Irish Railway Safety Scandal
Under the Railway Safety Act 2005, Irish Rail is required to commission an independent audit of its safety management system every four years. The next audit is scheduled for 2010. It will consider if inspections of the Broadmeadow viaduct were regular enough, and if an underwater survey of the pier should have [...]
Irish Railways have always had a bit of a Noddy status suffering from a toxic mixture of neglect and confused pork barrel politics. The neglect resulted in the system being starved of meaningful investment for years and gaining a negative public perception for shabby crowded trains particularly at peak times. I remember standing in a [...]
Penalty fares - 20 years old this month - began life under British Rail as a reasonable deterrent to fare-dodging. But for some of the privatised rail companies, these £20 fines for not having a ticket have become nice little earners in their own right. One operator made £32 million from them last year alone. [...]
The death of Teddy Kennedy is no doubt a momentous occasion and the Kennedy Family have always produced mixed feelings in Britain. Kennedy battled a malignant brain tumour first diagnosed in May 2008, which greatly limited his appearances in the Senate; though he survived longer than doctors first expected, he died just before midnight on [...]
This reinforces my long held prejudice - They should have drowned the River Dancers!
My own Irish dancing career was noticeably unsuccessful – at the third class I attended I put a foot wrong, the large female teacher slapped me on the leg, I suggested (even as a six year old I had a poetic talent) [...]
From Amnesty International;
Leaders worldwide condemned Myanmar’s decision last week to extend Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s imprisonment by 18 months after finding her guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest.
It’s time for global leaders to match words with actions.
While Amnesty applauds the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ condemnation of the verdict in [...]
Once upon a time, not too long ago, there were 27 unique narrow gauge railways and tramways in Ireland. The last of these to close was the West Clare Railway in 1961, a line immortalised in song and remembered by railway enthusiasts as a special railway with more than its fair share of lore and [...]
The US Supreme Court has ordered that a death row inmate should receive a new hearing to see if evidence not heard at his trial proves his innocence. Troy Davis was convicted in 1991 of killing a policeman in the southern state of Georgia, but key witnesses have recanted their testimony. In September the Supreme [...]
Friday 21 August - assemble 5.30pm Junction of Fairmount Road and Brixton Hill, Brixton, London Rally at Brixton Police Station, SW9 7DD – Candlelight vigil
On 21 August 2008, at approximately 7.30pm, Sean Rigg was arrested and restrained by four Brixton police officers, placed in a van and driven to Brixton police station. Within approximately [...]
The Burmese pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been found guilty on the 11th August 2009 of violating state security laws, in effect preventing her from campaigning in next year’s elections. A court in Rangoon convicted her of breaking the terms of her house arrest when she allowed an American man, John Yettaw, to [...]
