Free Republic

Around 100 people have attended an anti-RTÉ protest on the grounds of the organization in Dublin. The crowd gathered outside the entrance to RTÉ in Donnybrook, before making their way through the barriers to the main TV reception. A number of people made speeches, including activist Gemma O’Doherty, as some members of the crowd banged on the glass. […] The protest heard calls against the use of face coverings, the gardaí and the Government’s response to COVID-19. The crowd also heard speeches criticizing the arrest of Ms. O’Doherty in Co(unty) Wicklow yesterday. Fellow activist John Waters was also in attendance...

The remains of "monumental temples" dating to the Iron Age and medieval buildings may be hidden underground at Navan Fort, an archaeological site in Northern Ireland, a new study finds. Exactly what's left of these ruins, however, remains to be seen. Archaeologists discovered the buried structures by using remote-sensing techniques that allowed them to map the hidden landscape and detect anomalies, such as architectural features made by humans. These Iron Age and medieval buildings suggest that Navan Fort was "an incredibly important religious center and a place of paramount sacral and cultural authority in later prehistory," study co-researcher Patrick Gleeson,...

TikTok said on Thursday that it will set up its first European data center in Ireland. The announcement comes amid increasing scrutiny over the video app’s privacy and security risks. U.S. President Donald Trump, citing national security concerns, on July 31 gave TikTok’s owner, Beijing-based internet giant Bytedance Technology, an ultimatum: either sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to Microsoft or any other U.S. company by Sept. 15, or get banned in the United States. Until recently, TikTok Inc., the company’s U.S. entity, was the official data controller of TikTok. After July 29, the service provider for European Economic Area (EEA)-Swiss users...

Ireland is being considered as a possible location for an “international charter city” to be developed in anticipation of a mass exodus of Hong Kongers fleeing China’s tightening grasp on their home. Ivan Ko, a Hong Kong citizen with decades of experience in real estate and property development, has reportedly been searching for places around the world to build a new version of Hong Kong since China implemented its new national security law in the city. The charter city would be designed to have its own tax regime and regulations, U.K.’s The Telegraph reported. Last week, the British government outlined...

President Donald Trump distanced himself late Thursday night from Jeff Lyash, his appointee running the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), who is now using H-1B outsourcing to discard American professionals even as Trump tries to revive his poll numbers. Another one of many Fake T.V. Ads, this one about the Tennessee Valley Authority, which for years has paid its top executive a ridiculous FORTUNE. Not run by the U.S., but I have long been fighting that crazy “salary” & its polices. Strange ad paid for (?) by “U.S. Tech Workers”.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 17, 2020 The TVA is a...

While the Irish island of Little Skellig was long thought to have been inhabited by nothing but a variety of seabirds, a new archaeological discovery demonstrates that monastics once labored in asceticism on the inaccessible crag. The archaeologist Michael Gibbons and a group of climbers recently located the remains of an early Christian church located on a narrow precipice overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, reports Afloat. Gibbons estimates that the church dates to the late 7th-early 8th century, when there was already a functioning monastery on nearby Skellig Michael. He described the location, 8 miles west of the Iveragh Peninsula...

The lake is home to at least one crannóg -- an artificial island used as dwellings and defense mechanisms in prehistoric Ireland. Crannóg's are the oldest dwellings in prehistoric Ireland. There are additionally at least seven ringforts surrounding the town of Lisacul. Eileen McDonagh, Cathal's mother, told the Irish Independent that he was supposed to be doing his homework when he made the discovery. She said that her son became bored with his schoolwork and went for a walk down to the lake, where he paddled up to his ankles in a pair of wellington boots. It was there that...

Archbishop Oliver Plunkett earned the last Catholic martyr’s crown in Britain on this date in 1681.* Product of County Meath blood and Italian seminary, Plunkett had been back floating around Ireland as its chief prelate since 1670. In this decade, the English-imposed laws burdening Catholics had been relaxed; Plunkett was able to minister his flock, openly at first and after 1673 as a fugitive whom Irish authorities did not much wish to pursue. Plunkett’s safety speedily expired with the emergence in England of the Popish Plot, a security panic catalyzed like its modern-day analogues by equal parts bad faith and...

rish comedy writer Graham Linehan has been permanently banned from Twitter after he tweeted "men aren't women tho" in response to a tweet by a women's group wishing men who identify as women a happy Pride Month. Lineman, who had hundreds of thousands of followers on the social network, is the creator or co-creator of the sitcoms Father Ted, Black Books, and The IT Crowd. Twitter said Linehan "has been permanently suspended after repeated violations of our rules against hateful conduct and platform manipulation."

An Aberdeen man has been fined after branding his ex partner’s new boyfriend a “leprechaun” in a threatening email. Terry Myers, 41, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court over the email, which made reference to the woman’s new partner being Irish and threatened to assault him. Fiscal depute Susan Love said Myers had previously been in a relationship with the woman, but that they were no longer together and she had a new partner. She told the court during Saturday morning the woman received an email from Myers in which “he made various threats to assault her new...

Newgrange is a prehistoric passage tomb in County Meath, Ireland. built during the Neolithic period around 3200 BC and predates monuments such as Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. The site consists of a circular mount with retaining walls and contains stone passages and chambers where human remains have been discovered on previous archaeology excavations by antiquarians from the 18th century. Normally we inherit two copies of the genome, one from each parent, but the individual buried in the chamber had genomes that were remarkably similar, suggesting that his parents were first-degree relatives and are a key indicator of inbreeding... Dan...

Irish government leaders pushed forward a plan this week to ban pro-life prayer vigils and sidewalk counseling outside of abortion facilities across the nation. Breitbart reports the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Green parties agreed to support the plan for future government actions, including the abortion “exclusion zones.” The plan also must be ratified by all party members. Though the plan does not outline specific requirements for the “exclusion zones,” many believe it will ban all pro-life free speech within a certain distance of abortion facilities, including silent prayer vigils and sidewalk counseling. Dr. Angelo Bottone of the Iona Institute...

The Green Party’s Joe O’Brien has accused some fellow TDs of using racism to get elected to the Dáil. Mr. O’Brien said that “some people have used racism to get into this house” and that racism in all forms “needs to be called out”. Speaking during a Dáil debate on racism, he said that “only a couple of weeks ago, a member of this house used it in a parliamentary question to get attention”. He added: “When push comes to shove, there are people in this house who have opposed accommodation for Travelers when it comes to their area.” Labour’s...

Ireland has won a seat for a two-year term on the United Nations Security Council. Ireland competed against Canada and Norway for two seats on the council after ballots were cast and counted at the UN General Assembly in New York. A total of 191 countries voted. Ireland needed a two-thirds majority, or 128 votes, to win and have obtained the the number required. Norway also secured a seat on the council. President Michael D. Higgins has welcomed the result of the vote, saying that Ireland ran a campaign which did not avoid the global issues that are urgent. Mr....

People Before Profit has called on local authorities in Galway to remove monuments, which the party claims glorify slavery and racism. It wants a monument to Christopher Columbus in Galway to be taken down. It is also seeking the removal of a plaque in Tuam honoring Major Richard “Dick” Dowling, who served with the Confederate army in the US. The Columbus monument, close to the Spanish Arch, was erected to mark the quincentenary of his 1492 voyage to America. The explorer is reported to have visited Galway around 1477 and the sculpture references his trip to the west of Ireland....

Until recently, Ireland did not blaze much of a trail when it came to human rights at home. The 20th century saw plenty of shameful treatment of vulnerable people, normalized by a deep and often blind devotion to a religious institution that preached a message of compassion. […] The 21st century has seen some improvements but there is still a long way to go. Recent events in the United States and ensuing Black Lives Matter protests have shifted the focus once again to our State’s reliance on Direct Provision. We are no gold star winners either when it comes to...

The Hague (AFP) - Thousands of protesters rallied in the Dutch and Irish capitals on Monday against the death of a black man during an arrest by police in the United States. Defying coronavirus restrictions, demonstrators in both Amsterdam and Dublin carried signs saying "Black Lives Matter", referring to the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. The protests that have roiled US cities for six nights have now spread around the world, with rallies as far afield as London and New Zealand. Around 3,000 protesters packed Dam Square in the centre of Amsterdam, standing close together despite coronavirus social distancing...

Thousands of people have taken part in a rally in Dublin city center in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. People gathered at the GPO on O’Connell Street and marched to the United States Embassy in Ballsbridge protesting over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week. […] The marchers chanted “black lives matter” and called for justice for Mr. Floyd’s family. It comes after two protests took place in Dublin yesterday — one at the US Embassy and another at the US Ambassador’s Residence in the Phoenix Park. Similar protests have taken place...

To a certain type of New Yorker,every Dumpster is a potential treasure chest,right up there with thrift stores and stoop sales. But if the scavenger gods offer only a finite number of prizes, Julie Finch might have claimed one of them. Last month Ms. Finch stood on her toes to peer into the Dumpster outside her building on West 26th Street and found a blue wooden harp distinguished mainly by caked layers of grime and dust and a snarl of broken strings. “It was this old thing with wires going in all directions,” she said.“It didn’t look like anything anybody...

The technology used in an attempt to find out whether a second passage tomb, which may also be aligned with a solstice event, exists at Newgrange had proved its worth during experimentation by a Slovakian team of scientists who visited the Boyne Valley, an Irish archaeologist said this week. Dr Conor Brady, archaeologist and lecturer at Dundalk Institute of Technology, who lives at Slane, said that while there would be no "dramatic announcements" about discovery of a second chamber at Newgrange at this stage, the microgravitational technology used in the experiments had proven valuable to archaeologists and scientists. The possibility...