Greetings to you all on the feast of St. Brigid.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
With the month of January concluding here is very important information in relation to Ulster Bank. More and more people are becoming aware of the swindle and the menace of modern banking.
http://awakenlongford.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/the-con-job-continues-ulster-bank/
http://awakenlongford.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/pride-comes-before-a-fall-ulster-bank/
Thought and Action doesn’t believe in lobbying politicians and being kept on a reservation by voting ‘pro-life’ every four or five years. Fine Gael will say or do anything to get elected. It is necessary to picket the offices of these politicians, who are selling our future generation to the abortion industry.
Comment: The sexualisation of young people and boozing should always cause concern. The power house of Capitalism/Socialism/Globalism is materialism rotting out minds and morals. A cultural revolution must take place. The Capitalist age has brought about sin, decadence, destruction and immorality. Our people must return to a religious conception of life, our people must be reinvigorated with healthy values. That plasma tv has no place in the home.
The culture we live in is a culture of materialism, a culture in the grip of money. Many are living in the service of the Golden Calf. Our society must be a society centred away from the tyranny of money, centred on the family, a society built on love and truth.
The junk culture is a path away from God and a basic morality.
See article below
Liz O’ Donnell
Wednesday January 30 2013
"Don't be sick in the gutter . . . in a silly dress with no money to get a taxi home, because someone will take advantage of you. Either they'll rape you, or they'll knock you on the head, or they'll rob you. Don't look like trash, don't get drunk, don't be sick down your front, and don't break your heels and stagger about in the wrong clothes at midnight. This is bad."
IN AN interview with the 'Daily Telegraph' last week, actress Joanna Lumley of 'Absolutely Fabulous' fame gave that robust advice to young women. For her sins, she was excoriated and accused of snobbery and blaming young women for inviting rape. In fairness, coming from Patsy Stone, the notorious boozer she plays in 'Ab Fab', such admonition might seem a bit rich, but the actress makes a valid point. In her defence, Lumley claims she meant it to be "kindly" advice. I believe her and will not shoot the messenger.
Anyone who has had cause to be in Dublin city centre or urban villages around the capital and elsewhere on weekend nights will have witnessed scenes involving young women exactly as described by Lumley.
Few of us grown-ups are plaster saints when it comes to getting drunk; Irish culture has normalised heavy drinking, traditionally by men. But as the recent RTE2 TV programme 'Merlot And Me' revealed, Irish women are increasingly boozing way above our physical capacity and at levels which are downright dangerous.
So our daughters have not grown up with great role models in this regard. Nevertheless, however much on the back foot we find ourselves, we have a responsibility to warn young girls about the dangers of binge drinking and the reckless behaviour, including underage sexual activity, that it promotes.
Even self-proclaimed liberals like me are queasy about the early sexualisation of girls – the padded bras and micro mini-skirted 12 and 13-year-olds frequently to be seen tottering around suburban teenage discos looking like gangs of street walkers.
Most are not drunk, but the sight of them makes one wonder about what is going on with these girls and the junk culture they appear to be acting out.
Why are so many young girls angry to the point of needing therapy? How does one explain the growing incidence of eating disorders, teenage suicide and self-mutilation? Why do so many young girls bully others and claim to hate their loving parents?
Could it be that life has become harder, not easier, for girls despite greater equality?
In theory, young women should enjoy a confident life without limits, given protective equality legislation and increased participation in education and career opportunities.
But it's amazing how many girls can combine weekend binge drinking and the rest with high educational performance.
Adolescence has always been traumatic for boys and girls, and we all recall our own tantrums and misdemeanours. But youngsters these days navigate a very complex world. Girls are coming of age in a much more sexualised and media-saturated culture. The celebrity-obsessed TV and magazines which inform so much of their lives and conversation compete with the demands of school work.
Most teenage girls are on social media sites such as Facebook, often without adult oversight. Many parents are frustrated and unable to challenge the tyranny of their children when it comes to their access to cyberspace.
Judging by the clamour of mothers phoning radio programmes to share stories of teenage cyber abuse, self-harm and even suicide ideation of their children, parents are desperately seeking some direction.
They struggle to help their children experience the pain and pathology of adolescence. Where social media is concerned the research is relatively new, but all the signs are that cyber-bullying and addiction are real problems for teenagers.
In her bestselling book, 'Reviving Ophelia . . . Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls', which predates social media, American psychologist Dr Mary Pipher chronicles case studies and offers suggestions to parents on strategies to revive the lost "sense of self", which can be so common in adolescent girls.
In the 1960s, Betty Friedan had called this emotional and behavioural malaise "the problem with no name".
WHEN it comes to boys, and young men in particular, there is widespread dismay, but there are at last moves for effective action to deal with chronic rates of youth suicide on both sides of the Border.
How can we best protect the emotional and mental health of our young people without unduly compromising their need for independence and autonomy? More access to empathy, counselling and mental health services is vital.
But the inconvenient truth is that most Irish teenagers are seasoned drinkers before they reach their 18th birthday.
There is no denying a strong link between alcohol and the act of suicide. To make a real dent in those suicide rates, zero tolerance of under-age drinking is required by all of us.
Irish Independent
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
No to Water Charges!
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/200k-salary-for-head-of-water-agency-gets-go-ahead-221119.html
€200k salary for head of water agency gets go-ahead
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
The Government has approved a €200,000 salary for the head of the new agency to collect water charges from homeowners.
By Juno McEnroe
Political CorrespondentThe appointment of John Tierney as managing director of Irish Water was signed off on by Cabinet yesterday.
A spokeswoman for Irish Water confirmed that Mr Tierney would take up his role in April, after he steps down from his current position as the manager of Dublin City Council.
His full salary will be €200,000 per year, she said, and there would be no bonuses or allowances on top of this.
Irish Water is also currently looking to appoint four senior officials to report to the new managing director. The positions include the head of finance, assets, human resources and customer operations.
All four will report to Mr Tierney, pictured, and their positions are expected to filled in the coming weeks.
Irish Water will oversee the metering of residences throughout the country as well as the collection of water charges.
The Government is under pressure from EU lenders to introduce water charges by the beginning of 2014, however departments say no decision has been taken on when levies — based on the volume of water used — will be introduced.
Mr Tierney yesterday said he was honoured to take up the new job.
Rose Hynes, chairwoman of Bord Gáis, said she was confident Mr Tierney would do an “outstanding job”.
The appointment of Mr Tierney comes as Bord Gáis, the parent company of Irish Water, moves closer to hiring a new chief executive.
Bord Gáis are expected to fill the position in the coming weeks.
Mass opposition continues to a water charge and the property tax. Water Charges and a tax on family home must be opposed.
By Fiach Kelly Political Correspondent
Wednesday January 30 2013
HOMEOWNERS face the controversial prospect of paying for their water based on the size of their home, rather than their estimated usage.
People with bigger houses face paying a higher temporary water charge than those with smaller homes from next year.
The Irish Independent has now learnt an "assessed charge" – which will have to be paid until water meters are installed – is likely to be based on the physical size of a home, rather than the number of people in it.
Sources involved in establishing the water tax say this is because it will be "impossible to police" the number of people living in a home, and it said "it is moving the way of property type".
The charge could be as much as €400 a year, but "nobody will pay a flat rate", one source said. Information on properties – and the initial tax to be paid – could be gleaned from databases that exist from the €100 household charge and the property tax, once it has been fully established from this summer.
Irish Water, the new body set up to collect the charges, will have access to records held by the Revenue Commissioners and the Local Government Management Agency.
However, the exact cost of the assessed charge and water metering will be decided independently by the Commission for Energy Regulation.
The bailout agreement with the troika compels the Government to bring in water charges next year. But the process of installing the meters only gets under way this summer, and will not be complete for three years.
To meet the terms of the bailout, the Government will have to bring in the assessed charge – but sources say this will almost certainly be pushed back until after the local elections, not scheduled to take place until mid-2014.
"It is a matter for the Government to decide the date it will be introduced," one source said.
It is hoped as many as 500,000 meters will be installed by the summer of 2014.
The Irish Independent has also learnt a "lead-in time" for metering is being considered.
Under this proposal, being discussed in the Department of the Environment, homeowners will be able to monitor their water usage on a meter for a few months before paying the metered charge.
"That way, people could see what they'd be paying, and might be shocked by their bills," a source said.
Irish Water will also be allowed access to the Department of Social Protection records, and it is understood certain welfare recipients, as well as people with acute medical needs, will not pay the full amount of the charge.
And it is now thought apartment blocks will have one meter installed which will measure the usage of all occupants – then the charges will be divided up per apartment.
- Fiach Kelly Political Correspondent
Irish Independent
Monday, January 28, 2013
Book review via Global Research
http://www.globalresearch.ca/destroying-libya-and-world-order/5320167
Global Research, January 23, 2013
It took three decades for the United States government-spanning and working assiduously over five different presidential administrations (Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and Obama)-to overthrow and reverse the 1969 Qaddafi Revolution in order to resubjugate Libya, seize control over its oil fields, and dismantle its Jamahiriya system. This book tells the story of what happened, why it happened, and what was both wrong and illegal with what happened from the perspective of an international law professor and lawyer who tried for over three decades to stop it.
Francis Boyle provides a comprehensive history and critique of American foreign policy toward Libya from when the Reagan administration came to power in January of 1981 up to the 2011 NATO war on Libya that ultimately achieved the US goal of regime change. He deals with the repeated series of military conflicts and crises between the United States and Libya over the Gulf of Sidra and the fraudulent US claims of Libyan instigation of international terrorism during the eight years of the neoconservative Reagan administration. This book sets forth the inside story behind the Lockerbie bombing cases against the United States and the United Kingdom that he filed at the World Court for Colonel Qaddafi acting upon his advice–and the unjust resolution of those disputes. In 2011, under the guise of the UN R2P “responsibility to protect” doctrine newly-contrived to provide legal cover for Western intervention into third world countries, and override the UN Charter commitment to prevention of aggression and state sovereignty, the NATO assault led to 50,000 Libyan casualties and the complete breakdown of law and order. Boyle analyzes and debunks the doctrines of R2P and its immediate predecessor, “humanitarian intervention”, in accordance with the standard recognized criteria of international law. This book provides an excellent case study of the conduct of US foreign policy as it relates to international law. The concluding chapter explains how the US/NATO war against Libya has destabilized the Maghreb and Sahel, including the French military intervention into Mali.
Professor Francis A. Boyle is an international law expert and served as Legal Advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization and Yasser Arafat on the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence, as well as to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations from 1991 to 1993, where he drafted the Palestinian counter-offer to the now defunct Oslo Agreement. His books include “ Palestine, Palestinians and International Law” (2003), and “ The Palestinian Right of Return under International Law” (2010).
Debt Options, who held a very successful meeting in Thurles last Saturday have a new website. The link is http://www.debtoptionsireland.com/
Community Action in Ballyhea continues.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/100th-march-and-ballyhea-remains-defiant-220869.html
Monday, January 28, 2013
It began as a pebble in the shoe of the ECB, but yesterday the refuseniks of Ballyhea rang up the 100th march against the bailout, continuing a display of defiance that shows no sign of stopping.
By Noel Baker
The chill wind would shake your bones and the inky sky threw down rain and hailstones, but more than 300 protesters — some from as far away as Rathoath in Co Meath and Fenit in Co Kerry — walked the route in the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it village. The difference yesterday was the number of protesters stretched the length of the 60km/hr zone.
Led by Diarmuid O’Flynn, the protest movement that began in March 2011 is heading for its second anniversary. Yesterday’s march even attracted the attention of Al Jazeera and the message is as clear now as it was 100 Sundays ago: Ballyhea says no.
For Breda McCarthy, daughter Julie, and friend Yvonne Sugrue, it was at least their 10th appearance at Ballyhea — not bad given they live in Fenit and Ballybunion.
Julie will emigrate to Perth in Australia in July, joining her sister Deirdre who is already living there. It was a common refrain from many of the mainstays at the march: The slow loss of a younger generation to pay for the dents of others.
“It’s all connected,” Breda said. “As long as they keep paying bank debt, and even if they extend it out, it will be affecting our children.”
Breda’s sister, Mary Tobin, said the country’s shattered economy has meant different groups are left “looking for crumbs from the table”. By contrast, she feels Ballyhea is a unifier, a lightning conductor for change from the bottom up. Her three children were with her yesterday, but she said her brother and brother-in-law had already left Ireland with their families, unlikely to return.
Of the Government, she said: “History is going to judge them very harshly,” adding: “Everything achieved by this country was by the few.”
The marchers yesterday included Luke “Ming” Flanagan TD and what Mr O’Flynn called “a cross-section of society”. Watching from the sidelines was Fine Gael backbencher Peter Mathews, one of the speakers, who also included Declan Ganley at a meeting in Charleville the previous night that attracted 400.
Mr O’Flynn, the man behind the Ballyhea march and an Irish Examiner sports writer, said: “I wish it was over and we could all get our lives back. We are doing this because we have to do it.”
Cathleen Quealey, a regular at the Charleville events, agreed: “I think we have started something very special today.”
Mr O’Flynn said Irish people were being betrayed by their leaders when “we are the power”. Then, with no whopping or hollering, the march strung itself out along this stretch of the N20, people holding aloft their banners and placards, an almost silent show of defiance. After the accompanying march in Charleville, he said that Ballyhea had grown from “a little pebble in the show of the ECB” to “starting to become a real nuisance”.
Afterwards, as people thawed out in Geary’s pub, someone thanked Mr O’Flynn as they left and was told by way of a goodbye: “We’re only getting started.”
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
An excellent letter published recently in the Irish Independent newspaper. Treason is a very accurate word.
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/committing-treason-against-our-grandchildren-3364324.html
• Kicking the can down the road sounds like an amusing solution to Ireland's problems, but the reality is no joke.
The Fianna Fail/Green government committed acts of economic stupidity equivalent to treason by absolving the gambling debts of banks, builders, developers and other scoundrels, and making Irish taxpayers liable for these debts.
What the current Fine Gael/Labour Government is doing is even worse.
Instead of cancelling the crazy bank guarantees and then dealing courageously with the resulting economic crisis, it has adopted the cowardly option of just blaming the previous government and then continuing along the same crazy, unsustainable road.
Instead of marching a road of solidarity with our supposed European Union allies, it is marching down a road to Hell or to the fiscal Cliffs of Moher, doing as much damage along the way as Cromwell did a few centuries ago.
Ireland now has the highest rates of emigration and suicide since the Famine times.
Government ministers are falsely claiming that they will save billions of euro by extending the period of repayment into the distant future.
This is simpleton economics – treating the people of Ireland like simpletons hoping that they won't understand that increasing the duration of our debt repayments will greatly increase the long-term Irish debt burden.
However, the reality is even worse than this.
Our present generation of mainly older, reckless spendthrift leaders and gamblers are imposing this unjustified debt burden on our grandchildren and on to generations as yet unborn.
Surely, this is worse than treason.
Dr Edward Horgan
Castletroy, Co Limerick
The ‘Eleison Comments’ of Bishop Richard Williamson
Number CCLXXXIX (289)
26 January 2013
LIBERALISM - BLASPHEMY
Is liberalism really as horrible as it is made out to be ? This or that person is accused of being a “liberal”, yet a number of those accused vigorously deny that the label attaches to them. Who is right? Accusers or accused ? Since “liberalism” is one name for the all-embracing error of modern times, responsible for throwing souls without number into the fires of Hell, it surely deserves one more approach.
Now freedom relates either to what I am free from, i.e. some constraint or other, or it relates to what I am free for, i.e. some purpose or other. Of these two relatives of freedom, the negative freedom from constraint comes both before the positive purpose in time, but after it inimportance. It comes before in time, because if I am constrained from achieving a purpose, my achieving that purpose is out of the question. On the other hand it comes after it in importance because the value of the non-constraint will depend on the value of the purpose for which it is used. Thus holding a knife frees me from being unarmed, but if I use that freedom-from for cutting up food to eat, the freedom-from is good, but if I use it for carving up my grandmother, the freedom-from becomes murderous.
Now what liberalism does is to make the freedom-from a - or the - supreme value in itself, regardless of the freedom-for, or the good or bad purpose for which it will be used. Thus liberty or freedom-from is made independent of a good or bad purpose, independent of right and wrong. But the difference between right and wrong is an essential part of God’s creation, designed from the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden onwards for man to make his choice between Heaven and Hell. Therefore to put man’s lack of constraint in front of God’s law is to put man before God.
Being then the implicit denial of God’s moral law, of right and wrong, liberalism implicitly makes war on God, putting man’s human “right” to choose in front of God’s divine right to command. Now as Archbishop Lefebvre used to say, liberals come in 36 different varieties, by no means all of which mean to make war on God. But war on God remains the logical conclusion of liberals giving supreme value to liberty, and it is the reason why for many of them, anything goes. God and his rules having been pushed to one side, then the adoration of liberty becomes for liberals their substitute religion, a religion with no rules except their own will. Being moreover a substitute religion, it must get rid of the true religion which blocks its way, and so liberals naturally become crusaders against God’s order in all corners of his Creation: marriages free of gender, families free of children, States free of a head, life free of morals, and so on, an d so on. Such a war on God’s reality is completely insane, yet liberals, apparently so sweet to their fellow-men whom they are “liberating”, can in fact be utterly cruel to anybody who gets in the way of their crusade. It is in the logic of their substitute religion that they need observe no normal decency in trampling upon anti-liberals, who deserve no compassion.
For 20 centuries the Catholic Church condemned such insanity. Yet at Vatican II the official Church gave way to it, by for instance declaring (“Dignitatis Humanae”) that every State must protect rather its citizens’ freedom-from civil constraint in the practice of their choice of religion than their freedom-for the practice of the true religion. And now the leaders of a certain religious Society want to put it under the authority of the Vatican II Romans. For the true religion, such action is, as Archbishop Lefebvre called it, “Operation Suicide”. But then liberalism is intrinsically suicidal.
Kyrie eleison.
Last Saturday over 30,000 people attended the Vigil for Life in Dublin. Earlier today Thought and Action distributed leaflets in Galway. Fine Gael were reminded of strong opposition to intentional and direct killing of the unborn child in the womb. A leaflet highlighting opposition to the property tax was also distributed around the city.
Friday, January 25, 2013
With mass opposition to tax on the family home this article outlines that certain folk will be exempt.
The new property tax that will take effect from 1st July 2013 was rushed through the Dail before Christmas, with the debate about its many and draconian provisions cut farcically short – in the end there were about three minutes per proposed amendment allotted for debates, and it was a pantomime display of democracy in action to see a Budget announcement one day, an expert report (which had been sitting on a minister’s desk for six months) published the next day and the next day still, 70-pages of new legislation.
In the rush, you might have missed some of the detail of the new household charge. And you might not be very pleased to learn that large country piles, and perhaps a few urban manors also, will not have to pay the tax on the value of so-called “amenity land” in excess of one acre.
Take the home on Shrewsbury Road in Dublin which was associated with the Dunnes, Sean and Gayle. “Walford” was bought for €58m at the height of the boom and was placed on the market with a guide price of €15m in 2011. It is understood that it still hasn’t sold. How much is it worth for property tax purposes? Difficult to say, but the property does have 1.5 acres of grounds. What we do know is the property tax will only apply to the first acre. As for the other 0.5 acre, that won’t be taxed at all.
Now take the country manor of embattled health minister James Reilly and his wife, Dot. Loughton House – pictured here – in Offaly is said to have 150 acres of amenity land, mostly woodland and gardens. How much will the man who has recently graced Stubbs Gazette have to pay in tax on the 13-bedroom mansion and surrounding land? Difficult to say, but what we do know, is that he will only have to value the sprawling estate as if it had one measly acre of amenity land.
In the Dail this week, the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan responded to questions from the Independent Kerry TD, Michael Healy-Rae and the Sinn Fein finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty. Minister Noonan did confirm that tennis courts are regarded as structures that need to be valued, and presumably outside swimming pools will be similarly treated. But if your home has private lakes, lawns, gardens, woodland only the first acre will be taken into account for valuing your property for the property tax.
Fair?
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Some news regarding the troubled PTSB of which Jeremy Masding is Chief Executive. Communication with banks should be in writing only.
By Charlie Weston Personal Finance Editor
Friday January 18 2013
BANKS will be able to visit the homes of people in mortgage arrears unannounced under a change in the rules.
The Central Bank has relaxed its own strict code that limits the contact banks can make with people who have fallen behind with mortgage payments.
Existing rules mean that banks are not allowed to plague a borrower with constant contacts to pressure them into paying up. Banks can only make three unasked-for communications a month – either by letter, phone, visit or email.
Now the Central Bank will allow lenders who have been unable to contact a homeowner in arrears to visit their home unannounced, the Irish Independent has learned.
One of the key requirements of the change is that the visit should "represent a positive experience for the borrower", the Central Bank said of changes to the Consumer Protection Code, a rule book that banks must observe.
"While unsolicited personal visits could be difficult for some borrowers, we believe that a lender should be able to visit the home, where attempts at contact have failed and before deciding to commence legal action," the Central Bank said in an update to the Consumer Protection Code, dated January 3.
The change means such a visit would be on top of the three unasked-for contacts that are already allowed to be made by lenders each month.
Some 136,000 residential mortgage accounts are in some form of arrears.
The rule change comes as Independent TD Stephen Donnelly accused Permanent TSB of harassing an unemployed woman in arrears by telephoning her six times a day even though she has arranged to meet the bank this week.
Mr Donnelly said the Central Bank's rules limited banks to three unsolicited contacts with a customer every month.
The Wicklow and East Carlow TD claimed the woman, who is a constituent, was rung 18 times one day by an automated phone calling system.
The bank was in breach of the Consumer Protection Code and the Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears, he told 'Today With Pat Kenny' on RTE Radio. Fines of up to €25,000 per offence can be imposed if a lender is found to have contravened the code, he said.
But Permanent TSB denied yesterday it had broken the rules. The rules limited it to three successful contacts a month, but in this case it had not been able to contact the woman.
The bank said the borrower was €50,000 in arrears and claimed there had not been any contact with the bank since the summer.
Protections for those in arrears, including a ban on repossessions, do not apply to those who stop co-operating with their bank, the spokesman for Permanent TSB said.
However, the bank did admit that a meeting had been set up by the branch with the homeowner but this had not been communicated to head office, where the automated calls were coming from.
- Charlie Weston Personal Finance Editor
Irish Independent
Earlier this month, Thought and Action highlighted criminal activity against elderly people in Ireland and has proposed that people should patrol their community to protect the most vulnerable. It is advisable for homeowners to have a gun.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/brothers-who-beat-off-burglars-are-raided-again-3363467.html
TWO elderly brothers who beat off raiders with just a brush have been targeted again.
Farmers Jim and Eric Steele saw off a gang of four burglars who called to their Co Donegal home looking for cash.
The pensioners, aged 69 and 75, gave one raider a beating and chased them from their home on Main Street in Manorcunningham on Monday of last week. One of the attackers was injured and the gang fled empty-handed.
However, the brothers have revealed that they were set upon again just four days after they had seen off the first gang.
Doors on their outhouses were broken, machines were damaged and oil was stolen in the second raid.
The brothers didn't hear the break-in at the rear of their home and only discovered the damage and robbery the next morning.
Jim, the eldest brother, said he suspected that it could have been the same gang again and that he will deal with the raiders in "his own way" if they call back again.
Gang
"The first time I used a brush and gave one of them a good shot to the guts. They weren't expecting that but this is our home and we will do all we have to do to defend it.
"The next time it might not be a brush if they come in here," he warned.
Eric said they were now taking it in turns to sleep in case the gang come back.
"The guards can't be everywhere, so we have to look after ourselves and our property," he said. "We don't have anything in our house but this is our home."
Nobody has been arrested in relation to the burglary on the Steele brothers' home.
More than 20 burglaries have taken place across Donegal in recent weeks, with several elderly people hurt during some of the raids.
Seven people appeared at Letterkenny District Court this week, charged in connection with other alleged burglaries across Donegal.
All of them were released on bail to appear at future court sittings.
- Stephen Maguire
The annual turning of the sovereign seal
“https://www.facebook.com/IrelandUnitesForSovereignty
94th Anniversary of Ireland proclaiming her Independence at the first Meeting of Dail Eireann, in the Mansion House, Dublin, on January 21, 1919...
'Whereas the Irish people is by right a free people: and whereas for seven-hundred years the Irish people has never ceased to repudiate and has repeatedly protested in arms against foreign usurpation... Now therefore we, the elected representatives of the ancient Irish people in National Parliament, Assembled, do, in the name of the Irish Nation, ratify the establishment of the Irish Republic...”
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
No surprises there.
By Michael Brennan Deputy Political Editor
Wednesday January 23 2013
FORMER Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has been taking his full €150,000 a year pension since he left the Dail, after reversing his decision to give part of it back to the State.
The revelation comes as new figures released under Freedom of Information legislation show that only seven out of 116 former ministers gave up part of their pensions last year, despite the introduction of a simple system to allow them to do so.
None of the Fianna Fail ministers who presided over the economic crash gave up any part of their pensions.
Mr Ahern gifted back his entire ministerial pension of €83,000 in 2010 amid public outrage over serving politicians being able to claim the payment. And he later criticised the Department of Finance for failing to include his surrender of his pension in its annual accounts. Mr Ahern could not be contacted last night.
Speaking in 2011, he said: "Once the controversy arose I gifted back the entire pension worth €83,000-odd. I gave it up in full once there were calls to do so. But the finance report made no mention of that at all."
However, Mr Ahern had already taken steps to claim his full ministerial pension following his departure from the Dail.
The Irish Independent has learned that on the day of the general election, February 25, 2011, he contacted the Department of Finance to request the payment of his full ministerial pension from then on.
It meant that he surrendered around €14,000 in 2011 to cover the first two months of the year and then claimed €68,723 for the remainder of the year.
According to the latest figures, Mr Ahern received his full ministerial pension of €111,000 and a TD's pension of around €53,000 last year. That brought his total to €164,000, but this fell to €150,000 when the public sector pension cut was applied.
Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen receives the same €150,000 pension.
However, six former ministers did gift back their entire pension to the State last year.
They are President Michael D Higgins (€88,000), EU Commissioner Maire Geoghegan Quinn (€124,000), former Labour junior minister Eithne Fitzgerald (€17,000), former Labour Dublin MEP Proinsias De Rossa (€28,000) and current Fine Gael Dublin MEP Gay Mitchell (€4,627).
Fianna Fail Leinster MEP Liam Aylward, who receives a salary of €91,000 for his work in Brussels, said he had surrendered his ministerial pension of €10,000 last year and would be doing the same this year.
Forfeited
But he confirmed he was still accepting his TD's pension of €53,000 a year. "I paid for the TD's one. That's a different issue," he said.
Former Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave is gifting €5,000 a year from his €144,000 pension.
In total, only seven out of the 116 former ministers who are benefiting from both a TD's and minister's pension gifted back money to the State.
Mr Ahern was not the only former minister to stop gifting back part of his pension once he left the Dail.
Former Fianna Fail junior minister Frank Fahey and former Fianna Fail Education Minister Mary O'Rourke were among those who also went back on to their full ministerial pensions last year, having previously gifted the money to the State while they were in the Dail and Seanad.
Mr Fahey said he had no comment to make.
Ms O'Rourke said she had been the first former minister to give up her pension in 2009 while she was in the Dail.
She said she was now accepting her full pension because she was retired from politics.
"I forfeited well over €100,000 to the State and I feel I have given back a bit of what I got," she said.
The Department of Public Expenditure has confirmed in response to a Freedom of Information request that no other former minister gifted back any of their ministerial pension last year.
Those receiving their full ministerial and TD's pensions include former Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, former Transport Minister Noel Dempsey and former Social Welfare Minister Mary Hanafin.
All of them were part of the Fianna Fail-led Cabinet that presided over the economic collapse and the State's entry into the EU-IMF bailout programme. None of them could be contacted for comment.
- Michael Brennan Deputy Political Editor
Monday, January 21, 2013
A Holy Ghost priest, a “pure saint”, who went to his eternal reward on 21st January 1954. His writings are still read and studied today. His writings include The Mystical Body of Christ and the Reorganization of Society, Money Manipulation and Social Order, The Church and Farming, The Mystical Body of Christ in the Modern World and The Kingship of Christ and the Conversion of the Jewish Nation, The Rulers of Russia.
In these days, where an enemy is attacking Ireland and her people, may Fr Fahey intercede for us. Groups and individuals are at war with Catholicism, at war with Ireland. We have the necessary weapons to engage with these enemies.
Fr Denis Fahey (1883-1954) is an example to us all. He was a soldier of Christ and we in turn by nature of our confirmation are soldiers of Christ. We are the Church militant.
Fr Denis Fahey, pray for us.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Awaken Longford has put together a series of questions.
THE TEN QUESTIONS ANYBODY WHO HAS A MORTGAGE SHOULD BE ASKING THEIR BANK!
YOU ARE ENTITLED TO KNOW!
1. Am I indebted to the bank right now? (Please answer yes or no).
2. Please confirm that the bank actually possessed the money they claim to have lent me, prior to my loan being granted. In other words, did the bank physically have the money they lent me, prior to the money appearing in my account?
3. Would the bank be prepared to amend the credit agreement as follows: “We, the bank, did in fact possess the money we loaned you, prior to the loan being approved.”
4. Was the loan funded by assets belonging to the bank at the time the loan was granted? Either way, please describe in detail the accounting process used to create my loan.
5. Did the bank record my promissory note / negotiable instrument as an asset on its books? If yes, how was my instrument used to create my loan, and where is my valuable promissory note / negotiable instrument now?
6. Does the bank participate in a securitisation scheme whereby debts / promissory notes are bundled and then sold-on to a third party/parties via special purpose vehicles, entities or alike processes?
7. With reference to point 6, has my loan securitised? If so, please send me all details regarding its securitization.
8. Does the bank have a legal right to collect money it claims I owe it? If so, then were does this legal right come from, assuming the loan has been securitised?
9. Has my loan with the bank been settled by a special purpose vehicle, insurance policy, or by any other party?
10. Regarding the security given to the bank by me, has this security been sold on or given as security / surety to another party?THE 10 QUESTIONS EXPLAINED
1. Am I indebted to the bank right now? (Please answer yes or no).
Obvious question, right? Wrong. In fact, your bank may well refuse to answer it.
Here’s why: If your loan has been securitised, then you are no longer indebted to your bank. If you are not indebted to your bank, then in our opinion, the bank cannot take judgement against you.
A recent judgment in the US (one of many similar judgments since 2008) has ordered banks to pay out US$8.5billion to consumers because of banking fraud. This is almost identical to what you should be seeking.
In the case of securitisation, your legal position with the bank has changed. Did your bank disclose securitisation to you? Do you even know what it means? Probably not. Therefore, you should therefore seek recourse and follow the success of other countries.
Also, if the bank does answer “yes” to this question, and it turns out that your loan has been securitised, then it is our opinion that the bank has placed itself in a position of fraud and quite possibly perjury. This could lead to criminal action against the bank and possible recourse for you.
2. Please confirm that the bank actually possessed the money they claim to have lent me, prior to my loan being granted. In other words, did the bank physically have the money they lent me, prior to the money appearing in my account?
It is unlikely that your bank will answer this question. However, they may try to disguise the answer by using clever language, so read their answer very carefully.
If your loan was securitised, then the bank’s money was not used to fund the loan. Therefore, a legitimate loan between you and the bank may not exist. The bank could never admit this, because to do so would be to admit that there could not possibly be a loan agreement with you.
Even if your loan was not securitised, then the bank still cannot answer this question. Why? Because the bank did not loan you their own lawful money. Something you need to know about banking: banks do not “loan” money in the ordinary sense of the word. This is a tricky concept, and works like this:
Banks do not make loans. Instead, they “advance” or “extend” something called “credit.” This simply means that a magical facility is created that provides you with “money” that is made out of thin air. As hard as it is for you to accept this, the money loaned to you was simulated (ie virtual).
To illustrate: A customer deposits €100 into their bank. The bank then quickly makes nine photocopies of that €100. They lend those photocopies to nine people, charging interest on each of those so-called loans. Then, if the loan is not paid back with interest, they take away the assets pledged as security.
In reality banks do not use a photocopier, they use a computer. The loan amount is typed into the computer and, hey presto, “magical” money is created out of thin air. You think that this money is a loan, or debt so you feel obligated to pay it back. However, it was never actually lent to you in the first place.3. Would the bank be prepared to amend the credit agreement as follows: “We, the bank, did in fact possess the money we loaned you, prior to the loan being approved.”
If you are wrong, then the banks would have no problem complying with this request. However, see for yourself: they will not agree to amend the contract.
If your loan has been securitised, your original agreement is no longer with the bank! A bank loses all right and title to the loan agreement once it has been sold into a securitisation scheme. One cannot amend an agreement when they are no longer legally entitled to it, nor do they have it in their possession. Furthermore, any indebtedness to the bank would have been settled as a result of the sale of the asset.
Put simply, no matter what the situation, the bank did not possess the money it loaned you, and never did. They are fooling you and participating in a fraud of monumental proportions. The fraud is that they cannot take away your assets without disclosing the truth to both you and the Court.
4. Was the loan funded by assets belonging to the bank at the time the loan was granted? Either way, please describe in detail the accounting process used to create my loan.
If everything is legitimate and above board, then banks should have no problem explaining how your particular loan came into being. However, banks will not reveal this to you. When you ask your bank these questions, you will see for yourself.
You need to know something else about banking: Banks do not deal with actual, physical “money.” Instead, they operate with promises to pay. For example: if a bank promises to pay you €10,000, that would equate to a €10,000 deposit into your account. This deposit is reflected on your statement as a promise of the bank, to you, for €10,000. In other words, it looks like you have €10,000 in your account, but actually this number merely represents €10,000 worth of promises made by a bank to you.
The words “money” and “deposit” are therefore misleading. The banks redefined these words so they sound the same in everyday use, but mean something very different to the legal and banking system.
Another word being misused is the word “transfer.” A transfer is not a transfer of money. It is simply a case of the bank shifting their promise to pay A to a promise to pay B. This is only an illusion of a transfer.
Do you remember when you first took out a loan? You gave the bank a promise, in writing, to make payments every month, with interest. This written promise to pay money to the bank becomes the money they used to lend you! Therefore, you actually created your own loan. It takes some time to get your head around this, and we recommend you research the links below to help you understand the process.
5. Did the bank record my promissory note / negotiable instrument as an asset on its books? If yes, how was my instrument used to create my loan, and where is my valuable promissory note / negotiable instrument now?
This question is designed to trick the banks. You want confirmation from your bank that they deal in negotiable instruments (promises). Once admitted, it will confirm most of what you is saying.
Remember, real money (gold and silver, or notes that represent gold and silver) no longer exist. The illusion of money (known as “credit” or “bank promises”) quietly replaced real money so that the banks could fund their own business empire by creating money out of nothing, then charging interest on it.
Negotiable instruments (promissory notes and bills of exchange) serve, in effect, as money. So, when you give the bank a promissory note (a written promise to pay back a loan), they convert your promise into their promise. Their promise = so called “money.” So you gave them the money they loaned you.
6. Does the bank participate in a securitisation scheme whereby debts / promissory notes are bundled and then sold-on to a third party/parties via special purpose vehicles, entities or alike processes?
This question is plain and simple: we want the banks to admit the obvious. We know they engage in securitisation, but once they admit this to a customer, then the customer would naturally have the right to ask a crisp follow-up question: “well then, has my specific loan been securitised?” Remember, if your loan has been securitised, then the whole game changes. This is ultimately what we want the banks to tell us. There is a very good chance that your loan has been securitised. You need to know the truth, which is why you MUST persist in your demand for the answers.
7. With reference to point 6, has my loan securitised? If so, please send me all details regarding its securitization.
It is your right to know about securitisation. If you don’t get answers, then work obtain recourse.8. Does the bank have a legal right to collect money it claims I owe it? If so, then were does this legal right come from, assuming the loan has been securitised?
The bank only has one counter argument to this: there is a contract between you and the bank. However, if your loan has been securitised, the contract is sold! It’s gone. The bank no longer has the contract, nor does it have the right to that contract. What part of this do the banks not understand? If a bank alludes or pretends they have it, then we believe that they are committing fraud.
The contract between you and the bank could conceivably say anything it wants to. The fact is that it has been sold and the bank has lost all rights to it. In our opinion, the bank cannot legally, ethically or morally claim back the debt from you because they have already been paid.
9. Has my loan with the bank been settled by a special purpose vehicle, insurance policy, or by any other party?
This is going to shock you, so be warned. When a loan is securitised, your loan gets bundled with other loans and then sold to a third party. If you default (miss a few payments), then the third party (called an SPV – Special Purpose Vehicle) carries insurance. They get paid out if you default!
This needs to be emphasised: If you get sick or lose your job, or you cannot meet your repayment obligations, then the secret third parties who trade in your loans get paid out. They are protected against your default. So then… where is your protection? Nowhere. You have no protection because to protect you would mean to inform you of the game and once you know the game, the game is over.
And one more thing… if the SPV is insured so they get paid out if you default… and the bank was paid for your loan right up front when the loan was securitised. So then… how and why are they able to foreclose on your assets? And where does the money go from the sale on the Sheriff’s auction? This is precisely what we are fighting to expose.
10. Regarding the security given to the bank by me, has this security been sold on or given as security / surety to another party?
This is the final nail in the coffin. Put simply, we want the bank to admit that they no longer have your security. If they do not have your security, then they cannot foreclose. The banks will never admit this because it means admitting that billions of Euro’s in foreclosures of assets over the past two decades would have been illegal. This would lead to an avalanche of lawsuits.January 2013 with very special thanks to my friends at NewERA South Africa
Very interesting article on the turning of sovereign seal and Irish Independence.
By Anne Sheridan
Published on Saturday 19 January 2013 12:30IT HAS been a family tradition for 94 years, but one they feel is often overlooked and sidelined historically.
At noon on Monday, January 21, in the Mansion House in Dublin, Askeaton man Billy McGuire, 69, will reassert the sovereignty of the Irish nation and turn the sovereign seal.
This ritual has been taking place every year since the declaration of Irish Independence by Dail Eireann on January 21, 1919, the first day of the War of Independence.
However, he objects that the ceremony is not open to the public and that only 20 people will be permitted to attend the event in the dining room of the Mansion House.
A letter from the office of the Lord Mayor of Dublin to Mr McGuire also requested that he identify the names of all 20 people attending the ceremony before the event.
As the “owner” of the sovereign seal - an IRB emblem first used in 1919 to symbolise the transition of Ireland from a colony to an independent country - Mr McGuire said January 21 is our independence day, albeit an unofficial one.
This Monday will mark the 94th anniversary of the sovereign republic of Eire, Dail Eireann, its courts and the War of Independence.
“It’s very sad that more people won’t be allowed attend. People are so well behaved, and it’s shocking that people are trying to airbrush this out of history,” he said.
Last year tight security surrounded the “non political event”, with the media also prevented from entering the room.
“It’s not right - everyone should be able to celebrate the sovereignty. It’s time we all stood up for our sovereignty,” he said.
The tradition of “turning the seal” has been passed down from generation to generation in the McGuire family, and Billy took it over from his late father in 1967. The 32 county election of 1918 in Vaughan’s hotel established the sovereignty of the nation and gave rise to democratically elected TDs to Dail Eireann. But the crown of England failed to officially recognise the election and the Government hasn’t formally claimed sovereignty since 1922.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Thousands are expected in Dublin tomorrow for the vigil at 4.30pm.
DUBLIN, January 17, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) -- The Life Institute has said that a Vigil for Life to take place in Dublin this Saturday is crucial to opposing government plans to legalise abortion on suicide grounds.
The Health Minister, James Reilly, has said that the heads of a Bill legalising abortion would be ready by the end of January, but this has provoked unprecedented public concern according to the Life Institute.
Spokeswoman for the Institute, Niamh Uí Bhriain, said that volunteers had worked right through Christmas to deal with the flood of enquiries from around the country about the pro-life event.
"People are shocked that Enda Kenny and James Reilly seem determined to push through abortion legislation as quickly as possible, despite the clear evidence that abortion is not a treatment for suicide," she said.
"There is huge unease around the country as to what is being planned, especially given that Fine Gael made a pro-life promise on this issue in Election 2011," she added.
She also pointed out that at recent Parliamentary hearings every medical expert agreed that abortion was never a treatment for suicide.
"People who have never taken part in a pro-life event before are ringing us to say they will be there, and that they feel Fine Gael has let them down on an issue of enormous importance," said the pro-life spokeswoman.
Ms Ui Bhriain said that the Vigil would be a significant event in terms of expressing public opposition to abortion.
She said that thousands of people throughout Ireland were mobilising to bring friends and family to the Vigil for Life, which she said would build on the large crowd on the previous Vigil on December 4th.
The Vigil is being organised by a coalition of pro-life groups including Life Institute, Pro-Life, Campaign, Precious Life, Youth Defence and Family & Life.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
The establishment politicians have failed the people of rural Ireland. In recent weeks and months there have been an increase of attacks on elderly people in their own homes. In one case burglars punched and attacked a 96 year old woman in Co. Donegal. Thieves are roaming the Irish countryside. Elderly people deserve better than to live in fear in their own home, in their own country.
What Thought and Action supports is local people patrolling and defending their community.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
It’s not surprising given how Ireland has been a soft target as regards mass immigration. This Nigerian had criminal convictions yet went on to work in several hospitals. The real criminals are the politicians, who have supported and encouraged mass immigration in to Ireland.
By Breda Heffernan
Monday January 14 2013
A NIGERIAN doctor who was imprisoned for drugs smuggling went on to work in a number of Irish hospitals.
Dr Chidozie Onovo (43) worked as a senior house officer and a psychiatric registrar in the Munster region between 2004 and 2008.
This was despite him being convicted at Southwark Crown Court in London in 1998 of trying to smuggle 4.5kg of cannabis at Heathrow Airport and sentenced to two years in prison.
A Medical Council fitness to practice hearing held in Dublin this morning heard that, in his registration applications, Dr Onovo denied he had any criminal convictions.
However his criminal record only came to light when he went to work in New Zealand. Background checks by immigration officials revealed his drugs conviction.
He was convicted at the District Court in Christchurch of supplying false or misleading information to an immigration official and was sentenced to 16 months in prison.
Dr Onovo did not attend this morning's hearing and the fitness to practice committee heard that efforts to contact him and trace his current whereabouts have been unsuccessful.
The hearing continues.
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/couple-found-huddled-together-died-from-cold-581288.html
It has emerged that a man and a woman found dead in a flat on the North Circular Road died from the cold.
The bodies of John Glennon and Debbie McEvoy were discovered at the Drumalee Court complex for senior citizens.
Their bodies were found huddled together in the senior citizens flat in Drumalee Court.
Carbon monoxide poisoning was initially suspected, but a post mortem today has revealed the pair died from hypothermia along with underlying medical issues.
Relatives said Mr Glennon was last seen on Saturday.
Temperatures on Sunday in Dublin recently dipped as low as -2C.
Dublin City Council owns the flats. An investigation has been launched.
Monday, January 14, 2013
An analysis via Awaken Longford. See also http://thoughtactioneire.blogspot.ie/2012/04/lets-start-with-start.html
http://awakenlongford.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/mortgage-securitisation-start-mortgage-ltd/
We see an article in the Irish Independent yesterday, 12/01/2013 (http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/accounts-show-70pc-of-starts-loan-book-now-in-trouble-3349774.html) which states that 70% of mortgages at Start may now be in trouble, the article does not state just how many mortgages Start has on its books but it does say that Start was responsible for 1 in 3 of 124 repossession orders granted in the Irish Courts in the first half of 2012.
I now have, what appears to be access to the absolute detail of both Lansdowne Mortgage Securities No:1 Ltd and Lansdowne Mortgage Securities No:2 Ltd, I am reliably informed that between both of these Mortgage Backed Securities/ SPV‘s represent approx 6,030 Irish residential mortgages with a value, at the time of offering in the region of just over three quarters of a Billion Euro.
All of these Mortgages originated prior to November 2006.
This is an open invitation to any of the following Irish people:
a) If you are the holder of a Mortgage with Start Mortgages which originated prior to November 2006, whether it is distressed of performing.
b) If you were the holder of a Mortgage with Start Mortgages which originated prior to November 2006, whether you have simply sold your home or more particularly, if you have been the subject of a repossession order granted by the Irish Courts and have subsequently lost your home, either by voluntary surrender or eviction.
c) If you know of any Irish person who is covered by either A or B above please pass this information to them.
Very serious questions arise from the information I have potential access to, the validity of any Court Order granted to Start Mortgages is possibly in question and the ability for Start Mortgages to further seek Orders for Repossession is certainly in question.
I would urge any Irish Homeowner concerned to contact me, in strictest confidence at awaken.longford@hotmail.com with a contact number and I will in turn contact you directly to progress any pertinent matters.
Start Mortgages is the first, I am reliably informed that additional information concerning all the Mortgage providers in the State is forthcoming as resources permit.
Please share this post on social networks with as many Irish people as possible.
Help Irish Homeowners to fight back!
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