We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Updated at 1.20pm
RUSSIA’S EXPULSION OF 23 British diplomats “doesn’t change the facts of the matter” of the poisoning of a former double agent in an English city, Prime Minister Theresa May has said.
Russia was “in flagrant breach of international law,” she told her Conservative Party’s spring forum, adding that Britain “will consider our next steps in the coming days”.
“Russia’s response doesn’t change the facts of the matter – the attempted assassination of two people on British soil, for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable,” she said.
May blames Russia for the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury on 4 March, which has left them both fighting for their lives.
She warned that Britain “will never tolerate a threat to the life of British citizens and others on British soil from the Russian government”.
But she said Britain had “no disagreement with the Russian people”.
Earlier this week, Britain announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats and suspension of high-level contacts over the poisoning.
Moscow responded today by expelling 23 British diplomats from Moscow in a tit-for-tat measure.
“Twenty three diplomatic staff at the British embassy in Moscow are declared persona non grata and to be expelled within a week,” the foreign ministry said in a statement after summoning the British ambassador Laurie Bristow.
It would also halt activities of the British Council across the country, it said.
“Due to the unregulated status of the British Council in Russia, its activity is halted,” the foreign ministry said in a statement referring to Britain’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.
It also said it would halt the activities of the British Council, the country’s international organisation for cultural relations, in Russia.
“We are profoundly disappointed at this development,” the British Council said in a statement.
It is our view that when political or diplomatic relations become difficult, cultural relations and educational opportunities are vital to maintain on-going dialogue between people and institutions.
Britain said it had “anticipated a response of this kind” and that its National Security Council would meet early next week to consider its “next steps”.
Relations between the two countries have deteriorated rapidly in the 10 days since ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were attacked with a nerve agent in Salisbury, south-west England.
May said earlier this week that Russia was “culpable” for the attack, either directly or because Moscow had “lost control” of the nerve agent.
On Wednesday Britain said it would “suspend all high-level bilateral contact” with Russia, and expel 23 Russian diplomats, suspected of being spies, out of the UK.
No British royals or ministers will attend the World Cup in Russia, May told the House of Commons.
The US, France and Germany have all supported the UK’s decision to take action against the first use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War.
- with reporting from Gráinne Ní Aodha
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
There will never be any genuine effort to hold the religious orders or their members to account for the institutionalised slavery, abuse and crimes against humanity carried out in the laundries, as long as the government of the day depends on the votes of God fearing elderly Catholics to stay in power. The magdeline laundries could not have operated without the deference of politician and assistance of our police force, so it’s not surprising that the children and grandchildren who took their relatives seats in the Dail are so reluctant to to the right thing.
@The Risen: Nailed it. It always comes down to votes and cash. The criminals will continue to get away scot free as long as their tribe of devoted followers have votes. There’s no political will in Ireland to prosecute criminals in the Catholic church.
@The Risen: I agree. Its odd though that when the journal published an article on the similarities between how the church and the provos treated their abuse victims you attacked the author of the article. What’s different now?
@The Risen: Very well put
@The Risen: when do expect these God fearing Catholics to expire? And who will they replace the parties with?
@The Risen: I agree but society also needs to hold their hands up and take some blame. Families would willingly hand over siblings etc to the authorities. It amazes me how much control the church had on generation’s. But from the laundries to the mental institutions the people are not blameless. Ok it could be argued that their was a group think mentality at the time but still.
@The Risen: it will never happen in an Ireland governed by the FF/FG merry go round. The main tenet of such governance being that the ‘ establishment protects the establishment at all costs’. NOTHING ever changes in the Status quo.
@The Risen: The redress scheme was projected to get 3,000 application and got 30,000. That cost something like €3 bill. Who is there to be prosecuted? Some old dear in her 90′s with failing memory? I’d prosecute the people responsible for dishing out €3 bill and the lawyers who drew up the statements of claim.
Every nun,priest ,”christian” brother,bishop, cardinal and pope should be dragged before a UN human rights abuse court for what the did in this country ..
@dangermouse: True. Absolute slime.
The govt not prosecuting is an embarrassing they are complicit
@dangermouse: Slime. Govt not prosecuting renders them complicit in my eyes
@Chris Finn: Far more to than that Chris. Doctors, barristers, Gardai, and politicians either knew or were directly involved to some extent, or at least the cover-ups afterwards.
To prosecute members of the church, they also have prosecute others outside the church. That’s why we’ll never see anyone held to account.
@dangermouse: Should’a, could”a, would’a. And let’s be realistic. Dramatisation helps nobody.
@Good Early: The families of these poor souls would have also been well are of what was going on in these places and yet continued to send many women there. No one was forced to hand their daughters over to these people. My own mam knows women who got pregnant in these times. The priests would come looking for them and many of the families told the priests where to go and that no uncertain terms would their daughters be going anywhere.
@dangermouse: UN human rights? They are doing the same themselves with girls in Africa
the people of ireland and families didnt care about these “fallen” women at the time. they were shunned and left on the streets. the only place to take them in was the laundries. ireland of the time was a tough and cruel place. these women greatly suffered but it was everyones fault.
@p kilgannon: More lies. Lonely people working away from home in a country with no contraception and no published information? Of course you had some secret pregnancies. Why worry a family who already had too many children to feed and needed money sent home? I am sure that most of those women never knew what had happened to them at first. It certainly wasn’t something to write home about. It’s such a lie to say they were abandoned by their families. I doubt they ever knew. I see not a single word of blame for the lads who fathered a child in these tough cruel times. That’s so charitable of you.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: no i didnt specifically blame the lads nor did i blame the ladies. no need for you to get so defensive. you are wrong, many women were abandoned by their families when they became pregnant. this is well known and told by the women themselves. this was happening regularly in ireland even in the 1980s.
Who are they going to prosecute. Who is responsible for the laundries . The church , nuns , government . The laundries provided a service that public was quiet happy to use .
Would be difficult to get a conviction…However the state should gave tried a test case….Bring a nun in her 80′s before a court….Find some witnesses to what she did to the women in the laundry…..Leave the decision to a judge…..Defence would be that was accepted culture of the time…..
@John003: piss away money for nothing to come of it. You don’t prosecute unless there is a reasonable chance it will be successful.
@John003: then the civil side of it. The thousands of families who dumped their daughters would need to reconcile inheritance monies with their as yet unknown families.
@lavbeer: Why would the State want to challenge any wills? Those women had no money – otherwise they would have had rights.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: I was thinking of the children themselves challenging Willa they would have been disinherited from? Why not? I would be looking for my rightful place
@lavbeer: And good luck to you if that’s your choice. But I think any independently wealthy family wouldn’t have let a child of theirs be basically sent to the workhouse to be abused. They would be the only people with any assets to pass on. My guess is that most working women were sent into service because there were too many children to feed already. Most had no resources or any voice to begin with. You don’t seriously think that the church split the adoption fee with the girl’s family? I’m pretty sure that they kept every penny of it. Sure they didn’t even bury the children they starved.
The UN has no standing on human rights when some of their council members have the worst record on human rights. I can’t take any of it seriously when the Saudi’s are involved.
So let’s release all the “excitable boys” into the community. Or let’s build more jails to house the current inmates. Let’s worry about the cost later. A sure why not tax all those pesky workers even more…
The UN…one of the most pointless & useless organisations around… who cares what they say?
I dont believe in tarring everyone with the same brush ,lets not forget there was good nuns and priests doing sterling work in all fields .The mob mentality does nothing but divide us as a people .there are many storys i can recollect of wrong done ,personal stories ,but others where great human kindness was shown .there will always be legacy issues ,those that done terrible things and got away with it ,but lets not be judge and jury .society in those days had a victorian mindset ,IS it not wonderful to see how our social and moral values have changed for the better .
Human rights for all except single mothers and their babies.
The price of sin is the surrender of basic human rights.
That time has passed and the generation that were so fearful…respectful… of the religious are dying out literally, like myself. By all means prosecute, if there is evidence against any individual which can be proven, but take small comfort in the fact that no child today is afraid of a priest, nun, brother, or anyone higher up the God chain.it is over.
The chances of legal accountability of the perpetrators are zero.
@Tony Daly: Yes, you can tell by the way that the ‘sinful’ fathers-to-be were locked up, humiliated and beaten until they were able to provide for their natural child. Oh, wait.
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say