Deshocks

If you’re curious about the Cork Luas plans make sure you tune in to tomorrow’s episode of the podcast where I’ll be talking to Donal O’Keeffe about the route in detail - Ballincollig to Mahon Point - the timeline, the likely objections and the public consultation which is currently ongoing - if you live or work in Cork city this is well worth a listen!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXPcGdCjhX2/?igsh=MWVpZWM1YTJhOXQyaw==

Drink driving is on the increase in Ireland and so are road fatalities. Doctors and gardai are frustrated at complex laws that make catching drink drivers in the act far harder than it should be – and they’re demanding action that politicians just don’t want to take. High profile cases such as the tragic death of mother-of-two Sheila Dunne in Cork in 2024 and that of Patrick Murphy in Kerry in 2023 prompted emergency doctor Eoin Fogarty to write in the Irish Examiner that the three hour timeframe and legal complications around collecting a blood sample leads “to gardaí and medical staff working against the clock in already high-pressure situations” and makes investigations harder than they should be. Investigating gardaí have spoken of the frustration of embarking on enormous investigations in the absence of a simple blood test. Irish Examiner Southern Correspondent Liz Dunphy has been covering this story, talking to Gardaí and medics about what needs to change – she's the guest on today’s Deirdre O’Shaughnessy podcast. 🎧To listen, find the Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

Latest episode - why Ireland’s drink drivers are getting away with it, with Liz Dunphy

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7FRiIFmPeHGLsIO2ntdYjS?si=MyyiWQ8PRvyZRKBTHwmPKg

Why drink drivers aren’t getting caught – with Liz Dunphy The Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast · Episode

Does Trump think he’s Jesus? Is he threatening the Pope? What timeline are we in?!!!

Read all about it on irishexaminer.com

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXFCH2SjezK/?igsh=MXhlbGdmcDNjNmx5dw==

Was the Trump administration threatening the Vatican by summoning the papal nuncio to military headquarters and mentioning the Avignon papacy? Does Trump believe he is Jesus? Does Pete Hegseth think this is the. Crusades? TP O’Mahony with a great rundown of the MAD times we are in, when an American Pope is standing up to a warmongering American president… link to read is in my stories

Justice at last for John, the Kerry Baby?

42 years after his lifeless body was discovered on White Strand near Cahirciveen, County Kerry, a file has been sent to the DPP in relation to the violent death of an infant known only as Baby John.

Irish society was rocked by the discovery of two dead babies in different parts of County Kerry in 1984. One of those babies, named John by the local undertaker, was found with stab wounds on the White Strand in Cahirciveen.

Joanne Hayes, from a different part of County Kerry, was wrongly identified as Baby John’s mother by Gardaí and went through a gruelling trial and tribunal, in which she was accused of being the mother of both babies, pregnant simultaneously by two different fathers. Her own baby had died of natural causes and been buried on her family farm. Ms Hayes's ordeal finally concluded in 2020 after a State apology and a High Court case.

The investigation into what happened to baby John continues, with a man (60s) and woman (50s) arrested in 2023 following voluntary DNA examinations of the local population.

Reporting this week, the Irish Examiner’s Alison O’Reilly revealed that a file has been sent to the DPP in relation to the case. She's the guest on today's episode - search for the Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/42ClM9YyBSIrhWwgOMIaeV?si=GuHkjAxEQs6Q43efK1nwLg

The remains of Emer O’Loughlin, a 23 year-old student, were found in a burnt-out mobile home at Ballybornagh, Tubber, on April 8, 2005 - 21 years ago today.

The mobile home’s occupant John Griffin disappeared shortly afterwards and hasn’t been seen since. I spoke to Emer’s sister Pam for the podcast a few months ago, she has been doing incredible advocacy for her family - they just want justice for their sister.

Listen at the link in comments

This remains one of the best pieces of writing I’ve ever read.

In 2024, Gary Shteyngart embarked on the inaugural voyage of the Icon of Seas. He shared what the experience taught him about life at sea, loneliness, and America. https://theatln.tc/RYKn4rRB

Hoping it would serve as a conversation starter, Shteyngart wore a T-shirt that read, “Daddy’s Little Meatball.” “In the elevator, I stick out my chest for all to read the funny legend upon it, but soon I realize that despite its burnished tricolor letters, no one takes note. More to the point, no one takes note of me,” Shteyngart writes. “Despite my attempts at bridge building, the very sight of me (small, ethnic, without a cap bearing the name of a football team) elicits no reaction from other passengers. Most often, they will small-talk over me as if I don’t exist … What if I leave this ship without making any friends at all, despite my T-shirt? I am a social creature, and the prospect of seven days alone and apart is saddening.”

Shteyngart eventually engaged with other passengers. But these interactions did little to ease his sense of apartness. “The ocean is teeming with fascinating life, but on the surface it has little to teach us. The waves come and go. The horizon remains ever far away. I am constantly told by my fellow passengers that ‘everybody here has a story.’ Yes, I want to reply, but everybody everywhere has a story,” he writes. “Maybe what they’re saying is that everybody on this ship wants to have a bigger, more coherent, more interesting story than the one they’ve been given. Maybe that’s why there’s so much signage on the doors around me attesting to marriages spent on the sea. Maybe that’s why the Royal Caribbean newsletter slipped under my door tells me that ‘this isn’t a vacation day spent—it’s bragging rights earned.’ Maybe that’s why I’m so lonely.”

“After this, no more cruise stories,” Shteyngart continues at the link in our bio. “It is unfair to put a thinking person on a cruise ship.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/RYKn4rRB

My father often spoke of hanging out at Dr Rosenstock’s house down the street from our pub in Kilfinane with Gabriel and his brothers - I believe they spent their days terrorising Mrs Rosenstock’s chickens, and a lot worse.

He (GB, not my dad!) wrote this beautiful poem about Kilfinane.

I think I understand, Even back then it would outlive us.
That it was more ancient, more permanent than the sweet clash of hurleys.
There were things around us when we were growing up,
That blessed us with sweetness and terror, a Holy Well - do they still visit it?
A Protestant Church choirs were heard in the graveyard in the dead of night.
Did the Moat mute mysterious echo of the forgotten historical pageant.
You had a view from the top of the fertile plains of Limerick
A flighty cloud over a wooded hill.
A miserable old greyhound sunning himself in front of the grotto,
And at night the stars looking down on the moat as though their orphan
It was our own Tara, if the truth be told.
The deep heart of the universe.

Rest in peace Gabriel Rosenstock.

Irish language poet Gabriel Rosenstock dies aged 76 Born in Limerick and educated in UCC, Rosenstock is remembered as 'a prolific and restless soul who published over 400 books'

Jamie Weldon from Butlerstown in Co Waterford would have been 57 on the day his body was found, August 19th 2023. Instead, he had lain alone in his apartment for about three weeks after taking his own life.

The grief of their brother’s lonely death was compounded for his family by the knowledge that, after being found, he had spent almost a week in Dublin City Morgue before his family were notified despite evidence of his identity in his home in the Iveagh Gardens sheltered housing facility.

Jamie’s body had to be formally identified through matching his DNA with a sample provided by one of his brothers and his remains were in the morgue for 27 days in total before they were released to his family.

His inquest concluded last week with a verdict of su***de, but the Weldon family still have questions. The Irish Examiner ‘s Ann Murphy has been following this story from the beginning.

Jamie’s sister Fiona Weldon is the guest on this week’s Deirdre O’Shaughnessy Podcast.

Search on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.

The demolition of a family home in Co Meath last week brought the idea of ‘build first, apply for retention later’ into the spotlight.
Chris and Rose Murray built the 588sq m (6,220sq ft) house near Navan in 2006 despite being refused planning permission for a bungalow half that size on the site. After five unsuccessful retention bids and three failed appeals to keep the home intact, it was eventually demolished last week.
While the house has now been demolished, the case divided public opinion enormously and it highlighted the tensions between the planning system, the public, and politicians.
From the developer who superglued himself to a County Council office to the 11 Dublin councillors who took payments in return for planning permission, our relationship with the rules in Ireland has always been questionable.
Housing lecturer Lorcan Sirr believes the Irish attitude to planning permission — sin first, seek forgiveness later — is a particular feature of Catholic countries, and that the disrespect shown to the rules by politicians filters down through the general population.
He’s the guest on today’s episode of The Deirdre O’Shaughnessy Podcast - search wherever you get your podcasts.

The Deirdre O’Shaughnessy Podcast: The Meath demolition drama and our troubled relationship with planning Chris and Rose Murray built the house near Navan in 2006 despite being refused planning permission for a bungalow half that size on the site

People power is alive and well in Cobh 💪