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RTÉ HAS ANNOUNCED that Claire Byrne will be the new presenter of the Today programme in the prime 10am slot on RTÉ Radio 1.
Byrne had been heavily tipped for the role, despite the recent strong showing of Sarah McInerney in the hot seat since Sean O’Rourke’s retirement in May.
The new role for Byrne follows stints as presenter of the News at One and the Claire Byrne Live show on RTÉ television.
She’ll take the reins next Monday 24 August at 10am. Her TV show will also return to RTÉ One in September.
Sarah McInerney, meanwhile, will remain at RTÉ with details of her next project set to be announced in the coming weeks.
Byrne said: “I am truly delighted, honoured and humbled to be taking on this new role at RTÉ Radio 1. My job will be to represent the voices of the RTÉ Radio 1 listeners, and to always ask the questions they want answered at this most critical time. I won’t let them down.”
The head of RTÉ Radio 1 Peter Woods praised Byrne for “vast experience” and said she’ll bring a “natural curiosity, focus and real integrity” to the Today programme.
He added: “I’ve no doubt, with an excellent team in place, Today with Claire Byrne will continue to set the headlines in these, unprecedented times. I’d also like to thank Sarah McInerney for her considerable input, on this station, since last May and am looking forward to continuing working with her.”
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No mention by Mr Shatter about the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem which kicked off this latest round of violence.
If football teams can train now then people can peacefully protest something as horrific as what’s happening in Palestine. Time to relax on the control lads. We’ve listened enough to your awful decisions. Common sense and opening up now. Back to some normal life. The older people are vaccinated. #FreePalestine
@TheMinisterForCraic: Also not sure how this would work legally, because I was under the impression your right to protest supercedes the covid restrictions?
@Ste McGovern: no. The right to protest is not absolute.
@Paul Clancy: Correct. But protests can occur outside the framework of rights. They can be closer to a natural force.
@TheMinisterForCraic: The older people are mainly vaccinated but not all the vulnerable people.
people training are doing it in pods of 15. Thats is the number allowed same as the protest.
@Paul Clancy: Not in an emergency situation which the Covid-19 pandemic is.
Now if they tried to stop it under normal circumstances then they would be wrong.
What organisation is Alan Shatter representing when he addresses the Oireachtas foreign affairs committee?
@Brendan Barry: Mossad? Himself? How Jewish people feel? Who knows
@Paul Whitehead: yes, apparently.
The one-sided, naive view of this situation in Ireland is mostly based on antisemitism.
@John Mulligan: look at the actions of our state after ww2 when we allowed a couple of hundred jewish refugees into ireland and had moved most of them on within a relatively short period.
@John Mulligan: nothing to do with it. Can disagree with actions of Israel without being anti Semitic
@Paul Whitehead: @Paul Whitehead: being anti-Israel is not the same as anti semitic the same way being anti Saudi Arabia isn’t anti Muslim. It’s is a typical tactic applied by those who wish to muddy the water when it comes addressing Israels crimes against the Palestinians. If Israel stopped bulldozing people out of their homes then maybe then they could quell the situation and persue peace. I don’t support Hamas, but if someone chased me outta my family home or murdered my mother and father in an air strike then it would put a gun in my hands too. Its not that long ago that the same was happening only a few hundred kms to our people.
@Colm Walsh: why is it then, if its not antisemitic, that you guys are obsessive with this one conflict only.
There’s a multitude of conflicts filling the planet, so why only this one..
… Please explain it to me, as I, m kean to learn..
@Victor Feldman: the Israelis shouldn’t be kicking people out of their homes and off their land it’s a situation the Irish only know to well…
@Victor Feldman: plenty of people pretty outraged with other conflicts too. America behave appallingly too. Isreal is a country that’s modern, developed and has a certain global status. They should be behaving better on their own doorstep. Nice try though Victor.
@Victor Feldman: Nobody is obsessed with this conflict. We’re apauled by it. Children murdered by the day on both sides with impunity. Families torn apart and brutalised in the name of a power hungry Hamas and a Zionist oppressor. There’s no winners here. Its heartbreaking to watch again and again and again as they pull kids from the rubble of hospitals bombed by Israel. wars like this were fought on this island too. Brutal, unforgiving and left little in the way of sympathy towards innocent victims of bombs and stray bullets. The IRA were bombing London up until 1996. Then talks began for peace in 1997. Both sides had enough and peace was the only way forward. When will that bell sound in Israel and Palestinian?
Anyone been to the Marina market in Cork recently? Literally hundreds of people getting food, mulling around, some with masks, some without. No controls on capacity. Has there been any outbreak linking to it? I doubt it, because the numbers in Cork have been quite low the last few months.
To block this protest would be a utterly shameful. The double standards are all over the place, and you pick a peaceful protest over the killing of innocent people by and apartheid regime to make a point? It’s not that long ago that we were fighting for our own freedom. Whoever made this decision should be ashamed of themselves.
@Eoin: The right to protest is indisputable. The manner in which you so do is subject to strict regulation at present. If the markets are being abused re the pandemic and the advised and enforceable social distancing advice that is being ignored that is no reason to allow a free for all at a human rights protest. Both sides have a fervent and underlying traditional aspiration that is virtually irreversible unfortunately .. the annihilation of the other …
@Eoin: The right to protest is indisputable. The manner in which you so do is subject to strict regulation at present. If the markets are being abused re the pandemic and the advised and enforceable social distancing advice that is being ignored that is no reason to allow a free for all at a human rights protest. Both sides have a fervent and underlying traditional aspiration that is virtually irreversible unfortunately .. the annihilation of the other …
@Terry Cahill: restrictions which will remain on the statute books and used as needed. For the sake of balance will anyone protest agdinst the missiles being launched against civilian targets in Israel. I doubt this will happen but civilians are being murdered there too though not on the same numbers but where is the outrage over these deaths. Why not protest over the intransigence of both sides to come to a negotiated peace.
@Dangling Damo: That is strange as all parties have said the legislation will be taken off the statute book as soon as the pandemic has finished.
Oh how convenient. That would have been a very sizeable march. There have been socially distanced marches during lockdown, why cancel this one? So many people are so very disgusted with Israel’s attitude to Palestine. The government would have had to take notice and pass the occupied territories bill. Is Drew Harri pro Israel? BDS.
@Mary Fitzsimons: @Mary Fitzsimons: Recent taxi driver planned protest blocked also and several others. No singling out here.
@Mary Fitzsimons:
Drew Harris is a Unionist. They are usually pro Israel, being colonial settlers themselves, but of course we don’t know his position.
In any case this would have been a political decision.
How convenient, the virus comes in handy when they need an excuse.
Here’s a bit of balance in this debate if anyone cares about getting a better more accurate understanding of what’s going on. https://youtu.be/njEeRTekraU
@whatistheseason: so have you asked yourself why Hamas get so much support?
@whatistheseason: Ah yes, Ben Shapiro, always a voice of reason…
@Fr. Fintan Stack: Because those living in Gaza are living on a strip of land Israel believes, through their religion, is their right? Because, if the roles were reversed, you’d be all for that ethnic cleansing? This is about religion, not land. Israel has the misfortune of not being Muslim, but being surrounded by them and a group of religious leaders succeeding in making those outside the region feel sympathy for them, when they shop pics of bloody children all over the world.
@Eoin: How is anything he said in that video not correct? Are we still that antisemitic as a nation that we can’t listen to BOTH sides with an open mind? Their 3rd holiest mosque is still on the top holiest spot in Judaism. If Jews wanted to ethnically-cleanse over land, they’d have done it by now.
@Contrary Mary: If the roles were reversed I’d be all for ethnic cleansing? What are you on about? I’m not for ethnic cleansing. No more than I support the ethnic cleansing in Europe a few decades ago. But I am for equal treatment and the right to some sort of say in their own lands. Why do you think the IRA got so much support from the Catholic community 1969/70? They didn’t just wake up suddenly and say, we want a united Ireland. It was about their treatment as second class people and getting burnt out of their homes. As the years went by and they got some form of housing, voting, jobs and education equality support for IRA dwindled. And maybe some arabs living in Israel have a better lot but not in Palestine. Bomb the crap out of a few million people in an area smaller than Co Louth and you only harden their support for Hamas.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: It sounds like, in the linked video, that the current Hamas leadership don’t have a lot of support from the Palestinians.
I’m no lover of Jews, Israel or any particular religion or country but I get the impression that the media and some politicians are quite anti Israel.
I’m no lover of Islamists either and right now they are getting a free pass from the media and leftist politicians, much like the BLM rioters in many US cities. My current general understanding is that basically, the left (and the media for that matter) needs chaos to justify their existence.
@Eoin: Is that sarcastic or did I miss the point? In my experience conservatives are usually defined by their call to reason and liberals for the love of freedom regardless of the realities. Both have their positives and negatives and neither is preferable at all times but that’s the way politics organises itself. Another conservative worth listening to is Thomas Sowell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVoDiVs0XpE
@whatistheseason: We all know the aims of Hamas. It’s no secret. And I would hate to live under them where my life is dictated by some sort of twisted ideology. But Israels failure to deal with the PLO and/or give the Gaza/Palestinian people some sort of life in their own lands left a vacuum now filled by Hamas. Both sides are now so filled with hate that the future just looks bleak…. Unfortunately videos like that from either side just entrench sides.
@whatistheseason: Balance? LOL – Ben Shapiro is a right-wing extremist troll. I got 2mins into the video and there were already numerous inaccuracies and weasel-words, masquerading as facts.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: Thanks for the honest opinion, I’ve got to the limit of my understanding on the topic! I’m going to check up on a bit of the history and might get back on here! Would you think Ben Shapiro is in any way worth listening to? It’s just that I hate the liberal media colonising the narrative so I’ve given up with listening to them..
@Johnny: Honest question: Tell me some of the inaccuracies he says?
@whatistheseason: Ben Shapiro?…cmon on man.
Palestine is controlled by HAMAS an Islamic terrorist organisation not much better than ISIS. Unfortunately while that continues nothing much will change
So we have Coveney on the one hand defending the right of Arabs to protest in Israel while the Gardai are preventing people from protesting in Ireland. Makes sense.
Have a friend who’s temporarily working in Tel Aviv on a temporary transfer from his job in Dublin. He sent me a video of the night sky the other evening with the Israeli defence rocket system lighting up the sky. You can hear tannoy announcements in the background telling people to take cover.
Very surreal. The most he’s had to dodge in the past is a couple of eggs being thrown at him as a teenager.
People have a right to protest about many issues they feel deeply about, but in these covid times the problem is about public crowds and social distancing.
I agree that protest should not go ahead but something must be done to stop Israel and its attempt to annihilate Palestine. Much was made of Ireland getting a seat on the UN and plaudits handed out to those responsible now let’s see what use it is. We should boycott Israel and her products it worked in SA.
People March for Palestine, rightly enough. But can we not get a protest together for this housing dilemma asking for a friend
@antisocialbarber: great idea, but this is about the displacement of the Palestinian people & the killing of civilians in the Middle East.
Maybe a forum for your friend’s difficulties elsewhere?
The hypocrisy on here is laughable
Iran and Saudi have used Yemen as a location for their proxy war for the last few years and no one bats an eyelid considering the loss of life in Yemen is substantial through bombings and lack of food and medical supplies but one word from that dump they call gaza and the world loses its mind but nothing for the people who really are suffering in Yemen
@James Grant: brilliant James.. But nobody is willing to address that point.
Why are they only fixated on this one conflict..! I, m searching for answers.
@James Grant: whataboutery
@Victor Feldman: you’re not searching for answers though. You have your answer already: people are fixated on Isreali /Palestine conflict because they are anti semites.
@James Grant: When you consider the Saudis are back military by the U.S. and England the proxy war in Yemen who make Billions through the sale of arms. The U.S.the again supply’s the military hardware to Israel that is now used against Palestine. The propaganda spun by people who say to criticise Israel is anti semitic is akin to saying all Germans were Nazis. Israel has turned into the regime that once tried to exterminate them .
Have a friend who’s temporarily working in Tel Aviv on a temporary transfer from his job in Dublin. He sent me a video of the night sky the other evening with the Israeli defence rocket system lighting up the sky. You can hear tannoy announcements in the background telling people to take cover.
Very surreal. The most he’s had to dodge in the past is a couple of eggs being thrown at him as a teenager.
I’ll Be There ✊
What about having a protest by car? People can drive to Dublin City Centre. Let the Gardaí deal with that!
The IDF need to be accountable for the slaughter of innocent lives and the same goes for anyone else who claim the lives of others.
Who will say they stood up for the Palestines and prove it
A protest over the abuse and control of housing is what people should be protesting about.
have your say