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People walk on the forecourt of Notre-Dame's cathedral. PA Images
Paris
Notre-Dame square reopens for first time since devastating fire
President Emmanuel Macron reiterated last month his goal of restoring Notre-Dame to its former glory by 2024.
4.35pm, 31 May 2020
20.4k
6
PARIS OFFICES HAVE removed the tall metal barriers surrounding the square in front of Notre-Dame cathedral, offering visitors a close-up look at the gothic monument for the first time since the devastating fire that struck last year.
“It’s almost a form of rebirth today,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, wearing a face mask, said in a short address to journalists while visiting the site with the cathedral’s rector Patrick Chauvet.
“Notre-Dame is the soul of Paris… It’s a site that doesn’t fail to impress you,” she said.
The square began to fill up under sunny afternoon skies as word of the unexpected reopening spread.
“Notre-Dame is our symbol, more than the Eiffel Tower,” said Stephanie Cadillon, a librarian. “We wanted to see how it had changed.”
The monumental facade and arched entrances remain blocked, however, behind beige security barriers as workers prepare to resume restoration work as France’s coronavirus lockdown is lifted.
The plaza was closed off shortly after the blaze on 15 April 2019 that nearly destroyed the 13th-century church, which millions of people watched on live TV worldwide.
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The fire completely consumed the oak beams and more than 300 tons of lead panelling in the roof, spewing toxic lead particles into the air as they melted.
Heavy concentrations of the metal settled on the square and nearby streets that proved particularly difficult to remove, sparking fears that residents could be exposed to poisoning.
Several schools were closed for weeks as workers decontaminated classrooms and playgrounds, and restoration work was halted after authorities demanded face masks and other protective gear for workers.
But the regional ARS health authority gave its approval Friday for reopening the site, which will be cleaned regularly as the renovation work slowly resumes.
Despite the delays, President Emmanuel Macron reiterated last month his goal of restoring Notre-Dame to its former glory by 2024.
Workers must still remove a tangled web of metal scaffolding that fused in the blaze, which erupted while the cathedral was undergoing restoration work on the roof.
The metal tubes must be cleared so that a more durable temporary roof can be installed to protect the cathedral’s priceless artworks from rain, and actual restoration work might not begin until next year.
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Over 600 people on hospital trolleys, seven million overspent on a hospital which not one patient has ever set foot in.. Yet in Ireland we have people out on the roads protesting about a new elected president thousands of miles away..
@Cosmo Kramer:
The leader of the US does affect Ireland. Apart from being a massive employer and large trading partner we have a lot of Irish citizens living in the US.
Do say US doesn’t matter is to be blind to what happened in 2008, they started the global financial crisis..
Ireland has one of the most open economies in the world, if America get a cold we get pnemonia.
And if that happens there will be no money for hospitals…
They don’t wanna get anything DONE they’re attention seekers
Americans have plenty of reason to protest, the fact that 54% of the country voted for someone else worry over him being a fascist but do you ever see people protesting the UK pm here?
It’s weird, when he starts a war yeh ok but he’s not even sworn in yet ffsake
Notice be it protesting invasions or leaders this shower never protest Russia or China or Serbia or Turkey plenty of fascist leaders and human rights abuses and invasions there…not s word
@Cosmo Kramer: People protesting a guy democratically elected, yet when taxes are raised, rights swindled away, corruption of the highest order rampant throughout, nobody bothers there ass’s….. good riddance to these people. Hope Trump gives them something to cry about…..
@Peedur Dante: You would think that, but he has not been in charge yet, and these have already happened. Wars started in the last 8 years under Obama…. corporations getting huge contracts to fund a war…. yes, Obama’s have shown grace and class…. and people believe that crock of shlt.
@Cosmo Kramer:
The elevation of Trump and our crumbling public health system here are both symptoms of the same problem. That is the capitalist system which exploits the many to enrich the few.
The purpose of the AAA-PBP bill last night was to prevent opportunistic evictions by landlords. Sale of property and family transfers are the most common justification used by landlords to remove tenants before the Part 4 tenancies expire and many of them are bogus in order to remove tenants and hike up the rent. The AAA-PBP bill was an attempt to close those loopholes and prevent the homeless crisis getting worse.
Interesting to note also that even neoliberal Labour party and free marketers like Stephen Donnelly voted for the bill as they understand that homelessness is a national crisis and cannot be allowed to escalate via forced evictions.
Turkey
“Enough is enough! The government has long violated democratic rights, the rights of workers, trade unions and minorities. The violence in Gezi Park was only the tip of the iceberg. Around 8,000 trade union and Left activists, journalists and Kurdish politicians are imprisoned. And Turkish media broadcast – supposedly on Erdogan’s orders – TV cooking shows while the people try to find out through foreign media and the internet what is going on in their country!
We call for:
• The immediate release of all people imprisoned during the protests and freedom for all political prisoners
• An independent working-class commission formed by unions and democratically elected representatives of the movement to investigate the police repression and bring those responsible to justice
• Full democratic rights, including the right to demonstrate and to form trade unions and political parties
• Abolishment of anti-terror laws and special courts and of all the repressive and reactionary laws implemented by the AKP in the past years
• An end to the repression of Kurds
“Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a Russian political activist and member of the punk group Pussy Riot, was jailed in August 2012 for hooliganism and blasphemy. Her crime was to stage an anti-Putin protest, along with two other performers, inside Moscow’s Orthodox Cathedral. Despite claims that Russia has made steps towards becoming a more open society, those in power took immediate steps to silence the band’s radical feminist message…… Under these circumstances it is vital for the international community of working people to mobilise, demanding the release of Russian dissidents like Nadezhda, and an immediate end to state repression.”
“ In the quarter century since the June 4th massacre, China’s economic growth achieved ‘miracle’ status, and despite its current slowdown is widely tipped to overtake the US as the world’s biggest economy before the end of the decade. The CCP’s model of ‘state capitalist’ development has created more dollar billionaires than anywhere outside the US, most of whom hold strong connections to the dictatorship and even sit in its auxiliary organs. The apparent successes of the CCP regime, after wading through the blood of anti-government protesters in 1989, has produced admirers among the world’s capitalists (even if many governments increasingly view China as a military and economic threat). This has also spawned the theory of “resilient authoritarianism” – a regime that has adapted, co-opted, and imitated, in order to stay in power.”
While you’re at it, how many sick or hungry people could be saved with the millions of dollars being spent on this inauguration charade?
Bread and circuses.. without the bread
@Cosmo Kramer: True there is a national demonstration tomorrow protesting about those issues and more and most of the people there this evening wont go to that ,why ? no politician will be let speak ,A.A.A/P.B.P. Sinn Fein ,wont support it ,as they cant control the agenda , shame on them
I find Trump to be loathsome, but the vapid whinging about him is a very entertaining silver lining.
For example, you heard about the “women’s march”? They wanted to get as many women as possible to voice their concern about his attitude to women, and to represent ‘marginalised groups.’
Then they banned pro-life feminists from taking part. But not the Council on American Islamic Relations. Lol!
@Emeralds: Yeah! I heard that one of the “Pro Life” groups (Students for Life) wasn’t going to’stand in solidarity with women.’ Their intention was to change viewpoints.So yeah,they were probably told to pi$$ off.Rightly so, too..
That’s nice, Francis. But not what I was talking about.
New Wave Feminists were due to take part in the rally (not protest against it) but were kicked out for being pro-life. The organisers of this march claim to be speaking for women. So firstly, they presume to speak for women (including the tens of millions who voted for Trump) and secondly their “intersectional”-ism doesn’t extend to women who disagree on one issue…….but it’s ok for Muslims to disagree. Oh, but they still claim to speak for those women they’ve banned
Students for Life have their own protest. Their right to assemble and express themselves are just as valid as your hypocritical feminist friends’. The fact that you’re so blasé about squashing those rights by simply “[telling] them to pi$$ off and rightly so” reveals your authoritarian leanings. This is where words like “feminazi” come from.
Fortunately, you’re impotent. They can protest if they want.
But they are women. For some reason these protesters think women are one homogenous group that think exactly the same as them. I suppose the point is that nobody can claim to speak for all women.
“Fortunately, you’re impotent. They can protest if they want.”
So the “new wave feminists” were going to march in solidarity with the organisers of this march who said : “We believe in Reproductive freedom.We believe in safe,legal affordable abortion”? Hahaha..Let them protest away with the other “pro life ” yokes …
@Emeralds: Muslims aren’t inherently anti-choice, in fact I don’t think there’s a single Muslim country with more restrictive abortion laws than Ireland. Look it up.
I wouldn’t deny most Muslim majority countries are conservatives in other ways, but the reality is usually a lot more complicated. Same with the “vapid whinging” which is actually minority groups terrified for their safety, and rightly so. They already faired badly enough under Trump, let alone someone who puts avowed white supremacists and anti-LGBT extremists in his cabinet.
I think all the next 4 yrs will show trump being the same as every other politician taking care of his wealthy friends and breaking the majority of his promises, the swamp is already as full as ever
@johnp: So why are people not out there protesting every other politician? Because they are stupid, from a pussy generation, who devoutly follow fake news.
@Barnes: he meant poor turnout on thejournal.ie comments sections. The usual losers who talk rubbish yet turn a blind eye to the many atrocities committed by Obama.
A lot of his voters contrary to popular perception are bit racists they voted for him cos he marketed himself as a populist
That groups gonna get huge buyers remorse when :
•They loose their health insurance or premiums explode even more (polls show many don’t realise the affordable care act and obamacare are the same thing)
•He signs an executive order as planned to kill overtime rules
•signs bill privatising social security so pensions are wiped in the next stock crash
….and on and on it goes
yes he’s been such a champion of the working man his whole life,stiffing contractors and putting people or e if business because he wouldn’t pay up, and then the wonderful trump university that screwed people out of there money, for nothing, you are so right he’ll be great for the working class and what an inspiring speech!?!!d*#k
@Barnes: People like you are a literal cancer on politics on society. Fascism isn’t a word you can take and apply to anything and there’s good reason why it’s come up in terms of Trump. Just as Jews & Roma from holocaust surviving families – many of them have made the comparisons themselves.
Fascism is not the same thing as “violence” and in fact a myriad of other ideologies, including no doubt your own, justify or use violence. The difference is you most likely believe in bombing the middle east and executing black people in cold blood as opposed to physically resisting a fascist regime.
So were the allies in WW2 by the same extension “the real fascists”? I guess you root for the Empire in Star Wars huh?
Haha the amount of whinging losers in town earlier was hilarious, could barely contain their rehashed, Clinton sponsored talking points long enough to stop shaking. What a glorious day, look forward to seeing how much the losers rampaging through the streets let themselves down even further tonight as darkness falls and the paid protesters ramp it up. May even raise a beer later on, brilliant.
@Henry Krinkle: It’s not about whinging. It’s about the fact that the US elected a borderline fascist and people are terrified for their safety and rights. The LGBT & Civil rights sections were removed from the White House website, and you still don’t think we have anything to worry about?
@Leighanna Rose Walsh: Why is it every time lunatics on the left run out of reasonable/logical arguments you retreat under the Nazi/fascist/Hitler banner, grow up ffs.
Perhaps it would be good idea to give him a year before judgment…….Trump has some new ideas let’s see how they work out ….He is not all evil and neither was Obama all good….Let’s hope he stops bombing countries in the middle east like Obama did yesterday Libya on his last day in office
In a show of solididarity to The Easily Offended, let’s all gather around a pyre of Riverdance cds, join hands, and belt out a few bars of ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing’.
There’s no one more easily offended than trump – ever see his early morning tweets? If trump was a duck, he’d drown with all the water stuck to his back.
@Tony Daly: The media did their best and CNN worked their hardest with even as it seemed to many, on giving ideas on how to kill Trump and acting like they wanted someone to do that?
“From this day forward it’s going to be only America first. America first.” What a statement when standing in front of the world. What an idiot made many promises to red neck America wonder how long before they start pointing their squirrel gens at Trump……
Before even looking I know this comment section is going to be full of people who value unsmashed windows more than the lives of minorities & LGBT people.
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