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Sunday World
20 hours ago
- General
- Sunday World
Calls for urgent action over suspected asbestos at Belfast bonfire site
New images show the pyre being constructed in the Village area just yards from a pile of material believed to be contaminated with asbestos Watch: Asbestos material close to a bonfire in the village area of South Belfast A south Belfast councillor has called for urgent action to remove suspected hazardous asbestos waste from a bonfire site in the area, warning it poses a serious risk to public health. New images show the pyre being constructed in the Village area just yards from a pile of material believed to be contaminated with asbestos. The site, located near Meridi Street and Maldon Street, is privately owned land and has been the subject of environmental and planning concerns in recent years. SDLP representative Séamas de Faoite, who sits on Belfast City Council's Strategic Policy and Resources Committee, is demanding immediate action. 'This is a matter of public safety and an urgent health risk,' he said. 'It's not about bonfires or anything else. I've repeatedly asked that Belfast City Council seek an injunction against the landowner and the NIEA to get the asbestos material removed. "This cannot be allowed to drag on any further and potentially put people at risk.' The dumped waste material is very near a bonfire site (Photo by Peter Morrison) It comes after confirmation that the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) and Belfast City Council are working together to secure and clear the site. Contractors have been instructed to fence off the hazardous material. The land has previously been at the centre of a planning dispute with permission refused for a housing development due to the presence of contaminated waste. With the bonfire expected to be lit in two weeks, politicians and residents have raised concerns about the proximity of the structure to the waste pile and the potential health impact of burning materials nearby. The local authority said it is continuing to liaise with the NIEA and other relevant agencies but that responsibility for the land remains with the private owner. Certain exposed asbestos materials can break and explode when exposed to flames. All asbestos fibres are deemed to be carcinogenic category one, and cause severe damage when inhaled into the lungs. Further discussions are expected in the coming days over how the site will be managed in the lead-up to the Eleventh Night. The site, located near Meridi Street and Maldon Street, is privately owned land and has been the subject of environmental and planning concerns in recent years (Photo by Peter Morrison) In a statement, a Belfast City Council spokesperson said elected representatives have agreed to potentially seek legal action to remove the materials and confirmed that NIEA is currently conducting its own probe. 'Council have been engaging with the landowner at this site to ensure that suspected asbestos containing materials are adequately secured,' they said . "We have also served an abatement notice on the landowner requiring them to secure and contain the materials. NIEA is currently undertaking an enforcement investigation, as they are the lead enforcement authority in relation to this issue. 'Council continues to engage with NIEA and the landowner to ensure that the materials are removed as soon as possible. Elected members have also previously agreed that this may include pursuing legal action to ensure the materials are removed and the wider site secured. Council officers are also continuing to liaise with the local community to ensure that these materials remain fenced off.' A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) added: 'The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) received a complaint concerning potentially hazardous waste at a site in the vicinity of Meridi Street, Belfast on the afternoon of Friday 16 May. 'Staff from the Environmental Crime Unit within NIEA were in contact with Belfast City Council about the matter on Monday 19 May and enquiries are ongoing.'
Japan Today
16-06-2025
- Health
- Japan Today
Works begin in Ireland to exhume remains of hundreds of babies found at unwed mothers' home
FILE - Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin talks to the media outside the government building in Dublin, Jan. 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison, File) By SYLVIA HUI Officials in Ireland began work Monday to excavate the site of a former church-run home for unmarried women and their babies to identify the remains of around 800 infants and young children who died there. The long-awaited excavation at the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway in western Ireland, is part of a reckoning in an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country with a history of abuses in church-run institutions. The home, which was run by an order of Catholic nuns and closed in 1961, was one of many such institutions that housed tens of thousands of orphans and unmarried pregnant women who were forced to give up their children throughout much of the 20th century. In 2014, historian Catherine Corless tracked down death certificates for nearly 800 children who died at the home in Tuam between the 1920s and 1961 — but could only find a burial record for one child. Investigators later found a mass grave containing the remains of babies and young children in an underground sewage structure on the grounds of the home. DNA analysis found that the ages of the dead ranged from 35 weeks gestation to 3 years. A major inquiry into the mother-and-baby homes found that in total, about 9,000 children died in 18 different mother-and-baby homes, with major causes including respiratory infections and gastroenteritis, otherwise known as the stomach flu. The sisters who ran the Tuam home had offered a 'profound apology' and acknowledged that they had failed to 'protect the inherent dignity' of women and children housed there. 'It's a very, very difficult, harrowing story and situation. We have to wait to see what unfolds now as a result of the excavation," Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said Monday. Daniel MacSweeney, who leads the exhumation of the babies' remains at Tuam, said that survivors and family members will have an opportunity to view the works in coming weeks. 'This is a unique and incredibly complex excavation," he said in a statement, adding that the memorial garden at the site will be under forensic control and closed to the public from Monday. Forensic experts will analyze and preserve remains recovered from the site. Any identified remains will be returned to family members in accordance with their wishes, and unidentified remains will be buried with dignity and respect, officials said. The works are expected to take two years to complete. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Irish Examiner
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Séamas O'Reilly: Ballymena violence is the result of politics based on scapegoating any ‘other'
Ballymena is burning. Since Monday, protesters have descended on various streets in the Antrim town, following an alleged sexual assault of a girl. Two 14-year-old boys have been charged with attempted rape, both presumed to be of migrant origin as they used a Romanian interpreter in court. Their solicitor said they would be denying the charges. A peaceful vigil for the girl, commandeered by local agitators, spilled into full-on rioting – or, to use the odd euphemism so often deployed in the statelet I grew up in, 'disturbances'. Over the course of the next few nights, several migrant homes were attacked and destroyed, with dozens of PSNI officers assaulted and injured, and fulminating rhetoric from those protesting broadcast on social media, to anyone who'd listen. The rioters' response to news of the alleged assault was attacking homes of any and all migrants or 'non-locals' they could find. One was that of a Filipino family, the dad of whom worked for Wrightbus and came back from his shift to find his house in flames. Assembly member Sian Berry told Stormont of a family-of-three who were forced to barricade themselves in their attic as men 'rampaged' downstairs. Crowds gather in front of a line of riot police and vans in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, as people protest over an alleged sexual assault in the Co Antrim town, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison) Reaction has been swift and furious, with politicians and community leaders from all sides condemning the violence. Some did this, however, with a few more caveats than others. North Antrim MP Jim Allister said the violence was 'very distressing' and 'senseless' but added that the context for the violence was that there had been 'significant demographic change in the area' because of 'unfettered immigration'. Demographic change is, of course, a relative concept, but even its most gymnastic description would be hard to tally with this part of the world. The Northern Irish Assembly's figures indicate that net migration from other countries to Northern Ireland in the past 22 years is around 62,000 people. Around 3% of Northern Ireland's population currently belong to any ethnic minority at all. Indeed, 'unfettered immigration' seems a somewhat odd descriptor for the Mid and East Antrim council area, in which Ballymena is situated, which has seen a net total of fewer than 5,000 international migrants settle there, this century. Of course, any such change in population will be noticed by those with eyes to see it. Which is to say: those who oppose anyone who's different, in any way, being anywhere near them. It's easy, therefore, to dismiss all of what is happening in Antrim right now as racist thuggery. Thankfully, it's not just easy to do this, but correct. A protester stokes a barricade fire in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, as people protest over an alleged sexual assault in the Co Antrim town, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. To their credit, the PSNI have been clear-cut on this point, with the chair of their police federation Liam Kelly describing the violence as 'mindless, unacceptable and feral' and the actions of the rioters as 'a pogrom'. There is no interpretation of these acts, no nuance or context that can be added, that points in any other direction. Any talk of 'simmering tensions' and 'local anger' merely gets us away from the point at hand; the tension and anger is from people who believe all outsiders should be terrorised and killed, and we owe them, and their concerns, nothing but clear-eyed disgust. None of this is new. I'm old enough to remember scenes of Catholics being ousted from their homes in Antrim, primarily because it still happens all the time. Last July, the family of Jessy Clark, a nine-year-old boy with multiple serious disabilities, were allocated a newbuild bungalow in the Ballycraigy estate in Antrim town. The home was purpose-built to provide for Jessy's medical needs, allowing him the facility to bathe and use his wheelchair, freedoms he'd been denied in the hospital bed he'd been living in for years. Shortly before the family were due to move in, the house was attacked with bricks and paint bombs. Soon its boarded-up windows featured graffiti of crosshairs, and slogans declared that all such housing was for 'locals only'. The LVF-affiliated group responsible for this were implicated in a several other attacks in the area, driving eight African families out of their homes in the few weeks previous. Deducing this took little by way of detective work, since the group posted laminated signs around the area declaring 'No Undesirables… No Multiculturalism' and warnings to 'keyboard warriors' that their home might be next. Police officers on Clonavon Road in Ballymena following a second night of violence in Ballymena, during a protest over an alleged sexual assault in the Co Antrim town. Multiple cars and properties were set on fire in Ballymena while rioters hurled petrol bombs, fireworks and masonry at police officers. What we're seeing now in Ballymena is the downstream effect of a political project based on scapegoating any 'other' who looks, speaks or prays differently. It is not new, no matter how much of it is broadcast online or egged on by bad actors on social media. MLAs from across Northern Ireland have criticised DUP MLA Gordon Lyons, who confirmed that displaced Ballymena migrants had been housed in Larne Leisure Centre, hours before that location was set alight by a mob. Lyons says the information was in the public domain when he put it on social, and had been confirmed by the local council, but has not elaborated on why he felt the need to specify that he had not been consulted on this decision. Lyons, for those who don't know - and may now scarcely believe it - is Northern Ireland's Communities Minister. One might be tempted to imagine any other situation in which innocent people were rehoused for, say, flooding, fire, or some other natural disaster, only for their Community Minister to refer to them not as constituents, or traumatised people in fear for their lives, but as "individuals", housed only "temporarily", and making sure to point out that he and his party colleagues had no part in giving them shelter. I grew up around this hoary old routine; sectarian prejudice dressed up with talk about jobs, housing or religious identity, now being wheeled out in terms of law and order, grotesquely weaponizing an awful alleged crime to bring brickbats and firebombs to the homes of peaceful, terrified foreigners. The central perversity of treating these people as anything other than racist thugs is only more transparent in Ballymena because they have so few migrants that any other excuse is patently absurd. It's the same skit we've seen at play for decades, the same justification as in Southport and Dublin and East Belfast before, and will see again for as long as these people have hate in their hearts, an X account, and a brick at arm's reach. We are not witness to a disturbance, but a pogrom. It behoves us to say so, loud and clear. Read More Séamas O'Reilly: Many of the tropes of standard Irishness are not universally applied both sides of the border
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
British Open focus is on getting bigger. That leaves out some of the better links
FILE - Golf legend Jack Nicklaus waves to spectators from the Swilcan Bridge on the 18th hole as he comes close to the end of playing his final round ever in the British Open golf championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland, Friday July 15, 2005.. (AP Photo/Laurent Rebours, File) FILE - Ireland's Shane Lowry reacts after getting a birdie on the fourth green during the final round of the British Open Golf Championships at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, Sunday, July 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison, File) FILE - Ireland's Shane Lowry reacts after getting a birdie on the fourth green during the final round of the British Open Golf Championships at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, Sunday, July 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison, File) FILE - Golf legend Jack Nicklaus waves to spectators from the Swilcan Bridge on the 18th hole as he comes close to the end of playing his final round ever in the British Open golf championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland, Friday July 15, 2005.. (AP Photo/Laurent Rebours, File) FILE - Ireland's Shane Lowry reacts after getting a birdie on the fourth green during the final round of the British Open Golf Championships at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, Sunday, July 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison, File) The objective of golf's oldest championship is best illustrated by Tuesday's announcement that 278,000 spectators will be at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland this summer for the 153rd staging of the British Open. No other major has more history, the first one being played just three weeks before Abraham Lincoln was elected president. Advertisement No other major this year is more poised to celebrate Rory McIlroy, the native son, Masters champion and latest to capture the elusive Grand Slam. No other major feels the need to announce its attendance. The Royal & Ancient said the 278,000 spectators — 89,000 of them during the three days of practice — would be the second-largest crowd for the Open behind St. Andrews (290,000 in 2022), and some 40,000 more than the last time at Royal Portrush in 2019. That the Open returned to Portrush in just five years — it had been 68 years since the previous visit to the Northern Ireland links — speaks to how much the R&A feels size matters. Advertisement 'Big-time sport needs big-time crowds,' former R&A chief Martin Slumbers was fond of saying. His successor, Mark Darbon, feels the same. 'The Open is one of the world's great sporting events and we will do everything we can to make this year's championship at Royal Portrush an outstanding and memorable occasion for everyone involved from fans to players and the millions watching on TV and digital platforms worldwide," Darbon said. The best viewing likely will come from in front of a screen. The bigger the crowds, the greater the excitement, even if the spectators on the ground have a hard time seeing much more than the back of someone's head. It was like that at the Masters, where McIlroy played alongside Bryson DeChambeau. He cruised and then crashed and then came back and eventually beat Justin Rose in a playoff. Advertisement The theater was among the greatest ever. No attendance figures were announced (to be fair, Augusta National is not big on numbers, whether it's attendance or the speed of greens, merchandise sales or digital traffic). The U.S. Open and PGA Championship don't announce attendance, and neither does the Ryder Cup (only the cost of the ticket, still less than U.S. players are getting paid ). Officials at both majors say privately they don't like announcing sellouts. It's a major. It's supposed to sell out. Even the WM Phoenix Open, the most raucous stop on the PGA Tour, stopped announcing attendance seven years ago. There was no need. It's big, loud and packed. Everyone knows it. The last attendance figure for the Phoenix Open was 719,179 in 2018. (The R&A is contemplating a British Open at Portmarnock in Ireland; no word if it will consider expanding outside the U.K. to Phoenix). Advertisement But it's about being there. Big crowds made big loud, as a 20-year-old Se Ri Pak said with such great charm. There is something to be said about being part of history, like McIlroy at Augusta National or Phil Mickelson at Kiawah Island when he won the PGA Championship at age 50. There also is the risk of leaning on too big, not only from the spectator's experience but limitations on where to play. Royal Portrush is getting the British Open six years apart — only St. Andrews, the home of golf, has had a quicker turnaround in the last 30 years. Meanwhile, Muirfield waits. Of the modern rotation, only St. Andrews has hosted the Open more times than the 16 editions at Muirfield, regarded as the purest of the links courses. Every Muirfield winner since World War II is in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Advertisement It was last held in 2013 and had just over 142,000 spectators who witnessed Mickelson win the third leg of the career Grand Slam. Perhaps the R&A should take a page from the U.S. Open, which also likes big (Pinehurst No. 2, Winged Foot, Oakmont) but is not bothered to accept a smaller footprint because it wants the grandest stage for its championship. The U.S. Open was at The Country Club outside Boston, with attendance estimated at 175,000 spectators (compare that with Oakmont in 2016 at about 230,000 fans). It will return to Merion in 2030 and Riviera in 2031. The crowds — and the revenue — won't be as large. The courses are among the most revered in America. Royal Lytham & St. Annes is another historic links that is running out of room to hold the spectators, along with the bells and whistles the R&A prefers. It last hosted the Open in 2012 and isn't on the list without finding a way to create more room. Advertisement There's also the curious case of Turnberry, revered as the most picturesque of all links courses, famous for the 'Duel in the Sun' between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus and owned by President Donald Trump since 2014 (five years after it last held the Open). Slumbers had said for years there was no plan to return to Turnberry until the focus was squarely on golf. Darbon took another route Tuesday when he mentioned a feasibility study before Turnberry is considered. He noted attendance in 2009 at Turnberry was only about 120,000, compared with some 280,000 fans at Portrush this summer. 'That's really important for us because not only do we want to showcase this wonderful championship to as many people as possible, but it's important for us in terms of our commercial model because everything that we generate from the Open, we then reinvest back into the game all around the world," Darbon said. Advertisement "So we've got a few challenges at Turnberry.' The biggest challenge for Turnberry and Muirfield and Royal Lytham & St. Annes? Size matters in the modern model of the Royal & Ancient. ___ On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: ___
