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Tag: Newtownards
‘TUV fails in an attempt to block bid of hosting a cross-community event of the international Irish Trade festival ‘.
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No Prison sentence only community service for man who admitted having indecent images of children
A CO DOWN man who admitted possessing child porn and indecent images of children and sharing them online has been sentenced to community service.
Nathan Samuel Francis Orr (25), of Dakota Avenue in Newtownards, was ordered to perform 100 hours’ community service and was placed on probation for two years. The father-of-one will also be on the sex offenders register for 10 years and was made the subject of a five-year sexual prevention order. Downpatrick Crown Court he began to find mainstream pornography ‘Boring’, his desire for illicit material increased and he joined an online group that shared indecent images of children. When Orr’s home was searched in January 2017, police officers seized items including a mobile phone, laptop and tablet and found indecent images of children in the form of both photographs and video files. It also emerged that he had been involved in online chats with others about distributing and trading images.
Orr pleaded guilty to 11 separate charges, including both possessing and distributing indecent images of children, as well as possessing an extreme pornographic image. When he spoke to a probation officer about his offending, he said he accessed the images during periods of binge drinking and when he was feeling lonely and depressed. Orr said that while he found the images sexually arousing, he did not have a sexual interest in children. He also expressed disgust in himself and said he now realises what he was doing was wrong.
Judge Geoffrey Miller noted that he was unemployed and on benefits and had mental health issues. He also said he had a clear criminal record and had not offended since his arrest three and a half years ago. Addressing Orr – who appeared at the remote hearing via a videolink with his solicitor’s office – he said: “The internet opens many positive windows on the world, but on the other hand it is a very dangerous mechanism.
It can allow access to more dangerous avenues which encourage young minds such as yours to effectively click and click and click without perhaps appreciating that these sorts of pictures represent real victims.” After imposing the combination order, the judge said part of Orr’s period on probation should include addressing the issues which motivated his sexually deviant behaviour. He also told him that if he reoffended within the next two years, he would have “no hesitation” in revoking the order and imposing an immediate jail term.
With many thanks to: The Irish News for the original story
Irish Famine: How Ulster was devasted by its impact
As the annual National Famine Commemoration ceremony takes place in Northern Ireland for the first time, historian Dr Éamon Phoenix looks at its devastating impact on counties in Ulster.
The Great Famine of 1845-51 has the grim distinction of being the most costly natural disaster of modern times.
Ireland had witnessed a massive surge in population from 2.6 to 8.5 million by 1845 when blight struck the staple food of the masses – the potato.
Some 80% of this teeming population lived on the land, making Ireland one of the most densely populated countries in Europe.
Under a land system where most of the land was owned by the great Plantation landlords, vast numbers of the poorest ‘cottier’ class lived on ‘potato gardens’, often sub-divided among their sons.
By the 1840s, close on two-fifths of the population were totally dependant on the potato and it was the major food-source of the rest.
Between 1845 and 1849, the potato crop failed in three seasons out of four.
The result was starvation and the spread of the “road disease” – dysentery, typhus and cholera.
One million people died of hunger and disease during the crisis and more than one million emigrated, mainly to the United States – often in the notorious ‘coffin ships’, so-called because many people died because of the terrible conditions during the crossing.
In dealing with the crisis, the British government introduced ‘Outdoor Relief’ – the provision of soup kitchens in distressed area and public works, such as the building of roads and harbours.
However, these measures were woefully inadequate.
The country’s workhouses were grossly overcrowded, adding to the vast mortality.
The claim that the Famine did not affect Ulster has been debunked by recent historical research.
Between 1845-51 Ulster’s population fell by 340,000, a drop of 15.7% compared with 19.9% for the whole of lreland.
The greatest losses of population were in the south Ulster counties of Cavan, Fermanagh and Monaghan.
Fermanagh lost almost 30% of its inhabitants.
Tyrone, Antrim and Armagh were close to the national average with rates of around 15%.
Surprisingly, research shows that the events from 1845 to 51 affected normally prosperous parts of the north-east, including Belfast, north Down and particularly the linen triangle of north Armagh.
By December 1846 the first deaths from starvation were reported in the local press.
By early 1847 cholera was spreading in Fermanagh, with the Erne Packet reporting: “In Garvary Wood hundreds of corpses are buried, they were the victims of cholera and their relatives too weak to carry them to the graveyard.”
One of the most surprising aspects of the Famine was its searing impact on traditionally prosperous parts of eastern Ulster.
Particularly hard-hit was the Lurgan-Portadown linen triangle of north Armagh.
Lurgan Workhouse in 1847 recorded the third highest mortality of any workhouse in Ireland.
An inquiry blamed the crisis on overcrowding and the fact that the corpses of fever victims were interred beside the workhouse well. The result was a cycle of death.
In normally prosperous Newtownards, there were queues at the soup kitchen of “emaciated and half-famished souls”, covered with rags.
In 1847 the worst affected areas in Down included the Mournes and the fishing port of Kilkeel.
The reactions of the landlords varied. Lord Londonderry, the largest landowner in north Down, rejected rent reductions due to “personal inconvenience” and was much criticised.
Newry – the site of the all-island Famine Commemoration – became a key centre of emigration from south Ulster, with vessels carrying thousands direct to Canada and the United States.
Traumatic
Among these was the ill-fated ‘coffin ship’, the Hannah, carrying emigrants from South Armagh. Fifty people were drowned when it struck ice near Quebec.
The Famine had a traumatic impact on the growing industrial town of Belfast, which attracted large numbers of famished and disease-ridden people from all parts of Ulster.
In March 1847, typhus fever swept the town following the arrival in the port of the Swatara, an emigrant ship from Connacht.
The Plaguey Hill at Friar’s Bush Graveyard in south Belfast is a grim cenotaph commemorating some 800 victims of ‘Black ’47’.
The commemoration to mark the 170th anniversary has been held at the Albert Basin in Newry, County Down.
Attended by ministers from the Irish government and the Northern Ireland Executive, it was the high point of a week of talks, walks, music and drama about the tragedy.
In her remarks, the Irish Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys, recalled how in Newry workhouse all the health professionals died of fever.
“A point that has struck me forcibly is how the legacy and memory of the famine is deeply ingrained in the collective memory of the host community in Newry,” she said.
With many thanks to: BBCNI for the original story.
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