Latest news with #TomOShea
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Miriam's Lord's Week: The gang's (almost) all here for the Healy-Rae hooley
Minister of State Michael Healy-Rae held a big hooley in Leinster House on Thursday for his general election team to thank them for helping him top the poll yet again in Kerry and return in triumph to the Dáil. About 100 people headed up from the Kingdom to enjoy a lunch 'hosted by Minister Michael Healy-Rae'. There was no mention on the printed menu of his brother Danny, the second member of team Healy-Rae to retain a seat in the constituency. There were drinks in the bar before the guests moved down the corridor to the Members' Restaurant, where they dined on roast chicken supreme with summer pea and asparagus cream, gratin potatoes and a medley of vegetables. READ MORE Dessert was caramelised lemon tartlet with a meringue crumb. At the end of the meal, Michael went into the kitchens and emerged with a birthday cake for team member Tom O'Shea from Waterville, who had just turned 70. The group brought it up from Maloney's cake shop in Castleisland and it was gorgeous. Earlier, they toured the House and popped into the Dáil and the Seanad, where the Cathaoirleach, Kerryman Mark Daly, made sure to mention them. 'They are guests of Danny and Michael Healy-Rae. They are most welcome to Seanad Éireann. I hope they have an enjoyable day in Dublin and we'll all be back up the weekend after next for another enjoyable day in Dublin, please God, and we'll be bringing Sam Maguire back home.' [ Man who pleaded guilty to electoral fraud worked for Healy-Rae company, Fine Gael senator claims Opens in new window ] Danny didn't attend the lunch. The Healy-Rae contingent wasn't in the chamber when Kerry-based Labour Senator Tim Kennelly told the Upper House under Seanad privilege that a man who pleaded guilty in Kenmare District Court to election fraud worked for a plant-hire company owned by the family of Danny Healy-Rae. When contacted by The Irish Times on Thursday, Danny Healy-Rae said: 'I have no comment.' Who rubbed out Jack Lynch's pipe? Decades of political memory and experience, valued service to the State, grudges and begrudgery, huffs, cute-hoorism and hissy-fits all come together when the Irish Association of Former Parliamentarians meets in Leinster House. More than 50 blasts from the recent and distant past gathered last Friday for the association's agm, held this year in the airy confines of Fianna Fáil's parliamentary party rooms on the fifth floor. Guest speaker on the day was former president Mary McAleese, who gave a talk on her time in the Áras which included some fascinating detail on Queen Elizabeth's historic State visit in 2011. There was no discussion about who might fill her successor's shoes when his time is up in November. The large contingent of former Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators were also fascinated by a long-standing feature of the party room: the line of framed photographs of former leaders. They recalled the black-and-white portraits from their own days at parliamentary meetings. After the 2011 election, when the party had to give way to Enda Kenny and swap its fifth-floor penthouse for Fine Gael's dark and stuffy meeting room in the basement, the pictures came too. 'From as far back as I can remember, the leaders always started with De Valera and they ended with the most recent person,' said a former FF Oireachtas member. 'Left to right, Dev first. But now, it's the other way around. Micheál Martin is first and Dev is kinda last. Oh, and Micheál is the only one in colour.' But that wasn't the real talking point. 'We were looking at the row of photos and something wasn't quite right. Something was missing. Then somebody twigged it was Jack Lynch. Jack always had a pipe. Always,' recalled our former parliamentarian. 'This was a new picture of Jack Lynch and he no longer has the pipe. Suppose we can't be doing with that sort of thing these days. So Jack's trademark pipe has been airbrushed from history. Honest to God. It's gone.' Wonder if the other Cork Taoiseach knows about this – the current full-colour incumbent who introduced the world's first workplace smoking ban in 2004? Classic Micheál, if you ask us. Soc Dems turn 10 Social policy professor turned Social Democrat TD Rory Hearne plays senior hurling on the housing crisis in the Dáil, and to unwind he has returned to junior hurling with his local club, Whitehall Colmcilles. The Dublin North-West TD is enjoying the game so much he decided to organise an end-of-term cross-party GAA knockabout for colleagues in Leinster House. There are regular rugby and soccer matches between Oireachtas members but Gaelic games haven't had much of a look-in. A small but enthusiastic group assembled in the grounds of Trinity College Dublin, where their host, Provost Linda Doyle, watched the politicians thrash about in the rain in the name of sport. They attempted a game of football as well as the hurling. Dublin legend Michael Darragh Macauley, along with Cormac Donohoe of the Dublin Masters team, tried to keep some semblance of shape on the proceedings. 'The only thing at stake was our dignity,' says Rory. 'There were no results. We decided to call everything a draw.' Among the politicians lining out were Fine Gael TDs Joe Neville (Kildare North), Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim), Brian Brennan (Wicklow-Wexford), Sinn Féin's Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth) and Darren O'Rourke (Meath-East), Labour's Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South-West) and Marie Sherlock (Dublin-Central), Fianna Fáil's Peter 'Chap' Cleere (Carlow-Kilkenny) and Kerry Labour Senator Mike Kennelly. TDs line out for a hurling match at Trinity College Dublin: 'The only thing at stake was our dignity' Now that they've established themselves, the players hope more TDs and Senators will sign up for a charity match they have planned for September, hopefully in Croke Park. Meanwhile, Hearne got back to Leinster House in time for the family photo with his fellow Soc Dems as the party marked 10 years since its foundation in 2015. Its three founding members have since left national politics. Róisín Shortall and Catherine Murphy retired at the last election and Stephen Donnelly, who defected to Fianna Fáil and was minister for health in the last government, lost his Dáil seat in November. He didn't join his erstwhile co-leaders at a celebratory dinner with the parliamentary party in the Members' Restaurant on Wednesday night. Stephen isn't totally out of the loop – he was in Glenties on Friday as one of the guest speakers at the MacGill Summer school, Ireland's Glastonbury for political anoraks. He was in good spirits, thanking his host for correctly identifying him as the former minister for health and not the current leader of Aontú. Former minister for health Stephen Donnelly and Jess Majekodunmi, managing director of human sciences studio at Accenture, at the MacGill Summer School. Photograph: North West Newspix 'I've had three people over the last 24 hours kind of look at me, put out the hand and go: 'It's Peadar Tóibín, isn't it!' So for any of you here who are still wondering, no, it isn't. Yes, we do look a little alike – he's a good-looking chap, nobody will take that from him ... but I'm not Peadar Tóibín.' And for good measure, he also stressed that he isn't the economist Dan O'Brien, the other person he is frequently mistaken for. Speaking of Donegal, we wrote last week about the Blaney family's 100 years of unbroken service at local level. A reader has been in touch to point out that they may well have sat on Donegal County Council since 1925 but, like all the other county councils, it was founded by the local government reforms of 1899. We, er, knew that. Horrible histories Congratulations to Sinn Féin's Chief Whip and spokesperson on fisheries and the marine who had some good news to announce on Wednesday. 'I have been appointed to be the convener of the Ireland-Norway Parliamentary Friendship Group by the Ceann Comhairle,' wrote Pádraig Mac Lochlainn in an email to all Oireachtas members. 'There is so much that we can learn from the Norwegian people, particularly how they have maximised the potential of the seas alongside them to create huge wealth and prosperity for their coastal communities. 'The connections between Ireland and Norway go back as far as the ninth century,' he added, inviting all TDs and Senators to contact him if they want to join the new friendship group. That's nice. Fair play to the Vikings. Not like those horrible Normans, who were descendants of Vikings and left behind a lot of historical baggage here too. Only last May, Pádraig's party colleague Aengus Ó Snodaigh was blasting the Government for approving plans for Ireland to participate in the Year of the Normans initiative along with other European countries. He said the proposal to celebrate the birth 1,000 years ago of England's first Norman King, William the Conqueror, whose successors subjugated Ireland, was 'offensive'. It was 'scraping the barrel of colonialism, imperialism and English royalism for themed tourism'. Mind you, conquest, pillage and rape was all the rage more than 1,000 years ago when the Scandinavian marauders established significant settlements around ancient Ireland and parts of Normandy. We hope Pádraig consulted Aengus about our ninth-century 'connections' with Norway before joining the friendship group. Bastille Day bash Liberté! Égalité! Fraternité! Buckets of Rosé! One of the last embassy garden parties of the summer diplomatic season was held at the French ambassador's residence on Monday night. The magnificent late 19th-century pile on Ailesbury Road has just reopened after a lengthy renovation. More than 1,200 guests joined Her Excellency Céline Place in her 1.75-acre back garden for the annual Bastille Day celebrations. All the political parties were represented. The Shinners were there, making a beeline for the ice-cream van when they arrived. They must have been happy to get out. They don't attend the UK embassy party and they had to boycott one of their favourite ones – the US ambassador's Fourth of July bash because of the US's stance on Gaza. Labour and the Social Democrats also snubbed Uncle Sam this year, although the members of Independent Ireland were happy to attend. They all came together to toast La République (proposed in a proud Cavan accent by Dublin Lord Mayor Ray McAdam) and Ireland (proposed by the ambassador) and to hear Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill deliver a speech in fluent French. It was most impressive. There wasn't a frog's leg or a piece of fromage in sight but the wine flowed and waiters patrolling the lawns with magnums of Whispering Angel rosé were in great demand. Somehow, the denizens of Leinster House managed to regroup for their end-of-term parties on Wednesday night before the Dáil and Seanad rose on Thursday for the summer recess. They'll be back in mid-September.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Irish Times
Landowner allegedly overturned ESB machine with tractor while workers trimmed trees near high-voltage line
A landowner who allegedly overturned an ESB machine while workers were trimming trees near high-voltage power lines on his land has agreed in the High Court to allow immediate urgent safety works to take place. Tom O'Shea, of Stellrose, Wheelam, Milltown, Newbridge , Co Kildare, had allegedly told ESB workers trimming trees that he would 'pull down the line' if they did not stop working. He then allegedly fetched his own digger and tipped over a tree-cutting tractor with its operator still inside. He then locked his digger and walked towards his farmyard, the court heard. Mr O'Shea represented himself in court on Friday. Asked by Mr Justice Brian Cregan why he was refusing to allow the ESB to work on the lines, for which it has a statutory right to enter his land, he said he was in a wider dispute with the electricity company that has not been resolved. READ MORE He also claimed the trees themselves are on neighbouring land and believed they could be cut from there. Stephen Dodd SC, for the ESB, said his client maintains the trees are on Mr O'Shea's land. Mr O'Shea said he wanted time to respond to ESB and EirGrid affidavits, but Mr Dodd said an order was still required allowing the work to be carried out urgently because of the risk of fire and blackouts. Mr O'Shea also said the ESB is in breach of planning permission. The judge said the company did not need planning permission for this work and has a statutory right to cut back growth from power lines. When Mr O'Shea said 'until recently we kept them (trees) trimmed back', the judge said this was not true. Photographs were provided by the ESB to the court, and Mr O'Shea handed other photos in on Friday, but the judge said these were just photos of 'a field and hedges and telegraph poles'. [ Kildare building site closed by court order to 'reduce risk of injury, or worse' Opens in new window ] He told Mr O'Shea that if the ESB was incorrect in what it was doing, he would have a claim for compensation against it. In the meantime, the judge asked whether Mr O'Shea would consent to the injunction preventing him from interfering. Mr O'Shea said he had dealt with a particular individual in the ESB over the years in negotiations with the company and would like to do so again. Mr Dodd agreed to the judge's request to contact that individual, who now works elsewhere in the ESB, to get them involved. The judge asked Mr O'Shea if he was prepared not to interfere on the basis that negotiations would take place involving that ESB employee, with which the defendant had 'a rapport'. Mr O'Shea agreed he would. It was also agreed on the basis of the standard undertaking in injunctions from the ESB to pay damages if the injunction is invalid. The judge ordered that the negotiations take place over the next three weeks, and that Mr O'Shea remove all obstacles to the land by 4pm Friday and remove locks from a gate. He adjourned the matter to the last week of July. The court heard earlier this week that Mr O'Shea had previously interfered, in 2009, with tree trimming on land he owns and ultimately was brought before the High Court for breaching undertakings not to do so. The incident involving the overturned tractor occurred on May 6th last when workers were trying to trim trees near the 110kV Cushaling-Newbridge 110kV overhead lines.
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Irish Times
Landowner tipped over ESB tractor with driver inside to stop tree trimming, court told
A landowner, who has allegedly prevented ESB contractors from cutting down trees that could cause power cuts, overturned a tractor while its driver was inside, it was claimed in the High Court. Tom O'Shea, of Stellrose, Wheelam, Milltown, Newbridge, Co Kildare, had interfered with efforts to trim trees on land he owns in 2009. He was ultimately brought before the High Court for breaching undertakings not to do so. On May 6th this year, the ESB attended lands he owns, over which the Cushaling-Newbridge 110kV overhead lines run, to start work on cutting back growth. It was taking this action under a statutory power it has to access lands with such lines. Mr O'Shea had been notified . In a sworn statement for court, Stephen Mortimer, high voltage and cables central region project leader, said Mr O'Shea arrived later that morning and told them to leave. He said if they were not out in an hour, 'I will pull down the line', Mr Mortimer said. READ MORE He headed back in the direction of his farmyard, returned and then got into his own tracked digger. He used the digger to tip over the tractor with the driver inside, he said. Attempts to disable Mr O'Shea's digger failed when he fought back, and two injured parties backed off, Mr Mortimer said. Mr O'Shea then locked his digger and walked back towards his home. Gardaí were called and they later arrested Mr O'Shea, whose licensed firearm was seized by the Garda Armed Support Unit. The two injured parties were taken to hospital. Two further attempts were made to access the land and on the last one, on June 18th, it emerged Mr O'Shea had locked a gate into the field, blocking access. Mr Mortimer said an injunction was now required due to the defendant's persistent refusal to allow access. The works are required to ensure the health and safety of anybody on the lands and to ensure critical maintenance planned for this season can be carried out, he said. There are four lines on the land and there is a serious risk that the interference will lead to supply disruption to an extensive volume of customers, he said. Two 110kV lines serve the greater eastern and midland region and another 38kV line serves around 18,000 customers. There is a possibility thatcustomers could be left without power and there could be a severe impact on the national grid, he said. On Wednesday, Mr Justice Brian Cregan granted permission to serve proceedings on Mr O'Shea following a one-side-only represented application by Stephen Dodd SC, for the ESB. The judge said that given the urgency of the matter, it could come back before the court on Friday.
BreakingNews.ie
6 days ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Landowner tipped over ESB tractor with driver inside to stop tree trimming
A landowner, who has allegedly prevented ESB contractors from cutting down trees and other growth which could cause major blackouts, overturned a tractor using a saw with the driver inside, it was claimed in the High Court. Tom O'Shea, Stellrose, Wheelam, Milltown, Newbridge, Co Kildare, had previously, in 2009, interfered with efforts to trim trees on land he owns and ultimately was brought before the High Court for breaching undertakings not to do so. Advertisement On May 6th last, the ESB attended lands he owns, over which the Cushaling-Newbridge 110kv overhead lines run, to start work on cut back growth under a statutory power it has to access lands with such lines and after notifying Mr O'Shea. In a sworn statement for court, Stephen Mortimer, high voltage and cables central region project leader, said Mr O'Shea arrived later that morning and told them to leave. He said if they were not out in an hour, "I will pull down the line", Mr Mortimer said. He headed back in the direction of his farmyard, returned and then got into his own tracked digger and used it to tip over the tractor with the saw on its side with the driver inside, he said. Attempts to disable his digger failed when he fought back, and two injured parties backed off, Mr Mortimer said. Mr O'Shea then locked his digger and walked back towards his home. Advertisement Gardaí were called and they later arrested him with the Garda Armed Support Unit seizing his licensed firearm. The two injured parties were taken to hospital. Two further attempts were made to access the land, and on the last one, on June 18th, Mr O'Shea had locked a gate into the field, and everywhere was blocked. Mr Mortimer said an injunction was now required due to the defendant's persistent and continued refusal to allow access. The works are required to ensure the health and safety of anybody on the lands and to ensure critical maintenance planned for this season can be carried out, he said. Ireland Heir of Barne Estate 'shocked' by €50K brown envel... Read More There are four lines on the land, and there is a serious risk that the interference will lead to disruption of continuity of supply to an extensive volume of customers, he said. Advertisement Two 110kV lines serve the greater eastern and midland region, and another 38kV line which serves around 18,000 customers. There is a potential that these customers could be left without power, and there could be a severe impact on the national grid, he said. On Wednesday, Mr Justice Brian Cregan granted permission to serve proceedings on Mr O'Shea following a one side only represented application by Stephen Dodd SC, for the ESB. The judge said that, given the urgency of the matter, it could come back before the court on Friday.
