Irish health officials are urging the public to stay at home if they’re feeling unwell. A new Covid variant, known as NB.1.8.1, has been detected in Ireland, and according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), this strain first emerged in January and by late April was responsible for approximately 10.7% of global infections, up from just 2.5% a month earlier. The WHO note that while the variant may be more transmissible than previous strains, there is no evidence it causes more severe symptoms or illness.
This new strain has seen a rapid rise here in Ireland in recent weeks and according to data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), the proportion of sequenced Covid samples linked to NB.1.8.1 jumped from 3.7% to 27.3% within the last five weeks.
Irish people who find themselves unwell with unseasonal cold symptoms or gastrointestinal issues may actually have Covid, according to the HSE.
Ireland’s public health guidelines remain the same; if you have any symptoms of Covid, stay at home until 48 hours after the symptoms are mostly or fully gone. You should also avoid contact with other people, especially people at higher risk from Covid.
Covid symptoms to look out for include:
Fever (high temperature – 38C or above) – including experiencing chills; a dry cough; tiredness; change to your sense of smell or taste; runny or blocked nose; conjunctivitis (red eyes or pink eyes); sore throat; headache; muscle or joint pain; skin rash; vomiting; diarrhoea; chills; dizziness; breathing difficulties; loss of appetite; confusion; pain or pressure in the chest.
Major new EPA report assesses Ireland’s vulnerability to climate change impacts.
The EPA has today published the National Climate Change Risk Assessment which provides the first comprehensive assessment of where, when and how climate risks are likely to impact Ireland over the coming decades.
The National Climate Change Risk Assessment provides government, business, communities and other stakeholders the best available evidence and analysis to inform climate adaptation and resilience in Ireland at a national level. The National Climate Change Risk Assessment identifies 115 risks from projected changes in climate conditions, including in energy, transport, communications, water security, public health, food production and supply and ecosystems.
The significant risks identified by the report as requiring urgent action within the next five years are:
The risk of disruption and damage to communications and energy distribution infrastructure due to extreme wind.
The risk of disruption and damage to buildings and transport infrastructure, due to extreme wind, coastal erosion and coastal flooding.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published the findings of Ireland’s first National Climate Change Risk Assessment (NCCRA). This major study was undertaken by the EPA in collaboration with government departments, state agencies, and other stakeholders to assess where, when and how climate risks are likely to impact Ireland over the coming decades.
The National Climate Change Risk Assessment provides government, business, communities and other stakeholders with the best available evidence and analysis to inform climate adaptation and resilience in Ireland at a national level. The risk assessment will support the development of Sectoral Adaptation Plans by key government departments, will guide the development of local authority adaptation plans and inform other national level adaptation responses.
The Risk Assessment identifies 115 risks from projected changes in climate conditions. Of these, 43 are deemed significant risks. The risks span all sectors of our economy, society, and environment from energy, transport and communications to water security, public health, food production and supply and ecosystems.
Speaking about the report, Ms Laura Burke, EPA Director General said: “We know that Ireland is being impacted by climate change already. This comprehensive assessment highlights the need for additional urgent action to ensure Ireland is sustainably resilient to the risks that we currently face, and will increasingly experience, in the coming decades.”
She added: “This report, the first National Climate Change Risk Assessment, clearly shows how risks cascade across sectors. Recent events, such as Storms Darragh and Éowyn, demonstrated how damage to critical infrastructure such as energy, water supply, transport and communications networks in turn give rise to impacts on human health, biodiversity and the financial system. Addressing these risks in an integrated and consistent way is key to achieving our national climate resilience objective.”
The significant risks identified by the report as requiring urgent action within the next five years are: (A) The risk of disruption and damage to communications and energy distribution infrastructure due to extreme wind. (B) The risk of disruption and damage to buildings and transport infrastructure due to extreme wind, coastal erosion and coastal flooding.
Additional significant risks that should be prioritised for further investigation in the next five years include risks to the built environment and human health from flooding and heat.
Commenting on the report, Dr Eimear Cotter, Director of the EPA’s Office of Evidence and Assessment, said: “Assessing climate risk is a key component of risk management and strategic planning. The National Climate Risk Assessment underscores the need for immediate action in the next five years to enhance the resilience of Ireland’s critical infrastructure to climate change. The risks with the most consequential and highest urgency ratings relate to extreme wind, coastal erosion and coastal flooding. These must be prioritised in adaptation and resilience actions to address climate risks and provide a basis for ensuring adaptation planning in Ireland is appropriately integrated across sectors.”
Irish Government approval secured for the findings of the Review of Ireland’s opt-in Protocol on the area of freedom, security and justice (Protocol 21).
The findings of the Review, a legal mechanism that is part of the Treaties of the European Union and which uniquely provides for Ireland to be able to opt-into measures that relate to the area of freedom, security and justice on a case-by-case basis; has today been published.
Protocol 21, together with Protocol 19 and Protocol 20, provide Ireland with flexibility in its approach to European integration in potentially politically sensitive areas and allows for a pragmatic approach to its engagement with the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ).
The review, which is available HERE, was undertaken by the Department of Justice and informed by detailed statistical analysis of relevant legislation, internal and external consultations, and by a targeted consultation process with a range of key stakeholders, facilitated by the Institute for International and European Affairs (IIEA).
The Review recommends that Ireland continue to be covered by Protocol 21. It also recommends that greater adherence be given to the undertaking in Declaration No. 56, which was made by Ireland at the time of the negotiation of the Protocol, and which commits to Irelands participating, to the maximum extent possible, in all measure covered by the Protocol.
The Review’s headline recommendations, approved by Government, are that:
Ireland should continue to be covered by the terms of Protocol 21.
That greater adherence be given to the undertaking in Declaration No. 56 to the Treaties to exercise Ireland’s right under Article 3 of Protocol 21 to take part in JHA measures to the maximum extent possible.
The review also recommends the following additional actions that the Department of Justice should consider further:
To participate in Justice and Home Affairs(JHA) measures by default, opting out only where concrete and well-defined national interests are at stake.
To undertake a comprehensive, retrospective review of all the Protocol 21-related measures in which we do not participate and determine whether we can accede to these measures or not.
To consider, to the extent practicable, mirroring via domestic legislation those EU measures which it has not opted into due to administrative constraints.
To explore the possibility of joining the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
To explore the creation of a specialised body to facilitate the processing of mutual assistance and mutual recognition requests in a more efficient way.
The current American MAGA movement (Make America Great Again), was founded in the belief that the United States was once a great country, but it has now lost status; one factor being foreign influence via immigration.
It’s estimated that 4.5 million Irish people emigrated to the United States between 1820 and 1930; with the Irish accounting for over one-third of all emigrants to the U.S., between the years 1820 and 1860. A major wave of Irish emigration occurred especially during the Great Famine of 1845-1852.
One such emigrant was a child, from Ballingarry (South Riding), Thurles, Co. Tipperary. His name was Martin Maloney, who, with little education, would rise from rags to great riches, thus highlighting America as being a land of great promise and greatest opportunity.
His birthplace, the village of Ballingarry (South Riding), Thurles, Co. Tipperary is situated just 19.8km (12.3mls) via R691 for any tourist who might “Dwell at awhile” at the Horse & Jockey Hotel, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
During the months of spring and early summer, the wild and romantic hilly landscape, which surrounds Ballingarry village, is awash with scented hedgerows containing Gorse; Blackthorn (Sloe) and Hawthorn bushes, each abundantly clothed in their splendid yellow and white blossoms; same worth a visit solely for this spectacle of beauty alone.
A recent visit there reminded me of an extract taken from Oliver Goldsmith’s poem ‘The Deserted Village’. “The never-failing brook, the busy mill, The decent church that topt the neighbouring hill, The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade, For talking age and whispering lovers made.”
This rather wind swept, once coal mining village of Ballingarry, Co. Tipperary, has a rich history; for it was here that a rebellion took place in 1848 recorded in history as the Young Ireland Rebellion, or the Ballingarry Uprising and referred to sardonically in England history as the Battle of Widow McCormack’s Cabbage Patch. This rebellion took place, during Ireland’s Great Famine, (1845-1849), on July 29th 1848, in the townland of Farranrory, Ballingarry, latter a small settlement about 4.3km (2.6mls) north-northeast of the village; inspired by Republicanism then happening both in America and in France.
Martin Maloney. Martin Maloney was born on December 11th, 1846; the second of nine sons born to John Maloney and Catherine Maloney (née Pollard), both then natives of the townland of Lisnamrock, Ballingarry, Co. Tipperary. The following year, 1847, would become known as ‘Black 47’, the worst year of the Great Famine. The year after the Ballingarry uprising, 1849, his parents decided to leave a then God forsaken Ireland, and travelled to America, taking only the eldest of their two children, named Edward, leaving their second son, Martin, in the care of his grandmother in Lisnamrock.
In 1854, once established these Maloney parents found themselves in a position, enabling them to send money back home to transport the now 8 year old Martin to America, to join the rest of their extended family; having made a secure home at ‘Shanty Hill’, in Scranton, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.
By 1860, the Maloney family appear in the US Federal Census, as living in Scranton PA with their children; Edward aged 16; Martin aged 14; Thomas aged 12; Michael aged 9; William aged 5, and a baby aged two-month-old named Andrew. Martin was possibly accompanied by his grandfather in 1854, since also residing with them in 1860 was John’s father, Patrick, then aged 73 years old.
Coming from a coalmining area in Ireland at that time, Martin’s parents had chosen to set up home in Pennsylvania, aware of the possibility of quickly obtaining employment as a miner, with the demand, particularly for anthracite coal, having begun to be mined in the area, in the 1840s.
Observed as an ambitious youth, Martin Maloney left school at 12 years of age and for the next 3 years transferred his activities to working in one of the local coal mines, latter still in their infancy, before taking ownership of a grocery store. He then took on the trade of an apprentice metal worker and before he had finished his apprenticeship, had acquired a small interest in this latter business.
It is while working here that he came into the possession of a gas burner which he further developed, thus inventing the “Maloney Gasoline Lamp”, latter the first of its kind to use gasoline as a fuel and which back then, was practically a waste product of the oil refineries. With the immense fortune created by royalties from his invention, began the “Maloney Manufacturing & Lighting Company”, and the “United Gas Improvement Co.” which furnished the water, electric and gas for many public city utilities. This new street lighting business, entering a much needed market which was to become a welcome substitute for the old kerosene street lighting, then in universal use.
In December 1868, Maloney (1846-1929) married Margaret Anne Hewitson (1848-1923), latter a native of Carbondale, situated 15 miles due northeast of his adopted Scranton, in Northeastern Pennsylvania. They would go on to parent seven children. Sadly only 3 daughters; Margaret, Catharine and Helen only survived to reach adulthood. At the time of his death we learn, he was only survived by 2 daughters, [Margaret – Mrs Louis Carbery Ritchie who, similarly to her father, was made a Papal Marchioness in 1930 by Pope Pius XI in recognition of her charitable work and Helen – Mrs. Arthur H. Osborn, of Spring Lake and New York resp.] Surviving family members included; two granddaughters, Mrs. Richard L. Farrely and Miss Margaret Ritchie; one grandson, Martin Maloney Osborn, and two brothers, Thomas Maloney of Scrapton, and Andrew P. Maloney, a lay Papal dignitary of Philadelphia; a sister-in-law Mrs. Sarah Berkirt and a niece Mrs. John McCusker. In 1907, Helen eloped from Ballingarry Spring Lake, New Jersey, with Mr Samuel R. Clarkson, of London, who had been a guest of her fathers. Her father paid investigators who successfully tracked them down in Europe shortly afterwards. Then to the astonishment of their existing social scene, it transpired, that two years earlier, (1905), Helen, in secret, had already previously married a student at Princeton University, named as Mr Arthur H. Osborn. This marriage was then duly annulled, with Helen stating that she had eloped merely to escape the clutches of her father’s various aristocratic friends, whom she claimed were gold diggers and wished to marry her, solely for her money. Samuel R Clarkson died in London in 1913. The love once enjoyed between Helen and Arthur now blossomed again and in 1909, to the approval of the family, both were married a second time in New York city.
Earlier, in 1873, some five years following his marriage, at the age of just 26 years, Martin Maloney made the acquaintance of William G. Warden and William L. Elkins who, at that time, were engaged in the oil refining business and from whom he would later purchase his first supplies of naphtha and gasoline. Contracts shortly afterwards were obtained to light the streets of Philadelphia; Jersey City; Pittsburgh and Camden and 3 years later in 1876 a contract was obtained for lighting the Centennial Exposition Grounds, in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. The Centennial Exposition Grounds overlooked the Schuylkill River, with 250 pavilions and seven miles of avenues and walkways occupying a 285 acre tract of Fairmount Park’s overall 3,160 acres. This upcoming Exposition was required to exhibit national pride and demonstrate the importance of education and progress, through American industrial innovation.
His street lighting business developed rapidly and in 1877, he organized the Penn Globe Gas Light Company, in association with the afore mentioned existing partners Mr. Warden and Mr. Elkins, together with P. A. B. Widener, Thomas Dolan and Samuel T. Bodine. Thus organized, this business soon found a nation-wide demand for their product and services, thus extending its activities to other larger progressive cities throughout the U.S. The street lighting business brought the partners into contact with the owners of other artificial gas light companies and it was not long before he and his associates were acquiring these same businesses throughout the country, which later were to became the nucleus of the United Gas Improvement Company of Philadelphia, organized in 1882.
At this time electric lighting was beginning to make its appearance, it was not long before Martin Maloney and his associates realized the great advantages and opportunities that could be offered by this new constituent, of both light and power. This new interest led to the establishment of the Pennsylvania Heat, Light and Power Company which soon absorbed other small electric companies then operating within the city. He was also instrumental in organising the Electric Company of America, an earlier holding company owning and operating power companies in several other states.
His home, situated in the cultural heart of Philadelphia, at 220 West Logan Square, Philadelphia was condemned in 1916 and demolished by the city, along with its entire block, when Logan Square was further expanded westward to 20th Street, as part of the creation of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
He erected three other dwellings; “Ballingarry“, built as a summer retreat near the shores of Spring Lake, known as the “Irish Riviera”, at 101 Morris Avenue, New Jersey (Latter named after the nearby village of his birth in Tipperary). His home was considered one of the great houses of the eastern seaboard. The area was observed as a resort destination for only high society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Designed by one of the masters of American Beaux-Arts architecture, Horace Trumbauer(1868-1938), this neo-classical mansion was partly modelled on the South Front of the White House. Sadly, it was demolished in 1953. “Cashel“, (latter meaning ‘fortress’ or ‘stone fort’ was named after a historic, nearby town also in his native Tipperary), was a summer retreat on St Lucie Boulevard, in Port Sewall, Florida. “Maloney’s Cottage“, also on Morris Avenue, Spring Lake, Monmouth County, New Jersey today remains a historic Queen Anne-style summer residence, completed in 1901. The building is now all that remains of Maloney’s ‘Ballingarry’ American Estate, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
Martin Maloney – Charitable Benefactor.
An ardent and devout Roman Catholic and a frequent visitor to France and Italy, Martin contributed greatly to the construction and upgrading of buildings, churches and religious institutions, e.g.the Maloney Memorial Home for the Aged at Scranton, for elderly workers left destitute after years in the mines an run by the Little Sisters of the Poor; the Maloney Chemical Laboratory at the Catholic University of America, Washington; St. Joseph’s Parochial School at Trenton; St. Martin’s Church at the Roman Catholic Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo, Overbrook, Philadelphia; the Martin Maloney Clinic then a new medical centre of the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia; churches at Rock Hill, South Carolina; Georgia, South-West Carolina; and Florence, South Carolina. He rehabilitated of the ancient College of the Irish Franciscans at Louvain an donated the main altar to the Church of the Nativity, in Scranton. Records show that Maloney gave $120,000 in 1917, to construct the Maloney Hall at The Catholic University of America, originally known as the Martin Maloney Chemical Laboratory and an additional $100,000 in 1923-24 for what is today the building’s 273 seat Della Ratta Auditorium. Maloney said he hoped the building would “help our Catholic young men and women rise to the level of the great opportunities, which our nation (America) offers them”. James Augustine Farrell Sr., then president of the United States Steel Corporation, was a featured speaker at that buildings dedication.
As a result of anti-clerical legislation in France in 1901, most religious orders and congregations saw their property being confiscated. A rumour began to grow that a wealthy American was buying up much of the religious orders properties to preserve it for a time when Catholic France, would return to reason. The name of this wealthy American in fact was Martin Maloney and he purchased title to a number of convent and religious institutions, in order to preserve them from such confiscation.
In recognition of Maloney’s many charity donations and philanthropies, both at home and abroad, in 1903, Pope Leo XIII made him a ‘Papal Marquis’, and in 1904, he was appointed a Papal Chamberlain by Pope Pius X. Marquis Martin Maloney was a member of the Fairmount Park Association, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Union League Club and City Club of Philadelphia, the Catholic Club of New York, the Scranton Club of Scranton, the Everglades Club of Palm Beach, Florida, and others.
View, hereunder, the magnificent exterior and interior of St Catherine’s Church, Spring Lake, New Jersey, U.S.A.
St Catharine’s Church, Spring Lake, New Jersey, U.S.A. A story is told that a rich man, who grew up in ‘Shanty Hill’, offered to pay for the construction of a church in Scranton, if officials agreed to call it ‘St. Catharine’, (a Christian saint and martyr, believed to have lived in the early 4th century), but the congregation were determined that they wanted it called ‘Nativity of Our Lord’ and preferred to raise the required funding required, themselves.
Undeterred, a magnificent Church building, was then erected in Spring Lake, with Maloney naming it in memory of his daughter Catharine, latter who died of a prolonged illness on May 20th, 1900, aged just 17 years old. In grief, but as already stated, with great devotion to his Roman Catholic faith; Maloney donated both the land and the money, while exerting great personal care as to the building’s construction and overall design. Not forgetting his Tipperary and Irish heritage, the cornerstone of St Catharine’s Church was laid on Ireland’s patron Saint’s day, St Patrick’s Day, March 17th 1901, and the beautiful copper domed classical revival style building, overlooking the Spring Lake on West Lake Drive, was built over the following six years. Regarded as a mini-cathedral today, the church was built in renaissance style architecture to resemble St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, Rome and today includes frescoes that depict life in both medieval and modern Ireland. Once again, the internationally known American architect Horace Trumbauer(1868-1938) designed the exterior and interior of the building, while Artists from Italy were commissioned to provide the statues, carved stonework and paintings within. The stained glass windows came from the Royal Bavarian Stained Glass Manufactory, at Munich, Bavaria, Germany, latter then a European centre of arts, architecture, culture and science.
In the Church of the Assumption, Ballingarry (SR), back here in Thurles, Co. Tipperary, today can be viewed a magnificent stained glass window, possibly also manufactured by the Royal Bavarian Stained Glass Manufactory, at Munich, in Germany. Same today faces east, directly above the main alter in the Church he once attended as a small boy.The window is dedicated to his family. The inscription states “In Memory of the Moloney (Note change in spelling of name) Family. Erected by Martin Moloney of Philadelphia 1890.” This rare window shows Mary and Joseph with a rather teenage looking son Jesus Christ, carrying a crucifix. [Same possibly can be interpreted as describing, in picture form, the writings recorded in the Gospel of St Luke, Chapter 2: Verses 46 & 49, – “Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? ]
Martin and his wife Margaret Anne are both buried in the Maloney family crypt in St. Catharine’s church yard in Spring Lake. On Martin’s death in Philadelphia, Bishop John J. McMahon of Trenton paid eloquent tribute to his life and concluded by reading a cablegram from the Pope. It read: “The Holy Father mourns the death of the good and well-deserving Marquis and prays eternal rest for the departed and sends a blessing for the family.”
Marquis Martin Maloney, philanthropist left an estate valued at some $7.8 million, on his death.
His family headstone, in Ballingarry village, Thurles, Co. Tipperary remains a poignant reminder of his early humble beginnings and can be located easily today, situated on the far south-east corner of the old graveyard, on the south side of the main church building.
The headstone in Ballingarry Churchyard Reads: Erected by John Maloney of Scranton Pennsylvania U.S.A. in memory of his father Patrick Maloney, died 5th April 1863, aged 70 years. Also his mother Catherine Maloney (née Brophy), died 18th April 1873, aged 82 years. And his son Patrick Maloney, died 3rd May 1859, aged 18 years Also his brother Michael Maloney, died 2nd April 1873, aged 62 years. And his nephew John Maloney, died 17th March 1894, aged 32 years. May their souls rest in peace.
Finally, if you have managed to read this far, it is worth noting that Mr Charles Bruder, aged 27 years; a Swiss bellhop, for the Essex and Sussex Hotel, Spring Lake, NJ, was, sadly, the second of five victims of the Jersey Shore Shark Attacks. He sadly lost his life, on July 6th, 1916, while swimming approximately 120 metres (130 yards) from shore in Spring Lake. This wave of shark attacks took place between July 1st and July 12th, 1916, along the 130 km (80 miles) of the Atlantic Ocean coastline and is often attributed as having inspired the novel ‘Jaws‘ written by Peter Benchley; with the film later directed by Steven Spielberg. However, this claim has been denied by Peter Benchley.
Photograph taken exactly 100 years ago in 1924 in Southern Ireland.
“Think Of Others” Poem by Mahmoud Darwish.
As you prepare your breakfast — think of others. Don’t forget to feed the pigeons. As you conduct your wars — think of others. Don’t forget those who want peace. As you pay your water bill — think of others. Think of those who have only the clouds to drink from. As you go home, your own home — think of others — don’t forget those who live in tents. As you sleep and count the stars, think of others — there are people who have no place to sleep. As you liberate yourself with metaphors think of others — those who have lost their right to speak. And as you think of distant others — think of yourself and say, ‘I wish I were a candle in the darkness.’
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