Trudeau joined at Montreal Pride by Irish counterpart

Yahoo – AFP, August 21, 2017

Leo Varadkar, Prime Minister of Ireland (L), Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau (center), and Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre (R), walk during the
annual Pride parade in Montreal (AFP Photo/Peter Mccabe)

Montreal (AFP) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marched Sunday in Montreal's Gay Pride parade, joined by Ireland's first openly gay leader Leo Varadkar.

Sporting white jeans and a casual light blue button-up, Trudeau waved a rainbow flag with his Irish counterpart at his side as they participated in the annual event where several thousand people had gathered.

Earlier in the day at a joint press conference Trudeau vowed "strength through diversity" in the face of recent attacks in Spain and Burkina Faso.

"These recent acts of terror are despicable," the Canadian leader said. "They seek to divide the global community, aiming to pit neighbor against neighbor.

"But these cowards will not win," he continued. "We will continue to do as we have done, standing united and stronger in the face of hatred.

"We will be emboldened in our values, values of love, acceptance, and strength through diversity."

Prime Minister Varadkar, who took office in June, is the first foreign head of government to join a Canadian pride celebration.

He said Canada and Ireland must work in tandem to advance equal rights, particularly in places where they are threatened.

"What we have most in common is that we are countries that understand that diversity is our strength and our differences make us better," Varadkar said.

Britain, US 'turning inward', Canadian PM says in Ireland

Yahoo – AFP, July 4, 2017

Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, left, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau at Farmleigh, Ireland's state guest house, in Dublin (AFP Photo/Paul FAITH)

Dublin (AFP) - Britain and the United States are "turning inward," Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a press conference with his Irish counterpart on Tuesday in which both leaders took swipes at their heavyweight neighbours.

Trudeau also said during a visit to Dublin that there were "clear disagreements" with the United States ahead of the G20 summit this week, where US President Donald Trump is expected to attend.

"The choices made by the United States on trade and climate change are at odds with the majority of G20 countries, or even all the other G20 countries," he said after talks with Ireland's Leo Varadkar.

Trudeau predicted that there would be "robust and honest exchanges about how to serve not only our citizens but the whole planet" at the summit, while adding that such meetings were also a chance to try to find "common ground".

The United States and Canada are locked in a trade dispute, with the US accusing Canada of exporting its products at unfairly low "dumping" prices.

Canada is also a major supporter of the Paris Agreement to combat global warming, which Trump has said he wants to pull out of.

Both leaders issued thinly veiled criticism of their neighbours' politics.

"There are tremendous opportunities for countries like Canada and Ireland, at a time where perhaps our significant allies and trading partners in the case of both the US and the UK are turning inward or at least turning into a different direction," Trudeau said.

The sentiment was echoed by Varadkar, who reiterated his country's commitment to the European Union as it prepares for Britain's exit from the bloc.

"We each share a relationship with a very big neighbour, a neighbour that has to a certain extent decided to go in a different direction at least for the time being," he said.

Varadkar said that "unfortunately" Britain had chosen to leave the European Union and would not be able to negotiate free-trade agreements like the one between Canada and the EU until it has officially left.

"I can't see a scenario where Britain could remain a member of the EU, even in transitional period, and then negotiate other trade deals on their own".

Varadkar, the son of an Indian migrant and Ireland's first openly gay prime minister, said he and Trudeau had discussed a wide range of issues, including the benefits of immigration and diversity.

"Both countries and both governments are committed to multilateralism as the best means by which we can solve the world's problems," Varadkar said.

#Canada PM @JustinTrudeau takes swipe at 'inward looking' US and UK during visit to Ireland https://t.co/83fPPQ3hU4 pic.twitter.com/Jh4r69fegV

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 4, 2017

The Man Who Made $7.5 Billion and Gave Away 99% Of His Wealth

I Acknowledge Beauty Exists, Icarus Verum, 26 Aug 2013

“People used to ask me how I got my jollies, and I guess I’m happy when what I’m doing is helping people and unhappy when what I’m doing isn’t helping people.”

~Chuck Feeney, (former) billionaire

Chuck Feeney is an 82 year old Irish man who has made over $7.5 billion in his lifetime which he made by “hawking cognac, perfume and cigarettes in his empire of duty-free shops.”  In 1984 Feeney transferred the entire 38.75% of his ownership stake in his company, Duty Free Shoppers, to his Atlantic Philanthropies; he kept $2 million worth of assets for himself.  Most interestingly – he worked hard to keep his philanthropic efforts highly secretive; he either made anonymous donations or forced organizations not to disclose him as the donor.  He was quite successful at evading notoriety for decades.

“I want the last check I write to bounce.”

Over the years – as a board member for DFS – he pushed to ensure the business was more profitable even though that money only generated money for his charitable foundation. $6.2 of the $7.5 billion has already been given to various organizations with a focus on education and research; the remaining $1.3 billion is slated to be given out by 2016. Chuck Feeney is the guy who Bill Gates says inspired him to give away the majority of his fortune using the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; many other billionaires like Warren Buffett have followed suit..  Forbes did a great profile of him HERE.  The NY Times has a nice recap on him HERE.

“I’m a competitive type of person whether it’s playing a game of basketball or playing business games.  I don’t dislike money, but there’s only so much money you can use.”

He donated almost $1 billion to Cornell University over the years; he graduated there in 1956 (source).  He has donated $1.5 billion to Irish education and hundreds of millions to Irish charities (source).  He gave $10 million to fund HIV research (source).

The Daily Mail gives some other breakdowns of his charities HERE:

Operation Smile, a project to treat children born with cleft palates, has had $19.5 million from Atlantic, while cancer projects have had $370 million.

AIDS research in South Africa has had $117 million in investments from the foundation.

He has given $28 million to support the abolition of the death penalty in the United States and has campaigned for eight million children in the country without health insurance to be covered.

This guy is my hero and is a reminder of the greatness that really exists in all of us.  Someone called him “An Impossible-to-Live-up-to Hero”; I’d say that’ about right.

Yourdailymedia has some great graphs showing where the money went HERE:

Second report condemns Catholic church for abusing thousands of girls

DutchNews.nl, Monday 11 March 2013

The Catholic church must acknowledge and compensate the thousands of girls who were sexually and physically abused by priests, monks and nuns, according to a new report focusing on female abuse victims.

Second report from committee
Deetman. (ANP)

The report, the second produced by the specialist committee led by Wim Deetman, looked at 150 cases in which girls were physically and sexually abused. The research focused on the period 1945 to 2010.

Three of the cases are so serious they are to be referred to the public prosecution department, even though they technically happened too long ago.

The report shows that girls were more likely to be abused in their homes whereas boys were usually abused at boarding schools. But girls were more likely to to be subjected to physical violence and mental abuse by nuns and other carers when they were living in institutions.

Last week, the Volkskrant reported that five of the seven church abuse victims to get the maximum compensation payment of €100,000 are women.

It is not clear how many girls were abused by clerics and nuns, but it could run up to 10,000, the Deetman report said.

Cold

Although church archives gave little indication of physical abuse, a picture did arise of a 'climate based on formality and a lack of affection, of chilly emotions and toughness, repression and humilation', Nos quoted the report as saying.

Deetman, a former Christian Democratic party chairman, has now urged the church to appoint mediators to help the victims of abuse come to terms with what happened to them, in combination with financial compensation.

The Catholic church on Monday offered its excuses to women who were abused by members of religious orders in their youth. The authorities said bishops would do their utmost to ensure the 'recovery of trust, healing and reconciliation'.

However, Maud Kips, of the female church abuse survivors organisation VPKK, told Trouw on Monday she felt the new report had been compiled too quickly. 'Abuse within the church is considered a male thing. Women have felt ignored for a long time,' she told the paper.

800 priests

In the first report published in December, Deetman said at least 800 Roman Catholic priests and monks were involved in abusing children in their care between 1945 and 1985.

In addition, church officials, bishops and lay people were aware of what was going on but failed to take action to protect children, the commission said.

The commission was set up by the Catholic church in March 2010 after the sexual abuse scandal broke in the Netherlands and hundreds of victims came forward. Over 2,000 people have since registered their abuse with the authorities.

Parliament had asked Deetman's committee to compile a second report focusing on girls.

Earlier stories

• Catholic church has paid out €3.1m to abuse victims so far
• Report identifies 800 priests who abused children

Women in one of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries in the 1940s.
Photograph: Roz Sinclair/Testimony Films

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Ireland apologises for 'slave labour' at Magdalene Laundries

Taoiseach Enda Kenny forced into finally saying sorry for 'the hurt and trauma' caused to up to 10,000 Magdalene women

guardian.co.uk, Henry McDonald in Dublin, Tuesday 19 February 2013

Women in one of Irealnd's Magdalene Laundries in the 1940s.
Photograph: Roz Sinclair/Testimony Films

The Irish State has finally said sorry to 10,000 women and girls incarcerated in Catholic Church-run laundries where they were treated as virtual slaves.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny was forced into issuing a fulsome apology on Tuesday evening to those held in the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland.

The apology in the Dáil (Irish parliament) came about two weeks after a damning 1,000-plus page report was released detailing the way women and girls were maltreated inside the nun-controlled laundries.

Survivors groups were enfuriated when the Irish premier initially declined a fortnight ago to explicitly apologise for the state's role in sending women and girls into the Magdalene Laundries, sometimes simply for coming from broken homes or being unmarried mothers.

In a powerful speech to a packed Dáil Eireann, Kenny made some amends for what many view as a major error of judgment on the day the report was released.

At the end of his address, Kenny appeared to break down briefly, choking back tears as he quoted a Magdalene woman's song to him during a meeting recently.

The Taoiseach said what happened to the Magdalene women had "cast a long shadow over Irish life, over our sense of who we are".

He said he "deeply regretted and apologised" for the hurt and trauma inflicted upon those sent to the Magdalene Laundries.

Apologising to the women and girls of the Magdalene Laundries, he told parliament that they deserved "the compassion and recognision for which they have fought for so long, deservedly so deeply."

He said he hoped "it would help us make amends in the state's role in the hurt of these extraordinary women."

Kenny also announced a governnment-funded memorial to remember the 10,000 Magdalene women.

As Kenny made his announcement, former residents of the Magdalene institutions held a vigil outside the gates of the Irish parliament in Dublin's Kildare Street where they lit candles in memory of all those sent to the laundries.

The apology was accompanied by the announcement of a fresh compensation package for around 800 women still alive who were held in the laundries across Ireland. A senior Irish judge would be appointed to oversee how the survivors are looked after.

The compensation deal will include counselling services, healthcare and individual payments, which Dublin hopes can be implemented without the involvement of lawyers and hefty legal bills.

Amnesty International accused the Fine Gael-Labour government of ignoring women exploited in laundries that operated across the border in Northern Ireland.

The report, headed by Senator Martin McAleese, found that the Irish State was complicit in sending girls and women to the laundries where they received no pay. However, the McAleese report did not cover Magdalene Laundries run in Northern Ireland up until the 1980s.

Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty's director in Northern Ireland said: "Magdalene Laundries operated in Northern Ireland into the 1980s. I have spoken with women survivors of these institutions who now fear being left behind, with no inquiry in place – north or south – into their suffering.

"It is clear that any new inquiry announced by the Irish government will only investigate abuses in the Republic of Ireland, while the Historic Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Northern Ireland will only investigate abuse suffered by children, rather than by the many grown women who were held in Magdalene Laundries."

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Magdalene laundries a 'kind of Irish torture'

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The Vatican's Irish problem

Jesus tears 'blasphemer' brings his fight from India to Ireland

Sanal Edamaruku faces court for revealing 'tears' trickling down a church statue came from clogged drainage pipes

guardian.co.uk, Henry McDonald, Friday 23 November 2012

A statue of Christ in Mumbai. Local people declared a miracle when 'tears'
trickled down the statue at the Church of Our Lady of Velan Kanni. Photograph:
 Sherwin Crasto/Associated Press

When water started trickling down a statue of Jesus Christ at a Catholic church in Mumbai earlier this year, locals were quick to declare a miracle. Some began collecting the holy water and the Church of Our Lady of Velan Kanni began to promote it as a site of pilgrimage.

So when Sanal Edamaruku arrived and established that this was not a matter of holy water so much as holey plumbing, the backlash was severe. The renowned rationalist was accused of blasphemy, charged with offences that carry a three-year prison sentence and eventually, after receiving death threats, had to seek exile in Finland.

Now he is calling for European governments to press New Delhi into dropping the case. And on the first leg of a tour around EU capitals on Friday, he warned that India was sacrificing freedom of expression for outdated, colonial-era rules about blasphemy.

"There is a huge contradiction in the content of the Indian constitution which guarantees freedom of speech and the blasphemy law from 1860 under then colonial rule," Edamaruku told the Guardian in an interview in Dublin.

"This blasphemy law can affect anyone in India, even a girl recently who wrote on Facebook against closing down a city because of the death of a famous local politician. She was prosecuted under the blasphemy law and another girl who 'liked' her comment on Facebook was also arrested and then charged with blasphemy."

Edamaruku, who has the support of rationalists and atheists such as Richard Dawkins, is well known in India for debunking religious myths, and was already unpopular among Indian Catholics for publicly criticising Mother Teresa's legacy in Kolkata.

When the state "miracle" was pronounced, he went to Mumbai and found that the dripping water was the result of clogged drainage pipes behind the wall where it stood. His revelation provoked death threats from religious zealots and ultimately charges of blasphemy under the Indian penal code in the Mumbai high court.

"India cannot criticise Pakistan for arresting young girls for blaspheming against Islam while it arrests and locks up its own citizens for breaking our country's blasphemy laws," he said. "It is an absurd law but also extremely dangerous because it gives fanatics, whether they are Hindus, Catholics or Muslims, a licence to be offended. It also allows people who are in dispute with you to make up false accusations of blasphemy."

Edamaruku said his exposure of the weeping statue was also a contribution to public health in Mumbai as some believers were drinking the water hoping it could cure ailments. "This was sewage water seeping through a wall due to faulty plumbing," he said. "It posed a health risk to people who were fooled into believing it was a miracle."

He has been living in Finland since the summer. He was in Europe on a lecture tour in July when his partner rang to say the police had arrived at his apartment. "I felt really upset because under the blasphemy law you cannot get bail until the court case begins. I would be in jail now if I had been at my apartment in Delhi," he said.

He has spurned an offer from a senior Indian Catholic bishop to apologise for the exposure of the "miracle".

"The Catholic archbishop of Bombay, Oswald Cardinal Gracias, has said that if I apologise for the 'offence' I have caused he will see to it that the charges are dropped. This shows that he has influence in the situation but he will not use it unless I apologise, which I will not do as I have done nothing wrong," he said.

"In a way I am lucky because I have friends and supporters in Europe. I am well known in India and have the telephone numbers of at least five Indian cabinet ministers. And I have some means of fighting back. But what would happen to the common man or woman if they were accused of blasphemy? They would be sent straight to jail without any chance of bail," he said.

Edamaruku asked for "mounting international pressure" particularly from Ireland and other EU nations to be placed on the Indian government. The Indian state would have the power to halt the prosecution before a court case, citing a lack of evidence to pursue it, he said.

Mick Nugent from Atheist Ireland, the organisation hosting Edamaruku's visit to the republic and Northern Ireland next week, said Edamaruku's plight also underlined the need for the Fine Gael-Labour government in Dublin to repeal the Irish blasphemy law.

"Blasphemy laws are very strange because they can be both very silly and also very sinister. They are very silly because you are talking about crying statues and moving statues or Virgin Marys appearing in tree stumps in Co Limerick. But on the other hand these type of laws are used in Islamic countries to jail people or sentence them to death. Or in Sanal's case facing a jail sentence for his work exposing bogus miracles.

"The Irish government should pay attention to Sanal's case and realise they must get rid of this absurd and dangerous law. Because we shouldn't be so smug in Ireland. After all we have had the hysteria about moving statues and a man bringing people to a shrine in Co Mayo so they can look at the sun and see the Virgin Mary."

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(Religions – Zionism - March 1, 2012 - Matthew Channelled by Suzanne Ward)

9. It can be no other way—simply, this is the physics that governs life in this universe. As Earth continues apace into successively higher planes, nothing with low vibrations in any form—physical bodies, subversive plans, theft, dishonesty, unjust laws and imprisonment, bigotry, cruel customs and deeds—can survive.

10. Moving on, no, it will not be quite like religions being “totally discarded and replaced by universal laws in the Golden Age.” When the truths come forth that science and spirit are one and the same and that religious dogmas were originated by early leaders of church and state to control the masses, people whose consciousness has risen beyond the constraints of third density will adhere to the spiritual aspects of their respective religions and the devised, controlling aspects will fall by the wayside.

11. One of the truths to come forth is that Zionism, which by dark intent has been made synonymous with Judaism, actually is a bellicose political movement within the Illuminati, and its aim for more than six decades has been to create conflict and instability in the entire Middle East. Zionists, who have wielded powerful influence within and behind major governments and their military forces, do NOT represent the Jewish peoples in Israel or anywhere else. And, like all other Illuminati factions, they have been committed to that cabal’s goal of global domination.

12. Although Semites are of diverse national origins and religions, the Zionists have been successful in convincing many that “anti-Semitic” is exclusively prejudice against the Jewish peoples and opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself from its “enemies.” By means of that blatant distortion, they obtained not only world sympathy, but also massive defense funding from Israel’s allies, most especially the United States, all of which served to increase the Illuminati’s vast profits from their industrial-military machine.

13. In addition to controlling the masses through dogmatic teachings, religions have served the dark purpose of divisiveness to such an extent that it resulted in centuries of trauma and bloodshed. Witness the Crusades, wars between Catholics and Protestants, pogroms against Jews, executions of “blasphemous” individuals who refused to “recant.”  (Read More …)

Ireland forced to take EU and IMF bail-out package

Ireland has accepted an EU and IMF bail-out thought to be worth up to £77 billion after emergency telephone conference talks.

The Telegraph, By Bruno Waterfield, in Dublin 8:27PM GMT 21 Nov 2010

The Irish government has accepted an EU and IMF bail-out Photo: AP

Ireland has finally been forced to take an economic bail-out from the European Union in a deal designed to save the euro.

After a humiliating week of denying it needed help, the Dublin government succumbed to pressure from other euro zone countries and asked for a “very big” loan.

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G7 and euro zone finance ministers including George Osborne, the Chancellor, held emergency telephone conference talks on a combined EU-IMF rescue package of up to £77 billion.

British taxpayers now face paying a bill of at least £7 billion as under a deal signed by the last Labour government, British taxpayers are liable to share in the cost of any EU bail-out.

On Monday Irish and euro zone governments will be watching the markets after Greece, which received a £94 billion bail-out in April, warned that the EU’s debt crisis was not finished yet.

Portugal has already warned that there is a “high risk” it might need economic help. If investors are unconvinced by the Irish rescue package, the euro could come under pressure while the cost of borrowing for the Dublin government could rise.

Wolfgang Schaeuble, the German finance minister, said that the deal was necessary to preserve the euro’s future.

“We are not just defending a member state but our common currency,” he said.

“Ireland has to meet strict conditions, and these will be negotiated in the coming days, so that it is not just providing financing but about ensuring that the problems are solved.”

Last week, Herman Van Rompuy, the EU president, warned that debt contagion was a “survival crisis” threatening the existence of the euro and the wider European Union.

Brian Lenihan, the Irish finance minister, refused to be drawn on the exact size of the EU-IMF loan he had requested, saying only that it was “very big” and would be “tens of billions.

”The key issue all the time for the government is to ensure that we do not have a collapse of the banking sector,” he said.

Mr Lenihan said that the country was running a deficit of over £16 billion which it could not afford to finance at current market rates amid concerns about the solvency of Irish banks. He described the loan as “a standby fund” and said not all of it would necessarily be used.

David Cameron pledged to help Ireland as a close “neighbour and friend” but refused to discuss how much aid Britain would be prepared to contribute, or whether the bulk of it would come via a Anglo-Irish agreement or a wider EU deal.

”Our banking systems are linked, our finances and economies are very linked so of course we stand ready to help but I don’t want to speculate about another country’s financial situation,” said the Prime Minister.

”The fact is that we are interconnected and if help is required Britain stands ready to help. ”

Britain’s contribution to the bail-out is expected to be between £7billion and £9billion depending on how it is funded, the extent of EU and euro zone guarantees for the Irish and any bilateral British aid.

Under terms of an agreement signed by Labour in May, Britain must pay into to a £51billion EU financial crisis fund which will form a key part of the bail-out, potentially costing Britain billions.

On top of that contribution, Mr Cameron faces a choice of whether to give an extra loan directly to Ireland or to contribute even further to the EU and euro zone bailout.

Other EU countries are pressuring him to pay Britain’s fair share after it emerged last week that British financial institutions have £140 billion of assets tied up in Irish banks.

A Treasury spokesman said: “The UK will be closely involved in discussion on the scale and type of assistance as they develop.”

Douglas Carswell, the Conservative MP for Clacton, said that British involvement in the bail-out would anger eurosceptics who had voted Tory for a tougher line on Europe.

”Yet again we see that the people we elected to run the country in May are powerless. All they can do is tell us how unhappy they are about it but they continue to hand out billions to Europe at a time of austerity for the country,” he said.

George Papaconstantinou, the Greek finance minister, warned that the Irish bailout would not be enough to plug the euro zone’s black hole of debt.

”Even if Ireland is helped, it cannot prevent the debt crisis from continuing,” he said “[It] will focus on other countries: Spain, Portugal.”

Ireland’s cabinet held emergency talks on Sunday afternoon to finalise the loan request and to sign off an austerity plan for 2011 to 2015 which had been checked by EU and IMF officials over the weekend.

Negotiations have been tense as the EU and IMF impose tough conditions to force Ireland to cut public expenditure by £13billion (Â 15bn) and to increase taxation on the vast majority of people.

Ireland’s last three budgets have already cut spending by £12billion.

Trade unions are warning of “civil unrest” on scale not seen for decades as leaks of the spending plan reveal that there will be sharp tax rises for the low paid and middle class families in order to increase state revenue.

Eamon Devoy, general secretary of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union, said: "I think there is going to be huge civil unrest. When the draconian measures being proposed are heaped on top of cuts already implemented, life in Ireland will be unbearable.”

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Hedge funds hold Ireland to ransom over Anglo Irish Bank bail-out

Hedge funds are holding the Irish government to ransom over its €30bn (£26bn) bail-out of one of the country's biggest lenders, Anglo Irish Bank.

Telegraph.co.uk, By Harry Wilson, 30 Sep 2010

Brian Lenihan, Ireland's finance minister, attempted to calm market fears
over the effect the cost of the bail-out would have on the country Photo: PA

The investors are attempting to force the Irish authorities to pay them more for the debt they hold in Anglo Irish Bank and say if their demands are not met they could trigger a default crisis.

The London and US-based hedge funds are fighting moves to pay them no more than current market prices for their holdings of junior debt in Anglo and are understood to be prepared to take the Irish government to court.

Anglo junior debt is trading in a range of 23 to 25 cents in the euro and the investors are thought to be looking for a payout of 35 to 40 cents. However, the authorities are unwilling to offer a premium to the market price, according to a source close to the Irish government.

The hedge funds in turn argue that the government has no legal right to force them to accept a haircut on the value of their holdings.

The dispute centres on £2bn of Tier 2 bonds sold by Anglo, which the hedge funds argue are governed by English law. They claim that for investors to be legally obliged to accept a lower than face value payout, the bank's senior debt – which the government has said it will pay back in full – must already be in default.

While small compared to the total size of the Irish rescue package, the dispute could have disastrous consequences for the bail-out.

If the hedge funds were to press their case, Ireland could be required to put Anglo into insolvency, which could ultimately mean that depositors would have to make use of the country's guarantee scheme to get their money back.

One banker with knowledge of the discussions said the legal opinion his firm had received was that the Irish government was in the wrong.

Robin Creswell, a senior bond specialist at fund manager Payden & Rygel, said investors trying to force the government's hand were playing a risky game.

"They might have a good legal claim, but when you are dealing with a government in the position of the Irish that will go to great lengths to prevent default, you are entering a very complex situation."

The cost of bailing out the Irish banking system has so far cost the state €44bn, and this year the country's budget deficit is projected to equal 32pc of GDP – 10 times the amount permitted under European Union guidelines.

Speaking on Thursday, Irish finance minister Brian Lenihan was clear that while junior debt holders would make a "significant contribution" to the cost of the bank bailouts, depositors and senior debt holders would be protected.

Mr Lenihan attempted to calm market fears over the effect the cost of the bailout would have on the country and said the government would be publishing a four-year budget plan in November on how it intends to cut the deficit.

Ireland is not the only eurozone country coming under pressure from the market, with Moody's yesterday cutting the credit rating of Spain over fears of weak economic growth and the government's ability to reduce the deficit.

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Irish Nobel laureate denied entry into Israel

CNN News, From Kareem Khadder, September 28, 2010

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Israeli authorities cite her participation in an aid flotilla to Gaza for refusing her entry
• Mairead Maguire was in Israel as part of a women's peace delegation
• She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976

Jerusalem (CNN) -- An Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate was refused entry into Israel on Tuesday because of her participation in an aid flotilla to Gaza in June, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.

Mairead Maguire was awared the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1976.

Mairead Maguire was detained at Ben Gurion Airport as she arrived with a delegation of other high-level women's rights activists from around the world.

"Mairead was refused to enter Israel this morning and was supposed to be deported this afternoon," said Fatmeh El-Ajou, an attorney with Adalah, the legal center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which is representing Maguire. "She was told the reason to refuse her entry was her participation in the flotilla to Gaza in June."

Maguire, along with fellow Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams and founders of the Nobel Women's Initiative, was set to lead a delegation to Israel and the Palestinian territory over the next seven days. The delegation planned to travel to Jerusalem, Haifa, Nazareth, Ramallah, Hebron and Bil'in to learn from and highlight the work of female peace builders.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor confirmed Maguire had been denied entry.

"She had been on two or three flotillas to Gaza and, as is the case with participants in flotillas, she had been deported with all the other participants, and the law is that once you are deported you are denied an entry visa," Palmor said.

Maguire was on the MV Rachel Corrie, an Irish cargo ship that set sail for Gaza in early June loaded with humanitarian supplies in spite of an Israeli naval blockade. It was seized by the Israeli navy before it reached Palestinian-controlled Gaza, and its passengers were deported. The Rachel Corrie's mission came just five days after Israeli commandos raided a similar flotilla in an incident that left nine passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara dead.

"I don't know what she was thinking when she took that plane to Israel but I can guarantee you that she knew very well that she does not have an entry visa and her entry will be denied after having provoked Israeli authorities time and again," Palmor said. "I believe it was a deliberate action of confrontation."

But Maguire's attorney challenged Palmor's statements, saying no charges were filed against her when she was last deported in June.

El-Ajou said that Israeli authorities told Maguire at the time that the Rachel Corrie incident would "not prevent her from coming back to Israel."

"What the Israeli authorities told her today is that she won't be allowed to enter Israel for 10 years from now," El-Ajou said.

Asked about the status of Maguire, El-Ajou said, "She is in a good situation. She is a peaceful, brilliant, interesting person, and she is very keen on challenging the decision."

El-Ajou was working to get a judicial order to prevent Maguire's deportation, she said.

"(Maguire) believes that there is no reason for preventing her entry to Israel due to the fact that all her activities are peaceful and non-violent and are human-rights oriented," El-Ajou said.

Rachel Vincent, a spokeswoman for the Nobel Women's Initiative, said the rest of the delegation will continue on with the planned trip at Maguire's request.

Maguire was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her efforts to end sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.

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