Latest from Irish Examiner
Irish Examiner
18 minutes ago
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Letters to the Editor: Ireland does not need a president
As the country faces another costly presidential election, one wonders if we need a president and can we afford to sustain what is largely a ceremonial office. For me, the answer is an emphatic no. The Constitution expressly vests executive authority in the democratically-elected government. The non-executive presidency is weighed down by protocols and formalities which are irrelevant in a modern republic grappling with very serious housing, health, criminal, and international issues. The president holds office for an inordinately long seven years, and can be elected for a second term. Unlike a general or local election, it's almost impossible for an ordinary Irish citizen to contest this election, as a nomination requires the support of at least 20 members of the Oireachtas or at least four local authorities. In addition to expense-free living in the opulent, 92-room Áras an Uachtaráin, the president is entitled to an annual salary of €332,070, nearly seven times the average working salary of €47,967. Presidential staff and ceremonial functions, at home and abroad, cost the taxpayer at least €5m per annum. Some very fine people, including the present incumbent, have held the office but, in my opinion, the position is now unsustainable and the money spent in electing and maintaining a president of Ireland, a nominal and virtually powerless figurehead, is urgently needed elsewhere. Billy Ryle, Tralee, Co Kerry Ban will just move smoking problem elsewhere It was with surprise that l learned of the suggestion by Cork county councillors to prohibit smoking and vaping in local authority amenity areas. 'The response of the local authority has been to ignore the enforcement of its own litter bylaws or general waste-management legislation.' Stock picture: Nicholas T Ansell/PA The proposed rule will at best simply move the problem elsewhere or, as I believe to be the case from experience, lead to another bylaw going on the statute book of the local authority that will not be enforced. As one who for many years has regularly gone on litter patrol, I can confirm that over 60% of all items dropped on our streets are cigarette or vaping related, yet the response of the local authority has been to ignore the enforcement of its own litter bylaws or general waste-management legislation. My appeals over the years for the provision of cigarette receptacles outside all local authority and State agency buildings falling on deaf ears, this is apart from my advocacy of local authorities rolling out a pilot scheme where, on request, cigarette receptacles would be provided to ratepayers. Until the mindset of the local authority changes in relation to litter and waste management enforcement, no amount of new legislation will have the desired effect Tadhg O'Donovan, Fermoy, Cork What's your view on this issue? You can tell us here Mayo County GAA Board should apologise The choice of language used by the Mayo County GAA Board in sacking its management team was disgusting. Exactly what might be expected of the owners of a an English Premier League club when sacking a manager; and indeed, even then not always so. Gaelic Football is an amateur sport. An amateur sport that is now garnished with the worst aspects of corporate professionalism and elitism. Major fixtures behind pay walls. Highly paid officials. Corporate boxes. Exorbitant ticket prices. All totally based on the efforts of unpaid amateur players. Jarlath Burns needs to have a chat with his full-time permanent officials. Pundits speak of managers losing the dressing room. If GAA HQ is not careful, it may well lose a lot more than that. Mayo is a proud GAA county. An apology should come from HQ. And an assurance that county management teams will be treated with respect in future. After an opening phrase that a manager 'has been relieved of his duties with immediate effect' undermines whatever weasel words may follow. Larry Dunne, Rosslare Harbour, Co Wexford Profit of doom I notice that crude oil prices fell 7% on the open market, as reported recently in the Irish Examiner, in the wake of war breaking out between Israel and Iran. I also noticed that petrol and diesel prices went up at the forecourt pumps by almost the same amount at the same time. Let it not be said there's no opportunistic money to be made during a war. Nick Folley, Carrigaline, Cork What's your view on this issue? You can tell us here Progress on speech and language therapy After reading the article 'Speech and language, occupational therapies to start in 45 special schools in September' (Irish Examiner, June 19), I screamed out loud, 'Hallelujah!'. It is about time! For the last several years I have been reading disturbing articles on the websites of various Irish newspapers telling of the long waiting lists for children to receive speech and language therapy. I applaud the Department of Education for finally addressing the issue and moving in the right direction. Stammering is one of the primary speech issues that affects children. Parents should know that there are great resources available on the websites of the Irish Stammering Association and Stamma (formerly the British Stammering Association). Also, the website of the Stuttering Foundation provides many free resources, such as e-books and streaming videos. Colm Ruane, Bronx, New York Putting words on the plight of Palestinians A lot of investment and effort is put into the production of TV shows and pop videos but I believe very little talent and imagination is being put into conveying the present extremely serious plight of the people of Gaza. A video should be produced which plays the voices of actors speaking repeatedly and with feeling some of the moving lines from Shakespeare to the background of the horrific scenes of destruction and death which are being broadcast daily from Gaza. Along with episodes of silence, the already recorded heartbreaking words and cries of the Gazan people themselves should also be included in this new video in an attempt to convey just a fraction of the pain and sorrow of their tragic situation. Some such appropriate lines from Shakespeare which could be included in this video might be 'drown the stage with tears' and 'there's matter in these sighs, in these profound heaves'. Also 'they are cruel tears' along with 'if you prick us, do we not bleed?' and on and on. Perhaps a few newly-written and appropriately matching lines could also be spoken to describe the plight of the people in Gaza. Sean O'Brien, Kilrush, Co Clare What's your view on this issue? You can tell us here Affordable homes are key to preventing crime I commend the Irish Examiner in doing a three-day series on crime in Cork. This investigation found that almost a quarter of the jail sentences handed down in Cork over the past five years were to homeless people. Theft, assault, public order, or drug offences were the most mentioned, with men accounting for 87% of all the jail terms. As a Cork man, it breaks my heart to learn of these statistics. As a clinician, I have found that people who live on the streets often face a cruel choice — living rough in the cold or spending time behind bars. Sadly, we see that the numbers trapped in sleeping rough have again risen. This is why more social homes are desperately needed. It's hard to quantify the extent to which homelessness has contributed to chronic and mental poor health. There is no question in my mind that homelessness and poor mental health are inextricably linked. Homelessness is harmful, as pretty much everyone instinctively knows. It's my contention that charities on their own cannot solve this imbroglio. This is why it's incumbent on the Government to put pressure on developers and landlords. Homeless people sometimes have other problems too, but what the vast preponderance of these poor souls need more than anything else is an affordable house to live in. I find the following words which were once uttered by the late Mother Teresa to be apposite to the above: 'We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our homes to remedy this poverty.' John O'Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary Read More Irish Examiner view: Ireland needs immigrants to help address our labour shortage
Irish Examiner
18 minutes ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Munster's Tom Ahern eyes Ireland debut amid injury setbacks
Anyone who has watched the progress of Tom Ahern's rugby career will have emitted another sigh at Friday's Ireland squad update ahead of next Saturday's Test against Georgia. The Munster lock/flanker's efforts to make his Ireland debut have been repeatedly stymied by injury over the last two years and the latest news that the reason Connacht's Josh Murphy had joined Paul O'Connell's squad prior to Wednesday's departure for Tbilisi was to provide cover for Ahern's tight hamstring suggested a similar fate may befall the Waterford man's latest bid for Test recognition. The 25-year-old has not been ruled out and may well earn his first international cap over the next two Saturdays with Ireland set to face Portugal in Lisbon on July 12. Ahern has been nothing if not resilient in the past and spoke of his national squad travails earlier this week when he faced the media in camp at the IRFU High Performance Centre in Abbottstown. Named by head coach Andy Farrell as one of three uncapped training panellists alongside provincial team-mate Oli Jager and a certain Sam Prendergast ahead of the 2024 Six Nations, he was concussed against Northampton Saints in the match prior to entering camp. Then, a little more than four months after a string of strong performances for Munster had placed him in the frame for a spot in the summer touring squad to face the Springboks in South Africa, an ankle/lower leg injury against Ulster in the final round of the URC regular season scuppered his hopes of boarding the plane. 'Look, it's happened a couple of times now and obviously initially you're very disappointed but it's the nature of the game. You've got to pick yourself back up,' Ahern said. 'I've got a good support system around me and I'm going to move past that eventually and focus on the next job and try to eventually get back up here again.' Ahern did just that and is aiming to embrace his latest opportunity in the national camp. 'I'm buzzing to be honest. I've been unlucky with a couple of injuries but that's the nature of the game to be fair. 'I'm just taking these next couple of weeks in my stride and just delighted to be up here. 'I think the overall feeling is excitement. First, I'm excited to be up here and I think likewise with everybody else. A lot of lads getting their first opportunities up here and there's a great buzz around the place.' Ahern's candidacy for a place in the matchday 23 to face the Georgians remains strong and Munster's strong if ultimately disappointing end to the season has sent its 10-player contingent, led by tour captain Craig Casey, into camp in confident mood. Two big wins in their final URC league encounters secured Champions Cup rugby for next season and booked a return to play-offs, where the Sharks edged them out at the quarter-final stage in a goal-kicking shootout after the tie had finished 24-24 after extra time. 'It obviously didn't end the way that we wanted it, it's a tough way to go out but we were playing good rugby towards the end of the season and a lot of the lads that are up here were playing good ball as well,' Ahern said. 'So, we can take the confidence from everybody individually playing well and so hopefully we can bring it up here now.' With good fortune, that tight hamstring will not stand in his way, and if anyone deserved a slice of that, it is Ahern.
Irish Examiner
18 minutes ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Western Force v British and Irish Lions: Five issues for the opening tour match
Cohesion After a less-than-fluid performance in defeat to Argentina at Dublin's Aviva Stadium last week, Andy Farrell will demand his tourists hit the ground running on Aussie soil this Saturday morning. A record contingent of eight starters from Ireland, led by captain Dan Sheehan, and with three more on the bench, should ensure a greater understanding than was seen eight days earlier from the more diverse selection which faced the Pumas. There is also an important Scottish midfield connection at 10 and 12 with chief playmaker Finn Russell at fly-half and Sione Tuipulotu at inside centre while there should be more fluency out wide with Garry Ringrose at outside centre to create opportunities for his compatriots James Lowe and Mack Hansen on the wings. Passes will need to stick for Farrell to judge this a step forward. Lineout One of the major letdowns for the Lions against Argentina was a misfiring lineout and head coach Farrell has given himself more potential variety in the set-piece menu by moving away from an all-groundhog back to row of three natural opensides with the switch of Tadhg Beirne from lock to blindside flanker. With Ollie Chessum a similar threat as a lock/flanker and Jack Conan both on the bench, the Lions can also spring some quality jumping operators for Sheehan to aim at while an extra week on the training field should also bring connectedness in the complex machine that is a Test lineout. It will be needed against a Western Force forward pack with a reputation for having one of Super Rugby's best defensive lineouts while they led the competition this season in terms of success on their own ball (88.6%). Wallaby lock Darcy Swain is missing regular partner and club skipper Jeremy Williams, kept back by the Australians, but is partnered in the second row by former Ulster and Wallaby player Sam Carter as they go up against Joe McCarthy and Scott Cummings. Youth and Experience Northampton Saints wonderkid Henry Pollock did not have the easiest of introductions off the Lions bench against Argentina but the 20-year-old with one England cap has been handed a start at No.8 alongside Ireland flankers Beirne and Josh van Flier. It caps a remarkable rise to prominence for a player who started the Six Nations for England Under-20s against the Irish in Cork on January 30. At the other end of the spectrum, tighthead prop Tadgh Furlong and full-back Elliot Daly embark on their third Lions tours having both played in all three Tests against both New Zealand in 2017 and South Africa four years ago. Englishman Daly enhanced his Test credentials for 2025 with a strong performance off the bench against Argentina while Furlong came on tour having had his season ruined by calf injuries. Yet coming on for fellow Irishman Finlay Bealham in Dublin eight days ago represented a major step forward in the tighthead's readiness for action and he passed a late HIA to earn his start against the Western Force. Old or young, this trio will be worthy of the focus on them in Perth. Finn Russell After watching from the stands in Dublin six days on from steering Bath to the English Premiership title, the Scotland fly-half gets his opportunity to stamp his authority on a Lions tour and lay claim to the Test number 10 jersey. Russell needs to bring that feel-good factor from his Twickenham tour de force onto the field in Perth and get his backline humming. He has a livewire scrum-half in Tomos Williams to feed off and a familiar foil on his outside in international team-mate Tuipulotu while the previous knocks against him in terms of a tendency for flakiness appear to be a distant memory. Russell has the chance to confirm that opinion at Optus Stadium this morning. The Wallaby factor After a week of back and forth between the Lions and Australia boss Joe Schmidt about participation agreements and the release of international players from the host nation back to their Super Rugby franchises, Western Force will have six current national squad members in their ranks to face the tourists, including their chirpy matchday captain and scrum-half Nic White. Their presence should ensure a feisty start to the tour as they look to lay down some markers ahead of the three-Test series with the Wallabies beginning in Brisbane in three weeks.
Irish Examiner
28 minutes ago
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Stylish Waterfall home at Earls Well hits market for €1.2m — could set estate price record
LOCAL lore has it that a well or spring in Waterfall was a regular pitstop for some historical notable to water his horses, perhaps while conducting the business of running a vast estate. Some of the speculation centres on the Earl of Bandon, as he may have passed through Waterfall on the road home. The theory works in favour of the original Gaelic name for Waterfall, Tobar an Iarla, or Well of the Earl. While the days of earls are long gone this side of the Irish Sea, Waterfall still has an upmarket sheen. Traditionally favoured by academics and medics, it's on the right side of Cork City for accessing major hospitals and third-level education facilities. Bishopstown is reachable in minutes, yet Waterfall feels distinctly rural. Twenty-first century developments continue to cement Waterfall's aura of fashionability. 11 Earls Well In the early noughties, Fleming Construction launched Heatherfield, a scheme of large, detached homes on the city side of Waterfall village, where dozens queued to view the showhouse in Celtic Tiger times. Reports were that some of the Heatherfield units sold for €1m a pop. They've never quite returned to those glory days, says the price register, albeit No 35 made €820,000 two years ago, and No 38, currently on the market with Frank V Murphy, is rumoured to be sale agreed at €1.15m. 38 Heatherfield is rumoured to be sale agreed in excess of €1m Heatherfield was a talking point in Waterfall until Fleming Construction unveiled plans for an even more ambitious scheme of 42 homes right next door to it, to be built on 30 acres bought from local publicans, the O'Shea family. That estate was Earls Well and it would be built to standards few estates could match. The first five homes lived up to the billing: Detached, O'Mahony Pike designed five-beds, the biggest was just shy of 4,000 sq ft. Unfortunately for the builder, the timing was disastrous and nothing sold as the downturn took hold. Flemings went into liquidation in 2010, one of the first major construction casualties of the collapse, with debts of a staggering €1bn. NAMA entered the frame during the post-crash mop-up and Townmore Construction took on the build work in late 2016. Another dozen homes were delivered — including No 11, featured here — before receivers for the Fleming group sold off the remaining land with full planning permission for 28 homes, which O'Callaghan Properties bought and finished out. The entire estate is now finally completed, fully landscaped, and all homes occupied. no 11 Earls Well To date, resales have been few and far between. Number 11's arrival to market should, therefore, excite interest among homeowners looking for a quality family trade-up within shouting distance of the city's western suburbs. Bought by the current owners in 2018, you could scarcely tell it's been lived in, so good is its condition. Although smaller than the original five in the scheme, it's still a very generous 237 sq m, and layout and light levels make it feel even bigger. Generous hallway at No 11 No 11, towards the back of the development — which is arranged in cul-de-sac clusters, around greens — was sold with a builder's finish for €603,300 in 2018. Its owners hired an interior designer to get it right inside. Warm, amtico, herringbone-style flooring runs throughout the ground floor, where heating is underfloor; bespoke wall panelling is a prominent feature; impressive 'media walls' in the family room and in the kitchen/dining/living room are the product of skilled joinery. Family room with built in media wall As the owner knows a thing or two about kitchens, the one at No 11 looks pretty good. Hand-painted, in-frame, with a large island, quartz worktop, and Belfast sink with insinkerator (garbage disposal), it also comes with a wine fridge and AGA electric range cooker. Bigger household appliances are in the adjoining utility. The island can sit three comfortably, and there's room for a few more at the dining table in the centre of the open-plan area, where a picture window overlooks the farmer's field next door. 'You get cows peeping in from time to time; it's great to have that when you are so close to the city, too,' the owner says. The open-plan area also accommodates an attractive lounge space, where glazing covers the entire back wall, overlooking the terrifically generous rear garden. A sliding door leads outside. The house is designed to capitalise on its rear aspect. It faces south west and big windows dominate its rear walls. Wraparound glazing is a feature of both the main, open-plan area and also the family room, where the second of three sets of sliding door leads to the large, sandstone patio. Family room The third sliding door is in the study, which has bespoke wall panelling, plantation shutters, and specially-built joinery for storing files and watching television. Generous bedrooms are a theme on the Ducon concrete, slabbed first floor; the main has both a walk-in closet and a quality en suite. All have plantation shutters and there's a second en suite. A floored attic runs the length of the house and there's also a garage for storage. Study The family aspect to No 11 continues outdoors where the rear is laid to lawn — plenty space for swings/slides/trampoline — while the front drive 'can accommodate 10-15 cars', says the owner. Plenty space for outdoor toys Because the houses at Earls Well are all on large sites — No 11 is on 0.4a — there's no sense of being overlooked. Mature hedging and electronic gates reinforce that sense of privacy, not to mention security for the children. The current owners are relocating for family reasons and Norma Healy, of Sherry FitzGerald, is handling the sale. She says 2,550 sq ft No 11 is 'the quintessential, modern family home', ready to go, with a best-in-class, A-3 energy rating. 'What's more, it's just minutes from Bishopstown and Ballinora national school is just half a mile down the road,' the agent says. Her price for this spacious, stylish home is €1.2m. If it makes the money, it will set a record for the estate. Two larger Earls Well units have already breached €1m, but both were bigger. However, neither was fully finished. VERDICT: The complete package for a family trading up who want to be a stone's throw from Bishopstown.
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Billionaire Jeff Bezos marries Lauren Sanchez in lavish Venice ceremony
The sky itself is no limit for billionaire Jeff Bezos and fiancee Lauren Sanchez, who have travelled into space, and expectations were about as high ahead of their wedding in Venice on Friday. One of the world's most enchanting cities as a backdrop? Check. Star-studded guest list and tabloid buzz? Of course. Local flavour? You bet. And then, time to tie the knot. The couple held their wedding ceremony Friday night, and Sanchez posted to Instagram a photo of herself beaming in a white gown as she stood alongside a tuxedo-clad Bezos, the world's fourth-richest man. It was the second day of events spread across the Italian lagoon city, which added complexity to what would have been a massive logistical undertaking even on dry land. Dozens of private jets had flocked to Venice's airport, and yachts pulled into the city's famed waterways. Athletes, celebrities, influencers and business leaders converged to revel in extravagance that was as much a testament to the couple's love as to their extraordinary wealth. The heady hoopla recalled the 2014 wedding in Venice of actor George Clooney to human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin, when adoring crowds lined the canals and hundreds of well-wishers gathered outside City Hall. Not so for these nuptials, which became a lightning rod for small, colourful protests. But any desire to dampen the prevailing fever pitch hadn't materialised as of Friday. Instead, the glitterati were partying and the paparazzi were jostling for glimpses of the gilded gala. On Friday afternoon, Sanchez emerged from her hotel wearing a silk scarf on her head and blew a kiss to journalists before stepping into her water taxi. It carried her through the canals to San Giorgio island, across the lagoon basin from St Mark's Square, where the couple held their ceremony on Friday night. Bezos followed two hours later. Then, in a string of water taxis, came their illustrious guests — Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian, Ivanka Trump, Tom Brady, Bill Gates, Queen Rania of Jordan, Leonardo DiCaprio and more. Kim and Khloe Kardashian leave a hotel ahead of the wedding celebrations of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez (Luigi Costantini/AP) Paparazzi trailed on their own boats, trying to capture them all on camera. There are some who say these two shouldn't have been married in this city. They characterise the wedding as a decadent display of wealth in a world with growing inequality, and argue it's a shining example of tourism taking precedence over residents' needs, particularly affordable housing and essential services. Venice is also one of the cities most vulnerable to rising sea levels from climate change. Stella Faye, a researcher at a university in Venice, said: 'Venice is not just a pretty picture, a pretty postcard to please the needs and wants of the elite or of mass tourists, but it is an alive city, made of people who want to actually live there.' About a dozen Venetian organisations — including housing advocates, anti-cruise ship campaigners and university groups — are protesting under the banner 'No Space for Bezos,' a play on words referring to his space exploration company Blue Origin and the bride's recent space flight. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump attended the wedding (Antonio Calanni/AP) Greenpeace unfurled a banner in St Mark's Square denouncing Bezos for paying insufficient taxes. Activists floated a bald-headed Bezos-inspired mannequin down Venice's Grand Canal atop an Amazon delivery box, its hands clenching fake cash. Authorities — from Venice's mayor to the nation's tourism minister — have dismissed the outcry, saying it ignores the visibility and economic boost the wedding has brought. 'There will be photos everywhere, social media will go wild over the bride's dress, over the ceremony,' Italy's tourism minister, Daniela Santanche, told the AP. 'All of this translates into a massive free publicity campaign. In fact, because they will spend a lot of money, they will enrich Venice — our shopkeepers, artisans, restaurateurs and hotels. So it's a great opportunity both for spending and for promoting Italy in the world.' As Amazon's chief executive, Bezos usually avoided the limelight, frequently delegating announcements and business updates to his executives. Today, he has a net worth of 234 billion dollars, according to Forbes. Protests included a mannequin, resembling Jeff Bezos, being floated in a canal in Venice (Click News via AP) In 2019, he announced he was divorcing his first wife, MacKenzie Scott, just before the National Enquirer published a story about an affair with Sanchez, a former TV news anchor. Sanchez filed for divorce the day after Bezos's divorce was finalised. He stepped down as chief executive of Amazon in 2021, saying he wished to spend more time on side projects, including Blue Origin; The Washington Post, which he owns; and his philanthropic initiatives. Sitting beside Sanchez during an interview with CNN in 2022, he announced plans to give away the majority of his wealth during his lifetime. Last week, a Venetian environmental research association issued a statement saying Bezos's Earth Fund was supporting its work with an 'important donation'. Corila, which seeks protection of the Venetian lagoon system, said contact began in April, well before any protests.
