President – seachranaidhe1

REF President Des Dalton speaking outside the G.P.O 2017 (General Post Office) Heaquarters 1916 Easter Rising

Rsf President des Dalton speaking outside the G.P.O today

With many thanks to: Che Guevara

ONLINE EXHIBITION MARKS JFK VISIT TO IRELAND 50 YEARS AGO

US PRESIDENT John F Kennedy‘s historic visit to Ireland 50 years ago has been celebrated by an online exhibition on the RTE website. The state broadcaster has uploaded more than 50 audio and video clips as well as documents about the four-day visit in June 1963.

JFK was the first US president to visit Ireland. The exhibition highlights key events during Kennedy’s trip, including his welcome by then president Damon due Valera and a trip to his ‘ancestral home’ in Co Wexford. JFK laid a wreath at Arbour Hill in tribute to the leaders of the Easter Rising and traveled across the country, spending time in Galway, Cork and Limerick. He had tea with distant relatives on a farm in Dunganstown, Co Wexford, and visited nearby New Ross, the town from which his great-grandfather emigrated. The exhibition also includes reaction to JFK’s death, including poet Patrick Kavanagh’s elegy The Murdered King, which was published in the RTV guide in December 1963. JFK’s visit happened just a year after RTE had launched.

Brid Dooley, head of RTE’s archives, said the exhibition would offer an insight into the landmark trip. “This exhibition will allow widespread access to this material and enable every generation to enjoy what was an extradinary spectacle that captured both the heart and imagination of Ireland for four days in June 1963,” she said. “As broadcasters, we were instrumental in amplifying the events during this visit, which put us firmly on the world stage. “The visit occurred during an era which, according to JFK himself, ‘saw Ireland moving into the mainstream of current world events’.” The exhibition is in six parts, beginning with preparations for Kennedy’s arrivial and finishing with Irish reactions to his assassination five months after the visit. Following in JFK’s footsteps, US president Barack Obama came to Ireland in 2011 and visited the home of his ancestors, Moneygall in Co Offaly. First Lady Michelle Obama is expected to return to the villige later this month with the couple’s children Malia and Sasha during the family’s visit to Ireland for the G8 summit. The JFK exhibition is available now at http://www.rte.ie/jfk. The docunentary Welcome Mr Presidnt, produced in July 1963, is available on the RTE player. Material on JFK’s vist to Ireland is also on the JFK Homecoming website at http://jfkhomecoming.com.

Or follow this link :

RTÉ Archives creates online exhibition on JFK’s visit to Ireland 50 years ago (video) (siliconrepublic.com)

Bomb disposal call-outs at highest level since 1979

Call-outs for Army bomb disposal teams last year were the highest in more than 30 years, new figures show.

The Army was called out 237 times last year to deal with suspected explosive devices, the largest number since 1979.

A large increase in callouts came during visits by Queen Elizabeth and US president Barack Obama. Fifty-eight of the devices discovered were deemed to be viable explosives.

The devices found include improvised mortars, often large devices capable of firing an explosive gas cylinder known as “barrack busters”, while rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) and pipe bombs were also discovered by the specialised unit.

So far this year the Army has been called out 91 times and has dealt with some 32 viable explosive devices.

A total of 31 of the call-outs in 2012 were deemed hoaxes or false alarms.

“Last year was the highest number of call-outs since 1979. The number of viable improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in 2010 was 49 but this belies the spectrum of devices including improvised mortars, explosive components, RPGs and other IEDs dealt with by the teams that year,” the spokesman said.

WITH MANY THANKS TO : ROWAN GALLAGHER, The Irish Times