Freezing, knock-kneed and shivering in a tartan pleated skirt. A withering bunch of shamrock attached by safety pin to the only green jumper I owned, still damp from its overnight submersion and the splash of holy water from early mass. A grey, damp day, squashed up against a cold metal barrier since early morning, to 'get a good spot', a red line for my father.
The latest Register of Interests of Members of Dáil Éireann shows that the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine owns 28 properties and pieces of land. Of these properties, 17 were some type of accommodation for rent.
A Government minister claimed a hunger strike 'would not do any harm' to one of the campaigners who sought an apology from the State over institutional abuse, a TD has claimed in the Dáil. The minister allegedly made the remark after meeting the hunger strikers and was overheard by one of those fasting in protest at their unfair treatment.
SNA allocations fiasco has put the spotlight on Hildegarde Naughton once again The Government got an awful shock last week. Ministers suddenly discovered their policies were being taken seriously. There they were thinking their job was just to go around announcing hypothetical proposals and then letting them drift away in the hope the public would forget about the issue in time.
'Old age,' Bette Davis once said, 'is not for wimps.' There's nothing wimpy about the formidable team of Terry Prone (77) and Fergus Finlay (75). The communications doyenne and the former Barnados CEO are about to launch Grey Matters, a new podcast which is billed as 'a long overdue conversation about ageing'.
I was absolutely delighted to welcome Uachtarán na hÉireann Catherine Connolly to Belfast today. She's here for a packed visit over the next couple of days, many community events. It was my honour as First Minister to welcome her to Stormont Castle. She is very much fulfilling her pledge that she made to be a president for all, to make her first official visit to the north. It was just great to have her here today. I believe that her whole campaign was about hope, about opportunity. It was about inclusion, it was about unity, it was about building for the future, and I think that we are going to enjoy a very good relationship with her throughout her tenure as Uachtarán na hÉireann.
At yesterday's monthly council meeting, elected representatives passed a motion calling his assertion "baseless" and accusing him of attempting to "scapegoat and demonise migrants" for the housing crisis. Introducing the motion, Labour councillor Darragh Moriarty said the Tánaiste was conflating the issues of housing, homelessness and immigration, and had presided over a housing crisis for the last decade and a half. "[Simon Harris] has never met a problem that he won't blame on someone else, and now he's pointing the finger at migrants. It's disgraceful," he said.
I suppose every part of me, I wasn't well, I was physically drained, I had lost loads of weight, I wasn't sleeping, and it crept up on me very quickly. I'd had some kind of virally things, but didn't think they were significant until I was hit with this. I suppose it was like a bolt from the blue, where I was knocked sideways and couldn't keep going.
