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Updated, 16.37
ALL MEMBERS OF an Garda Síochána have been told that all annual leave booked between May 16 and 25 has been cancelled, ahead of the expected confirmation of the dates for the visits of Queen Elizabeth and US president Barack Obama.
Officers have been informed that the Queen’s visit is all but confirmed for Tuesday May 17 to Thursday May 19, with Obama’s trip to Ireland likely to come in the days that follow.
The Garda arrangements also indicate that Obama’s visit could see him stay in Ireland for four nights, with the visit of the US commander-in-chief beginning potentially as early as the evening of Friday May 20 – just a day after Queen Elizabeth returns to the UK.
The arrangements contradict reports from last week when it was suggested that Obama’s visit to Ireland could be as short as five hours – and suggest that the visit could also include a tour of the premises of major US firms with Irish bases, such as Dublin’s European headquarters of Facebook and Google, and the major Pfizer production plant at Grange Castle in Clondalkin.
Aside from the heralded visit to Moneygall in Co Offaly – home of Obama’s great-great-great-grandfather Fulmouth Kearney who left Ireland in 1850 – the tour is now also expected to include Kilkenny, where an even earlier ascendant of Obama, former Trinity College provost Bishop John Kearney is buried.
While the nine-day window for cancelled Garda leave ends includes the 25th, President Obama will already have left by the 24th given outstanding commitments elsewhere – including, coincidentally, a three-day visit to the UK including meetings with the Queen.
Obama will therafter travel to Paris for a G8 summit before returning to the United States.
The news also comes on foot of confirmation from Cork’s Lord Mayor last week that the Queen would be visiting Leeside, though the projected date offered by mayor Michael O’Connell of Friday May 20 may now require revision.
An official Garda spokesman said directives issued by the Garda Commissioner to all officers were confidential, though sources within the force confirmed that all leave requests had already been cancelled for the nine-day window.
It is also believed that the GAA has all but confirmed arrangements for Queen Elizabeth to visit Croke Park during her three-day tour of Ireland, with senior officials within the association and stadium examining the possibility of the Queen making a public address in the stadium.
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Turkey has been threatening this for a while… These people want to get to EU countries mostly France and Germany and former EU country the UK, but Europe is not assisting the Turks, it’s only a matter of time again…. and many of these could be ISIS fighters wanting to return home…. They need to be accessed with proper documentation and all finger printed, just like the EU does with African refugess/asylum seekers.
@Paul O’Sullivan: the EU needs to hold firm against this Turkish blackmail
@Paul O’Sullivan: and where is the database with all the fingerprints of the ISIS fighters?
@SFAnkleTapper: there is none…. Asylum seekers only have to give their fingerprints at the point of application for Asylum. Many of the ISiS fighters will be returning to their home countries UK /Belgium /France men of Arab origin who destroyed their documentation who will be moonlighting as Syrian refugees. Hence my point a record needs to be kept of these individuals.
If they are genuine they have nothing to hide. The fingerprinting is to keep a record of any future incidents.
@Paul O’Sullivan: so no prevention.
@SFAnkleTapper: I agree a disaster isn’t it.
Turkey is chomping at the bit for a land grab & war with Syria, The SAA are battle hardened and have the support of Russia, Erdogan will get his ass handed to him along with his aspirations for Turkish conquest.
Greece should take no more refugees with militants in the mix. The Greeks of Lesbos and Chios have made it clear they will take no more.
@Raven: That’s all well and good, but if the Turks are brought into a War it could lead to them at war with Iran, that will result in an attack on the toxic state of Israel. That will bring in the US and Nato…
Turkey has been asking for assistance with this a long time. The refugess dont want to be in Turkey they want to be in the EU. That’s the problem..
@Paul O’Sullivan: has its stands. Very large amounts of refugees /migrants from the middle east who are mostly Muslims have landed on Europe’s shores and have gain entry into Europe mainland . There is many issues with integration with the local populations,these people would be arriving from strict Islamic society’s.they would have sever problems with western cultures and liberal values. could these people not be relocated to mostly Moslem countries where their culture and religious values would be respected and inforced
@Paul O’Sullivan: Sure, They have been asking for help, but what is the reply from Saudi, The Emirates etc? This is causing social issues within Europe, but you won’t hear about parallel societies, non integration, crime stats via MSM.
@Raven: oh I agree with you Arab nations have never really looked after struggling Arabs..Saudi Arabia is one of the most despicable countries on the planet, if they had no oil they would have nothing…
@Bobby wilson: Agree with you totally, but Europe may need to provide something to keep them out….
@Bobby wilson: think it’s mainly you that doesn’t respect *muslim values. Why does a religion need to be *enforced on anyone? If you’re not Muslim then what does it matter to you?
Standard rhetoric from you eh lad.
@Paul O’Sullivan: You say the refugees want to be in the EU, but where they really want to be is at home in the communities they grew up in and live in. Tens of thousands of ordinary people are being murdered and used as pawns by the Turkish regime and others to further their objectives in the region.
@Paul O’Sullivan: “if the Turks are brought into a War”
Turkey is at war with Syria.
In the past 2 weeks the Turks have destroyed 5% of Syria’s armour, kiled 100s of Syrian government troops, and today they shot down two Syrian jets and destryed several air defence systems.
Here’s is video footage of Turkish troops firing an anti-aircraft missile from a rooftop, shooting down a Syrian government helicopter 2 weeks ago (could so easily have been Russian), with Al Qeada aillied fighters cheering in the foreground (loud warning):
https://twitter.com/Adnan_Alhusen/status/1227857701604069376
Turkey released 10 minutes of footage of them blowing up Syrian army tanks and troops with drones, recorded over the last 2 weeks in Idlib:
@Dermot Foley: so how do you preposed for myself and the Irish people on the island of IRELAND and main land Europe respect our new Muslims populations as refugees /migrants into their towns and cities. like in some parts of Britain where sharia laws are recognized by courts of lands like in their own home lands ..etc …as someone who live and work in a Islamic society over a period time it is completely different way of life if your not a Muslim and saying it very mildly
@Paul O’Sullivan: why does the Irish people and Europe have to offer them anything ! Why not the world how many refugees arrived in Japan which is one of the richest countries in the world….what’s happening in the middle east is very complex is centre around religion its bother fighting brother…
@David Jordan:
So Turkey being a member of NATO would mean NATO are at war with Syria.
@Dermot Foley:
Some rhetoric there at the Greek border, wouldn’t you agree.
https ://twitter.com/BasedPoland/status/1234038726952673281?s=20
@Raven: * So Turkey being a member of NATO would mean NATO are fighting with al Qaeda.
Here’s Turkish fighter jets sky writing over a Turkish base in Syria…
@Bobby wilson: you want sharia law recognised like parts of the UK!?!?
YOU go and live there and take anyone else who wants to be in that toxic cult with you please
@Simon McGunner: definitely not! But their are people out their from liberal west who are proposing that we must look into ways to accommodate Muslim refugees /migrants into the host cummunites. in ways that make their religious practices are valued and respected in equal to western values.
@David Jordan:
I have a link here to a video from yesterday where Turkish military personnel are beating and torturing captured Syrian military personnel, cannot is as it will be deleted by the mods. Not s love heart in sight. Turkey have no business having bases in Syria.
They need to get out, maybe the Russian Navy vessels en route will help them along.
@Bobby wilson: We saw your comments on the balgaddy lucan mosque. your obviously some Islamic crusader. That cult is responsible for FGM and a lot of other sick activities. Look at Rotherham in the UK all those children molested and not protected by the law. We just got he Catholic church under control we don’t need this cult in the West.
@Simon McGunner: I am trying to point out what happens when you have large scale Islamic immigration on to island of Ireland and main land Europe too and the world for that matter, to the local non Islamic populations and how relationships break down between the cultures .because of the strict religious Islamic believes come up against thec non Islamic believes ..that I believe Islamic populations should be relocate themselves to majority countries where their believes and culture is respected and enforced by the state.
If people have made it to Turkey they were refugees and are now in a safe country. If they are now looking to come to an EU country then they are migrants.
@SFAnkleTapper:
*Economic migrants, and if they are storming the Greek border, which thousands have, then they’re called illegal immigrants.
@Raven: correct.
@SFAnkleTapper: Looks like the Greeks have had enough, Greek military personnel and hardware are en route to the borders/. transit points with Turkey, Lesbos locals have burned down the UN migrant centers so no more can be received and today with Erdogans announced threat that he’d release refugees to Greece, Soros NGOs of German origin showed up on Lesbos only to be ran off and told to leave by the local Greeks. More blood and misery that originated with Merkel.
The problem is the war.
The solution is not to just put these people into Europe.They are not entitled automatic entry to Europe, like anyone else.The Greeks need help from EU to keep their borders and people and way of life as they see fit.
What is the response of oil rich middle Eastern countries to this crisis? There are camps suitable for housing millions in Saudi Arabia for example.
Can EU not help build camps in Turkey and when the war is over most people would go home no ?
Yes Turkey may need some help with this refugee side of the war they are in , like the €6 billion from the EU which is probably now spent.
They are seeking aid and at war.
They do deal very generously with millions of refugees from Syria and do need help.
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