“Tendrils of the coldest stuff in our galaxy”

ESA’s cool infrared Herschel observatory sent its first images back in October last year, just after its launch companion, the even cooler Planck observatory achieved first light.  Both are twittering away - Planck and Herschel.  But as the BBC notes Planck scientists have now released “a snapshot of the colossal swathes of cold dust that spread through the Milky Way galaxy.”

Wednesday’s pictures come from Planck’s highest frequency channels and cover about 10% of the sky. They show the great filaments of dust within about 500 light-years of Earth. In the wavelengths it is working, Planck is well tuned to see cold matter. Some of the dust it detects is about minus 261C (12K). “We have the ability to look at very cold emission, essentially dust. We can do unbiased searches over the whole sky for these regions that are very important because they are where stars are forming,” Dr Tauber explained.

Pete Baker @ 08:54 PM | Comments (5)

No pope here, nor in Wales

Details have been announced of Emperor Constantine Pope Benedict XVI’s official state visit to the UK Scotland and England. Apparently, it’s got something to do with the way his Empire is administrated…  According to the BBC report - “The theme of the visit will be relations between the Christian Churches and the major faiths.”  But, obviously, not those who “cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called ‘Churches’ in the proper sense.” And, according to Scottish Secretary of State, Jim Murphy, MP, “It is the first ever official Papal visit to our country combining state-to-state discussions and related engagements as well as pastoral events being organised by the Catholic bishops’ conferences of England, Wales and Scotland”.

Pete Baker @ 10:29 AM | Comments (8)

“I will only resign if asked by the Holy Father.”

Cardinal Séan Brady is resisting calls for his resignation over his involvement in a 1975 canonical inquiry into allegations of sex abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth, during which the complainants, aged 10 and 14, “signed undertakings, on oath, to respect the confidentiality of the information-gathering process.”  Brendan Smyth was convicted of 17 counts of sexual abuse 20 years later - and brought down an Irish government in the process.  From an iol report

Asked why he did not see it as a moral obligation to ensure the police were alerted, the Catholic primate said today: “Yes, I knew that these were crimes, but I did not feel that it was my responsibility to denounce the actions of Brendan Smyth to the police.”

And from an Irish Times report

Cardinal Brady insisted that responsibility for Smyth was with the head of Smyth’s religious order at the Co Cavan abbey where he was sent after he was stripped of pastoral duties as a priest. “The responsibility for his behaviour rested with his religious superior at Kilnacrott,” he said. The cardinal said he did all that was asked of him by Dr McKiernan in relation to Smyth. “I did act, and act effectively, in that inquiry to produce the grounds for removing Fr Smyth from ministry and specifically it was underlined that he was not to hear confessions and that was very important.”

Meanwhile, as a separate Irish Times report notes - Monsignor Maurice Dooley, former Professor of Canon Law, said Cardinal Daly had “no obligation whatsoever” to report anything to the gardaí. “There is no law in Ireland or statute that requires that clergy report crimes to the police,” he added. Monsignor Dooley pointed to paragraph 1.16 of the Murphy report, saying: “it says quite clearly that the clergy, the bishops and so on, had no obligation to report anything to the police”. “Is it a sin against the law of God not to report matters to the police …no I don’t think so…because there are certain people exempt from this moral obligation to report to the police,” he said. [added fuller quote]

Pete Baker @ 09:23 PM | Comments (171)

“this failure to communicate the seriousness of the situation…”

At the time of the recall of Irish pork over a dioxin contamination Sinn Féin’s Pat Doherty sought to blame the UK’s Food Standards Agency for the delay in a Ministerial response in Northern Ireland.  And, as RTÉ reported in January, the Irish government’s Inter-Agency Review Group [pdf file] concluded that “Communications between agencies, industry and consumers were both timely and informative.”  But the NI Assembly’s Agriculture Committee has just published their own Dioxin Inquiry report.  And they have concluded that

28. The Committee has concluded that the key weakness and sole contributory factor to the near collapse of the Northern Ireland pig industry was the absence of appropriate communication to the Northern Ireland authorities by those in the Republic of Ireland, particularly on 6 December 2008. The Committee believes that the remissness of the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in contacting the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland on or before 6 December 2009 was a critical failure and proof that the cooperation heralded by the Department for Agriculture and Rural Development in the All Island Animal Health Strategy does not exist and that the evidence received during the inquiry proves that this strategy is not working.

Pete Baker @ 03:56 PM | Comments (2)

“Venezuelan government’s co-operation in the illicit collaboration” between Eta and Farc”

With a number of convicted, and suspected, former ETA terrorists washing up on these shores there’s a notable report of interest from the Irish Times.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez denied the allegations. Typically, he blamed an “international Yankee plot”, describing it as “a sad remnant of Spain’s colonial past”. It is not the first time Mr Chavez has had strong words for Spain. His repeated interruptions of Mr Zapatero at the Ibero-American summit in Chile two years ago caused King Juan Carlos to shout: “Why don’t you shut up?”

Words of a more conciliatory tone came from Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan foreign minister. In a telephone call with his Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos, he promised he would investigate the allegations and keep Mr Moratinos informed.

Pete Baker @ 10:59 PM | Comments (10)

McFarlane takes Ireland to European Court of Human Rights

The Irish Times informs us that “Ireland makes a rare appearance before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg today to face allegations of violating the rights of Maze escapee Brendan McFarlane.”  The complaint followed the collapse of the trial of the prominent Provisional IRA member on charges relating to the kidnapping of businessman Don Tidey in 1983.  From the Irish Times report

In this case, Mr McFarlane is asking the court for a ruling that the State deprived him of a fair trial in not charging him with offences related to the 1983 kidnapping until 1998, and to further delay in that this trial did not eventually take place until 2008.

He is making a separate complaint that his judicial review proceedings challenging the delay, which began in November 1999, were not concluded until March 2006, and that there were further delays while he litigated residual issues before the courts between November 2006 and March 2008.

Concerns about The Process™ are unlikely to be considered a valid defence…

Pete Baker @ 11:41 AM | Comments (3)

“They can slaughter pigs for fun, but making pretty shapes with the bladder is a bit of a mystery.”

At the Telegraph’s sports blog, Kiwi Eric Janssen has a question about the weekend Six Nations rugby

Will Greenwood wrote on Saturday that he believed Brian O’Driscoll was Ireland’s defensive weak link. Did Paul O’Connell agree and therefore kick his captain in the head? We demand to know!

Heh.

Pete Baker @ 07:45 PM | Comments (2)

Belfast Court orders extradition of de Juana Chaos to Spain

I mentioned recently that convicted ETA killer José Ignacio (Iñaki) de Juana Chaos was still fighting extradition proceedings on charges of glorifying terrorism in Spain.  Today the BBC reports that Belfast Recorder Tom Burgess has ordered that the extradition of de Juana Chaos should proceed.

Judge Burgess said there was no evidence that he would not receive a fair trial, and he could seek bail from the courts in Spain. He recognised the potential impact if he were to be sent back to jail, especially if put in solitary confinement, but added that if he engaged with the Spanish judicial system, arguments could be advanced for why he should be granted bail. He said questions about his mental state should be left to the Spanish authorities.

Pete Baker @ 03:27 PM | Comments (85)

“blatant attempt to mislead”

Still fighting extradition proceedings on charges of glorifying terrorism in Spain, lawyers for convicted ETA killer José Ignacio (Iñaki) de Juana Chaos have been back in court in Belfast.  This time they were losing a legal battle for a licence for de Juana Chaos to work as a taxi driver for the West Belfast Taxi Association.  From the BBC report

His barrister told the court Mr de Juana Chaos, 54, should be treated as an exception to the rule where ex-prisoners can only apply for taxi licences three years after completing their sentence. “The offending behaviour purely related to the political theatre,” he said. “The people subjected to the violence were members of the police force in Spain.” Mr de Juana Chaos was released from prison in August 2008.

His lawyer said he has now removed himself from the political conflict and wants to drive specified routes for the West Belfast Taxi Association, where his wife works. “The reason why my client came here… having committed very serious offences, is to benefit, even if only indirectly, from the way in which this society is prepared to give people who have committed awful offences a chance and a new start,” the lawyer said. He added that 15 ex-prisoners with convictions for “politically inspired violence” already work for the association.

 

Pete Baker @ 07:04 PM | Comments (34)

“they have waived the rules on what was designed to be an impenetrable fortress”

The BBC report on yesterday’s announcement that EU leaders are ready to take “determined and co-ordinated action, if needed, to safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole”, as the Greek government attempts to tackle its debts and budget deficit, is as good a starting point as any - linking as it does a lengthy post by the BBC’s own Stephanie Flanders. In turn Flanders quotes Martin Wolf in the Financial Times

“So long as the European Central Bank tolerates weak demand in the eurozone as a whole and core countries, above all Germany, continue to run vast trade surpluses, it will be nigh on impossible for weaker members to escape from their insolvency traps. Theirs is not a problem that can be resolved by fiscal austerity alone. They need a huge improvement in external demand for their output.”

And, in a neat one-two, the Irish Times’ Arthur Beesley notes the muted market response, and indicates the depth of the dilemma for EU leaders

For the euro system and the institutional architecture that supports it, it is seismic. While the parameters of any bailout remain in some doubt, informed sources say the most likely mechanism would be the extension of bilateral loans from France and Germany or a wider group of stronger EU countries. To discourage other governments from caving in to domestic pressure over efforts to stabilise their finances, it is a given that any EU rescue package would come with stringent policy instructions from Brussels.

Still, the hope at this point is that the Greeks will be able to contain the rot. “This is about generating confidence in the stability of the euro zone,” said a European official. “It’s also about spin: spinning markets, debt-rating agencies and the press.” For all that, however, the door is now open for exceptional European support for any struggling member of the single currency. Although it is easy to conceive of special mechanisms being developed within the letter of EU law, any such aid is not in keeping with the spirit of the old rules.

Pete Baker @ 10:17 AM | Comments (6)

“Don’t forget that we are talking about the Eurovision”

I mostly managed to avoid last year’s Eurovision, when Graham Norton took over Sir Terry Wogan’s duties with the mic and Ireland’s RTÉ‘s entry

failed to progress to the finals. Not that the BBC entry did much better.  Still, at least they weren’t actual turkeys.  Or even stuffed ones.  But since it’s a quiet news day, so far… RTÉ have announced the five Eurosong 2010 finalists, as selected by the RTÉ panel.  From the list the official Eurovision site leads with previous winner Niamh Kavanagh (1993), while the BBC picks out Boyzone member Mikey Graham (and gets the date of Niamh Kavanagh’s win wrong Now corrected).  The Irish Times, on the other hand, notes the return to the fray of their columnist John Waters - despite having his flowers crushed in 2007.  Is he still not taking it “all that seriously”?  From the Irish Times report

Waters’s first foray into the field of Eurovision songwriting occurred in 2007, when he co-wrote Ireland’s entry, They Can’t Stop the Spring , with Moran. It finished last, with five points. Waters said it was always his intention to return to song- writing. While he had previously described his Eurovision experience in negative terms, he added: “One can’t be imprisoned by one’s fast emotions.” He described the song, which he and Moran have been working on since September, as “a dance number”.

Hmm…

Pete Baker @ 03:36 PM | Comments (1)

“Lord Carlile, the official reviewer of terrorism laws, said today a change in the law was needed”

The Guardian reports on a “ruling today by the European court of human rights against the unlawful police use of ­counter-terrorism stop and search powers” under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000

The sheer scale of the stop and searches has made clear that these counter-terrorism powers – under which police are supposed to be searching for “articles that could be used in connection with terrorism” – have become another tactic in daily police encounters with the public, regardless of whether people are tourists taking photographs or peace protesters outside an arms fair.

Use of the powers has quadrupled since they were used to throw Walter Wolfgang out of the Labour party conference for heckling Jack Straw in 2005. Last year the Met tried to restrict the use of section 44 to certain areas, for example near parliament. But that move goes nowhere near complying with this judgment.

Lord Carlile, the official reviewer of terrorism laws, said today a change in the law was needed, including clarification that the searches had to be “necessary” rather than just “expedient”. He also thought chief constables would have to give much closer consideration to the granting of authorisation to use the powers.

Will that have an impact on the increasing number of stop-and-searches taking place here?

Pete Baker @ 03:54 PM

French seek Dublin man’s extradition on alleged terrorism and weapons trafficking charges

An iol report notes that French authorities are seeking the extradiction of a Dublin man in connection with alleged terrorism and weapons trafficking offences.

In a European arrest warrant seeking Mr Doran’s surrender, it is claimed the Dublin man was involved in a Real IRA-led attempt to develop a weapon and ammunition supply through France in late 2003. It is alleged the 31-year-old arrived in France by ferry on August 10, 2003 as part of this operation. Mr Doran was arrested in the early hours of this morning in the Tallaght area. Detective Sergeant Jim Kirwan told Mr Patrick McGrath BL, for the State, that he arrested Mr Doran on foot of the European arrest warrant, endorsed for execution by the High Court on September 22 last.

 

Pete Baker @ 06:36 PM

“We would like to know what happened”

According to an Irish Times report the European Commission want a word in Slovakia’s shell-like about that explosives incident earlier this week.  And in a separate report Daniel McLaughlin, in Budapest, notes further discrepancies in the Interior Ministry’s version of events

One of the key questions surrounds how and why the pilot of the Dublin-bound flight was allowed to take off with some 96g of high-grade plastic explosives on board. The Slovak interior ministry insists the explosives were not a safety risk because they were in a stable condition and not linked to a detonator. It also claimed that before take-off “the pilot of the plane was contacted via airport tower . . . The pilot evaluated the situation as not dangerous and he took off with the plane.”

However, both Danube Wings and Czech Airlines – from whom Danube Wings leased the Boeing 737-400 and crew – insist the pilot was not told he had explosives on his aircraft. “According to the current findings, the crew was only informed by the control tower while taxiing before take-off that a harmless box had been left after the exercise in one of the checked bags in the hold, which did not compromise the safety of the flight and contained a scent track for dog training,” said Czech Airlines spokeswoman Hana Hejskova.

Pete Baker @ 02:17 PM

“an absolutely phenomenal 26 days”

From CernTV.  A short end of term report from the scientists at the world’s highest-energy particle accelerator, including Belfast-born director of accelerators, Steve Myers - interview with Robin McKie noted here.  It’s still the experiment most likely to find more than a pair of WIMPy socks.  If they’re really there…

 

Pete Baker @ 04:56 PM

“I’m hoping they will do it and I’m hoping they won’t renege.”

The Belfast Telegraph follows up yesterday’s report on the mood music from within loyalist paramilitary groups with a prediction from an anonymous “well-placed source” that - “The UDA is expected to fully disarm before the February deadline set by the Secretary of State, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal.” [Is that the “good” and “bad” UDA? - Ed].  Whether it’s dependent on the success of Martin McAleese’s lobbying isn’t made clear but the title quote, from “a government source”, suggests some sort of arrangement has been made.  There’s also an interesting reference to the paper’s previous report of an impending meeting between UDA leaders and the deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, before Christmas.  From the Belfast Telegraph report

This newspaper understands the talks that were planned for December 16 were organised by telephone while senior loyalists, including Jackie McDonald, were in Brussels. It is understood McDonald was keen to meet the Sinn Fein leader before the pre-Christmas deadline he had set for First Minister Peter Robinson to agree a date for the transfer of policing and justice powers. However, according to a senior source other loyalists felt they were being “bounced” into those talks without proper consultation and preparation.

And they’re probably right.. After all, think of the effect of such optics on that manufactured “crisis”...

Pete Baker @ 10:12 AM

“community development is a matter for the devolved administration and not the NIO”

BBC NI’s Vincent Kearney reports that Martin McAleese, husband of Irish President Mary McAleese, “approached the British and Irish Governments and the NI Executive for millions of pounds of funding for UDA controlled areas. It is understood decommissioning stalled because of a perceived failure to deliver the money promised.”

Mr McAleese has a well known relationship with senior UDA figures. He is understood to have held a series of meetings with Jackie McDonald and other UDA leaders to discuss their concerns about working class loyalist communities. As a result, he drew up an action plan and asked the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) to contribute £5m to a project aimed at regenerating loyalist areas where the UDA has a strong presence. He said this would be matched by the Irish government. The Irish foreign minister, Micheal Martin, is believed to have attended one of Mr McAleese’s meetings with senior UDA figures.

A very well known relationship, and not just the husband of the Irish President..  Presumably that £5million contribution would be one of Jackie McDonald’s “luxuries that Sinn Féin and the IRA were afforded”.  ANYhoo.. Apparently the NIO pointed him towards the NI Assembly, where the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister said “No”.  But it doesn’t end there.  As the BBC report also notes

Martin McAleese, who travelled to Brussels this week with Jackie McDonald and others, is now believed to be seeking European funding for a modified proposal which includes a total of ten areas - five loyalist and five nationalist. In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin said it would continue to support Mr McAleese’s efforts. “Mr McAleese’s outreach initiatives with the loyalist communities have been very helpful in consolidating peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland,” a spokesperson added.

Will that have been discussed at one of those North-South Ministerial meetings?

Pete Baker @ 06:02 PM

Gilmore: Fianna Fail the new Celtic Tories…

Hmmm… I see where he’s coming from...

“Twice in a generation, Fianna Fáil has brought this country to ruin. It is never the wealthy or the greedy who are forced to carry the can. For Fianna Fáil now to describe itself as a republican party is almost grotesque.”

But you can see the stick the more socialist Brown is getting from the markets over his PBR:

Mick Fealty @ 10:06 AM

“It may very possibly be that Ireland is in the worst of both worlds..”

Crooked Timber’s Henry Farrell with a quick overview of the Irish budget announced yesterday.

As a small open economy, Ireland would probably have devalued to help cushion the shock, if it had not been an EMU member with no effective control over its currency. Given EMU membership, devaluation (and exit from the system) would probably have been a very bad idea. Ireland is hoping to make the best of a bad job, adding levies, increasing taxes and making swingeing cuts to public sector pay so as to shore up its fiscal position. The problem is that all the fiscal rectitude in the world cannot protect you from contagious crises of confidence.

 

Pete Baker @ 03:05 PM

“The following UK MEPs will attend..”

As Mark Devenport notes, the UK MEPs heading to the Copenhagen Climate Conference as part of the official European Parliament delegation look to be a representative interesting bunch.

The following UK MEPs will attend the UN Climate Change Conference as part of the official European Parliament delegation: Linda McAvan MEP (Lab, Yorks & Humber); Bairbre de Brún MEP (Sinn Fein, Northern Ireland); Nick Griffin MEP (BNP, North West).

Pete Baker @ 05:13 PM

Cameron’s LIsbon U Turn underlies his downturn in the polls…

Another reason for the DUP to be cheerful? The Cameron effect is weakening. Or rather his U turn over the Lisbon referendum is cooling the ardour of some of his supporters. How will that affect the typically Eurosceptic hearts and minds of the unionist voter (if at all)?

Mick Fealty @ 09:13 PM

The world’s highest-energy particle accelerator

The Large Hadron Collider at Cern experienced its first collision a week ago and, as the BBC reports, in the early hours of this morning it officially became the world’s highest energy particle accelerator by accelerating its twin beams of protons to an energy of 1.18 TeV - breaking the previous world record of 0.98 TeV, held by the US Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory’s Tevatron collider since 2001.  There’s an elongated Cern video report here.  First physics due early 2010 at a collision energy of 7 TeV (3.5 TeV per beam).  From the Cern press release.

“We are still coming to terms with just how smoothly the LHC commissioning is going,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “It is fantastic. However, we are continuing to take it step by step, and there is still a lot to do before we start physics in 2010. I’m keeping my champagne on ice until then.”

Pete Baker @ 08:37 PM

What happens when you shop too much and save too little…

Okay, in news from elsewhere… Willem Buiter with what we should and should learn from Dubai… In comparing Ireland the UK in a basket of other countries he identifies the greater independence of the ECB from Irish government control as a positive factor in favour of Ireland’s chances of a credible recovery:

Mick Fealty @ 03:27 PM

“the Wild West of European finance”

In today’s Guardian, Terry Eagleton reviews Fintan O’Toole’s Ship of Fools - “As O’Toole points out, bribery, tax evasion and false evidence under oath have not simply gone unpunished; the very idea of penalising the culprits is viewed by the governing elite as unsporting or even unpatriotic.”

This is partly because Ireland, having in O’Toole’s words “imported” its modernity from elsewhere, is in some ways a country with a first-world economy and a third-world political system. Local, cronyist and clientelist politics still thrive. The state is widely seen as “a private network of mutual obligations” rather than an impersonal body. Palms are greased, backs scratched and old pals promoted, often without much sense that this is anything other than the natural thing to do. The discrepancy between formal and informal codes in the country, between official behaviour and nods and winks, bulks large. Stretching a point or turning a blind eye is rife, in ways that would scandalise many a German or American. What may be agreeable in personal terms can prove lethal in public ones. It is the kind of thing that can happen in a country where everyone seems to have been at school with everyone else.

Read the whole thing.

Pete Baker @ 07:41 PM

“economic downturn is so acute it is causing many to consider leaving the country..”

In yesterday’s Irish Times, the Republic of Ireland’s President, Mary McAleese, was telling anyone who would listen that “Ireland’s young people have the sort of can-do mentality, combined with education and confidence, that is needed to lift the country out of its gloom.”  Elaine Byrne chipped in on the opinion pages - “Rising generation will regenerate a better Ireland”.  Unfortunately for their argument, the same edition carried these details from the latest Irish Times /Behaviour Attitudes opinion poll.

THE VAST majority (72 per cent) of people want to see a reduction in the number of non-Irish immigrants living here, according to an Irish Times /Behaviour Attitudes opinion poll. Overall, a total of 43 per cent say they would like to see some, but not all, immigrants leave the State, while 29 per cent would like to see most immigrants leave. In contrast, just over a quarter (26 per cent) would like to see the number of immigrants remain as it is.

In a reversal of trends from polls in recent years, younger people’s attitudes towards immigration have hardened the most. For example, 81 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 would like to see the number of immigrants fall, compared to 69 per cent in the 25-44 age group. People in rural areas and those from less well-off backgrounds are also more likely to support a reduction in the number of foreign workers based here. The findings are contained in a national poll on “Ireland Today” of 1,004 adults. It was conducted between October 12th and 26th this year at 100 sampling points across the State. The economic downturn is so acute it is causing many to consider leaving the country.

Pete Baker @ 08:43 PM