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A row of destroyed shops in Christchurch after 2011's earthquake. PA Archive/PA Images
New Zealand
President Higgins to visit people affected by deadly Christchurch earthquake
The centre of the city was largely levelled and a massive rebuilding project has been undertaken.
8.00am, 26 Oct 2017
7.6k
18
IRISH PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins is today visiting Christchurch in New Zealand to witness the reconstruction efforts in the city which was devastated by an earthquake in 2011.
185 people died in the earthquake, including two Irish citizens. Owen McKenna and John O’Connor lost their lives when buildings collapsed on them. Christchurch GAA renamed and rebranded itself Christchurch McKenna GAA Club in honour of Owen McKenna, from Co Monaghan.
The centre of the city was largely levelled and a massive rebuilding project has been undertaken in recent years.
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Around 1,600 Irish-born people were living in the greater Christchurch area in 2013. Over half arrived after the earthquake.
President Higgins will meet with members of the Irish community in Christchurch, including the spouses of John O’Connor and Owen McKenna. He will also visit the Re: Start Mall, a shopping centre made from shipping containers in the wake of the disaster.
He will also visit the Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial, the Bridge of Remembrance and an exhibition called Quake City.
Yesterday Higgins met with New Zealand’s Prime Minister-elect Jacinda Ardern.
A statement said that the President “thanked the Prime Minister-elect for the warm welcome he had received in New Zealand and spoke of the close ties between the two nations, the decision of each country to open an embassy in each other’s capital, and the values they share, including their work at the United Nations”.
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According to a recently published cross-border study over 1150 Irish people aged over 30 die annually as a result of air pollution, and burning turf is a principle cause of these deaths. Ming is a leading proponent of burning any and all the turf still remaining in Ireland and by implication possibly guilty of crimes against the Irish people on a huge scale. Does this qualify Ming as a Fascist also?
thats a pile of crap.. stopping turf cutting only allows the Gov’t to sell carbon tax credits, to billionaires, the likes of Denis O Brien & others, so he can fly his fat ass around the world on his private jet, alone, causing serious damage, burning aviation fuel to beat the band..
who knows, Gov’t probably make a nice x mas prezzie of them credits to their puppet master…
The question should be: how many people die prematurely as a direct result of lung disease and other ailments directly related to burning turf, compared to how many people die as a direct result of working for Denis O’Brien?
What do you think Denis O’Brien does all day? Fly around Ireland in his private jet polluting the skies? Like him or hate him (which you probably do out of jealousy) he has done a lot more for this country than a few anti establishment bog men who just can’t bear to be told what to do.
ross question for you
how many die on trollies everyday in our hospitals
how many take their own life as a result of all the austerity measures brought in by gov and by brought in I mean not part of the few “protected” citizens etc,
get your priorities right troll
It is not the COs that kills, over 1150 Irish people over age 30 die annually as a result of inhaling the cancer and other ailment causing particles as emitted by peat when burnt. To my knowledge CO2 emissions from power plants have not resulted in the death of a single person. As to how many workers have died when employed by Denis O’Brien, I don’t know, do you?
You may have a point @banner, unfortunately the question remains how much did he make honestly and without preferential benefits. Clearly FG helped him win a sweet deal re mobile networks last time they were in power. Funny how his name appears when FG are in power yet again and with a lot of questions.
They won’t respond to ttip questions on Facebook, won’t respond to ming on Facebook and won’t debate ming on irish media. I feel if they had something to say it would have been said by now
And Kevin, they wont even discuss it on the telephone. I called Sean Kelly, FG MEP, in Brussels. I could only speak to his assistant. Obviously Sean hisself wasn’t available to talk to a pleb like me. I was told that Kelly will be voting Yes, and that was essentially that.
Oh, anyone got a bit of spare credit on yisser fones? Give him a call on +333 88 1 75206 … let him know yer not happy with his lack of discussion on #TTIP. Indeed, if yis so believe, let him know yer not happy with him voting yes!
Ming is a nice chap, but at the end of the day he represents only himself at the European Parliament. He says what he likes and turns up when he likes. Even though I voted for him, I wouldn’t trust him to sit on the toilet properly…….
so u think the corpo facists, who are trying to destroy democracy & our freedoms, are representing us, and ming, who is one of a few who really do speak up for us, is only representing himself?
has anyone noticed that the media, newspapers, radio have not said one word about TTIP or CETA or the Bilderberg secret meeting being held for the Elites. total blackout!
Fascism:a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.
Enda and Co?
Well if they were fascists Ming would be locked up… Alas we Irish would never be that lucky. Ming is the biggest waste of space politician I have ever seen.
I remember him being on TV once and being asked what his policies were… He didn’t answer the question and instead launched into a tirade about the government.
Negative politics of the worst kind. I abhor the man.
You’re wrong. When Ming got elected as a TD he outlined his policies pretty well. He stood for local issues like turf cutting. He campaigned on these issues and won on them. He may be the king of hyperbole but he has a large set of balls. Even if he achieves nothing but sticking it to the man then I am a fan. We have completely sold our souls to the interests of big business, from Sepp Blather to Denis O’Brien everywhere you look there is another business winning and another government bowing bending over backwards.
Oh my apologies, I was wrong. I suppose he does have a policy on turf… That is true. That is the one policy area on which he is fluent.
But I’ve never once heard Ming say what he would do to the Health Service if he were Minister for Health, or what he would do in Finance if he were Minister there bar “ending austerity” which isn’t a complete policy in any form if you don’t spell out how you will do it. Likewise “sticking it to the man in Europe” is not a policy on how the country should be in the future.
Stephen Donnelly and Catherine Murphy prepare their own costed budgets each year at Budget time. Mick Wallace and Ming (when he was a TD) have never done this as far as I know. Stephen Donnelly and Catherine Murphy are the Independent politicians we need, not gombeen men against everything like Ming.
Please tell me how Ming’s policy on the health service will help improve my father’s treatment? Tell me how his tax policies will help create new jobs in my locality. Turf cutting won’t create many jobs, that I can tell you… Tell me how his education policies will improve Ireland’s education rankings…
I just prefer politicians with ideas and policies…
what has that got to do with TTIP, and the nefarious way FG/ PPE are trying to vote this psychopathic law through EU parliament without even a debate on its contents before a vote?
The same way they did with Irish water privatisation… we are governed by traitors, selling us out, for the benefit of corporates, who seem to be writing these law and force them through undemocratically.
you are scraping the bottom of the political barrel, trying to obfuscate the actual thread, while carrying out a character assassination in the process…
Bruton claims a growth rate for Ireland two and a half times the best estimates of the ‘EU payed for independent experts’ his figures are pulled out of his arse, like most pocket stuffers he hangs around with in this country. https://www.facebook.com/Lukemingflanagan/posts/829124837164834:0
Justin…the only time Independents get media time is when the do something controversial, otherwise it’s a FG/Lab love in with a media afraid to print anything that upsets the applecart of their owners.
too risky to be seen to give opposing view these days just look at what happened to the journalist who knocked on callinan’s door, got the boot nad won her case plus damages and apolgies from the independent newspaper, but still gone all the same
You’re right Uncle Sam! I did spell it wrongly. But I also know my history and another fact is that Fine Gael expelled the Blueshirts while Eddie Coll was busy imposing his corporatist constitution, modelled on Mussolini’s, and executing splittists from his own splinter off the original Sinn Fein which ratified the Anglo Irish Treaty.
@ThomasAquinas. Whats your point?? What you seem to be saying is that the Shinners also have a Fascist past. Interesting. I did not know that. Well, Fianna Fail, The Republican Party, unlike Fine Gael and (according to you) Sinn Fein, definitely does not have ANY Fascist past and has always been fully committed to Democracy. Fact. #GoodatDemocracy
I suppose “slightly constitutional” means nothing to you and neither does “humpph, don’t like that vote so we’re outta here… see you in the civil war”.. democratic… my eye
A trade agreement written in secret by corporations ,whereby sovereign goverments are liable to be sued by the same corporations if they don’t do as these corporations wish.
We may as well accept the microchip in the hand if this goes ahead , this is global corporate government in our faces .
I bet not one of our MEPs has read this treaty or will , much the same way no politician read the lisbon treaty .
DOB is illuminati, his rise in Ireland is all part of a bigger plan, a world wide plan where we are only a pebble in the lake, he is in fact systematically taking over the media and as much as he can get his hands on in Ireland, he doesn’t once have FF in his pocket he has numberous other politicians too from all parties, Irish water, TTIP, the IMF bailout, it’s all part of the big plan for a one world government, no borders, depopulation… It’s all a sinister plan!! JFK spoke against them he got shot, many others have suffered the same fate, open your eyes people!! This shit is real!!
All I want to know is what has Buttimer got to do with this debate exactly? He’s not in any way involved in the TTIP debate as far as I know. He’s not on the Dáil committee dealing with the issue. Why is he singled out from an FG group of 70 TDs?
he actually has the best work attendance record in EU Parliament from all irish MEP’s, since his wife recovered for a serious illness.
of course a fool such as yourself wouldn’t know about this, since your hero’s paper the indo don’t do balanced reporting, only character assassinations on the people who are fighting the oligarchs for real change for the better of all the people they represent…
What a typically ignorant comment from a government shill….
Anybody remember the cannabis debate on TV where Ming was pro cannabis all the way. Then, when asked at the end if he would let his kids smoke it he said NO!! What an idiot of a chap.
why would any reasonable, responsible adult let their kids smoke weed?
he also said it was their own choice when they were old enough to make that decision for themselves.
some of these idiot FG/Lab troll bots should get a life.. not much to do in the irish water call center, to actually earn their wages, with all the customer queries they don’t have…
I was pointing out what a double standards hypocrite he was. Imagine going on for an hour about how harmless Cannabis is, insisting that alcohol was far worse. Then they asked him will you bring your son for his first joint when he turns 18? He completely contradicted his own argument.
it is his kids decision to make for themselves you fool…
are you hoping he will tie them down and force feed them week, just to avoid a blatantly obtuse, ridiculous accusation of hypocrisy from a journal commenter?
as far a hypocrisy in Irish politics go, your point is beneath contempt… utterly stupid even..
I have absolutely no problem with people choosing for themselves.
I do have a problem with the number one cannabis legalisation lobbyist admitting that he wouldn’t take his adult son for a joint. Its obviously not as harmless as Ming claims. If it was, why would he have a problem with taking him for a joint.
Thousands of dads take they’re son for there first pint. Ming claims alcohol is far safer than alcohol. But yet he wont bring his son for a joint? That’s pure idiotic hypocrisy.
I think you missed the point Bannerboy. Ming is a father and advocates the right to let his children make their own adult decisions when they are of age to do so.
If Ming Jr says to his dad on his 18 birthday, “Da, I’d like to try a joint” I’m sure he’d say “Son, your old enough to make your own mind up now, if you wanna smoke your gonna have to run to the shop, grab skins and dominos is on me”
Ming wasn’t advocating anyone under the age of 18 smokes cannabis. That would be silly now wouldn’t it.
When a piece of legislation which 71% of the country don’t know about gets passed in a parliament where the irish people make up 2-3% of that very parliament one has to ask how diluted democracy gets before its considered fascism. fascism is always one vote or one law away and ming is right to bring up the founders of fine gael and to draw comparison. If fine gael won’t debate him In the irish media then why are they voting yes? Surely they can defend their reasoning for their yes vote
Great to see that Ming is actually in the Parliament for a change…
“Independent MEPs Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan and Brian Crowley have the worst voting record among Irish MEPs at the European Parliament, new figures show.
Data from VoteWatch Europe shows Mr Crowley participated in none of the votes held during the plenary sessions of the European Parliament since the European elections in May, while Mr Flanagan had a voting rate of 16 per cent.”
ming had one of the best attendance records in roscommon council for a decade. After the spindo falsely reported his attendance record we found him to be one of the highest attended tds in the dail and the only reason he missed a few weeks in Europe was because his wife was in hospital. despite this he worked from home and you want to use these circumstances to paint a negative picture? sad individual.
The vote postponement was objected via a citizens initiative with 2.5 million signatures and if 40 MEPs stood up (which they did) in the parliament the vote had to be added to the agenda, it wasn’t.
Then ming asked all the YES MEPs on twitter to debate him and they all refused. Comparison to fascism or not we are far away from a inclusive, open democracy.
ming had one of the best attendance records in roscommon council for a decade. After the spindo falsely reported his attendance record we found him to be one of the highest attended tds in the dail and the only reason he missed a few weeks in Europe was because his wife was in hospital. despite this he worked from home and you want to use these circumstances to paint a negative picture?
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