Ciaran Cannon: Every 48 hours someone dies on Irish roads – not because they failed, but because we did
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North Wales Chronicle
3 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Jodie Burrage ponders trip to see boyfriend play for the Lions after SW19 exit
The British wild card began the week with good news when Scotland scrum-half White was a late addition to the British and Irish Lions squad for their series against the Wallabies. But her joy turned to despair on Tuesday following a comprehensive 6-3 6-1 first-round loss to American Caty McNally on her SW19 comeback. A post shared by Jodie Burrage (@jodie_burrage) As her attention turns to the hardcourt swing in the United States, Burrage is considering flying out to support long-term partner White. 'It's a conversation I'm going to have to have with my team,' said Burrage, who is still scheduled to play doubles in south west London this week. 'Maybe considering my ankle and stuff, I might be able to. Obviously Australia is a very easy place to find tennis courts and train, so that's one thing going for me. 'I've been playing so many tournaments. I've been going week after week after week, so I do need some time training. That was always the case anyway. So maybe that will be there.' Toulon player White initially missed out on Lions selection before receiving a call from head coach Andy Farrell due to the injury withdrawal of Wales' Tomos Williams. The 27-year-old swiftly joined the squad in Brisbane, having been with the Scotland team in New Zealand – 11 hours ahead of Burrage in the UK. 'I was about to go to sleep, and he called me 10 minutes later and kind of was just looking at me down the phone, like with a grin on his face,' she said. 'I was, just, like, 'Oh, my God, what?' I was very, very happy for him to get that call. He'll do great. 'He's enjoying being with the Lions and it will be a very fun six weeks for him ahead.' Defeat for Jodie Burrage to American Caty McNally #BackTheBrits 🇬🇧 | #Wimbledon — LTA (@the_LTA) July 1, 2025 Burrage, who would have faced five-time grand slam winner Iga Swiatek in round two, defeated McNally at Wimbledon two years ago. But hampered by the latest of a series of ankle problems, she was unable to repeat the feat on Court 18 and was eliminated by the world number 208 in an hour and four minutes. 'It's nowhere near 100 per cent,' she said of her ankle. 'My level today was shocking compared to how I've been playing the last few weeks. 'There's probably a few things going into that: wanting to do well this week at Wimbledon because I missed it last year, obviously what I just said about what happened on Friday (rolling her ankle), just everything. 'Sometimes you just have a bad day at the office, and sometimes your opponent has a very good one. 'I just wanted more from myself. I know the work that I've put in, and I felt like I deserved a better outcome than that.'
New Straits Times
4 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Serbian village stakes claim to the first vampire
AT the back of an overgrown cemetery in a tiny Serbian village, a mysterious 300-year-old headstone marks the grave of the first recorded vampire. Pushing through thick scrub, local historian Nenad Mihajlovic pulls back branches to reveal the gravesite. According to locals, it is the long-lost burial site of Petar Blagojevic, known as the father of vampires. Backed by historical record, Mihajlovic and his fellow villagers hope Kisiljevo, about 100 kilometres east of the capital, Belgrade, can stake its claim as the cradle of vampires and suck in tourists. It was here, in the summer of 1725, well before Irish writer Bram Stoker made Transylvania Dracula's infamous home, that villagers exhumed Blagojevic's body, suspecting him of rising from the grave at night to kill locals. "Petar Blagojevic was found completely intact," recalled Mirko Bogicevic, a former village mayor whose family has lived there for 11 generations. "When they drove a hawthorn stake through him, fresh red blood flowed from his mouth and ears," said Bogicevic, Blagojevic's unofficial biographer. "He was probably just an ordinary man who had the fortune – or misfortune – to become a vampire. All we know is that he came from Kisiljevo, and his name appears in records from around 1700," he added, holding a copy of the Wienerisches Diarium, the imperial Viennese gazette dated July 21, 1725. The article marks the beginning of the Kisiljevo vampire. Based on accounts from Austrian doctors and military officials, it was likely a mistranslation that gave rise to the myth, said Clemens Ruthner, head of the Centre for European Studies at Trinity College Dublin. "There's an old Bulgarian word, Upior, meaning 'bad person'. I believe the villagers mumbled it, and the doctors misunderstood, writing down 'vampire' in their report," Ruthner said. The Austrians, who were dispatched to the border region of the Habsburg Empire to investigate a series of unexplained deaths, then saw blood coming from the body. "They assumed blood drinking. But that's wrong – it's not what the villagers said." Instead, people described victims dying from suffocation, detailing symptoms that closely match with a high fever caused by a serious infection, according to Ruthner. He suggested an anthrax outbreak may explain the strange deaths. "Vampirism, like witchcraft, is, in anthropological terms, a common model for explaining things people don't understand – especially collective events like epidemics." Three centuries later, few have visited Kisiljevo, a sleepy village nestled between cornfields and a lake, but some locals are determined to change that. Lost through time and superstition, Blagojevic's grave was rediscovered using a suitably arcane method, hunting for "energy nodes" with a dowsing rod. "This tomb, whose gravestone has weathered over the centuries, showed signs of something very unusual," Mihajlovic added, gesturing to the stone believed to mark the alleged burial plot. "Right next to where we are standing, something truly strange happened – the dowsing rods literally plunged into the soil. The dowser had never seen anything like it." But the alleged bloodsucker is no longer there – once dug up, his body was burned, and his ashes scattered in a nearby lake. Beyond the demonic undead, promoting other folklore has a "huge potential" to lure tourists and investors to the region, Dajana Stojanovic, head of the local tourism office, said. "Our region is rich in myths and legends – not just the story of Petar Blagojevic, but also Vlach magic and unique local customs," she added, referring to the semi-nomadic traders and shepherds who once roamed the Balkans. "Every village has its traditions." However, for Mihajlovic, it is about presenting an accurate history of his town – one he firmly believes in. "We have a fully documented account of an extremely unusual event - one officially identified as a case of vampirism," the 68-year-old history professor said. "I personally believe in the authenticity of that report." He isn't alone. Bottles of rakija – Serbian brandy – infused with garlic and chilli are still kept in a few homes around the village. Just in case.
Irish Examiner
4 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Sarah Harte: Limiting freedom of speech is a threat to a functioning democracy
The poet and public intellectual Thomas McCarthy told me this week that he thought the Western World was depressed. One depressing and alarming development is the erosion of freedom of speech. Censorship is proliferating in front of our eyes, and it's reached our shores with real-life consequences for our adult children. America, no longer the land of the brave and the free, is where Irish J1 students will have their social media posts checked going back five years. There is something surreal about this. Big Brother is watching you but not even bothering to hide it. Last week, it was reported in the Irish Examiner that visa applicants must 'list all social media usernames or handles of every platform they have used from the last five years on the DS-160 visa application form.' Privacy settings on all social media platforms must be set to public. Talk about having a chilling effect on freedom of speech among a crop of young people who have just come of voting age. We need their young voices. I chatted to a retired senior judge about this last weekend, and he was horrified by the development. As he said, bad things like this happen incrementally, until one day you wake up to a knock on the door and think, 'Jesus, how did we get here?' Workers stand handcuffed after being arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, at Delta Downs Racetrack, Hotel and Casino in Calcasieu Parish, near Vinton, Louisiana last month. Photo: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP Both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have expressed concern. Simon Harris intends to raise the matter with the new US Ambassador next month. Micheál Martin has stated that he disagrees with the measures. In reality, the American Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) now essentially reject travellers to the United States who are not ideologically in line with the regime. The parameters of what is considered dissent against the regime seem broad and vague. Imagine if we checked the phones of American tourists in Dublin and said, 'No, sorry, you don't get to see the Cliffs of Moher or the Book of Kells because we see from your social media posts that you deny the genocide in Gaza and you seem supportive of Benjamin Netanyahu'. What the hell has happened to America with its modern-day version of McCarthyism restraining people who hold opposing views? Are all lessons from the past being lost? Barack Obama, who has frustrated many Democrats with his relative silence on a range of subjects in the USA, issued a warning a week ago that America is dangerously close to losing its democracy. Except it's not just in America that this censorship is taking place. Kneecap fans at Glastonbury at the weekend. Following the festival, British police are considering whether to launch criminal investigations into the hip hop group and punk duo Bob Vylan. Freedom of speech has been under relentless attack in the UK. Their Public Order Act 1986 is capable of broad interpretation. In tandem with two further acts of 2002 and 2022, it effectively allows policing to be politicised with jokes, social media posts, and even private conversations arguably coming within their dragnet. Following the Glastonbury Festival last weekend, British police are considering whether to launch criminal investigations into two acts: the Irish hip-hop group Kneecap and the punk duo Bob Vylan. One of the members of Bob Vylan chanted 'Death, death, to the IDF'. The police announced the possibility of an investigation on Saturday on X. You might not like what someone says, but you may want to ensure that people still have the right to say it. The question is, where does cultural resistance and performance (including satire) end and terrorism or incitement to hatred begin? This is not an easy question to answer, but it is a vitally important one. While 'Glasto' was going on, John Brennan, former Director of the CIA, addressed a summer school for the Law Society's Centre for Justice and Law Reform in Dublin. It was on the theme 'Defending Democracy: Legal Responses to Emerging Threats'. He remarked on the 'delicate balance' faced by governments in permitting free speech while prohibiting hate speech and incitement to violence. We've had a back-and-forth on this ourselves, with hate speech laws being dropped last year by former minister for justice Helen McEntee due to a lack of consensus on the thorny issue. I have found myself flip-flopping on the subject, but I have come to believe that we should probably be wary of hate speech laws for fear of stifling public discourse. Kneecap It is precisely because clamping down on freedom of expression is taken so seriously by human rights lawyers that Kneecap's frontman, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, has attracted an extraordinarily heavyweight legal team defending him in his alleged terrorism offence. He was charged last month for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah at a concert in November 2024. He has firmly denied the charge but is currently on bail. Ó hAnnaidh's legal team (Kneecap call them An Scoithfhoireann or the Dream Team) is a roll call of who's who in human rights law, including Gareth Peirce, who formerly represented the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six. Peirce has devoted decades to defending underdogs. Critics see her as destabilising the establishment and undermining national security, which is the catch-all rationale that the Americans are using now to reject visa applications or even detain people. Peirce has spoken in the past about the dangers of stigmatising people as a threat to national security when they're not, and 'how justice dies when the law is co-opted for political purposes'. Gareth Peirce avoids the media like the plague, but in an old interview, she said: 'We take it on trust that if the government suspects people of terrorism and locks them up, or puts them on control orders without charge, they must be terrorists.' When a political context is as febrile as it is now, it is more likely that governments will dismantle fundamental freedoms, and we won't question what is really going on. Could this crackdown be a reaction or an attempted distraction from the allegation that the British state has failed to uphold international law and arguably been complicit in genocide through its supply of arms to Israel? Either way, the trial promises to be an important test of the principle of freedom of expression. At Glastonbury, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh accused Israel of genocide and led the crowd in a chant of "free, free Palestine' as well as anti-Starmer chants. The anti-Starmer chants were explained by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's remarks last week when he said that it was 'not appropriate' for Kneecap to appear at Glastonbury. Michael Eavis and his daughter Emily, who run the famous festival, were said to have been pressurised not to let them play. At Glastonbury, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh accused Israel of genocide and led the crowd in a chant of 'free, free Palestine' as well as anti-Starmer chants. Photo: Yui Mok/PA Meanwhile, in Germany, you can't hold a pro-Palestine demonstration without risking arrest and being accused of anti-Semitism. The Irish writer, Naoise Dolan, has spoken about being detained twice in Berlin for attending pro-Palestinian demonstrations. We're fortunate enough to live in a country where freedom of speech is protected in our Constitution. We received a positive school report from the Democracy Index last year, indicating that we have a fully functioning democracy and are expected to perform well in the 2025 Index. Let's keep it that way because we need dissenting voices now more than ever.
