Patrick James

1,250+ signatures!
A big thank you to all who signed. Last week, the signatures were sent by email to Pádraig Ó Ceidigh, owner of Foinse, Brian Cowen, Éamon Ó Cúiv and Foras na Gaeilge, followed by hard copies in the post. I decided to leave the petition open for another while, so that the aforementioned can see the 1,250+ signatures, as well as the continuous support coming in. Apparently, Pádraig Ó Ceidigh himself wanted to bring the paper to an end at the Friday meeting and that the money from Foras na Gaeilge wasn’t enough, even though they wanted to give him more. I still don’t know what’s going with Foinse’s future. It appears that help is coming from Údarás na Gaeilge, says Concubhar Ó Liatháin iGaeilge and according to TG4, (Thursday evening news) Youtube but it’s not clear yet. We will have to wait.

1,250+ síniú!

Go raibh mile maith agaibh as bhur sínithe. An tseachtain seo caite, seoladh ceithre ríomhphost leis na sínithe go dtí  úinéar Foinse, Pádraig Ó Ceidigh, Brian Cowen, Éamon Ó Cúiv agus Foras na Gaeilge, agus cópieanan crua ina dhiadh sa phost. Bheartaigh mé an t-iarratas a fhágáil oscailte ar fheadh tamaill eile, go dtí go mbeidh na daoine réamhráite ábalta iad a fheiceáil mar aon leis an tacaíocht leanúnach a bhfuil ag teacht isteach. De réir dealraimh ba é Pádraig Ó Ceidigh féin a bhí ag iarraidh an nuachtán a chur chun deireadh ag an crinniú dé hAoine agus nach raibh an t-airgead ó Fhoras na Gaeilge go leor, cé go raibh siad ag iarraidh níos mó a thabhairt dó. Mar sin, níl a fhios agam cad atá ar siúl fós maidir le todhchaí Foinse. Is amhlaidh go bhfuil cabhair ag teacht ó Údarás na Gaeilge, a deir Concubhar Ó Liatháin iGaeilge agus de réir a TG4 (nuacht trathnóna Déaradaoin)Youtube ach níl sé go soiléar fós. Caithfimidh fanacht.

It has come to my attention today that the Irish language weekly newspaper Foinse may only be in publication for two more editions – on the 21^st and the 28^th of this month, due to a lack of funding. Some of you may remember my post last year on the future of Lá Nua, the daily Irish language newspaper from Belfast, which sadly has since ceased to exist, again due to a lack of funding. Slowly and little by little, the support for Irish language is being destroyed by this incompetent government, but the problem is that while we hear about the “popular” news items regarding their destructive touch, issues such as the Irish language are sidelined and fail to make front news headlines.

While many of us have mixed feelings about the Irish language, we need to put aside our negative associations and realise that the termination of Ireland’s ONLY remaining Irish language newspaper has a knock-on effect for all of us, whether we speak the language or not. It affects our culture, out national pride and our identity and we should not allow that to be destroyed at the hands of an incompetent bunch of idiots – it is not theirs to ransack and destroy, no more than they have the right to build a major road practically next to the Hill of Tara. We have to ask – if this present government thinks nothing of destroying milestones of our culture, be it national newspapers or heritage sites – WHAT IS NEXT? Clearly, absolutely nothing is sacred to them – except their pensions, perhaps!

Our culture was around long before these imbeciles were and will exist long after they cease. Hopefully our language will do so too, but I don’t share the optimism of others out there in this regard. Without support our language will dwindle into oblivion forever!

SIGN THE PETITION TO SAVE FOINSE

Ireland has trouble enough, dealing with its share of the global credit crunch, but in good auld timely fashion there are always those who would come along to drag us further down into the quagmire. I have always been very proud of Ireland and our heritage and carried a heartfelt joy at being Irish, but lately I am finding it hard to hold my head up.

Following the recent renewed spate of violence in the North of Ireland I feel ashamed.

These murderous traitors to the Irish way-of-life, do not represent me as an Irish person nor do they reflect my views. Do these people, who are doing these terrible things, not think that Ireland has enough problems and sadness to worry about with the recession, without pilling more heartache on top of the Country’s concerns?

It’s time that it was realised that the Irish people no longer want violence… that Ireland can sort out it’s differences by other means and that these terrorists no longer represent Ireland nor will they be allowed to be the voice of it’s people!

So we all know what’s going on in the world with economics and who wants to mention the dreaded R-word again !It’s not enough either that everyone is feeling hard-done-by and World leaders have quite nicely managed to cough things up rightly but it seems to me that Ireland has been done over twice by it’s government…

Not so long ago, all the Irish could hear on the radio and read in the newspapers was THE CELTIC TIGER… The economy was booming and the under-lying message was spend, spend, spend… all was wonderful in our bright green wonderland. So good times come and bad times come and after all that is the way of things. We had our moment in the sun and this is our darker hour, so maybe no one should be all that surprised… and that line of thought might be alright if that was what had happened.

THE TRUTH IS: Our economic prosperity was only for the few, like some sort of elitist joke. Certainly, no one I ever met really benefitted from the so-called Tiger! I know I didn’t catch a glimpse of it or even get a sniff of it on someone else! Neither did we have our cake… nor are we ever likely to eat it!

Have a look at this extract from Blackoutireland.com Blog regarding today’s important launch of Blackoutireland.com

First, if you have no idea what is going on, you NEED to check out two places. Firstly, BlackOutIreland.com, which should hopefully be online tomorrow. This site, run by somebody with MUCH more free time then me (Ben McRedmond – He will be much more active with this then I will, due to my huge lack of free time with exams, and his over abundance of free time) will soon contain the best source of information on the blackout. Secondly my previous blog post which might answer some of your questions.

Other interesting sites on topic:

Whatithink

#blackoutirl 

Blacknight Blog

Fundamental Rights

Personal Rights (Part 2)

4 1° No citizen shall be deprived of his personal liberty save in accordance with law.

2° Upon complaint being made by or on behalf of any person to the High Court or any judge thereof alleging that such person is being unlawfully detained, the High Court and any and every judge thereof to whom such complaint is made shall forthwith enquire into the said complaint and may order the person in whose custody such person is detained to produce the body of such person before the High Court on a named day and to certify in writing the grounds of his detention, and the High Court shall, upon the body of such person being produced before that Court and after giving the person in whose custody he is detained an opportunity of justifying the detention, order the release of such person from such detention unless satisfied that he is being detained in accordance with the law.

3° Where the body of a person alleged to be unlawfully detained is produced before the High Court in pursuance of an order in that behalf made under this section and that Court is satisfied that such person is being detained in accordance with a law but that such law to the Supreme Court by way of case stated and may, at the time of such reference or at any time thereafter, allow the said person to be at liberty on such bail and subject to such conditions as the High Court shall fix until the Supreme Court has determined the question so referred to it.

4° The High Court before which the body of a person alleged to be unlawfully detained is to be produced in pursuance of an order in that behalf made under this section shall, if the President of the High Court or, if he is not available, the senior judge of that Court who is available so directs in respect of any particular case, consist of three judges and shall, in every other case, consist of one judge only.

5 ° Nothing in this section, however, shall be invoked to prohibit, control, or interfere with any act of the Defence Forces during the existence of a state of war or armed rebellion.

6° Provision may be made by law for the refusal of bail by a court to a person charged with a serious offence where it is reasonably considered necessary to prevent the commission of a serious offence by that person.

Following a recent conversation it dawned on me that maybe, we as people have a tendency to take the Irish Constitution for granted… I mean this is the fundamental law, of the land we live in! Hence, I decided to read the Constitution again with an older mind set than that of the young Irish person who did years ago… What struck me most was what an incredible work the Irish Constitution really is… It was truly before its time. Not with in the stifling language of the law, but in the language of every day people it is a literary work we should be proud of… and aware of its implications for our society today. With this in mind I have decided to post regular “bite-sized” extracts from the founding document… and start with its relevance to the person and their fundamental rights.

Fundamental Rights

Personal Rights (Part 1)

Article 40

1. All citizens shall, as human persons, be held equal before the law.

This shall not be held to mean that the State in its enactments have due regard to differences of capacity , physical and moral, and of social function.

2. 1° Titles of nobility shall not be conferred by the State.

2° No title of nobility or of any honour may be accepted by any citizen except with the prior approval of the government.

3. 1° The State guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate the personal rights of the citizens.

2° The State shall, in particular, by its laws protect as best it may from unjust attack and, in the case of injustice done, vindicate the life, person, good name, and property of every citizen.

3° The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.

This subsection does not limit freedom to travel between the State and another state.

This subsection shall not limit freedom to obtain or make available, in the State, subject to such conditions as may be laid down by law, information relating to services lawfully available in another state.