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WHILE ON A shoot in rural Ireland recently, professional photographer Donal Moloney was told about an interesting site nearby.
On the advice of a local, he visited an old building once owned by a librarian.
Birdie Higgins had moved out of her house about 14 years ago to take up residence in a retirement home. Her original property was never lived in again.
“Time almost seems to have stood still since her leaving and me arriving,” explained Moloney.
Signs of her life can be seen throughout his images – open packages of soup, a newspaper on the sidetable, a cardigan draped across a chair and abandoned slippers in front of the fire.
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There are also hints to her job, with English Literature books open on a table.
Birdie died three years ago, aged 94.
A prayer for those who live alone
Moloney, who has a specific interest using abandoned and derelict buildings in his work, toldTheJournal.ie that he spent three hours exploring Birdie’s house.
“I am used to walking around these old and decayed places but this house was different. I was touched by various things – the Milk of Magnesia, the prunes which were found in every old person’s home. But there is a shot of a clock and Holy Water from Knock…beside them is a little frame for a prayer for those who live alone.
“That got me. I welled up. It was the most touching moment in the house.
“But the whole thing was amazing. The beauty, decay and colour.”
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The whole DEI thing yesterday was disgusting. You could have someone worstin charge in an emergency. To stand there and blame DEI with no investigation work done is just terrible.
Showed zero compassion or empathy towards the families as well.
Probably doesn’t help that he and musk want to gut the FAA so Musk can skip a few safety checks.
@Joshua Walsh: Trump is a poor excuse for a human being, anyone that stands by him after that disgrace yesterday needs to give their head a wobble and reset their moral compass.
@Joshua Walsh: Want to? He’s already done it on day two. Also, what if someone from a group that would fall under DEI is the most competent for a role on merit, they can never be taken seriously under Trump.
@Joshua Walsh: I wouldn’t be surprised if the people in the black hawk were fresh recruits being rushed into training because Trump wants black hawks to patrol the Mexico and Canadian borders 24/7.
Then it would at least make sense to blame DEI in order to deflect responsibility from his own policies. Otherwise he’s using a tragedy just to push a false narrative and further his political ideology which is completely morally bankrupt.
@Joshua Walsh: yes, Trump is a gas man right enough. He’s trying to lay the blame at Obama and Biden’s door yet he forgets that he was president between both their terms and did eff all about it. He won the election handsomely yet he’s still obsessed with revenge against Biden for perceived slights against him.
@Joshua Walsh: The day after Trump’s inauguration he not only fired the members of the aviation security advisory committee, created in 1989 after the terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103 that exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland, but also eliminated the committee entirely. It had recently proposed new regulations for airline safety.
Donald Trumps comments on people with an intellectual disability/ Mental health issues were completely inappropriate at this time and an embarrassment to the American people
JANUARY 10 – Trump fires the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, the department in charge of flight safety; JANUARY 21 – Trump freezes hiring for Air Trafic Controllers; JANUARY 22- Trump disbands the Aviation Safety Advisory Committee; JANUARY 28 – Trump sends out a buyout/ retirement demand to existing employees, removing experienced safety staff; JANUARY 29 – First American mid-air collision in 16 years.
This is the first of many tragedies to come caused by Trump and Elon. Elon essentially fired the head of the FAA 10 days ago: Do you think you can eviscerate vast swathes of the government without consequence?
What is even more chilling is that they know that their actions will cause many, many deaths: It’s all part of the plan. And if anyone complains they can just blame DEI, the mentally disabled, the dems, deep state etc. and their idiotic followers – plenty of examples above – will eat it up, thinking they are in on the conspiracy. I wonder will they think the same when the jackboot is on their head?
@Rian O’Callaghan: Just like the pandemic response group needed to be eradicated in 2018 before he made a bollox of covid. Or how he fired thousands of USDA and FDA inspectors in his first term and relaxed food safety measures which led to things like Boars Head listeria outbreak that killed 10 people. He continues the pattern now with this FAA craic and god knows how many other federal agencies he just ended for no reason other than his own ego.
Whoever the person is that is not Setanta replying here, I have you muted, but please continue screaming into the void. I’m sure your sock puppet brethren will be along soon to voice their support, offer their priceless thumbs ups and sop at the teat of your idiocy
Meanwhile, pentagon budget for 2024 provided $824.3 billion, an increase of $26.8 billion above fiscal year 2023.
But not enough money for air traffic controllers.
Slow clap
@Temp Stuff: The wording of the heli coming into the path of the plane, and that the jet smashed into the heli, is strange to me.
The video of it shows the heli heading directly for the plane from it’s right, without any deviation.
@Harry Paisley: well tell us there Harry. Give us one paragraph on why is a DEI issue, instead of what you usually do and just go against the grain, without any fact or argument. Go on Harry, please give us your input? I would bet you never even heard of the DEI framework before. Toxic.
@Brian Hunt: No one is, least of all the buffoon whose responsibility was to express compassion for those killed, solidarity with the bereaved and support for the investigators, aircraft control personnel, regency responders, etc. You know, the buffoon who concept of doing the job of president adequately boils down to nothing more than winning the election. As you are completely out of your depth, I thought you needed the obvious pointed out to you.
@Harry Paisley: Nah, that’d be Trump trying to provide explanations for his frequent mentions of Hannibal Lecter, garbled words, incomplete thoughts, conflating the names of prominent figures, and his penchant for rambling because he’s hyper-aware that people have noted that he’s making even less sense than he used to. What we’ve seen is a reflection of someone who’s very troubled and very desperate.
Disgusting, the way the leftist MSM are playing political football with this awful tragedy, I know the Left are unhinged, but it’s truly vile behaviour
@Joshua Walsh: trump is the perfect person to lead the US nation during a time of tragedy. His grace, his empathy, his wit are all unparalleled. MSM are just twisting his words, will someone please think of poor trump! So unfair!
@Jon Balfour: Nothing ‘vile’ about Trump using at tragedy to launch a rant at his predecessors then and displaying no empathy to the families? About blaming the victims before any investigation has taken place? I saw plenty of people that said they voted trump online condemning his carry on too, gave me hope that at least some of them might hold power to account.
@James.s.: That may be true, and there seems some evidence that Boeings recent problems are rooted in DEI also. But this was not the time for Trump to bring it up; immediately after a tragedy and before the investigation was complete.
@Fran Ken: Boeing’s problems are because they started letting accountants and management consultants control the production of aircraft instead of actual aeronautical engineers. There isn’t a shred of evidence that the DEI Boogeyman is to blame for Boeing, or for DC.
This was pilot error by the helicopter pilot. Nothing more. The CRJ was on an ils approach. The helicopter pilot said he had the aircraft in sight and was told by atc to go around behind them. For some strange reason he didn’t do as instructed and fly straight into them. ATC did their job and the CRJ was where it was supposed to be.
@Donal Martin: Incorrect. Poor communication from the ATC. He didn’t specify which direction the CRJ was approaching from. There was another CRJ departing National at the same time and they now believe the helicopter crew was looking at that. Also, the ATC should have realized that the helicopter was above it’s allowed ceiling of 200 ft in that flight corridor and should have alerted them of that error.
Omg, I thought my reality had been permanently rescinded. My only grasp of existence is commentating on the Journal. My obsessive checking of the absence of likes is my anchor to my identity. Panic attack avoided.
I’ll be with you soon, Miss Faithfull. Not yet. I’m still attached to the Journal’s umbilical cord. You are an icon. Let me know if it’s completely mental over there. If it’s acutely surreal, I’ll uncancel direct debit with the Beacon. Yes, I’m delaying the inevitable. I’m infantile.
@Pól Pot: you alright there, chief ? I’m an occasional commentator on Journal, but it looks like you have lost the plot with those rambling comments..
What are you on about??
@Bomber: It ain’t blinding me, correct. I make perfect sense. You, Bomber, are unable to decipher relatively simple philosophy. That’s why you your read the morning propaganda here. Trolling? Just bored. Give us a leg up in your field. An internship. I’ll fetch your jambons for you. I learn fast. Brown sauce?
@Pól Pot: Poor aul Setanta wouldn’t recognize a good time if it kicked him unconscious, same as the majority of regular posters on this kip. I know you’re gonna have a good day, Pol! Keep it lit, don’t join Marianne just yet ; )
No mention of a black box from the helicopter. Do military aircraft have black boxes? I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t as if, for instance, one was downed by enemy forces then the black box might disclose useful information.
The helicopter was on a “training mission “. Pure stupidity to have military training at a busy airport. But all military stuff is stupid. The military cover up will be interesting to listen to. More spinning than a nest of spiders!
@Jack Hayes: as far as I read the article they’ve recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of the plane, but are still searching for the equivalent ones of the helicopter
@Padraig O’Brien: They’ve been doing this safely for many years. The ATC was doing two jobs, the airline traffic and the helicopter traffic at the same time. Normally there’s two working there, one for planes and one for the choppers, but a supervisor released one and left one to do both jobs.
The one ATC screwed up, with poor communication and not recognizing that the chopper was above the allowed ceiling of 200 ft. in that corridor and alerting it. Obviously the helicopter pilot was also at fault for flying above that limit.
Disgusting individuals here still defending their orange master. I appreciate most are just brain dead trls but some seem to actually believe the insane things they say.
The Federal Aviation Administration is fighting a class-action lawsuit alleging it denied 1,000 would-be air traffic controllers jobs because of diversity hiring targets — as it was revealed that staffing levels were “not normal” at the time of this week’s deadly midair collision.
Complaints about the FAA’s hiring policies resurfaced after the American Airlines passenger plane and a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, killing 67 people in the country’s deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter-century.
The crux of the lawsuit is that the FAA, under the Obama administration, dropped a skill-based system for hiring controllers and replaced it with a “biographical assessment” in an alleged bid to boost the number of minority job applicants.
@Setanta O’Toole. It wasn’t such an issue then. Biden pushed DEI for four years and eliminated meritocracy for all government jobs. Next time you’re in a plane you might wonder if the pilot and the air traffic controller were hired for their competence, or for their skin colour or gender.
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