Maman Poulet

Pat Kenny much like his colleague Ryan Tubridy is really uncomfortable talking about lesbian and gay issues, never mind those of gender identity. However this unease does not stop his brain working overtime.

This morning while discussing Peter Robinson’s statement on his wife’s affair, Pat speculated that some aggrieved gay person was out to get Iris for her remarks on homosexuality and hence why the story was broken. Himself and Eamon Mallie then went on to talk about the hatred for Iris from gays and others. Cough, her own ire for us  didn’t get much of a look in. Lovely woman seemingly if very unpopular everywhere.

I’m still laughing here at the thoughts of a gay man being so conniving – you give the gays far too much credit Pat? And of course it’s a convenient air time filler while you and everyone else wait for the Spotlight programme to go ahead. It wasn’t a gay man that Iris was having an affair with, and allegedly getting people to give money to was it?

Update:

11.15 Pat returns to ‘the gays’ and Iris and interiews Samuel Marr about his documentary, Mise an tUafás, trying to interview Iris Robinson about her comments about homosexuality. Pat wonders if ‘the gays’ are ‘too touchy’ on the subject.

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The Irish Echo is speculating that President Obama is going to visit Ireland in May en route to or from a meeting in Madrid. Susan Falvella-Garraty does not seem to have any confirmation or firm lead but she has been looking at Obama’s travel plans for the year. And she’s been to a party!

US Ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney has done the reccy to the Obama roots in Offaly before Christmas. Before this the ambassador had visited the grave of Obama’s third great grand uncle in Kilkenny.

So with this diary digging and a wink from Michelle Obama at a recent holiday party during her husband’s delight in discussing his Irish Roots, the Irish Echo believes we’re going to get a visit.

The president clearly revels in discussions on the subject of his Irish heritage. First Lady, Michelle Obama, didn’t say anything about the visit during the White House exchange, but did offer a nod of the head and prolonged wink as the President affirmed his intention to visit what is one of his ancestral homelands.

And they say those online speculate and don’t back up their sources or is it really all in the body language?

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RTE have this afternoon announced a new member of the Prime Time team to replace Mark Little who left the programme before Christmas and is on a year’s leave of absence from RTE.

Journalist and broadcaster Richard Crowley is joining RTÉ Prime Time as a presenter, starting on Thursday 14^th January. He will continue to work on the News programme This Week (on Sundays at 1.00pm on RTÉ Radio 1) which he has presented and edited since last June.

A very interesting choice by RTE. Richard is a great radio journalist and has extensive experience reporting from the Middle East and was a former presenter on Morning Ireland.

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The Slovakian authorities used one to send a message to Dublin that one of their test packages of explosives had not been picked up during their security test and had arrived in the city in the luggage of the poor electrician coming home from his holiers. I only remember ever seeing a telex machine once before, in a solicitors, in 1989. I’m sure many people have never seen one before and don’t know how it works.

Anyone care to share their telex memories?

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Recordings of the advertisements I mentioned earlier this week featuring former Ms. World Rosanna Davison are going up on youtube and one has been sent to me.  Happy Sunday!

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Over the past week or so former Ms World winner Rosanna Davison has been bizarrely selling the wares of Supreme Master Television on advertisements running on TV3 and 3E. (Supreme Master Television is available on Sky Channel 595)

The channel is all about learning healthy lifestyles and saving the word we are told by Rosanna who has a load of vegetables in front of her. (Things hard up in model land or are we seeing a Ickeism?)

Supreme Master Television is not merely cooking tips for the veggie inspired. According to their blurb

SUPREME MASTER TV is a free-to-air satellite channel broadcasting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a variety of engaging programs in English with over 40 languages and subtitles. Being the ideal television channel that brings to your life Nobility and Spirituality. Broadcasting on 14 satellites platforms across the globe.

This leads us to the Supreme Master herself Ching Hai

We will search high and low for a little love. For a little love to share with all beings in all corners of the world. Supreme Master Ching Hai, as she has affectionately become known to those who have had the pleasure to meet or work with her, leaves a message that walks the way of love. A renowned humanitarian, artist and spiritual visionary, her love and assistance has extended beyond all cultural and racial boundaries.

to millions of people around the world, including the needy and homeless, institutions of medical research on AIDS and cancer, war veterans of the United States of America, the disadvantaged elderly, the physically and mentally handicapped, refugees and victims of natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and fires.

Through these works, we witness countless reminders of compassion, which is the trademark of this caring lady, and the international foundation that has grown out of her love and loving example.

Ching Hai (Wikipedia entry) comes with form – and I assume Rosanna’s agent did a bit of research before she agreed to doing the advertisement.

Ching Hai herself is no stranger to headlines. In 1997, President Bill Clinton returned a $640,000 donation from Ching Hai as part of his “Asian money” scandal. And in 2004, authorities in Florida shut down an artificial island she was building illegally in Biscayne National Park.

[Cult Analyst] Ross says Ching Hai’s followers have made her a multimillionaire, but the source of that wealth is unclear. Much of it comes from her merchandise, he says. She also dispenses large donations during international disasters, which Ross says builds her legitimacy and keeps money flowing in.

This brings me to the thing that got me interested in the first place – Section 10(3) of the Radio Television Act 1988 which states “No advertisement shall be broadcast which is directed towards any religious or political end or which has any relation to an industrial dispute.” If they banned the Trocaire and Veritas television advertisements one has to ask how this one got through! I’m not the only person thinking that this is a cult operation.

Here’s Ching talking about Divine Power & Breatharianism in a seminar broadcast on the channel.

So let’s see what the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland have to say – if anyone has a video of Rosanna’s advertisement I would be eternally grateful. I know that she’s not mentioning religion, devotion or otherwise but is she selling a veggie food ruse for this crowd’s operations?

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Poll topping Fine Gael TD from Listowel Jimmy Deenihan has finally broken his silence on the Listowel sex assault case.

Today’s Irish Times reports Mr. Deenihan saying ‘Listowel was not the kind of town that would allow a woman to be ostracised.’

“Listowel is a caring, compassionate town. This girl will not be ostracised. She will get every support possible,” he said.

Pity he didn’t say something last week or over the weekend. It took local councillors a few days before they said anything and now it’s to defend the ‘good name of the town’ with a nod to the survivor but some would say it’s not a big nod as there are votes to be minded.

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I’ve shouted at the radio a lot today and been absolutely horrified at what I heard from Kerry, sometime mid-morning I knew it was time to find something positive to do.  So I suggested that if anyone had a bit of spare money that they usually give to a group at this time of year that they do something special with it.

It’s 26 years since the Kerry Babies case where a woman was shunned by her community and treated appallingly by Gardai, 16 years since Lavinia Kerwick was not believed and indeed people thought her attacker who was set free was found innocent but he was guilty, 15 years since another case in Kerry Mark Coughlan details on Irish Election and again in 2009 when a man sexually assaults a woman and is convicted it feels like being back at square one due to her appalling treatment by those living around her

When Joanne Hayes was going through the tribunals and horrific questioning in the 1980’s women all over Ireland got the money together to buy her flowers and roses appeared from everywhere. I’m suggesting you send money to the Kerry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre so that they can continue to help other women, sit in court rooms, listen to them and provide counselling.  I spoke to their staff today and although they don’t have an online way of donating they do have bank account details on their website and you can also send cheques. They and the survivor in this case have had a great amount of support today and I hope it continues.

So many other groups supporting women, men and children at risk in lots of ways are closing down this month throughout the country. We have to show Danny Foley and those that support him and those like him who think they can get away with it.  Most importantly we have to show the women who report sexual assaults and rapes that reporting them is important and that they will be supported.

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Ahoy there me hearties, someone is charging the Seychelles government and their Irish protectors with financial piracy.

A lawsuit filed in New York this week raises some interest if only to indicate where Irish Gardai go when the pension levy hits.

Dr. George Xiao today filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking to recover $8.5 million that he alleges the Republic of Seychelles illegally seized from his solar energy company in 2008. The complaint also seeks over $30 million in consequential damages. The Seychelles Government has offered no credible explanation or formal justification for its seizure of the assets deposited in the Barclays Bank branch in Seychelles and refuses to return the money.

Named in the lawsuit are three members of the Seychelles Financial Investigation Unit who Dr. Xiao claims

has subcontracted its operations to three Irish nationals, Barry Galvin, Liam Hogan, and Declan Barber, each of whom is named individually as a defendant. According to the complaint, Galvin and Hogan are former members of the Irish national police force and secret police. According to the complaint, these rogue subcontractors have no background in banking or financial matters and reportedly receive substantial commissions based on the amount of funds they seize.

The complaint further alleges that Hogan and Barber have committed perjury and have brazenly and routinely ignored court orders. “Anyone who has been convicted of a crime in Ireland on the strength of their testimony should consider petitioning the court for a new trial,” Weiner said.

Well I’m wondering about the claim that the three have no background in financial matters firstly never mind the assertion from Xiao’s lawyer that criminals in Ireland might get ready to challenge their convictions!!

Barry Galvin is former head of the Criminal Assets Bureau and solicitor (not a Garda!), Liam Hogan, Fomer Garda Superintendent (and used to policing in Palestine), and Declan Barber (no idea if he was a Garda from my initial research) are the men running the Financial watchdogs based in the sunshine. Barber also acts as Honorary Consul for Ireland. I did note that several other former senior Garda have been training the Seychelles police force this year. There is a lot of resentment between them and the local coppers it seems, the wages for the former Irish Gardai far outstrip the natives and their policing tactics have been a little unpopular.

The background to the law suit as per Dr. Xiao’s PR company is

In December 2008, Dr. Xiao sought to establish a bank account for his company at Barclays Bank in Seychelles in order to receive wire transfers from a client in Asia. According to the complaint filed today, Barclays repeatedly delayed opening the account and failed to provide the necessary account documents and information. It turned out that at the same time, Barclays was working with the FIU to plan the seizure of the funds.

When the account was finally opened, Barclays and Seychelles officials immediately seized the assets. Neither Barclays nor the FIU has ever provided Dr. Xiao with a copy of FIU’s formal justification for seizing the company’s assets. The complaint also alleges that Barclays and Seychelles officials in 2009 engaged in a fraudulent scheme to seize additional deposits made by Dr. Xiao’s company.

So there you go – watch this space or not depending on the nature of the trial if it ever gets there. Ireland’s gangland criminals now know where the lads who took the money off them/banged them up are living if they didn’t know already.

Update:

It seems quite a few Irish bloggers and journalists were contacted yesterday about Dr. Xiao and the Irish ex gardai. See Dearbhail McDonald’s piece in the Irish Independent today  for more pieces of the missing jigsaw.

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If you are a regular reader you know the drill by now – The Donegal News arrives in the house and  I get bits read out to me and eventually I go ‘WHAT?!’

This weeks ‘gem’  in the court reports is on page 30 of last Friday’s edition.

Footage of street row ‘disappeared ‘ from phone.

A District judge dismissed the public order charges against a Letterkenny resident upon hearing that video evidence filmed by the defendant had disappeared from his movile phone while in garda custody.

Edidjus Morkuna (27) …who represented himself was charged with threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour in a public place, failing to comply with a direction given by a member of the Garda Siochana and wilful obstruction.

The defendant was arrested after coming across Gardai arresting other members sof the Lithuanian community in Letterkenny last month.

‘There is a small community of Lithuanians here in the town and we know each other well., so when we saw some of friends on Main Street after leaving Sister Sara’s, we went over to say hello.

I then saw that one of our Lithuanian friends was being arrested so I decided to film the arrest with my mobile phone just in case it would be needed as evidence.

I was told to ‘get the f*** out of here with your mobile phone’, they then grabbed and handcuffed me and put me into the Garda van.

As I was sitting in the van, I heard someone walking past and I asked if they could loosen the handcuffs as they were really hurting me. I was told to ‘f*** off’ and ’shut up’.

‘The Gardai then took me to the station where I told them that I had chest pain and my wrists were sore and I asked them for a doctor.

I also asked them where my phone was, it was not mentioned in the custody record. When I was released they told me ‘You can go and see a doctor now’ and as I went outside a Garda came out of the darkness and gave me back my mobile phone.

The footage I had filmed was no longer on it. It I was guilty  of the offences I am charged with the footage would have shown it.’ said Morkunas.

Garda O’ Mahony told the court he ‘believed’ the defendant was filming, upon being questioned by the judge who said ‘You took an oath to tell the whole truth, why did you not mention this before?’.

The Garda then replied that he ‘was not aware’ if Morkunas had been filming or not and that it wasn’t the offence that he had been arrested for.

Judge Kilrane again asked Garda O’Mahony why he had not told him that the defendant had been filming the his evidence. The Garda said he had ‘no reason’. Dismissing the case, Judge Kilrane said he expects ‘the whole truth’ and not parts to be ‘left out’.

Is this stuff happening everywhere in the country regularly? Am I wrong to be surprised reading it?

The story below this on page 30 was about someone who ‘Tried to frustrate Garda procedure by wetting himself’.  I’ll leave that one alone.

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