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EVERY MORNING TheJournal.ie brings you the nine stories you need to know a little before 9am.
1. #JUSTICE: Secretary general in the Justice Department, Brian Purcell, is to keep his €200,000 salary when he leaves his position, following a damning review of the department.
2. #GAZA: As the conflict rages on, 26 Palestinians and five Israeli soldiers were killed overnight. The Hamas Prime Minister’s office was also destroyed by an air strike.
3. #CONSUMERS: Ryanair, Aer Lingus and Greyhound were among the companies pursued by the National Consumer Agency last year and over 26,000 unsafe products were destroyed.
4. #BACK TO SCHOOL: Costs for sending children back to school with everything they need after the summer may be falling but they’re still ‘crippling too many families’.
5. #WAR ON DRUGS: Over 1,000 people turned up to an anti-drugs meeting in Roscrea yesterday evening as the town calls for stronger garda action to tackle the problem.
6. #DANGER: The DPP has asked for an order to prevent a convicted sex offender from contacting children online after a court heard he was claiming to work for One Direction on Twitter, the Irish Daily Mail reports.
7. #LOWRY: The prosecution in Michael Lowry’s case has sought to have his trial moved from Tipperary to Dublin, claiming juries may be biased because a lot of people there had voted for him, The Irish Times reports.
8. #PROTECTION: Cork City is to get new flood defences and the designs are open for the public to see. The implementation of new flood warning systems is one of the options on the table.
9. #LIGHTS CAMERA ACTION: Filming for the new Star Wars movie starts on Skellig Michael today and the small fishing village is buzzing, the Irish Independent reports.
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A bright spark !! A very good story. Fair play to him.
Seems obvious once someone else thinks it up. Kid is a genius.
Fibonacci strikes again!
fair play to him indeed – how clever!! I don’t understand why any of you got red downs for your comments – although i do think that someone must come on here specifically to down comments!! Nowt as strange as folks!
A lot of trolls frequent thus site.
I often wondered about that, Sheila. Maybe Damian P is right. As u say – “nowt as strange as folk” ….. Cheers !!
This is a great story and I’m happy to read it – the thumbs down bamboozle me.
He mentions in the ‘Young naturalist Award’ link that his Dad helped “inspire” him. I hate to be a nay sayer but I’m always suspicious of the amount of help kids get from parents for these sort of things.
It would be interesting to find out whether is Dad is more than your average taxi driver.
Young minds question everything, usually with no preconceived notions which tend to distort an adults perception of what they are witnessing. Occasionally, these totally open minds see what to them is obvious, but to an experienced adult is hidden by his prejudiced point of view. This sounds like just one of these instances. Absolutely brilliant. Well done that man.
Very true, Chrissy Beanz.
i suspect the thumbs down are from our christian friends. how dare this kid question gods work
Or maybe the I complain about anything atheist gang.
Genius :)
Also those who are thumbing down are those who are just mad they are unable to create anything :)
The applications for this are going to be great unless it’s suppressed like every good thing is. Fair play to this lad I hope to be able to see his trees all over our world within the next few years. Brilliant!
Here here Paul. Bamboozle, one of my favorite words.
beam me up scotty
Some thumbs down are from careless scrolling on phones. I was guilty of a horrible one last week.
sorry that was meant to be a thumbs up :-)
@Aoife, can you check from within journal.ie if it is the same people thumbing down without leaving comments, if so can we have a poll that they get a week ban of thumbs up or down, some comments are very valid pro or con and large numbers of negative thumbs just because people disagree without discussion
Sweet jellybeans! I really thought this couldn’t have the usual contentious bickering, but hey-ho, there we go. Maybe it’s Mr. Burns behind the thumbs down :-) Excellent story, everyones a winner!
I reckon the thumbs down came from people who always moan about unemployed people "13 years of age and he is out lookin at trees instead of being down a mine Im fed up with these time wasting scoungers"
thumbs down, i dare ya
Its most likely Oil and gas companies and those who are passionate about nuclear.
Some more info on the story (get out your thumbs down!): http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/2011/aidan.html
have your say