters as applicable. Please keep your letters as brief as possible. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of The Irish Post.

A perspective from Belfast

GORSE in bloom is a spring glory on the steep hills surrounding Belfast Lough. Pretty trees are silhouetted against the skyline hills visible on the Belfast to Whitehead rail journey.

But even more wonderful are the streaks of gold lower down, where it looks as if an almighty hand has skilfully applied layers of yellow pastel dye to the picture. The impressive colour of gorse (called “whins” in this part of the world) calls to mind an old family story.

Many years ago my late grandfather met a ‘new’ sister from the steel town of Hamilton in Ontario. Most of the family had been forced to migrate en masse from rural Co Tyrone at a time of great hardship in the early 1900s. But my grandfather stayed on in Ireland, and only saw his own father once more, when the old man made a single return trip home by boat.

My great grandfather, much to the amusement of his household in Hamilton, took a block of Irish turf “from his own moss” back to Canada, and gave it pride of place on the mantelpiece for a long time.

And so it was with the gloriously golden whin bushes of an Irish May, when my grandfather’s sister (born and raised in Ontario) eventually came to meet him and see her parents’ original home farm.

Olive adored the golden gorse bushes of Co. Tyrone and thought them stunningly beautiful.

My grandfather, in total contrast, had spent decades in a battle against the whins. He had a different view of them.

The siblings were delighted to meet and to muse on the hidden bonds uniting them, even if their opinion on whin bushes was different.

Whin bushes are both a friend and a foe, a paradise flower and a pestilence, a negative factor to farm profit.

Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.

But it is good to count our blessings in this post-pandemic time. The Fastnet or Inishtrahull lighthouses were once the final sight of Ireland for past generations of Irish migrants in transit, symbols of the separation or splintering of families. Today, even if our food prices or basic service charges have risen, we should still be very grateful for full shelves in larders and a relatively comfortable lifestyle: something our forebears never tasted or envisaged.

James Hardy Belfast

Wartime enquiry

I RECENTLY stumbled across an article regarding the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese imperial forces in December 1941.

A young junior officer from Charlotte, Michigan named Francis Charles Flaherty (15/3/1919-7/12/1941) was killed during that attack – he was posthumously awarded the medal of honour.

His citation reads: “For conspicuous devotion to duty and extraordinary courage and complete disregard of his own

When I saw his name I was curious if he might have known connections to Ireland. I googled “Francis Flaherty find a grave”.

The birthplaces of his paternal grandparents John Flaherty (1830-1907) and Mary Welch Flaherty (1830-1907) were listed as Co. Kerry, Ireland.

I just wondered if any Irish Post readers had any further information about the family. Also, does anyone have information about a World War II soldier named Charles E Kelly (Commando Kelly) 1920-1985 from Pittsburgh regarding his connections to Ireland? There’s very little content about Kelly online but his Medal of Honour citation is phenomenal and he was a massive name in America during World War II.

I’d be grateful for any information anyone can provide.

Mise le Meas.

Conor

James

Kerry (Editorial note: if any reader has any information that might help Conor, please send to editor@irishpost.co.uk and we will forward it to him)

life, above and beyond the call of duty, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. When it was seen that the U.S.S. Oklahoma was going to capsize and the order was given to abandon ship, Ens. Flaherty remained in a turret, holding a flashlight so the remainder of the turret crew could see to escape, thereby sacrificing his own life.”

It seems his ship the USS Oklahoma was struck by three torpedoes. Flaherty remained onboard with a torch helping his crew escape. When the ship rolled over on its side he was trapped inside and drowned along with 428 other sailors. He was only 22 years of age when he died.

Animal rights and insurance implication

THE Irish hunting with hounds’ community is facing an insurance Waterloo.

As insurance companies leave the Irish market it has become impossible to obtain cover for their activities.

The consequences of this economic flight has seen hunts closed down, hunting events like point-to-points and hunt meets being cancelled and access to land for hunting being denied.

The word from the hunting community is that such is the seriousness of the insurance issue hunts might have to fold or else amalgamate with other local hunts.

WIthout insurance cover that protects landowners from hunting-related claims the animal killing is stopped.

Claims taken after a hunting with hounds accident have proven costly to landowners and insurance companies have blanched at the costs involved.

In our litigation culture, for any landowner to allow a hunting pack of hounds and its convoy of mounted riders and foot followers with all its killing apparatus in tow onto his/her land is akin to zig-zagging through a minefield while wearing a blindfold in the dark.

No need exists for any landowner to allow hunting on their land.

Insurance companies do not need the business from the Irish hunting community.

John Tierney Campaigns Director, AOHS

UBIQUITOUS PLANT: Gorse growing at the edge of the Irish Sea

Picture: Courtesy of Tourism Ireland

Vol. 53. No. 21.

The Irish Post

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SHARON NÍ CHONCHUIR

This month, Sharon reflects on the past 15 years of writing for The Irish Post with this, her final column

Last words – a sad farewell Focail scoir

As Gaeilge

TÁIM ag scríobh an t-alt seo tar éis deireadh seachtaine iontach a chaitheamh ag freastal ar imeachtaí chultúrtha anseo i gCorca Dhuibhne. Bhí Féile na Bealtaine ar siúl, féile bliaintiúil ina dtugtar seans do mhuintir na h-áite a mbuanna a chéiliúradh agus saibhreas a gcultúr a léiriú.

I mbliana, bhí taispeántaisí ealaíne ar siúl a thug ábhar machnaimh dom, ceolchoirmeacha a d’árdaigh m’anam is mo chroí le poirt agus amhráin meidhreacha, agus ócáid ana speisialta a d’eagraigh cuid dos na hÚcránaigh atá tagtha chun cónaí inár measc. Tá traidisiún láidir eitleogaíochta acu ina dtír dúchais agus bhí eitleoga móra ag faoileoireacht sa spéir acu ós cionn ceann dos na tránna áitiúla. B’iontach an radharc é agus b’iontach an fhéile.

Tá deireadh leis anois agus tá muintir na h-áite ag súil go mór le féile na bliana seo chugainn. Rud eile atá ag teacht chun deiridh ná mo thréimhse mar cholúnaí don nuachtán seo. Braithim uaigneach ag scríobh na focail sin mar go mbraithfidh mé uaim an deis a thugann an t-alt seo dom blaiseadh beag a thabhairt díbh do mo shaol, mo cheantar agus mo thír, gan trácht ar an nGaeilge agus saol na Gaeilge. Thosnaigh mé ag scríobh an cholún seo sa bhliain 2008 agus deirimse libh gur pribhléid agus pléisiúr ab ea é ó shin.

Tá na céadta alt scríte agam sa tréimhse sin ag cur síos ar gach rud ón méid a bhí ag tárlú i mo shaol pearsanta (an diagnóis scléaróis iolrach a fuaireas i 2010, breith mo mhac agus grá mo chroí i 2016 agus an caidreamh atá agam le mo chéile, Sasanach atá ina marachtaint i gCorca Dhuibhne le breis is cúig bliana fichead) go dtí cúrsaí reatha agus imeachtaí móra an lae.

Nuair a thosnaíos ag scríobh i 2008, ba é deireadh ré an Tíogair Cheiltigh. Tháinig an lagtrá eacnamaíochta sna sála ar sin agus thit féinmhuinín na tíre go tubaisteach dá bharr.

Ina dhiaidh sin, thosnaíomar ag cur ceisteanna orainn féin mar thír. Cén saghas daoine ab ea sin? Ar theastaigh uainn go mbeadh pósadh comhghnéis dleathach inár dtír? Ar theastaigh uainn go mbeadh fáil ar sheirbhísí ghinmhilleadh sábháilte? Daoine cneasta comhbhách is ea Éireannaigh don chuid is mó agus dúradar gur theastaigh a leithéid uathu.

Tá ceisteanna móra á chur againn faoi láthair leis, go háirithe i leith cúrsaí tithíochta agus tearmann do theifigh. Tá súil agam go dtaispeáinfidh muintir na hÉireann a gcneastacht agus iad ag freagairt na ceisteanna seo leis.

I gcaitheamh na mblianta, tá go leor scríte agam faoin nGaeilge, faoina iarrachtaí atá á dhéanamh tacú leis an teanga ar bhonn oifigiúil go dtí an borradh suime atá ag daoine óga agus ag diaspóra na hÉireann (sibhsa ina measc) sa teanga. Bhíos dóchasach faoi thodhchaí na teanga babhtaí agus éadóchasach babhtaí eile.

Cúpla lá ó shin, chuireas ceist orm fhéin cad a dhéanfainn ar son na Gaeilge dá mbeinnse i mo pholaiteoir agus sé freagra na ceiste sin ná go gcuirfinn scéaim ar bun cosúil le ‘birthright’ Iosrael. Seo scéim inar féidir le Giúdaigh óga an domhain uile turas saor in aisce a thabhairt ar Iosrael chun nasc a chothú leis an áit as ar shíolraigh siad.

As Béarla

I’VE just spent a wonderful weekend attending cultural events here in West Kerry. Our annual May Festival took place and, as always, it gave local people the opportunity to showcase their talents and celebrate different aspects of their culture.

This year, there were thoughtprovoking art exhibitions, music concerts that lifted my heart and soul with rousing songs and tunes, and a special event organised by some of the Ukrainians who have come to live among us. There’s a strong tradition of kite flying in their country, and they demonstrated this with massive kites that soared through the air above one of our local beaches. It was a stunning sight and a stunning festival.

It’s over now and everyone is already looking forward to next year. Another thing that is coming to an end is my time as a columnist for this paper. I feel sad writing these words because I know how much I’m going to miss having the opportunity to share some of my life and my thoughts about my community and my country with you, not to mention all that I think about the Irish language and the world of Irishlanguage speakers. I can’t tell how what a privilege and a pleasure it has been to do so since I started writing this column in 2008.

I live in such a beautiful part of the world. Nor was I always grateful for the connection I have with a traditional Irish culture that has roots stretching back to our ancient past. It was only in writing about these things for you that I came to understand the gifts I’d been given.

I can also see that I have changed as a person during my time writing for you. I was so innocent and idealistic when I first started. Life has taught me harsh lessons since, and I lost that innocence as a result. I hope I have retained the idealism, perhaps tempered with some grit.

Ireland itself has altered as a country. In 2008, we were still in the dying days of the Celtic Tiger era. That quickly gave way to a deep recession and a long-lasting crisis of confidence for Irish people. We started to question ourselves as a country. What kind of people were we? Did we want same-sex marriage to be legal in our country? Did we want women to have access to safe abortion services? We Irish are decent kind-hearted people for the most part and we decided that those were things we wanted.

We’re still asking ourselves big questions as a society, especially in relation to housing and offering sanctuary to refugees. My hope is that we will continue to demonstrate our decency and kindness when we answer these questions too.

Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper. The Irish Post is published every Wednesday by Color Company (TM) Ltd.

The newspaper seeks to provide the Irish in Britain with comprehensive news coverage of Irish issues from Ireland and Britain, sports news and reviews, a weekly entertainment guide, reader feedback and features of interest to the Irish in Britain.

©2009 ISSN No. 0959-3748. The Irish Post Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the publishers. Newsagent distribution and printing by Trinity Mirror Printing Limited whose registered office is at One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5AP.

Tá ana chuid athruithe i mo shaol agus i saol na tíre sa tréimhse céanna. Thuas seal agus thíos seal a bhí agam féin ins na blianta sin ach ag féachaint siar, tuigim go raibh agus go bhfuil an t-ádh liom. Ní i gcónaí gur thuigeas go raibhas i mo chónaí in áit álainn agus ní rabhas i gcónaí buíoch as an nasc doimhin atá agam le cultúr Gaelach a shíneann i bhfad, bhfad siar sa stair. Sin tuiscint a tháinig chugam agus mé ag scríobh faoi díbhse, a léitheoirí. Rud eile a ritheann liom agus mé ag féachaint siar ná na slite ina bhfuilim athruithe mar dhuine. Bhíos ana shoineanta agus ídéalach nuair a thosnaíos ag scríobh díbh ar dtúis. Tá ceachtanna deacra foghlaimthe agam ó shin agus tá an soineantacht san caillte agam dá bharr. Ach tá súil agam go bhfuil an t-ídéalachas fós ionam, b’fhéidir fite fuaite le greann anMaidirmhisnigh. leis an tír, tá Éire tar éis athrú go mór sa tréimhse céánna.

Ba mhaith liom dá mbeadh a leithéid ar fáil do gach uile Éireannach agus daoine de shliocht na hÉireann. Go bhféadfaidís go léir tréimhse a chaitheamh sa Ghaeltacht ag foghlaim na Gaeilge agus ag baint sult as an gcultúr traidisiúnta. Mar is linn go léir an teanga. ‘Sí cuid dár n-oidhreacht í mar Ghaeil agus ba cheart go mbeadh seans ag gach éinne againn í a fhoghlaim i slí nádúrtha réchúiseach agus ní faoi bhrú sa tseomra ranga.

Sin é mo fhocal scoir, a léitheoirí. Guím gach rath oraibh i bhúr saol agus le cleachtadh bhúr gcuid Gaeilge. Braithfidh mé uaim go mór sibh.

I’ve written hundreds of columns since then, telling you all about the happenings in my own life (things like my diagnosis with MS in 2010, the birth of my beloved son in 2016 and details of my relationship with my partner, an Englishman who has lived in West Kerry for more than 25 years) as well as commentating on the big stories and interesting issues of the day.

So much has changed in my life and in the life of the country during that time. Looking back on it, I see that despite the ups and downs I have experienced in my personal life, I have been and remain so lucky. I didn’t always appreciate the fact that

I’ve written a lot about Irish over the years too, from the official efforts to support the language to the surge of interest in the language from younger generations and from the diaspora living abroad (which includes you, dear readers). There have been times when I’ve been hopeful about the future of the language and other times when I’ve felt despair.

A few days ago, I asked myself what I would do to support the Irish language if I were a politician. The answer I came up with is a scheme similar to the ‘birthright’ scheme offered by Israel. This allows young Jewish people from all over the world to visit Israel for free in order to establish a connection with the land from which their people are thought to have originated.

I’d like for such a scheme to be offered to every Irish person and person of Irish descent worldwide. I’d like for them all to spend some time in the Gaeltacht where they could learn some Irish and experience the traditional culture of Ireland. Because the language belongs to us all. It’s part of our heritage as Irish people and every single one of us deserves to have the opportunity to learn it in a natural and relaxed way, outside of the pressurised atmosphere of the school classroom.

Those are my last words, dear readers. The best of luck to you all in the years ahead. I’ll miss you.

Summit of Carrauntoohil, MacGillycuddy Reeks, Co. Kerry Picture: Courtesy of Tourism Ireland

Cromwell: a partial reappraisal

NICK BRAMHILL considers the legacy of Oliver Cromwell in light of a new perspective put forward by Cambridge professor, John Morrill

KNOWN as the ‘Butcher of Drogheda’, he was the ruthless persecutor of Catholics in Ireland who remains to this day perhaps the most reviled historical figure ever to have set foot in Ireland

However, Oliver Cromwell was far more committed to religious freedom and equality than previously believed, according to a leading academic.

A new study of all the recorded letters, writings and speeches of Britain’s infamous Lord Protector claims he was willing to allow Irish Catholics the freedom to privately practise their religion without interference.

worship in private, and released from obligation to attend Protestant worship.

was Chief Rabbi of Ireland from 1919 to 1937. A fluent speaker of the Irish language, he was known as “the Sinn Féin Rabbi” for his support of the Republican cause during the War of Independence.

And while not excusing in any way the massacres that Cromwell was responsible for in Ireland –including the horrific bloodbaths at Drogheda and Wexford in 1649 — a Cambridge professor has argued that his motives were not founded on a desire to wipe out Catholicism, but to eradicate Royalism.

“In five years perhaps three-quarters of the land held by predominantly Catholic Irish people was confiscated and redistributed to Protestant Englishmen. Cromwell sought to limit but not to prevent this.”

In The Tablet he emphasizes that what the English did in Ireland in the 1650s was truly shocking. But, he adds, “To blame Cromwell personally is in a sense to fail to see the scale of the bigotry, malice and greed that underlay English actions.”

Ulster Scots.

According to John Morrill, Emeritus Professor of British and Irish history at Cambridge University, many English Royalists had fled to Ireland after Cromwell executed Charles I, and were forming new alliances with Irish Catholics and

Writing in The Tablet, a Catholic international weekly review, Professor Morrill concedes that the ‘curse of Cromwell’ hangs over Anglo-Irish relations to this day.

But Morrill, himself an ordained deacon in the Catholic Church –holding several senior positions in the Diocese of East Anglia – notes: “Irish Catholics were permitted to

Professor Morrill is adamant that Cromwell was bent on eradicating Royalism not Catholicism.

[Cromwell] made alliances with those Catholics who refused to declare for Charles II, including Owen Roe O’Neill, the most ruthless Catholic commander

“He made alliances with those Catholics who refused to declare for Charles II, including Owen Roe O’Neill, the most ruthless Catholic commander. Further, he had close relations with Catholic priests offering political obedience in return for enhanced religious freedoms, and when Rome appointed a new Archbishop of Armagh, that bishop headed first for the Protector’s court, not for Ireland,” writes the Cambridge academic.

He adds: “Catholics have no need to honour Cromwell, but neither should they demonise him.”

Cromwell and the easing of anti-Semitism

The history of the Jews in Ireland extends back several centuries. Although the Jewish community in Ireland has always been small in numbers (not exceeding 5,500 since at least 1891), it is well established and has generally been well accepted into Irish life.

Both Belfast and Dublin had thriving Jewish communities at one time, even producing one president of Israel. Chaim Herzog was Head of State of Israel for ten years from 1983-1993. Although born in Belfast, Herzog was brought up in Portobello, Dublin, the son of notable Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, who

Jews in Ireland have historically enjoyed a relative tolerance that was largely absent elsewhere in Europe – and this may be in part due to Oliver Cromwell.

The earliest reference to the Jews in Ireland was in 1079. The Annals of Inisfallen record “Five Jews came from overseas with gifts to Toirdelbach [Toirdelbach Ua Briain, the king of Munster], and they were sent back again oversea”.

No further mention is made of Jews until the Norman invasion.

Henry III made his viceroy the custodian of Jews in Ireland. However, Henry’s successor, Edward I, took a more familiar step and banished them in 1290.

Two centuries later, the Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition. Some fetched up in Ireland.

Oliver Cromwell officially readmitted Jews into the Commonwealth. In 1656 he made a verbal promise, backed by the Council of State, to allow Jews to return and practise their faith freely, both in Britain and Ireland.

Sephardic Jews – those from the Iberian Peninsula – began trading between London and Dublin, and founded the first documented synagogue in Dublin in 1663, in a place near Temple Bar.

Oliver Cromwell, reviled the length and breadth of Ireland, hadn’t been anti-Semitic.

A date with history

What happened on this day...

Saturday, May 27:

1936 – The inaugural commercial flight of Irish Sea Airways (now Aer Lingus), from Baldonnel to Bristol. Five passengers make the flight on the Iolar.

1960 – The last barge on the Grand Canal makes its final journey to Limerick with a cargo of Guinness.

Sunday, May 28:

1779 – Birth in Dublin of poet and songwriter Thomas Moore, composer of The Minstrel Boy, The Last Rose of Summer and many more.

Monday, May 29:

1205 – King John makes

Hugh de Lacy Earl of Ulster.

1917 – Birth of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the USA.

Tuesday, May 30:

1906 – Death of Michael Davitt, founder of the Irish Land League.

1986 – Connacht Regional Airport, then Horan International, now Ireland West, opens.

Wednesday, May 31:

1941 – German bombers hit North Strand, Dublin killing 28 people.

1970 – Death of Arkle, the steeplechaser.

1973 – Erskine Childers is elected President of Ireland.

Thursday, June 1:

1762 – Birth in Callan, Co. Kilkenny of Edmund Ignatius Rice, founder of the Irish Christian Brothers’ Order.

1959 – Death of author Sax Rohmer in New York, aged 76 (see panel).

Friday, June 2:

1567 – Death of the Gaelic Ulster chieftain Shane O’Neill.

1891 – The penalty kick in soccer comes into being when a proposal for the penalty kick is accepted by the Football Association. The Armagh invention was the brainchild of William McCrum and championed by his colleague in the Irish Association, Jack Reid.

SAX ROHMER

SAX Rohmer, creator of the Dr Fu Manchu brand of fiction, died on June 1, 1959. The nom de plume of Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward, he was born in Birmingham to Irish immigrants William Ward and Margaret Mary née Furey. He adopted the middle name Sarsfield after his mother told him he was a descendant of Patrick Sarsfield. He also worked under the name Michael Furey. A friend of WB Yeats, the occultist Aleister Crowley and the escapist Harry Houdini, Ward was fascinated by Oriental mysticism and the occult.

Dr Fu Manchu first appeared in The Zayat Kiss in 1912 – in a story which borrowed heavily from the writings of that other son of the Irish diaspora, Arthur Conan Doyle.

With the immediate success of The Zayat Kiss, Rohmer spotted that with Dr Fu Manchu he had tapped into a very successful, if somewhat unwoke format – an inscrutable, oriental, criminal

mastermind against a suave, unflappable English police commissioner, Nayland Smith.

The Chinese anti-hero accordingly got his own book the following year in The Mystery of Dr Fu Manchu, and thereafter flowed further books, films, radio adaptations and Marvel comics.

In spite of Rohmer’s popularity, the writer failed to reap substantial financial benefit due to several disastrous business decisions.

aged 76.

Sax Rohmer died in New York in 1959,

Sax Rohmer pictured with his wife Rose en route to New York Picture: Public domain

Oliver Cromwell Picture: Public domain

Award-winning director Jim Sheridan is hoping to shine new light on the death of Sophie

Toscan du Plantier in December 1996

TINA O’Reilly of Hell’s Kitchen Ltd (Ireland) and Fabrizio

Maltese of Joli Rideau Media Sarl (Luxembourg) have announced the start of principal photography on Re-creation, the new hybrid docu-drama by six-time Academy Award nominee Jim Sheridan together with writer and director David Merriman.

Re-creation concerns the unsolved Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder case in West Cork in Ireland on December 23, 1996.

Jim Sheridan previously directed the five-part series for Sky Crime Murder at the Cottage: The Search for Justice for Sophie, broadcast in 2021. Sheridan now returns with David Merriman to the case with a fresh angle. The documentary parts of Re-creation will be shot in Ireland, France and US, with the drama being shot in Luxembourg. The

production, supported by Screen Ireland, Film Fund Luxembourg and Eurimages will be made available for theatrical release in spring 2024. Re-creation will strive to uncover the truth behind one of the most infamous unsolved murders in Irish history. Sophie Toscan du Plantier was a successful TV and film producer and together with her husband, the influential film producer Daniel Toscan du Plantier, they were stalwarts of the French film scene in the 1990s. On December 20, 1996, Sophie embarked on a solo trip to her holiday home near Schull in West Cork.

The badly beaten body of Madame du Plantier was found outside her holiday home two days before Christmas in 1996.

After several weeks of investigations without tangible results or leads, and despite no

2024 will mark 28 years since Sophie’s brutal murder, which remains one of the most compelling unsolved crimes in Ireland’s history

evidence, Manchester-born Ian Bailey, a former journalist, came under suspicion. He has always expressed his innocence, denying any knowledge of the crime, and has never stood trial in Ireland. The Director of Public Prosecutions (in Ireland) has always ruled that insufficient evidence exists to convict. No forensic or witness evidence has ever placed Bailey at the scene of the crime.

From that moment, according to the makers of Re-creation “whether intentionally or not, a narrative was created”.

Mr Bailey was found guilty, in absentia, in Paris of the murder of Mme du Plantier in 2019. Jim Sheridan was spotted at the trial.

On October 12, 2020, Judge Paul Burns in Ireland’s High Court ruled that Bailey could not be extradited. Later that same month, the Irish State decided not to appeal the High Court’s finding, effectively ending all attempts to extradite Bailey.

In the film Re-creation, using fiction to question reality, Jim Sheridan becomes the protagonist in front of the camera and is accompanied by the character of Sophie. The two will accompany the viewer through the complex details of the case, debunking the official versions and convenient truths, revealing new clues that could potentially change the course of the case.

See Page 18

West Cork killing to get docu-drama treatment

“Call it obsession. Call it anger. Call it justice. Call it what you want,” Sheridan says. “I am still on a quest for Sophie.”

Jim Sheridan is renowned in cinema for directing three critically acclaimed films set in Ireland: My Left Foot (1989), The Field (1990), and In the Name of the Father (1993), and directing the films The Boxer (1997), In America (2003), and Brothers (2009).

As well as six Academy Award nominations, Sheridan has been nominated for awards from the Golden Globes, Writers’ Guild of America, BAFTA, National Board of Review, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 from The Independent Spirit Awards.

David Merriman is a director, writer and editor from Dublin, Ireland. He directed the awardwinning documentary The State Of Being Human in 2014 and the documentary concert film Rock Against Homelessness for Virgin Media in 2020. With a strong background in the music industry as a recording artist, he has made music videos and worked with artists including Glen Hansard, Aslan, Tolo Makay, Gilbert O’Sullivan and The Pillow Queens. David says, “Directing Jim Sheridan is like being on a wild

imagination is boundless and he definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat. But it is the most rewarding of creative experiences and I look forward to where this journey takes us.”

2024 will mark 28 years since Sophie’s brutal murder, which remains one of the most compelling unsolved crimes in Ireland’s history. A spokesperson for the production team said that with Re-creation, the truth of what happened that night in West Cork may come into focus a little more.

The Garda Serious Crime Review Team in 2022 began preliminary groundwork for a review into the case. The gardaí confirmed that the investigation has “remained active and ongoing”, but that the review team will sift through the evidence that has been collected in the years since the unsolved killing.

On completion of the review, the Serious Crime Review Team will provide recommendations to the local investigation team.

In a statement, An Garda Síochána stressed the force will not be commenting further on the specifics of the case as the investigation is ongoing.

MULTI AWARD-WINNING: Jim Sheridan

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Sé Merry Doyle talks to Rí-Rá

Sophie Toscan du Plantier Picture: Getty Images

Irish radio in your area...

BEDFORDSHIRE

 Jim Carway presents Luton Irish Live on Diverse 102.8FM and online every Tuesday evening 6-8pm. Contact Jim on 07977 063233.

BRADFORD

 Joe Sheeran presents Echoes of Ireland on Bradford Community Broadcasting 106.6FM every Sunday at noon. The programme is repeated on Mondays at 9am and Wednesdays at noon and is online at www.bcbradio.co.uk.

BRIGHTON

 Brighton and Hove weekly Irish radio airs live on Mondays from 8pm on Radio Reverb, 97.2 FM, DAB and online.

COVENTRY

 Hands Across the Waters on Hillz FM. Broadcasting live every Monday and Thursday 1pm-2pm and the best of Irish & Country every Sunday 1pm-2pm. You can tune in locally on 98.6fm or catch us online at www.hillzfm.co.uk

 Join The Four Country Road Show with Colm Nugent and Michael Gallagher every Tuesday 9-10pm and Sunday 2-4pm. Broadcasting live in Coventry from the studios of Radio Plus 101.5fm and online around the world on www.radioplus.org.uk playing the very best in Irish and Country music, news, guests and more.

GLASGOW

 Celtic Music Radio on 1530AM and www.celticmusicradio.net featuring Paddy Callaghan’s Trad with Pad every Tuesday from 6-7pm.

HERTFORDSHIRE

 Radio Verulam 92.6FM and online at www.radioverulam.com

featuring The Emerald Hour with Kathy Weston, Lydia El-Khouri and Shane every Thursday from 7-8pm, and John Devine’s Traditional Irish Music Show, featuring Joe Giltrap, every Monday from 7-9pm (available on the website for seven days after broadcast)

 John Devine, Monday evenings from 7-9pm on Radio Verulam in West Hertfordshire 92.6FM or through the internet at www. radioverulam.com. Facebook www.facebook.com/rvirishmusic.

LONDON/SOUTH-EAST

 Johnny Jameson hosts Ireland’s Eye on Resonance 104.4FM every third Wednesday of every month, 8-9pm and repeated the following morning at 10pm.

 Emily Horgan, Pippa T and Róisín O Rourke broadcasting What’s the Craic? every Tuesday from 7-8pm on West London’s ONFM 101.4.

 Johno’s Irish Hour, ONFM 101.4, every Saturday morning from 10-11am with presenter John O’Sullivan. Anything and everything Irish including traditional Irish music, news and sport.

MANCHESTER

 Out and About in Manchester with Martin Logan, Wednesdays 7-9pm on 96.9FM.

 The Irish Connection Show with John Lowry on Wythenshawe 97.2FM, Saturday from 10am to noon. www.wfmradio.org.

MIDLANDS

 Bob Brolly’s Irish Show, Sundays 4-7pm on BBC Radio WM 95.6FM and DAB Radio.

NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE

 Jim Bennett, Fiona Clelland and Tommy McClements present NE1 Irish from 5-7pm every Wednesday on 102.5FM or www.ne1fm.net. Text NE1 + message to 60300. Contact 0191 261 0384.

OXFORD/BERKSHIRE

 BBC Radio Oxford/BBC Radio Berkshire hosts Henry Wymbs’ Irish Eye, Sundays from 2pm on 95.4FM | 104.1FM.

ONLINE

 Gerry Byrne’s Irish Radio: www.irishradio.org 24/7 non-stop Irish Music. Live weekdays 1-3pm; Saturdays & Sundays 11am-1pm. Podcasts uploaded to website immediately after shows are transmitted. Requests welcome to: gerry@irishradio.org. For music, arts, charity sector, commerce and current affairs interviews search YouTube Irish Radio with Gerry Byrne.

 Mid West Radio, the home of Irish music, chat, news, culture and gossip 24 hours a day! www.midwestradio.ie

 RTÉ Radio operates four primary national stations — RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ 2fm, RTÉ lyric fm and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta — and seven exclusively digital stations — RTÉ Radio 1 Xtra, RTÉ Choice, RTÉ Pulse, RTÉ Chill, RTÉ Gold, RTÉ 2XM and RTÉ Junior, available online.

 Alan O’Leary of Copperplate presents two hours of Irish traditional and folk music every Sunday at 8-9.30pm (repeated Wednesday 8-90pm) on www.liveireland.com — 24/7 live Irish trad and folk. It can also be heard 24/7 on Mixcloud, Soundcloud and Podomatic.

 All Folked Up – a folk show with an Irish influence – is broadcast on the third Thursday of the month on sarumradio.com at 7pm.

 Irish Country Music Radio (Limerick) – Broadcasting live and recorded programmes 24 hours a day covering a broad spectrum of Irish music: www.irishcountrymusicradio.com.

Eyes on the ÉIRÍ prize

Seven impressive works of art celebrating women in Irish mythology have been selected as winners of the ÉIRÍ arts competition

THE IRISH IN THE UK TV SHOW

www.theirishintheuktv.com

Join Martin each week as he meets the community around the UK with an Irish connection

Every Thursday evening at 7.30pm

OUT AND ABOUT MANCHESTER RADIO SHOW

Repeated Sat at 8.30pm and Tues at 1pm Sky 186 Freesat 161

Martin Logan 07808 573142 martinloganmanchester@gmail.com

Sponsored by

96.9 ALL FM Wednesday, 7-9PM with MARTIN LOGAN

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Morrigan as seen by Kate Lionis

SHAPESHIFTING: Morrigan as seen by Ruth Egan

LAUNCHED last year by Coventry University’s Fluid and Complex Systems Research Centre, the ÉIRÍ arts competition was created to reignite awareness of women in Irish mythology.

Now the fruits of this endeavour have ripened — in other words we are in a position to name the winners.

Over the last ten years, researchers at Coventry were able to bypass traditional approaches to comparative mythology by using mathematics, odd though that may seem. Rather than trying to read between the lines of nuanced texts to interpret the roles played by individual mythological characters, the project “zooms out” to look at the societies they live in. This research programme found that women fare pretty well in Irish mythology compared to other world narratives – better than the classics and far better than the modern Game of Thrones

However, the roles of powerful Irish women were downplayed by Christian monks and then again in colonial times. Standing for Évoking Ireland’s Resilient female Ícons, the ÉIRÍ project sought to counter that and re-ignite Ireland’s mythological women in the consciousness of people.

Supported by “participatory research” funding, Coventry teamed up with The Irish Post, Rathcroghan Visitor Centre in Roscommon, Story Archaeology in Leitrim and Celtic Eye, a group of artists in the west of Ireland.

With €10,000 up for grabs in prize money artists and schools were invited to research the roles played by Ireland’s powerful mythological women and represented them in art form. Over 150 submissions were received – paintings, poems, collages, stories, photography, sculpture, digital art, movies and even stained glass. The assessment panel was equally impressive – 28 individuals from across a variety of disciplines – from teachers and journalists to folklorists and mathematicians.

The seven winners in the adult category (who will each receive €1,000) in no particular order are:

Boand by Lee Fenlon

A masterful stained-glass representation of the mythical Goddess of the River Boyne. This artwork comprises 350 pieces of glass. Meticulous research lies behind it, the artist having read old Irish poetry to garner an image from phrases such as “fair formed” and “white breasted Boand”. This is why Lee used white glass for her hair and a light skin tone glass.

Daniel has created a dynamic representation of “a multitude of Irish female mythological and folkloric figures” including Medb, Macha, Naoimh, Caileach Beara, Morrigan, Deirdre, Eriu, Tailtiu, and Boann. Daniel sought to used text-based sources to “convey these characters in a way which makes them visually recognisable”. It took some ingenuity to convey their stories through a single image and Daniel hopes to “have been able to convey at least a fraction of the great wealth of creative and cultural power held within these characters”.

Kate has created a photograph with digital illustration to capture the moment the Morrigan changes from human to crow form. She “wanted to show the strength and assurance of the Morrigan in her role as a recorder of the past and

the force that brings in the new.” For Kate, “it was important that she was not a malevolent or a kind, benign being. She is an active force transcending good or evil – a personification of karma.”

Morrigan by Louise Shine

Louise’s illustration of the Morrigan is potentially a controversial piece because it is “AI’s understanding and interpretation of the Morrígan, the goddess of war, fate, and destiny. The AI has no agency, no will, it is simply used to elevate human creativity.” As stated by one of the judges “Here the artist and their algorithmic “collaborator” have produced a wonderfully mysterious and dynamic piece which I think captures the essence of the Morrigan brilliantly. The hallucinogenic imperfections of AI image generation algorithms work very well for the subject matter. Is this a taste of the future or is it cheating? I don’t know. In this instance, however, I love the result.”

“The Morrígan in Irish mythology is often depicted as a shape-shifting goddess: one of three sisters Macha, Badbh and Nemain.” Here Ruth’s image is “a portrayal of the spirit of the three women, or elements, who form the Morrígan as she shapeshifts down the generations through the normal day-to-day lives of Irish women. The women in this image represent the lived-in everyday form of which such myths of the Morrígan were fashioned. Irish women over the eras who constitute that continuous cycle of fertility, birth and death being played out against the land –steeped in myth and its deep connection to the surrounding countryside and nature; ordinary women who themselves were ultimately the very source and inspiration of the myths of extraordinariness.”

This submission entails a number of photos with accompanying text, using the complex process of double exposure in which two images are exposed to the same frame of film. Jesse feels “this was the best way to capture and demonstrate the bond between a place and its people, a landscape and its myth.” As Jesse explains: “The Chailleach is one of the most ancient and enigmatic entities in Irish folklore and mythologies. She was a complex character, neither fully good nor evil. She cared for animals during the dark winter months, was the patron of wolves and was known as the Winter Queen. Unlike her counterpart Bríd, the goddess of spring and growth,

the Chailleach was less amenable to sainthood and was thus demonised by male theologians of the past. In the 10th-century poem entitled The Lament of the Hag of Beara, we find reference to her power and glory but also the disempowerment of her nature at the hands of Catholicism.”

Andrew Goodison is the seventh winner with three short poems on the subject of the three main theories of Sheela-na-gig.

INTERPRETATION: Louise Shine’s take on the legend of Morrigan

Daniel Breheny

Morrigan by Kate Lionis

Morrigan by Ruth Egan

Chailleach by Jesse Gilbert

Boand by Lee Fenlon

Part of Jesse Gilbert’s submission on Chailleach, above; Daniel Breheny’s mythological multitude, right

Churchyard stages music with a difference

IN the heart of the Viking Triangle in Waterford in the shadow of the 13th century Greyfriars church lies an acoustic venue like no other. The Churchyard concert space becomes home to a series of free open-air gigs every Saturday evening from June 3 to August 26.

The very best of regional and national live music acts will entertain the crowds at The Churchyard Sessions with acts such as Paddy Casey, Mundy, Duke Special, The Papa Zitas, Liam Ó Maonlaí and many more.

The picture can be clearer on the radio

Opening the sessions this summer is Richie Hayes and Band on June 3rd, Paddy Casey will perform on June 10th

In addition every Friday night from 8pm, the hugely talented Dave Lofts will play live outside on the Quayside at the historic Viking replica longboat. All of the Churchyard Sessions are free and access is offered on a first come first serve basis. Gigs begin at 6.30pm with the support acts.

 www.thereg.ie

“Our latest episode of Bright Side Of The Road was 28 in the global charts.

“Adrian Dunbar is a regular supporter of ICC and has been a guest and he has a huge audience who listen in. It’s always in the top 20 of radio listenership to regular streaming.”

The output is varied, but runs along familiar lines, Sé explained.

Basically, a number of years ago, Rosalind Scanlon from the Irish Cultural Centre invited me over to show my 1982 film Looking On, about a collective of community activists who resist the housing and urban redevelopment of Dublin’s north innercity. It got a terrific reception

MICHAEL J. MCDONAGH talks to Sé Merry Doyle, acclaimed Dublin documentary maker and now lynchpin of an Irish arts radio station in London

for Joe Cumerford.

Eventually he set up his own company Loopline Films in 1993, specifically to make documentaries.

Sé’s most personal film Alive Alive O – A Requiem for Dublin traces the plight of Dublin’s street traders as the scourge of heroin and an onslaught of commercialism destroy their fragile culture.

redevelopment of Dublin’s north inner-city. It got a terrific reception.

“Then pretty much the next day the pandemic arrived and they had to close down the Centre totally. So I said, ‘Why don’t you start a digital platform so some of the musicians who can’t work now – cancelled concerts and so on – so they can still get to play and be seen.’

“Usually we cover what’s happened previously or what is coming up at the ICC, and we focus on news. Like for instance the Good Friday Agreement Anniversary –that would have been addressed with the Belfast Protocol.

“So we have high political end, and then great music and discussions with great writers. So you’re basically trying to create a menu for a two hour show, once a month.”

I knew Sè from back in the 1980s at Windmill Lane studios in Dublin, so it was interesting to hear how he made the transition from film director to radio producer.

“I’d never done radio before. But as people know, I talk a lot and radio suits talking or conversation. From being a documentary filmmaker. conversation is natural to me.

“I didn’t go to university. I just went to school in Dublin. I was an actor for a while and ended up working at the Project Theatre in Dublin when it first started to do gigs.

“I did the lighting for Friday night late shows, which used the sets of whatever play was on but you got reviewed in the Irish Times. That was the most important thing for us because you played a part in the arts.

“When I did the Boomtown Rats they weren’t in any way famous. Normally, I would just put gels in and go to the pub but they wanted a spotlight on the piano player, Johnny Fingers. And then Bob would walk out in a spotlight. And I said, OK, I’ll do the lights for 20 quid.

“

BRIGHT Side Of The Road is now in its third season and I’ll tell you its backstory.” Those were the words of Sé Merry Doyle speaking about the Irish Cultural Centre’s radio project. He was speaking about the highly successful community broadcasting enterprise in Hammersmith, and how it began. And also how he, a filmmaker from Dublin, got involved with a radio station in W6. But first, some background.

Sé Merry Doyle started his career in the Project Theatre in Dublin working alongside people such as Jim and Peter Sheridan, Gabriel Byrne and Liam Neeson. After a very successful period as a lighting designer and stage director, he switched to the medium of film.

Starting as a trainee editor with Windmill Lane, Sé went on to become a film editor on many productions, including Our Boys and Pigs for Cathal Black, and the award-winning Reefer and the Model

Sé was now emerging as Ireland’s foremost documentary maker, and other films followed. The awardwinning Patrick Kavanagh - No Man’s Fool won ‘Best Documentary’ at the 2005 Boston Film Festival, while John Ford - Dreaming the Quiet Man was widely acclaimed as a masterpiece.

So with such an exemplary record in film work, what drew Sé to the radio waves?

“Basically, a number of years ago, Rosalind Scanlon from the Irish Cultural Centre invited me over to show my 1982 film Looking On, about a collective of community activists who resist the housing and urban

“That ultimately led to seven lockdown concerts in the ICC all filmed safely from a distance with clean, clean gloved hands and masks. They were really popular and although I don’t even make radio shows – that was the first incarnation.

“Then along with Piers Thompson, who runs Portobello radio, we decided to broaden this out a little bit and get into an arts format to cover all the bases.

“So really, Bright Side Of The Road is the only major Irish arts radio show in Britain – and it’s now being picked as a winner.”

“I did the gig then they cleared off and didn’t pay me. Then years later, I ended up editing a Southbank show special on Irish music for Bob’s company.

“And I’ve been doing that ever since, making documentaries. But now I’m here making Arts radio with Bright Side of the Road.”

 Bright Side of the Road is broadcast on Portobello Radio Hammersmith. It is presented by Piers Thompson, with regular guests Sé Merry Doyle and Rosalind Scanlon. The show is produced by Sé.

The Churchyard Sessions

Picture: Colin Shanahan

Sé Merry Doyle

Sé Merry Doyle

‘Dan the Man’ in concert

MICHAEL J. MCDONAGH meets Daniel O’Donnell at the London Palladium

DANIEL O’Donnell is a world class performer.

Over the years I have been privileged to see numerous international stars perform on the stage of the London Palladium, from Ray Charles to Neil Diamond. But Daniel is right up there with them.

I managed to catch a few moments with the Donegal man and asked if the Palladium held many memories for him. “Oh yes, it’s special playing here,” he said. “Not in my wildest dreams when I first started singing did I imagine that I would one day stand on the stage here.

“And of course it’s also special as it was here in 2000, when I was doing a Bruce Forsyth TV show, that Michael Aspel walked on with that Big Red Book to say ‘Daniel O’Donnell this is your life’.

“I saw him coming on and thought it must be for Englebert Humperdinck, so I stood back to give him room. I was just stunned when it finally dawned on me that he meant it was actually This Is Your Life for me.

“When I finally closed my mouth I said, ‘Are you sure?’ and everyone laughed.

“It’s amazing. I mean, sure. I never thought I’d ever play

Bridget Christie revved up for new Channel 4 comedy later this year

A NEW comedy series which tackles the menopause and mid-life crises is set to air on screens later this year.

The Change has been written and produced by second generation Irish comedian Bridget Christie.

From Gloucester, the youngest of nine siblings born to parents from Roscommon and Leitrim, Christie also stars in the series, which follows the story of Lisa – who is convinced she’s got early onset dementia after forgetting what a shoe is called.

Later she is reliably informed by her GP that what she in fact has is the menopause.

That diagnosis sparks an epic mid-life crisis which sees Linda decide to “do something for herself... for a change”.

“Dusting off her old Triumph motorbike, that she hasn’t ridden in 30 years, she sets off alone to the spectacular wilderness of The Forest of Dean – in search of an identity, a purpose, and a tree she climbed as a child,” Channel 4 explained as they offered a first look at the show, which is currently in production.

“Along the way she meets an array of eccentric locals, including the infamous Eel Sisters, an angry local radio presenter and a mysterious man who lives in the woods with the wild boar. What could possibly go wrong?” they add.

The Change is due to air on Channel 4 later this year. Fiona Audley

the Palladium. Now, it’s a lovely memory because of This Is Your Life – it was such a lovely surprise here.”

Oh I really like the touring. And, you know, it’s amazing after such a long time

Unlike many musicians and performers, Daniel enjoys being on the road.

“Oh I really like the touring. And, you know, it’s amazing after such a long time.

“Ah, sure, with new technology we’re able to have great visuals and back projections, so the concerts are different. But at the same time they’re all the same – do you know what I mean? We have so many songs that people expect to hear –Donegal Shore and I Want to Dance With You, Stand Beside Me and Our House is a Home.”

I recalled back in 1985 around the time Daniel

played at the festival in Roundwood Park, Mick Clerkin, who owned Ritz Records, was thinking of signing the Donegal singer. He asked me to go and check Daniel out at a club called the Thatch on the Holloway Road.

I knew then he was something special. He personified the boy next door and really communicated with the audience — that was what impressed me.

What we witnessed here at the Palladium was a performer who is totally at home and relaxed on the stage, communicating intimately with his audience and enjoying every minute of it.

Daniel O’Donnell is now truly a huge international star, the only artist ever to have had an album each year in the UK charts for over 30 years.

At the Palladium, as usual Daniel ended with the song How Great Thou Art after a memorable concert. This was followed by a well-deserved standing ovation.

DONEGAL SUPERSTAR: Daniel O’Donnell Picture: Rolling News.ie

CHANGE iS AHEAD: Bridget Christie

Following the first responders

Emergency service workers take centre stage on BBC Gaeilge and RTÉ

TWELVE-HOUR shifts, on-the-spot decisionmaking, life-and-death scenarios and a diminished social life - signing up for the emergency services is an all-embracing commitment. It’s a vocation. And it’s not for everyone.

999 Faoi Oiliúint is a new four-part documentary series following the lives of the men

and women training for service on the front line.

Produced by Below the Radar TV for BBC Gaeilge and RTÉ, it has funding from Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund.

Beginning on BBC Two Northern Ireland and BBC iPlayer on Monday, May 29 at 10pm, 999 Faoi Oiliúint follows new cadets as they undergo intense and gruelling training

CROSSWORD

No. 919

Clues Across

1. Digit on the foot. (3)

3. Figures clad in an appalling state. (11)

8. Make me ripe for international dominion. (6)

9. Little Malcolm gets a skin for this town in Co Dublin. (8)

10. Vegetables symbolic of Wales. (5)

11. Shaved Father crimson! (5)

13. Tempest. (5)

15. See 18 down.

16. Deadly, infectious disease. (7)

20. Cafe in red mix-up. (5)

21. Newly-baked, newly-picked or newly-caught. (5)

23. You use it to sift flour. (5)

24. Midday on Everest? (4,4)

25. Flag the censor. (6)

26. The remainder is in the segment, one hears - grave words indeed. (4,2,5)

27. Cover. (3)

Sudoku requires no calculation or arithmetic skills. It is a game of placing numbers in squares using very simple rules of logic and deduction. It can be played by children and adults. Simply fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. However each number can appear only once on each row, column and 3x3 box. Answer next week.

and find out if they have what it takes to make the grade, whether it’s working as a firefighter, a paramedic, volunteering for mountain rescue or the coast guard.

The series features new cadets from Foyle Search and Rescue; Lough Neagh Search and Rescue; Galway Fire Service; Mayo Mountain Rescue; Dublin Fire Service; National Ambulance Service Ireland and the Irish Coast Guard.

999 Faoi Oiliúint follows our the recruits as they deal with real-life call outs.

Filmed over the course of a year the new cadets display the shared traits of strength, determination, grit and, ultimately, an unwavering devotion to their work.

The peaks and troughs of training will be placed under a microscope, and we see how each trainee emerges from the challenges of being pushed to their limits while moving through the ranks of examinations and training.

n The full series of 999 Faoi Oiliúint will be available on BBC iPlayer from Monday, May 29.

Clues Down

1 & 14d. A place of sheer beauty in Co. Clare! (3,6,2,5)

2. A type of coffee. (8)

3. Indoor sport, often played in pubs. (5)

4. The detective should stick with footwear. (7)

5. It is used to immobilise the car of an illegal parker. (5)

6. The monastery of a mendicant order. (6)

7. Falsehood. (3)

12. Vanished? Possibly, if paper is dead. (11)

13. Many, unfortunately, turn up a summer dish. (5)

14. See 1 down.

17. On the outside. (8)

18 & 15a. European competition which fosters the use of flowers to beautify towns. (7,7)

19. River in Clare that has a surfer gushing at heart. (6)

22. The capital of Vietnam. (5)

23. Rock used as a roofing material - or credit! (5)

24. Another ending that is not his. (3)

Niamh Ní Chualáin (above) - Galway Fire Service Martin O’Neill (right) - Foyle Search and Rescue

Fiona Ní Fhlatharta - National Ambulance Service Ireland

TRAVEL

ALFAMA ROW WINES

Capital dining

TONY CLAYTON-LEA dishes up ten of the best new restaurants to appear on the Dublin dining scene

ALFAMA, Irwin Court, 39 Dundrum Road, Farranboley, D14

If you’re searching for a restaurant that is more a place of heart and home than virtually untouchable décor and high Instagram visibility, then this Portuguese spot is perfect. Owned by Brazilian/Portuguese couple Edi Nunes and Paulo Miguel, Alfama (so named after the Lisbon district) is compact but bursting with intent and ambition, with menus that are succinct (when we visited, there was no list of choices for dessert) and food that is not only succulent but authentic. Essentially a neighbourhood place of refuge, we will no doubt return to this one again and again. www.alfamarestaurant.ie

BIG MIKE’S, Rock Hill, Blackrock, Co. Dublin

This restaurant is probably the oldest in terms of ‘new’ (it officially opened its doors in October of last

year), but it remains here because the quality of food and standard of service hasn’t dipped an iota. First impressions? How smart this place is with its banquette seating, the lighting, the artwork, the clothes. Lasting impressions? The food, overseen by chef/owner Gaz Smith, is a testament to his experience, skills and nous, and doesn’t shy away from the big gestures. Seafood and aged steaks predominate and if you can make your way through the seafood platters then you deserve a medal. No website.

D’OLIER STREET, D’Olier Chambers, D’Olier Street, D2

The very first thing we really like about D’Olier Street is not just the original artwork by Dubliner Casey Walshe but the fact that a new restaurant actually tries its best to promote creativity on parallel levels. Such an approach seeps into the food, which is presented via a 12-course tasting menu (€85 per

Save up, visit and savour.

person; a five-glass wine pairing offering is available at €65 per person) that reflects the international experience of the restaurant team. You’re right if you think it isn’t cheap, but there is artistry applied here that pays dividends. The food is superb – the seasonal menu changes every two months), the room is handsome (shades of brown/cream) and the music, mostly ambient/ instrumental, is sublime. Advice?

www.dolierstreetrestaurant.com

ELEVEN, Bray Road, Loughlinstown, D18

On the outskirts of the city, the location of this restaurant close to the N11 may be far removed from where its owner, John Farrell, is more used to being based — he is the smart guy behind the jumping city centre joints such as Amy Austin, Dillinger’s, 777, and the Butcher Grill), but it is still very much worth your time and attention. We love the design (overall

Edited by Mal Rogers

subdued, with touches of flash here and hints of Gentleman’s Club there) and we’re not so certain about the live music (I’m fussy, what can I tell you), but the food is a series of stunners that benefit from being cooked on a wood-burning grill – although the vegetarian options are also spot-on. www.elevendublin.ie

FLANEUR, 223 Rathmines Lower, D6

The space has been used before (an Italian and a fried chicken joint –both affordable and affable) but now it’s a smart and neat bistro that perhaps packs in the seating tighter than is necessary. Despite having to pull in your stomach as you pass by the array of small round tables, Flaneur elegantly displays its casual Parisian influences — menus can be accessed by the now ubiquitous QR codes, but they’re also on chalkboards attached to the ceiling; the wines are mostly on tap, which is something we don’t particularly like, but which keep the costs down. The food is excellent, the service is captivating, and the vibe is buzzing. No website.

LA GORDITA, 6 Montague Street, D2

Small plates, big dishes, hefty bills. Translated from the Spanish as ‘little fat one’, La Gordita is the adjunct to one of Dublin’s most established tapas joints, Las Tapas de Lola. Owners Anna Cabrera and Vanessa Murphy have, however, upped the ante and the price points. This is a classy, ambience-heavy venture (a soothing room, restful high stools, views through a sizeable glass window into the kitchen) that is attracting customers like metal filings to a magnet. As we have already emphasised, La Gordita isn’t the place to go to if you haven’t saved up for it, but if you have, treasures and pleasures await.

www.lagordita.ie

LOTTIE’S, 7-9 Rathgar Road, Rathmines, D6

and mains such as the Brazilian picanha steak (that, incidentally, is served with the best chips in town).

www.misters.ie

LA GORDITA

HAWKSMOOR, 34 College Green, D2

Dublin’s newest and most anticipated restaurant in 2023 is part of a mini-chain, with other properties located in the UK (ten locations) and one, so far, in the US (New York City). The steakhouse chain has an impressive reputation and opens in the city centre in a historic building that was formerly occupied by the National Bank and more recently US clothing vendor Abercrombie & Fitch. This is a large space – a 200-seater – that has been outfitted to within an inch of its male-oriented design life and conceptualised as a must-visit eatery for the wellheeled. The room is buzzy and will surely appeal to those frivolous enough to want a night out in the city. The menu (no-vegan/vegetarian friendly) is as good as you would expect, while the 125-plus wine list is both exhaustive and expensive. An experience, for sure. www.hawksmoor.ie

There is no small foodie pedigree to the newly opened neighbourhood restaurant, Lottie’s – it is co-owned by Domini Kemp and the Winding Stairs’ Brian Montague, names wellknown to the Irish food industry. The décor is uber-smart and unlike other restaurants we could mention the seating is roomy. Similarly, the menus – under the knowledgeable eye of head chef Tudorel Ostache, formerly of Chapter One, and Pichet, and known to one and all as Ted –are slick, offering well-priced selections of perfectly cooked food and expertly curated (by GM Geoff Graham) wine and cocktail lists.

www.lotties.ie

MISTER S, 32 Camden Street Lower, Saint Kevin’s, D2 Who is Mister S? No one knows. If they do, they’re not telling, so it will remain a Mister E until you pay a visit, which is very much recommended. With a food and wine menu that is accessed only via a QR code (we know Covid kick-started this, but can we bring back paper now?), the kitchen’s custom-made grill works its magic on starter signature dishes such as burnt end, beyond crispy rendang spring rolls

ROW WINES, 1 Coppinger Row, D2

Row Wines is the new adventure in food by brothers Marc and Conor Bereen and is inspired by Tokyo’s listening bars of nibbling on small plates and sipping small-produce natural, organic, biodynamic and/or sustainably-made wines while a DJ

spins all-atmospheric vinyl albums. In other words, this is as hip an experience as you’ll get without having to grow a moustache or wear a black polo neck. Seasonal Irish produce drives the range of food on offer at this sublimely casual place where you can choose either a full meal of eight plates (which range in price from €9 to €18) or one or two with a glass of wine. A plus point for warm weather is the significant outside seating area.

www.bereenbrothers.com/row

SPORT CRICKET/RUGBY

Summer showdown awaits the Ireland cricket team

Ireland were cruelly denied an opportunity to qualify automatically for the ODI World Cup in India in October 2023 after rain washed out the first ODI in Chelmsford. MALHAR HATHI reports

A CLEAN sweep against Bangladesh, with at least one big victory margin to boost their net run-rate, would have seen the Irish pip South Africa to finish in the top eight of the World Cup Super League standings and qualify automatically.

Instead, Ireland will now have to battle out for the two spots up for grabs at the ten-team qualifying event in Zimbabwe scheduled from June 18 to July 9 which will include the hosts alongside Netherlands, Sri Lanka and the West Indies. The remaining five teams will be the top three from the ICC World Cup League 2 (Scotland, Oman and Nepal) and two from the Qualifiers Playoff (USA and UAE).

Given the high-stakes nature of the series, Cricket Ireland opted to host the matches at the Cloud County Ground in Chelmsford, the driest venue in England, rather than at home with poor weather prospects. But as fate would have it, Ireland’s worst fears were realised when no further play was possible due to rain.

In the qualifiers for the ODI World Cup Bangladesh eventually won a closely

contested series against Ireland 2-0 with both the matches being decided in the final over.

In the second ODI, Harry Tector’s career-best propelled the “hosts” to 319/6 in a rain-shortened 45-overs-aside game before Najmul Hossain Shanto’s 93-ball 117 and veteran Mushfiqur Rahim’s unbeaten 36 at the death closed out a tense three-wicket win.

We want to enjoy the challenges that are coming over the next few weeks

With little to play for but pride in the final Super League fixture, Mark Adair’s 4-40 helped Ireland bowl out the visitors for 274 and were in a comfortable position to chase it with half-centuries from Balbirnie, Tector, Tucker and Paul Stirling but ultimately fell short by five runs.

“Very frustrating. We were going well and then we lost wickets, momentum shifted,” Balbirnie said after the game.

“We need to bat better,

especially at the qualifier. It’s the harshest place to learn this lesson. 100% we thought we could get it but lost wickets after being in control. We’ve played a lot of games in these atmospheres, we just need to be harsh on ourselves.

“I don’t want to look too far ahead but, naturally, that 50-over qualifier and T20 qualifier post-Zim are the two most important schedules in our calendar at the moment,” he said. “But we want to enjoy

Exiles issued with ultimatum

BY CONOR O’DONOGHUE

THE Rugby Football Union in England has warned that if London Irish do not get their house in order by May 30, they will be suspended from participating in next year’s Gallagher Premiership.

The Exiles have become the latest top-flight union club in England to run into money troubles. This comes after Wasps and Worcester entered administration earlier this season, resulting in their expulsion from the Premiership.

There is speculation that London Irish is set to be taken over by an American consortium. However, nothing has been confirmed, and the club’s future is far from certain.

It was reported last week that the club is reportedly £30 million in debt, and their employees received their April salaries a

week late.

It was also reported that Mick Crossan, the current owner, paid the overdue April wages just minutes before players were preparing to submit breach-of-contract notices.

Last week the RFU issued a statement which included a deadline for the club. They warned that the club would be removed from the league if they do not find a solution in 11 days time.

“The proposed takeover of London Irish by an American consortium has led to a significant amount of uncertainty and speculation about the future of the club, which is having an impact on players, staff, and fans of the club,” said the RFU statement.

“As a result, the RFU, Premiership Rugby, and the RPA are seeking to take action to obtain greater clarity on the

ourselves. We want to enjoy the challenges that are coming over the next few weeks and hopefully we can embrace them and play a certain way that people want to watch us.”

Before the Qualifiers, Ireland will return to Chelmsford for a three-day first-class match against Essex in preparation for the one-off Test match against England at Lord’s from June 1-4.

“It’s very exciting for a number of us who haven’t

played at Lord’s,” Balbirnie said. “But it’s a special event in the English cricket calendar, never mind our own calendar. So we’re very fortunate and privileged to be able to play there.

England, under the new regime of captain Ben Stokes and Head Coach Brendon McCullum, have managed to win 10 of their last 12 matches with their positive style of playing the format catching the eye of many.

“We know the type of cricket England are playing is amazing to watch, so it’ll be nice to come up against it and try to find our own way of competing against it. Hopefully we can play good cricket and try to match them as best we can.”

The last time the two sides met at Lord’s in 2019, Tim Murtagh famously took five wickets for 13 runs to bowl the hosts out for 85 on the first morning. Even though Ireland managed to eke out a 122-run first innings lead, they were bowled out for a mere 38 runs chasing 182 in the final innings.

Tucker, who recently became only the second Irishman to score a Test century against Bangladesh in April, ran the drinks during that game and is particularly excited for his first game at the historic venue.

“I was there in 2019 and I remember how hot the weather was! It’s really exciting to have it coming up so soon,” he said. “Lord’s is an incredibly special place close to my heart. I’m a member of the MCC. Hopefully we’ll have a lot of travelling support and all the Irish people in London will come out to cheer us on.”

future of London Irish.

“It is imperative that the club be in a position to take its place in the Gallagher Premiership in the 2023/24 season and to complete that season.”

The statement continued: “The RFU has therefore set a deadline of May 30 by which either: a takeover of the club has been completed and approved by the RFU, with the buyers undertaking to provide all required working capital to meet the club’s obligations as they fall due for at least the 2023/24 season; or the club evidences that it will continue to be funded to operate throughout the 2023/24 season.

“If the club fails to meet these conditions, it will be suspended from participating in the Premiership (and other competitions) in the 2023/24 season to avoid a scenario where the club enters insolvency mid-season, with the corresponding and substantial impact that has on players, staff, and fans, as well as on the remainder of the league.”

BATTLING EXILE: Hugh O’Sullivan of London Irish Picture: Getty Images

LEAVING THE CREASE: Harry Tector, right, and Andrew Balbirnie in a match against Sri Lanka

Picture: Getty Images

Double disappointment for London

Tailteann Cup, Round Two  CAVAN           0-18  (18)

LONDON        2-06  (12)

Christy Ring Cup, Round Five LONDON       2-28   (34)

TYRONE       4-17   (29)

BY ANTHONY MCLAUGHLIN

THERE was a double setback for London last weekend after defeat for their footballers and a championship exit for their hurlers.

Michael Maher’s footballers are in last chance saloon in the Tailteann Cup after a second successive loss in Group One, a six-point loss to Cavan at McGovern Park leaving them needing to beat Laois in their final match if they are to have any chance of staying in the competition.

In a game that remained tight until the visitors pulled away early in the second-half, London were ahead on 24 minutes thanks to Liam Gallagher’s goal before Ryan O’Neill and Oisin Brady restored Cavan’s lead. Goal opportunities came and went for the home side in Ruislip, they did find a second in the final quarter through former Derry intercounty star Enda Lynn that reduced the deficit to four points but by that stage Cavan appeared to be in control thanks to successive points from Conor Brady, Gearóid McKiernan and Paddy Lynch.

The 2020 Ulster Champions ended the scoring with points from Lynch and substitute Conor Rehill, the former picking up a black card in added-time,

to earn their second win of the competition. London have a weekend’s grace to gear up for their decisive match against Laois, a team that put 6-06 past them back in March in the Allianz National Football League – the task is a straightforward one, London must win to leapfrog their opponents into third place and hope their record is good enough to qualify for the knock-out phase.

Kevin McMullan’s hurlers ended their Championship campaign last Saturday away to Tyrone in Carrickmore. They needed a minor miracle to qualify for the final of the Christy Ring Cup but with Derry seeing off Mayo in their final round match it meant London’s five-point win was not enough. A high-scoring

match at least provided a final flourish for 2023, despite conceding four first-half goals London were able to punch out a lead midway through the second-half and fend off a late Tyrone charge to finish in fourth place in the table.

In Warwickshire, Sean McDermott’s retained their Senior Football League title last weekend, a walkover victory from St Barnabas meant that their lead over St. Brendan’s in second position could not be hauled back. Attentions at inter-county level now turn to this Sunday’s All-Britain Junior Football Championship, a double-header of semi-finals gets underway at Noon at Páirc na hÉireann with Warwickshire taking on Hertfordshire before defending champions London face Lancashire – the two winners not only qualify for the All-Britain Final but also the semi-finals of

the All-Ireland Junior Championship alongside Kilkenny and New York.

Teams, London vs Cavan:  CAVAN: R Galligan; K Clarke, P Faulkner, N Carolan; C Brady, O Kiernan (0-1), C Madden; C Brady, J Smith (0-1); J McCabe (0-2), G McKiernan (0-4), T Madden; R O’Neill (0-1), P Lynch (0-7, 6f), O Brady (0-1).

Subs: B Boylan (for O’Neill 51); C Rehill (0-1, for Smith 67); T Noack Hofmann (for T Madden 70).

LONDON: A Walsh; D Rooney, M Clarke, N McElwaine; R Sloan, C Healy, E Walsh; J Obahor (0-1), L Gallagher (1-0); C Gallagher, D Clarke (0-1), A McLoughlin; R Tohill, L Gavaghan (0-4, 4f), F Eastwood. Subs: E Lynn (1-0, for Tohill 47); C Farley (for Sloan 50); F Gallagher (for Obahor 66)  Referee: J Gilmartin (Sligo)

A double celebration to come for Lancashire GAA

Lory Meagher Cup, Round Five  LANCASHIRE         5-13  (28) WARWICKSHIRE    3-17  (26)

BY ANTHONY MCLAUGHLIN AT PÁIRC

NA HÉIREANN, BIRMINGHAM

IT’S set to be a momentous couple of weeks for Lancashire GAA as they host the Northern Games this coming weekend before their hurlers gear up for another Croke Park final in the Lory Meagher Cup.

Last Saturday’s comeback win over Warwickshire in Birmingham preceded a nailbiting wait for news from Kingspan Breffni –Lancashire required a Leitrim win over Cavan to confirm second place in the table to qualify for the showpiece event against Monaghan and after what must have felt like an eternity they greeted news of Leitrim’s one-point win with delirium. It was mission accomplished, one that must have felt a long way off after the previous round’s defeat to Monaghan but one that means Liam Knocker’s side get another shot at the Farney on the biggest stage of all.

It’s testament to the quality of this year’s Meagher Cup that the drama continued to the very end of the group stage. All four counties who didn’t qualify for the final will look back on missed opportunities, including Warwickshire who could so easily have made it but for late reversals in home defeats to Leitrim and Lancashire.

Indeed Saturday’s match at Páirc na hÉireann looked so promising for the home side who were calm in defence and inventive in attack, sprinkling sensational scores from distance. They settled into the lead off three successive Padraic Crehan frees while at the other end Conor Cummins denied Conor Madden when through on goal as some spectacular efforts by Niall Eames, John Collins and Noel Lenihan

had Warwickshire stretching in front. Lancashire were wayward in that opening half, nine wides dogging their attempts to make any headway and when Robin Spencer found space on the left he blazed a fierce effort across the face of goal. Warwickshire made it an eight-point advantage by half-time with points from Collins and Luke Hands, drawing to a close a very productive opening period; meanwhile Lancashire regrouped on-field and with the introduction of Conor Kennedy to full-forward they finally started to make in-roads.

Despite more Cummins heroics to deny Ray McCormack, Kennedy struck 1-1 in succession to galvanise the visitors. That was immediately nullified by a brilliant Warwickshire goal, Alex Hanley – one of the stand-out performers for his team in the final two rounds – releasing Hands to bullet a shot

beyond Pa Coates and when Warwickshire won a penalty moments later, Hands made no mistake to put his side into a commanding twelve-point lead. To their credit, Lancashire didn’t panic as they hit back with a penalty of their own, confidently converted by McCormack before immediately following up with a dramatic double from open play: first Spencer found the back of the net from close range before McCormack struck on the rebound after another tremendous Cummins save.

It was rough on Warwickshire, three goals in a matter of moments leaving them trailing by two as they were reduced to fourteen after Oisín Coffey picked up a harsh black card. The visitors saw Croke Park and went for it with a point for Darragh Carroll and a free from Spencer making it a four-point game – yet Warwickshire wouldn’t relent, another penalty earned saw another finish past Coates

by substitute Jack Grealish as normal time elapsed. Added-time brought more chances for Hands and Grealish but neither could trouble the Lancashire goal as McCormack landed the final point of the match, leaving Lancashire a nail biting wait before that joyous celebration of qualification.

Before that trip to Dublin, they have the small matter of the GAA Northern Community Games in Manchester which is set to take place at Broughton Park on Friday 26 and Saturday, 27 May. Over 1000 children are expected to compete in competitions ranging from Under-7 to Under-17 levels with representation from Lancashire, Warwickshire, Yorkshire and Scotland as well as a travelling Cavan Cú Chulainn’s Under-17 panel.

Both days are due to get underway at 10am, with a mixture of football, hurling and camogie across the age groups –Friday’s action will see school teams competing against one another with Saturday bringing over 70 teams to the competition as Lancashire aim to build on the success of last year’s event. Entry to the event is £5, including a commemoration programme.

Teams:

WARWICKSHIRE: P Hands; J O’Connor, D Ryan, C Shalvey; R Murray, J Collins (0-3), N Eames (0-1); N Lenihan (0-1), A Hanley; P McMahon (0-1), E McWilliams, O Coffey (0-1); K Murphy, P Crehan (0-6, 6f), L Hands (2-3, 1 Pen, 1f). Subs: B O’Sullivan (for Crehan 49); J Grealish (1-1, 1 Pen, 1f, for McMahon 49); C Monahan (for Murphy 49); D King (for McWilliams 54).

LANCASHIRE: P Coates; L Burns, A Morgan, B Slattery; F Henry, S Nugent, C Kenny (0-1); E Kelly (0-1), S Madden (0-1); C O’Shea, R McCormack (3-2, 1 Pen), C Madden; R Spencer (1-2, 2f), D Duffy (0-3), D Carroll (0-2). Subs: C Kennedy (1-1, for O’Shea).  Referee: P. Owens (Down)

IN ACTION: Lancashire’s Conor Madden evades Niall Eames

Ireland’s cricketers face a battle for ODI World Cup qualification after rain stopped play in Chelmsford

Ascent of Dhaulagiri ends in disappointment for

Tipperary man fails in his attempt to reach the top of one of the world’s most dangerous peaks

BY NICK BRAMHILL

AN elite climber has vowed not to give up on his quest to become the first Irishman to conquer one of the world’s most treacherous mountains, after his summit attempt was dashed last week by a ferocious storm.

James McManus, from Roscrea in Tipperary, had set his sights on reaching the top of Dhaulagiri, a deadly Himalayan peak widely regarded as one of the most dangerous mountains in the world.

Dhaulagiri is the seventh highest mountain in the world at 8,167 metres (26,795 ft) above sea level, and the highest mountain within the borders of a single country (Nepal).

It was first climbed in 1960 by a Swiss-Austrian-Nepali expedition.

Annapurna I (8,091 m (26,545 ft)) is 34 km (21 mi) east of Dhaulagiri. The Kali Gandaki River flows between the two in the Kaligandaki

Gorge, said to be the world’s deepest.

With high winds (80km per hour) and snow we had to turn around

McManus arrived in Nepal in April. Accompanied by a sherpa, McManus – who runs Dublin-based adventure company Earth’s Edge – spent a few weeks acclimatising to conditions ahead of making a push for the summit last week

However, with just over 1,000 metres remaining of the climb to the 8,167m summit, his team were forced to turn back after being caught up in an unexpected storm.

the climb to the 8,167m forced to turn back after being caught up in an unex-

In an update on Instagram, the 40-year-old adventurer wrote: “So we got to 50m below [7,200m-high] Camp 3

below [7,200m-high] Camp 3

and we got hit by an unexpected electrical storm.

BY GERARD CASSINI

SIX Nations Rugby has appointed Sélima Ayoub and David Lynn as independent non-executive directors (INEDs), joining its board in May 2023.

Ayoub and Lynn will join Independent Non-Executive Chair, Dublin man Ronan Dunne, on the Six Nations Rugby Board, alongside its existing members.

A statement from the Six ations board said: “Both bring a wealth of expertise to the Six Nations Rugby Board, made up of representatives from each of

New appointees to Six Nations board

its member unions, federations, and private equity investor at CVC Capital Partners.”

Sélima Ayoub is a sports, events, and business management executive, with broad experience in senior leadership positions in internationally recognised brands and organisations such as Sodexo.

David Lynn comes with extensive experience working with global multiplatform media businesses such as Paramount Global. More recently Lynn has been a key advisor for private equity firms, supporting on strategy development within the media space.

Commenting on the appointment Ronan Dunne said: “The appointment of Sélima and David reflects the continued ambition of Six Nations Rugby to build a truly world class team, and the entire board is excited to start working with them both. The experience they both bring from their respective fields offers an incredible opportunity to deliver on this ambition, alongside the existing board members. Rugby’s potential for sustained growth and innovation is vast, and adding two new independent voices to the Six Nations Rugby Board that can help realise this potential.”

“With high winds (80km per hour) and snow we had to turn around. We are back in base camp now. Going to rest for a few days and then head back up!”

McManus, from Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, is now aiming to make another push for the summit of the unforgiving peak later this week – an expedition which has been made all the harder, as he is not using supplementary oxygen. Despite falling nearly 700m short of Mt. Everest, avalanche-prone Dhaulagiri – the world’s seventh highest mountain – has a far higher fatality rate than the planet’s tallest peak.

The deadly ascent of the remote, windswept mountain has claimed at least 70 lives out of hundreds of attempts, with a fatality-to-summit rate of over 16 per cent –which means that for every six people that reached the top, one perished.

NEW APPOINTEES: Sélima Ayoub and David Lynn

McManus arrived in Nepal

FRIGHTENING: Dhaulagiri in Nepal Picture: Michel Royon of Royonx / Wikimedia Commons Left: Tipperary climber James McManus