Latest news with #Tynan
BBC News
4 days ago
- BBC News
Katie Simpson: New charity 'a legacy' to murdered young showjumper
The family of a young showjumper whose death led to a policing controversy say a new charitable trust in her name will help other Simpson, 21, died six days after being admitted to Altnagelvin Hospital in August Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) initially treated her death as suicide, but her family raised questions about the direction of the original police probe and the case was eventually upgraded to a murder investigation.A showjumping trainer, Jonathan Creswell, 36, died in 2024 while on trial for the murder of Ms Simpson, who was from the village of Tynan in County Armagh. On Friday, some members of her family attended the official launch of The Katie aunt, Paula Mullan, told BBC News NI that she hopes the charity will help other families."This charity is going to help so much and so many people, that they don't feel alone and that they're being answered, their questions to be answered."Another aunt, Colleen McConville said: "The very sad thing is it's happening too often. "This charity will help straight away from the onset, not down the line, which is harder to be investigated, so it will give families direct and quick answers." The Katie Trust has been founded by James Brannigan, a retired PSNI Detective Sergeant who led the murder investigation, with the support of Katie Simpson's relatives."This Trust is here to listen, when so many have not. It is here to ask the hard questions, when others will not," Mr Brannigan said. "And above all, it is here to stand beside families, not in opposition to law enforcement, but in service of justice and truth."In January 2025, the justice minister announced she was setting up an independent review into the case of Jonathan had been jailed for six months in 2010 after pleading guilty to assaulting a girlfriend. Katie Simpson never regained consciousness following the incident at a house in Gortnessy Meadows, Lettershandoney, in August the first and only day of his trial for murder, it was alleged that Creswell strangled her and tried to cover it up by claiming she had hanged who had denied the murder and rape of Ms Simpson, was found dead at his home shortly before he was due to attend the second day of his trial in April previous day, during opening submissions in front of a jury, a prosecution lawyer outlined how Creswell allegedly raped, strangled and killed Ms prosecution had also outlined how Creswell had previous "illicit" sexual relations with Ms Simpson and attacked her after discovering she was in a relationship with another younger Simpson lived with Creswell and his partner Christina, who was her sister, at the time of her had been described as an abusive and controlling women avoided jail last year after admitting offences connected to her Robinson, Rose De Montmorency-Wright, and Hayley Robb were given suspended prison sentences.
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Lovesick woman who helped her 'psychopath' ex cover up the rape and murder of his 21-year-old sister-in-law breaks down in tears as she reveals her regret
A woman who was sentenced for her part in covering up the murder of a 21-year-old jockey for the sake of her lover has spoken out for the first time since the young woman's death. Jill Robinson, 43, took the bloodied clothes of her lover Jonathan Creswell to a launderette after he had beaten, raped and murdered his young showjumper sister-in-law after having an affair with her. It was assumed for six months that Katie Simpson, found with a rope around her neck at home in the village of Tynan in Northern Ireland, had died by suicide. But unexplained bruises and cuts on her body, including on her inner thigh, and her 'swollen and bruised' hands eroded that theory - although the case was stifled for half a year before an investigation was finally opened. After brutally attacking and killing Katie, Creswell was able to cover his tracks with the help of three women - including Jill, who was 'infatuated' with him. Speaking for the first time in a new Sky documentary about Katie's tragic death, Robinson breaks down in tears as she reveals how she was manipulated by Creswell. 'You don't understand how they get into your head and just sort of take over your life,' she sobs. 'Every day I ask myself, "Why did I do that, why did I wash them?" A lot of people don't understand the way he was, that you didn't question anything. 'You blame yourself so much, how you got yourself involved in something that led to such catastrophic results.' Robinson, killer Creswell and victim Katie all ran in the same close-knit equestrian circles. Katie was the horse-mad baby sister of Christina Simpson, who was married to Jonathan Creswell. They were also close with groom Hayley Robb and teenage British equestrian star called Rose de Montmorency-Wright; who also helped Creswell cover up his horrific crimes. Speaking in the trailer, Robinson describes the group's 'wild' life working together, hanging out together and 'living the horsey dream'. Creswell, 36, was a charming and deeply manipulative jockey-turned-trainer who was adored at the local stable yard in Derry. On August 3, 2020, a distraught Creswell called police and told them he had desperately tried to save the life of Katie, Christina's younger sister, after finding her hanging from a bannister. Weeping, he spun a tale in which he had cut her down and administered CPR. But it later emerged that Katie - lively, talented and sociable - had not taken her own life but had been brutally murdered by Creswell in a fit of jealousy. Despite obvious holes in Creswell's cover-up story, it was months before police properly investigated the suspicious death. Finally, in March, 2021, Creswell was arrested and charged with Katie's rape and murder. Creswell was not only engaged in multiple sexual relationships with other women – including Katie herself – but three women had lied to try to cover up for him. One of them, Rose de Montmorency-Wright, 22, had lived with Katie, Creswell and Christina, and had helped carry Katie's coffin at her funeral. The others were Robinson and Hayley Robb, those friends of Katie's who'd lived out their 'horsey dream' by her side. All three women later pleaded guilty to offences ranging from perverting the course of justice to withholding information, and received suspended sentences. But Creswell never faced justice, because at 9am on April 24, 2024, one day after the prosecution had outlined their case at his trial, his body was found at his home. Creswell was a talented young jockey six years Robinson's junior and her first love. It was an 'all-consuming' passion, she said, even though his phone quickly started ringing with other women at the end of the line. 'The first time I thought he was with someone else it was like complete devastation, like someone had taken out your heart and crushed it like an Easter egg. But he talked his way out of it,' she says. Creswell routinely inflicted slaps, punches and hair-pulling on Robinson, but that was nothing compared to the mental cruelty he was capable of. Creswell had a way to 'make you feel that small, completely destroy your self-confidence', Robinson previously recalled. Their relationship ended in 2008 when she went to Australia. After a six-month stint in prison following his abuse of talented dressage rider Abi Lyle, Creswell quickly began a relationship with Christina, with whom he went on to have two children. What no one knew is that he was simultaneously grooming her little sister Katie, who was just nine when she first met him. 'He controlled and coerced Katie since she was a child,' Detective Sergeant James Brannigan, the officer instrumental in bringing Creswell to justice, told a court hearing. No one knows when his relationship with Katie became sexual, although some locals noticed that the bubbly young horsewoman seemed terrified of Creswell hearing suggestions that she might get a boyfriend. 'Don't go saying anything like that in front of Johnny,' a family friend, Chris Faloon, recalls Katie pleading with him after he suggested another showjumper might be keen on her. Nonetheless, a few weeks before she died, Katie had embarked on a relationship with a showjumper called Shane McCloskey, who is not named in the documentary but was identified by the Mail last year. The extent of her fear of Creswell was exposed in a frantic exchange of messages with McCloskey, in which she begged him to lie about the fact they had spent the previous night together if Creswell got in touch. 'He'll kill me,' she wrote. A day later, an outwardly devastated Creswell rang the ambulance service to say he had returned from dropping off his children at his mother's house to find Katie hanging from the banister of the family home. He insisted on attempting to take her directly to Altnagelvin Hospital in his car to avoid paramedics visiting the house. 'No one was more distraught,' recalls Robinson. Not everyone was convinced by Creswell's story, however. Some nurses raised concerns over bruises on Katie's body. Her injuries were 'shocking' says DS Brannigan. 'Her hands were like boxing gloves, they were that swollen and bruised. There were marks on her legs, on her inner thigh, there was a massive bruise on her shoulder, a small cut to her lip and bruises on her arms.' Katie's friends – Jill and Hayley – claimed she'd fallen from a horse the day before, but Brannigan was not convinced. Nonetheless, when Katie died six days later, having never recovered consciousness, the narrative that she had taken her own life had been set in stone. Local police seemed uninterested in investigating. Tanya Fowles, a journalist who knew Katie and had suspicions that all was not right, recalls a Derry police officer accusing her of being a 'curtain twitcher' when she rang to alert them to Creswell's previous convictions for violence. DS Brannigan, who worked in County Armagh but had been contacted by Fowles to see if he could help, recalls how he was similarly stonewalled, with Derry detectives telling him Katie had tried to take her own life twice. As he later discovered, they had mistakenly logged two suicide 'attempts' – the first when she arrived in hospital and the second when she died from her injuries. It would take six months of dogged work by Brannigan and Fowles for Derry police to finally open an investigation. When previously unexamined internal swabs taken during the post mortem came back showing Creswell's semen, detectives had enough to arrest him. Even then, Creswell tried to bluster his way out of it, announcing he'd been in a relationship with Katie since she was 17 and that they'd had sex several times the night before she'd gone to hospital. His arrogance would also be his undoing, however. Later in the interview, he drew a diagram showing how he'd found Katie. 'He said she was "kissing the wood" meaning her head was facing the inside banister,' Brannigan recalls. Yet when the detective revisited the scene he discovered that the strap with which Katie had purportedly hung herself was not long enough to do this. On March 6, 2021, Creswell was charged with Katie's murder – the first of what would prove to be several criminal charges in relation to her death. In the weeks that followed, astonished detectives uncovered CCTV footage showing Hayley Robb following Creswell's car home from hospital before entering his home then leaving with a bag and placing it in the boot of her own vehicle. She subsequently admitted that as Katie lay dying, she and Robinson had taken Creswell's clothes to a launderette. Robb had also cleaned up traces of blood in the house. Rose de Montmorency-Wright, who had platonically shared a double bed with Katie for a while, was subsequently arrested in England and brought back to Northern Ireland for questioning. Brannigan says: 'She admitted to us "Yeah. He told me he'd beaten Katie". And I said "Why didn't you tell us?" 'She said she believed Katie had taken her own life and didn't believe it was relevant. I pushed her on it, but she asked to speak to a solicitor and when she came back she wouldn't say anything.' She subsequently pleaded guilty to withholding information, and received an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. Robinson received a 16-month suspended sentence for perverting the course of justice, and Robb two years, suspended for two years, for withholding information and perverting the course of justice. Katie's sister Christina, whom police also believed was subject to coercive control by Creswell, was not prosecuted. Loyal to the end, Jill Robinson, who visited Creswell in prison when he was on remand, confides that she felt she had 'let Johnny down' by telling the truth. It subsequently emerged he was facing a catalogue of allegations from more than a dozen other women, among them a teenage girl who had spoken to police about being abused by Creswell.
Daily Mail
11-07-2025
- Daily Mail
The equestrian trio who covered for a killer: Beautiful, young Katie was raped and murdered by her sister's jockey boyfriend, then betrayed by 'friends'... now one confesses her shame
In the tight-knit equestrian community circles in which they mixed, Jill Robinson and her friends worked hard and played hard. 'We were wild enough all right,' she recalls. 'A lot of it can be like a Jilly Cooper novel. We worked together, hung out together, living the horsey dream.' Among those living that dream were a clutch of young women: Christina and Katie Simpson, horse-mad sisters from the village of Tynan in Northern Ireland, groomer Hayley Robb, and a teenage British equestrian star called Rose de Montmorency-Wright. Then there was Christina's partner Jonathan Creswell, a charismatic 36-year-old jockey-turned-trainer who walked through the local stable yard in Derry with all the swagger of a celebrity. Creswell charmed everyone he met, and if anybody suspected that his wide smile and knowing strut masked a profoundly sinister side, then they said nothing. Indeed to many, Creswell was a hero, especially when they learned that on August 3, 2020, he had tried frantically to save the life of Katie Simpson, the 21-year-old younger sister of his partner Christina, after finding her hanging from a banister. As a weeping Creswell told police, he had managed to cut her down and administer CPR. But Katie, a bubbly, fearless and talented showjumper, hadn't taken her own life: she had been raped, beaten and strangled by Creswell in a jealous rage. It would take months before police properly investigated and finally, in March 2021, Creswell was arrested and charged with her rape and murder. But this was not the only startling development in this deeply troubling case, as the Mail revealed when the full story was laid bare last year. For it swiftly emerged that Creswell was not only engaged in multiple sexual relationships with other women – including Katie herself – but three women had lied to try to cover up for him. One of them, Rose de Montmorency-Wright, 22, had lived with Katie, Creswell and Christina, and had helped carry Katie's coffin at her funeral. The others were Jill Robinson and Hayley Robb, those friends of Katie's who'd lived out their 'horsey dream' by her side. All three women later pleaded guilty to offences ranging from perverting the course of justice to withholding information, and received suspended sentences. Yet Creswell never faced justice, because at 9am on April 24, 2024, one day after the prosecution had outlined their case at his trial, his body was found at his home. Now a compelling three-part Sky documentary has gained unparallelled access to Katie's friends and family, revealing new details about the case and unravelling Creswell's history of violence and lies. Among those speaking for the first time is 43-year-old Jill Robinson, who discloses her infatuation with Creswell and remorse over her decision to take his bloodied clothes to a launderette in the wake of Katie's murder. Among those speaking for the first time is 43-year-old Jill Robinson, who discloses her infatuation with Creswell and remorse over her decision to take his bloodied clothes to a launderette in the wake of Katie's murder. 'Every day I ask myself, 'Why did I do that, why did I wash them?' A lot of people don't understand the way he was, that you didn't question anything. You blame yourself so much, how you got yourself involved in something that led to such catastrophic results.' Creswell was a handsome, talented young jockey six years her junior and Robinson's first love. It was an 'all-consuming' passion, she says, even though his phone quickly started ringing with other girls at the end of the line. 'The first time I thought he was with someone else it was like complete devastation, like someone had taken out your heart and crushed it like an Easter egg. But he talked his way out of it,' she says. Just as he did about the slaps, punches and hair-pulling he routinely inflicted on her. But that was nothing compared to the mental cruelty he was capable of. Creswell had a way to 'make you feel that small, completely destroy your self-confidence', Robinson recalls. Their relationship ended in 2008 when she went to Australia. Within a couple of months Creswell got together with a 23-year-old called Abi Lyle after meeting her at an equestrian event in Belfast. A successful Olympian who competed for Ireland in Paris last year, Abi, now 40, speaks for the first time in the documentary about the devastating violence inflicted on her by Creswell during their nine-month relationship. She weeps as she recalls being taken to woodland where Creswell kicked, punched and strangled her, threatening to dump her body as she fought to stay alive, aware of the devastating grief that would engulf her parents, who had lost her brother three years earlier. 'I was thinking, 'Don't let him kill you because your parents have already lost a child and they can't lose another one',' she sobs. Like so many domestic violence victims, Abi blamed herself for Creswell's rages, and initially refused to co-operate with Nuala Lappin, a police officer her desperately worried father sent to her doorstep. Only when Creswell threatened to dump her in a bath of bleach – which could end her riding career – did Abi pluck up the courage to leave. 'There was one thing I would always want more than him and that was horses,' she recalls. She escaped and used a pay phone to call Nuala for help. Creswell was subsequently charged with a series of offences, among them false imprisonment, kidnapping and threats to kill, all of which he denied. 'Johnny's version of events was that he was Abi's saviour, that she was mentally unstable and that she would sit in the car and punch herself in the face,' says Nuala, recalling how he also tried to flirt with her and another female officer as they questioned him. Finally, Creswell pleaded guilty to common assault and ABH and was jailed for six months. But he emerged to a hero's welcome, greeted by a party attended by 30 friends, most of whom believed that Abi had made up her story to try to get compensation. 'Basically, he just picked up where he left off,' says Abi. Indeed he did, with Creswell quickly embarking on a relationship with Christina Simpson, one of six siblings from Tynan with whom he went on to have two children. What no one knew is that he was simultaneously grooming her younger sister, Katie, who was just nine when she first met him. 'He controlled and coerced Katie since she was a child,' Detective Sergeant James Brannigan, the officer instrumental in bringing Creswell to justice, told a court hearing. No one knows when his relationship with Katie became sexual, although some locals noticed that the bubbly young horsewoman seemed terrified of Creswell hearing suggestions that she might get a boyfriend. 'Don't go saying anything like that in front of Johnny,' a family friend, Chris Faloon, recalls Katie pleading with him after he suggested another showjumper might be keen on her. Nonetheless, a few weeks before she died, Katie had embarked on a relationship with a showjumper called Shane McCloskey. The extent of her fear of Creswell was exposed in a frantic exchange of messages with McCloskey, in which she begged him to lie about the fact they had spent the previous night together if Creswell got in touch. 'He'll kill me,' she wrote. It proved a tragic premonition as, 24 hours later, an outwardly devastated Creswell rang the ambulance service to say he had returned from dropping off his children at his mother's house to find Katie hanging from the banister of the family home. He insisted on taking her directly to Altnagelvin Hospital in his car to avoid paramedics visiting the house. He played the devastated brother-in-law to perfection, shellshocked and weeping at Katie's bedside. 'No one was more distraught,' recalls Robinson. Not everyone was convinced by Creswell's story, however. Some nurses raised concerns over bruises on Katie's body. Her injuries were 'shocking' says DS Brannigan. 'Her hands were like boxing gloves, they were that swollen and bruised. There were marks on her legs, on her inner thigh, there was a massive bruise on her shoulder, a small cut to her lip and bruises on her arms.' Katie's friends – Jill and Hayley – claimed she'd fallen from a horse the day before, but Brannigan was not convinced. Indeed, Katie had not fallen – this story had been put about by Creswell in a bid to cover his tracks. Nonetheless, when Katie died six days later, having never recovered consciousness, the narrative that she had taken her own life had been set in stone. Certainly, local police seemed uninterested in investigating. Tanya Fowles, a journalist who knew Katie and had suspicions that all was not right, recalls a Derry police officer accusing her of being a 'curtain twitcher' when she rang to alert them to Creswell's previous convictions for violence. DS Brannigan, who worked in County Armagh but had been contacted by Fowles to see if he could help, recalls how he was similarly stonewalled, with Derry detectives telling him Katie had tried to take her own life twice. As he later discovered, they had mistakenly logged two suicide 'attempts' – the first when she arrived in hospital and the second when she died from her injuries. It would take six months of dogged work by Brannigan – and questions from Katie's relatives – for Derry police to finally open an investigation. When previously unexamined internal swabs taken during the post mortem came back showing Creswell's semen, detectives had enough to arrest him. Even then, Creswell tried to bluster his way out of it, announcing he'd been in a relationship with Katie since she was 17 and that they'd had sex several times the night before she'd gone to hospital. His arrogance would also be his undoing, however. Later in the interview, he drew a diagram showing how he'd found Katie. 'He said she was 'kissing the wood' meaning her head was facing the inside banister,' Brannigan recalls. Yet when the detective revisited the scene he discovered that the strap with which Katie had purportedly hung herself was not long enough to do this. It was a 'Eureka moment' says Brannigan. 'We could see Katie did not die the way.' On March 6 2021, Creswell was charged with Katie's murder – the first of what would prove to be several criminal charges in relation to her death. In the weeks that followed, astonished detectives uncovered CCTV footage showing Hayley Robb following Creswell's car home from hospital before entering his home then leaving with a bag and placing it in the boot of her own vehicle. She subsequently admitted that as Katie lay dying, she and Robinson had taken Creswell's clothes to a launderette. Robb had also cleaned up traces of blood in the house. Rose de Montmorency-Wright, who had platonically shared a double bed with Katie for a while, was subsequently arrested in England and brought back to Northern Ireland for questioning. Brannigan says: 'She admitted to us 'Yeah. He told me he'd beaten Katie'. And I said 'Why didn't you tell us?' She said she believed Katie had taken her own life and didn't believe it was relevant. I pushed her on it, but she asked to speak to a solicitor and when she came back she wouldn't say anything.' She subsequently pleaded guilty to withholding information, and received an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. Robinson received a 16-month suspended sentence for perverting the course of justice, and Robb two years, suspended for two years, for withholding information and perverting the course of justice. Katie's sister Christina, whom police also believed was subject to coercive control by Creswell, was not prosecuted. Loyal to the end, Jill Robinson, who visited Creswell in prison when he was on remand, confides that she felt she had 'let Johnny down' by telling the truth. It subsequently emerged he was facing a catalogue of allegations from more than a dozen other women, among them a teenage girl who had spoken to police about being abused by Creswell. What will never be revealed is why, as Abi Lyle puts it, Creswell had such a 'deep-seated hatred for women'. 'Where it came from I don't know, and I don't want to know' she says. 'But we were all bad, we were all whores, we were all the same. But in the end he was more scared of us than we were of him.'
National Observer
03-07-2025
- Health
- National Observer
Four years after the heat dome, does BC need an extreme heat czar?
At least 619 people died in the heat dome that broiled British Columbia four years ago. Most were seniors, and most died alone in their homes. Paramedics were pushed to the brink — there weren't enough ambulances to save those in need — as the most deadly environmental disaster in Canadian history unfolded. Four years later, there is widespread recognition from municipalities, the provincial and federal governments that protecting people from extreme heat is crucial as climate change makes heat waves more common and severe. But while steps have been taken, plenty of work remains, and some experts say it's time to recognize the right to cool. 'We are in a much better place than we were at this time in 2021,' said Sarah Henderson, scientific director of environmental health services with the BC Centre of Disease Control and professor at UBC's School of Population and Public Health. 'That doesn't mean that we're as far as we need to go.' Henderson said the province has taken coordinated and effective planning decisions around extreme heat, including identifying conditions under which to issue heat alerts or declaring extreme heat emergencies, and has put 'a real emphasis on the risks around indoor temperatures.' The next major extreme heat planning step, she said, is coordinating across sectors like agriculture, transportation, utilities and, of course, health. Dying from a brutal, oppressive heat is a terrifying death. When temperatures become dangerously high, blood vessels dilate to redirect blood flow from the body's core to the periphery to cool. But this can lead to not enough blood flowing to vital organs, which then begin to fail. Extreme, prolonged heat can also cause cell death, causing damage to vital organs like the heart, increasing the risk of cardiac arrest. One medical study found 27 different ways extreme heat can lead to death, offering 'a worrisome glimpse into what a warming planet may have in store for us.' 'These aren't random misfortunes, they are evidence of what scientists have been talking about for decades. The climate is changing,' said Sarah Henderson, scientific director of environmental health services with the BC Centre of Disease Control. Katia Tynan, manager of resilience and disaster risk reduction with the city of Vancouver, told Canada's National Observer the city is proactively responding to extreme heat. Since the heat dome, the city has rolled out grants to 14 separate organizations, including the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society, community centres and neighbourhood houses, to respond to extreme heat. 'During crises like extreme heat, people go to the places and people they know and trust to meet their needs,' Tynan said. 'So, these organizations work very hard behind the scenes to create these heat plans.' Those organizations also conduct wellness checks on seniors, provide cooling equipment and set up informal cooling spaces in their own facilities. Tynan said the city has opened more cooling centres (40 are open today, compared to 30 in 2021), more misting stations, more water fountains, and has set up a program that has so far delivered 6,000 cooling kits to people (essentially a box holding a thermometer, spray bottle, cooling towel, gel freezer packs and information about extreme heat.) Air conditioning should be a 'standard expectation' These are policy responses to a memo to the mayor and council from the Vancouver City Planning Commission sent immediately following the heat dome, in July 2021, urging the city to 'save lives by addressing the municipal policy gaps between acknowledging the reality of the climate emergency and the policies necessary for people to survive it.' That memo said without improving the city's response to extreme heat and poor air quality, it is more likely people will die. Policy decisions that disproportionately impact disabled, racialized and poor people have meant those with the least ability to stay safe from climate change are bearing the brunt of it, it adds. City planning staff said responses would have to be tailored to the specific needs of different populations. Unhoused people need access to cooling stations. At the same time, cooling stations are not a viable solution for disabled or elderly people living at home because they should not be told to leave home to seek relief from the heat while heat alerts are warning them to stay inside, staff said. One of the most challenging areas of improvement is air conditioning. Nationally, about 61 per cent of people have air conditioning. In British Columbia, once famous for its mild weather, that rate drops to 32 per cent. 'Please remember, at one time central heating and indoor plumbing were considered luxuries only available to the wealthiest,' the Vancouver city planning memo reads. 'It is time we make maintaining high indoor air quality and energy-efficient air conditioning part of our standard expectations of housing, just as we do toilets, bathtubs and heat.' Provincial utility BC Hydro was offering free air conditioning units to lower-income people, and delivered 27,000 units in the past three years, but has exhausted its funding, the Vancouver Sun reported last month. Henderson said air conditioning could be an important part of a suite of policy options, but other steps can be taken to cool buildings. Shaded windows, installed awnings, and even painting roofs white can all help nudge temperatures down. Building codes and retrofits In an interview with Canada's National Observer, Kelly Greene, BC's minister for emergency preparedness and climate readiness, pointed to updates to building standards for new homes requiring 'at least one living space within every unit to not go over certain temperature thresholds,' she said, as well as changes to residential tenancy regulations to allow renters to install AC units. But there are limits. 'Sometimes, there are genuine issues about electrical load that can't be overcome in an older building, but barring that … you are allowed to put in a free-standing air conditioning unit,' she said. Tynan agreed access to cool, clean air in homes is important, and said Vancouver now requires new buildings to have cooling and air filtration. The city is also funding two retrofit projects: one aimed at rental buildings, the other for non-profit housing. 'The goal of these is to fully or partially electrify — so adding heat pumps and mechanical cooling electrical systems to 20 buildings in each of these pilots over the next couple of years,' she said. 'So, we are trying to address this gap around existing facilities as well, recognizing that people do need to have cooling in their homes to protect them from extreme heat.' Kendra Jewell, the University of British Columbia's Centre for Climate Justice housing research project manager, was a renter in Vancouver during the heat dome, and said while there are many short-term and targeted solutions worth pursuing, it's time to take a more systemic approach and recognize that people have a 'right to cool.' The right to cool, Jewell said, is a proposal outlined in a report published last week for policy-makers that recognizes cooling as a fundamental right rather than a privilege. 'You can't think about it as a series of isolated one-time policy fixes; it has to be a sustained political and social commitment that considers many different types of vulnerability,' Jewell said. 'One of the key findings of our research is that heat risk is systemic and intersectional.' Jewell pointed to the finding that two-thirds of the heat dome deaths were seniors, saying it's a case study on how to think about vulnerability to extreme heat. A lot of the strategies to deal with extreme heat looked at why seniors were disproportionately at risk, and would point to underlying chronic health conditions as the answer. (The BC Coroner's report of the heat dome found heat deaths were higher among people with chronic diseases and more than 60 per cent of the deaths involved individuals who had seen medical professionals within the prior month). To Jewell, that's a great evidence-based start, but it doesn't go far enough in understanding people's vulnerability. They said research indicates that looking at both physiological and social conditions is actually the most predictive of heat related risk. 'In the context of seniors, you can think about how things, like living on a fixed income or living alone, compounded that bio-medical risk,' they said. 'We can't think about age, poverty, social isolation or any other risk factor alone. 'We have to think about heat risk as systemic and intersectional, and we need our responses to be similarly multi-faceted so that they can reflect that.' Extreme heat czar Beyond the 619 people killed, the heat dome also eviscerated marine life, with an estimated billion marine animals killed along the Pacific coast. And the heat wave ushered the BC town of Lytton to its fiery end. After record-melting temperatures (49.6C) were recorded in the town, a wildfire soon swept in, reducing it to smouldering ashes. None of this would have happened if not for fossil fuel-driven climate change, found a 2022 study published in Nature Climate Change from Columbia Climate School at Columbia University. Climate scientists are clear that until global greenhouse gas emissions stabilize, extreme weather like heat waves, droughts, floods and wildfires will continue to be more common and more severe. The frequency of this extreme heat won't be evenly felt across Canada. By 2050, Ontario and Manitoba will have 1.5 times the number of days of extreme heat, while Yukon will be experiencing six times more extreme temperatures. By 2080, the average number of days above safe temperature thresholds in Canada will range from 75 to 100 days if emissions continue to climb — representing a lethal summer season. Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and the Atlantic provinces are expected to have the most 'potentially deadly hot days annually,' reports the Canadian Climate Institute. For Henderson, that's the key lesson from the heat dome. Extreme heat will happen again. It's just a matter of time. 'These aren't random misfortunes, they are evidence of what scientists have been talking about for decades. The climate is changing,' she said. 'So everything we can do to raise the bar on preparedness for next year and 10 years from now and 30 years from now, is going to pay dividends into the future.' 'One of the key things we don't have in the province right now, which we're seeing in other places, is for lack of a better word, an 'extreme heat czar,'' she said. 'We have lots of people who view this as part of their broader work, but nobody with dedicated responsibility to extreme heat.' The benefit, Henderson says, is that priorities frequently shift based on the priorities of the day. If an individual were empowered to keep extreme heat as their focus, even when other disasters, like flooding or a pandemic, occur, further change to protect lives could be driven. LNG ships Greene said because BC's government recognizes more climate change-driven extreme heat and other disasters will continue to be more common, the province is taking steps. She described an extreme heat emergency alert sent out to people through their phones, radios and televisions with information about how to stay safe; financial support to help communities open cooling centres, updating building codes for new buildings to require temperatures to not exceed certain thresholds; and providing funding for communities to plan for extreme heat through temperature mapping. But she also acknowledged that rising global emissions will mean worsening climate disasters, including droughts, floods, wildfires and landslides. 'So it is important to continue to decarbonize our economy,' she said. As the anniversary of the heat dome passes, British Columbia is witnessing another milestone: the first LNG ships to export natural gas to global markets — setting off the carbon bomb that is the Montney Play — had sailed. 'I know there is more work to do, and it's something that has to happen in tandem with protecting communities, protecting people from the effects of climate change,' Greene said. 'Realistically in the world, we're not going to be turning off fossil fuels tomorrow, there's no switch to turn off, and so this work continues to be important both in growing our clean economy and protecting communities.'
Extra.ie
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
WATCH: Zach Bryan leaves huge tip at Dublin pub
Country music star Zach Bryan left a hefty tip for bar staff at his favourite Irish pub during his time in Dublin last week. The 29-year-old played three sold-out nights at the Phoenix Park with around 180,000 fans heading to the venue across the weekend. It is understood the Oklahoma native arrived in the Irish capital on Wednesday, and the first thing he did on arrival was head to the pub! Country music star Zach Bryan left a hefty tip for bar staff at his favourite Irish pub during his time in Dublin last week. Pic: Chasing Abbey/ Instagram Noel Tynan, owner of The Celt on Dublin's Talbot Street revealed the singer came 'straight' to The Celt after arriving in Dublin for his 'wind-up party.' Speaking to the Irish Independent, Mr Tynan revealed that Zach had around 100 members of his team at the pub which also saw Offaly band Chasing Abbey pop in for a sing-song. 'Zach also got up and played a few songs himself, which was great,' the publican told the publication. View this post on Instagram A post shared by CHASING ABBEY (@chasingabbey) One staff member got talking to the singer and passed a remark about how they were working late in order to pay their college fees, spurring Zach to leave a generous tip behind the bar for staff members. Mr Tynan told the Independent he jokingly told the singer to leave a million behind when asked how much he should leave. 'He said, 'How about four grand?' And I said, 'How about 10?' – I was joking. I wasn't expecting him to leave anything,' Mr Tynan said, adding that the pair 'met in the middle' and Zach left a €6,000 tip. The 29-year-old played three sold-out nights at the Phoenix Park with around 180,000 fans heading to the venue across the weekend. Pic: GMCD 'He's a very generous fella,' the pub owner praised. On Thursday, Zach shared a picture of himself in an arm wrestling match via social media, writing 'shoutout to the Celt last night, best damn bar in Ireland.' Amongst gig attendees was RTÉ's Oliver Callan who was full of praise on Monday morning, branding it a 'stunning, amber evening.' Speaking on his RTÉ Radio 1 show on Monday morning, Oliver praised youngsters attending the gig, noting concert-goers were a 'really exceptionally well-behaved crowd.' The presenter said: 'A wave of soundness hit the Phoenix Park and it was an extraordinary atmosphere — and what an extraordinary punt that was as well; Oklahoma youngster. 'He only played the Helix in Dublin two years ago, and from there to a weekend of massive concerts in the park where the stage and the infrastructure and everything that brings you to the concert has to be built from scratch in a field. It was also a big win for the OPW, we must say, which was in need of one.'
