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can help. Hello,

1:10

my friend, and happy Monday. I hope you

1:12

had a lovely weekend. Welcome to

1:14

Catch Up with Louise McSharry. This is the news episode where

1:16

we catch up on all the week's news. There is a

1:18

lot to talk about. I will say I have

1:20

possibly the biggest rant I've ever had on this podcast

1:23

in the middle of this news section, where I feel

1:25

like I kind of temporarily lost my mind. So

1:27

apologies in advance. Maybe

1:31

that's because I spent the weekend solo

1:34

parenting, which is fine. I

1:38

don't know. I kind of went off

1:40

kilter on Saturday because I for

1:42

some reason decided I wanted to do a load of

1:44

cleaning in addition to parenting, which

1:47

just doesn't work with the age that my

1:49

kids are. Very hard to get the cleaning

1:51

done and the parenting done at the

1:53

same time. And I was having

1:56

my son was having some friends over in the afternoon. I think it

1:58

was for them that I just. I was doing the

2:01

cleaning, then I decided I had to obviously make chocolate

2:03

chip cookies from scratch and I have to have, you

2:05

know, loads and loads of snacks. I had to go

2:07

to Tesco. So by the time the children arrived, I

2:09

was kind of already had crossover to Into Insanity and

2:11

then I was obviously a servant

2:14

for the duration of the time that they were here.

2:16

That's how it goes. That's part of the job. Fine.

2:18

But I started to feel very

2:20

annoyed about it toward the end, not about

2:23

the other children, but I was like,

2:25

why is my seven year old not expressing more

2:27

gratitude at all of the work that I've done

2:29

to make this lovely day for him? And I

2:31

won't lie, I came very close to ruining his

2:33

lovely day because I started to get so kind

2:35

of snappy and cranky. So

2:37

yeah, lots of lessons learned there. Number one

2:40

lesson probably being, why do I feel like

2:42

I need to perform perfection for a seven

2:44

year old who's coming to visit my house?

2:46

Like, why am I doing that? Like, what's

2:48

that? Probably something

2:50

I need to bring up in therapy, to be honest. But

2:54

yeah, it was a pretty full on weekend. And

2:57

so by the time I got to this morning, I

2:59

think I was just maybe already starting at a frantic

3:01

pace. I hope your weekend was good.

3:03

I hope you did fun stuff. No worries. If not,

3:05

they can't all be good, as we always say. I

3:07

would like to say a massive thank you to everyone

3:10

who has joined the Patreon. You are

3:12

just the best. I don't

3:14

have the words to say how much I appreciate

3:16

you and how much it helps

3:19

me keep going with this podcast because you

3:23

know, I guess just to make it financially

3:25

viable, I need your

3:28

support essentially. So thank you

3:30

so much. If you want to join patreon.com/catch up

3:32

with Louise McSarrie but the link is in the

3:34

show notes as well. And

3:36

let's keep it going. As I

3:39

said, lots of news to get into with

3:41

Carl Kinsella of the journal.ie Carl

3:43

Kinsella, how are you? How is your weekend?

3:45

How is Amsterdam? How is your life? I

3:47

see you are you're going deep on growing

3:49

a beard. Yeah,

3:52

I Feel like that could change at any moment. I think I

3:54

could wake up. I could wake up at any because I know

3:56

a lot of people like they'll grow a beard and they'll really

3:59

like commit to it. Yeah. A yawning

4:01

mine. Quite. Looks good

4:03

enough to really commit to a you

4:05

could feel you know. I think there

4:07

are still kind of fundamental issues with

4:09

the to party with so I say

4:11

onset it'll get. One week I'm

4:14

going to come on here and I'm not gonna

4:16

have a beard and I thought for a gonna

4:18

could be next week's okay let's say we sent.

4:20

Our friends, Are they saying a please. Please

4:23

have great faith in fact that I will

4:25

report this as as mean that develops am

4:27

have of the weekends. So

4:30

my week I think he saw on Instagram.

4:32

I was supposed to go back to Dublin

4:34

last week for my birthday was instead what

4:36

I did was I booked my flights in

4:39

reverse. I post my flights. So like I

4:41

bought my first flight from Dublin to Amsterdam.

4:43

on my second flight from Amsterdam job on

4:45

which is the opposite direction in which I

4:47

need to drop in order to get home.

4:50

Very heart of rubble from Dublin to Amsterdam

4:52

when you are in fact in Amsterdam. Exactly

4:54

Yeah, Amina, you think that a be the

4:56

kind of thing that would occur to me

4:58

before. I both have been else yeah I dunno

5:00

I don't know how I got it wrong for

5:02

I in any case I ended up not going

5:04

home but also for know I just said here.

5:07

When did you notice that the size or.

5:10

When. I went to check in online and I

5:12

could go either. I was on because there's an

5:14

hour time difference. I could see I was gaining

5:16

an hour back on the second flight mode like

5:18

that to the A crisis and still took me

5:21

a couple of minutes to like work out what

5:23

was wrong and then I was like oh the

5:25

fly like I like, oh this flyers and from

5:27

Amsterdam at all. So I

5:29

mean bus Sherlock What he did. I say

5:31

your parents are devastated where they ain't They

5:33

were. Yeah, there were a little bit obsessed

5:36

for around and you know the I think

5:38

they were. They were mostly just worried that

5:40

I. Would be annoyed for like I'm. Kind

5:43

of got on with this and I'll

5:45

out of be home around March. Late

5:47

late March on such as Hurry for

5:49

Carl's Junior Mean Line and they Cbs

5:51

area prison camp. okay

5:53

i am let's get into the news

5:56

and less obvious think we will start

5:58

in gaza and is I

6:01

feel like we're just not getting

6:03

anywhere ever and it is just

6:06

more and more self-destroying by the day. Yeah,

6:09

I know if anything I feel like the last

6:11

week has been even more upsetting

6:14

than, I mean like you know it's very hard to

6:16

quantify these things and put them on a gradient but

6:19

like there's really disturbing stuff

6:21

this week. There was what's

6:23

kind of been called colloquially,

6:25

colloquially in its aftermath the

6:28

flower massacre which is

6:30

a horrible event that happened during

6:32

the week which is you

6:35

know a humanity, like several humanitarian

6:37

aid trucks were allowed into the

6:40

Al Rashid, Harun Al Rashid street

6:42

in Gaza and

6:44

these trucks were, you know people

6:46

desperately need aid but

6:48

what the people described was that they

6:51

were basically fired upon by Israeli soldiers

6:54

straight away as they approached the truck

6:57

and not only were they fired upon but after

6:59

people were left dead and injured tanks

7:01

advanced on them and rolled

7:04

over them, tanks and bulldozers and other

7:06

kind of like large vehicles. You

7:09

know if you read a report in

7:11

Al Jazeera you'll read you know dozens,

7:13

well not dozens but multiple witness reports

7:16

of people saying that they you know

7:19

they felt trapped, they felt ambushed that

7:21

it didn't really seem like an earnest,

7:23

like what's the

7:25

IDS side of things they kind of absolved themselves,

7:28

they said that there was just chaos, that there

7:30

was rioting, that people were just trying to get

7:32

at the food and that that's what led to

7:34

all the destruction but

7:36

it seems to be kind

7:38

of independently cited by multiple different

7:40

sources that in actual fact there

7:42

was just widespread firing upon civilians.

7:46

And some of the images from it again

7:48

it's sort of similar to the bombing of

7:50

Rafah during the Super Bowl, again some of

7:52

the images are just so horrifying that

7:55

it really, like I don't recommend really looking them

7:57

off. No,

8:01

there's one in particular I think that

8:03

people have found really

8:05

difficult to process that I

8:07

came across by mistake. I didn't seek it

8:09

out and just

8:12

feels like a new bar is being

8:14

set like every week for absolutely

8:17

horrific things you feel like you'll never forget

8:19

and that you can't live with and yet

8:21

somehow we are continuing to live and not

8:23

I think as human beings is very difficult

8:26

to process from our side but from their

8:28

side, from the people who are actually there,

8:30

people are starving to death.

8:32

We know this now. We have seen

8:34

various professionals from aid agencies,

8:37

multiple different aid agencies saying that it's just impossible

8:39

to get food in and saying that the

8:42

only thing that's stopping them is Israel.

8:44

Israel are not letting food and other

8:46

rations into the country. There

8:49

was a video last week of food

8:52

packages being dropped by Jordan to

8:55

Palestinians and the

8:57

videos were gorgeous. It was of people just

9:00

so happy to be getting a bit of help

9:03

and there didn't seem to be any

9:05

rioting or any kind of nastiness. I

9:07

mean, yes, people were holding on tightly

9:09

to their food packages but there was

9:11

laughter and relief and so the idea

9:13

that you would allow a truck in

9:17

and then shoot and kill the

9:19

people as they go to get the desperately

9:21

needed food and other resources

9:25

is just disgusting. And

9:29

then you've got Joe Biden saying, oh, we'll ensure

9:31

that aid gets in and it's like, buddy, what

9:33

are you doing? So

9:36

you're going to send aid or you're going

9:38

to assist in aid getting to a country

9:40

so that the Israelis can use weapons that

9:42

have been paid for by you or provided

9:44

by you to kill them? I

9:47

feel like I'm living in some sort of weird dystopia.

9:50

And the aftermath of the flower massacre was

9:52

especially bad in that whole thing of traditional

9:55

media outlets using the sort of exonerative voice

9:57

where they refused to acknowledge who

10:00

fired the shots and who actually

10:02

had the agency in that event.

10:05

It's all just, you know, Palestinians

10:07

killed, you know, and it's so

10:11

frustrating because you're watching this

10:13

unspeakably horrible, vivid nightmarish

10:16

violence unfold and then you're reading about it

10:18

and you're not even getting a clear picture.

10:20

You're just kind of being told that, you

10:22

know, there's chaos. It's like it's as if

10:24

the media is trying to obfuscate what actually

10:26

happened when of course it's the opposite of

10:29

their job. And it was something like 112

10:32

people were killed overnight in this one

10:34

event and there was a similar incident

10:37

I think the day, I think it was the

10:39

day before yesterday. So you're talking about, you know,

10:41

what some people are online are saying this is

10:43

kind of like almost like a trial balloon where

10:45

it's, you know, it's constantly the idea of pushing

10:47

and seeing what can we get away with? How

10:49

much further can we take these

10:51

atrocities? How much easier can we make our

10:53

jobs in terms of just ethnically cleansing Gaza?

10:57

And it seems like they can get away with

10:59

whatever they want at this point. I mean, that's

11:01

the horror of it. Yeah,

11:05

this week it's kind of interesting.

11:07

Kamala Harris called for an immediate

11:09

six-week ceasefire, which I thought was

11:11

interesting because right now Joe Biden

11:13

is so unpopular in the US and

11:15

with young people he's very unpopular due

11:18

to how he's handled Gaza. So it's really interesting

11:20

to see his vice president kind of offer quite

11:22

a different perspective on it.

11:24

Again, obviously it kind of goes

11:26

without saying it's ridiculously late

11:29

in the game. Yeah, too little too late. Yeah,

11:31

to start behaving as though you care

11:33

about Gaza. You know, like these bombs

11:35

and airstrikes and all this has been

11:37

happening for five months. It's absurd to

11:39

claim now that you, you know, see

11:41

the logic in a ceasefire when

11:44

you didn't see it before. But I think politically

11:46

it does separate her somewhat from Biden. And I

11:48

think, you know, I do think she's making this

11:50

statement because of political considerations and not ethical

11:53

ones, but I just find it

11:55

interesting. Yeah, I

11:57

just genuinely don't know how anyone this

12:00

point could possibly believe that there's

12:02

anything other than a ceasefire that's

12:04

appropriate. Like it is, like

12:07

no matter how kind of extreme you are,

12:10

no matter what side of the fence you're

12:12

on, like I just don't know how you

12:14

could possibly continue to justify these actions. Genuinely

12:17

as a human being, I cannot get my head around it.

12:19

And I think that is how most people feel. Okay,

12:23

unfortunately there is no kind of neat

12:25

way to tie that up. It goes

12:27

on and you

12:30

know all we can hope is that there's some dramatic

12:32

turn of events over the course of the next week

12:34

that we won't be having the exact same conversation this

12:37

time next week. Okay,

12:39

so there was big weather this week. Snow came

12:41

out of nowhere. As Maren said, if they'd had

12:43

a crystal ball maybe they would have been able

12:45

to predict it. That was

12:47

one of my favourite things that has

12:49

happened. So

12:52

I missed my birthday by not flying home but I also

12:54

missed the snow. So that

12:57

was actually the tougher thing because I love snow.

12:59

I love just messing around. Did you not get any

13:01

snow in Amsterdam this winter? No

13:03

snow at all here. It's actually quite

13:05

nice here at the moment. It's very

13:07

mild, very springtimey. Well

13:10

it's actually kind of like that today in Dublin as well. The snow

13:13

feels like it was just one day

13:15

and only which is presumably why Maren

13:17

couldn't predict it. Honestly, yeah

13:19

and it is quite funny because I

13:22

wrote about this at the weekend so I did do

13:24

some research into it and it is quite hard to

13:26

predict snow in Ireland. So you do sympathise a

13:29

bit but it's just the phrasing of maybe if we

13:31

had a crystal ball it's just so funny. For

13:34

sure you have other stuff, right?

13:38

You have stuff that meteorologists use. Yeah

13:40

I mean I think that's the whole deal

13:42

isn't it? That you have access to stuff

13:44

that we don't or even if it's just

13:46

knowledge. Anyway, obviously kind of

13:48

entertaining for some people in

13:51

Ireland but unfortunately trickier

13:54

for people who are homeless.

13:57

Trickier feels like actually

13:59

completely the right thing. wrong word to use, like

14:01

I would say dangerous for people who are homeless. And

14:04

there has been a situation around the

14:06

Office of International Protection in town for

14:08

quite some time now around Main Street

14:10

where there have been more and more

14:12

and more tents outside and people living

14:14

in tents around the office.

14:19

And this became an even bigger issue when

14:22

the snow fell. Well, that's

14:24

something we're always looking at at the

14:26

journal is we're always checking up on the

14:28

figures of international protection applicants

14:31

who haven't been given

14:33

accommodation and currently those figures in Ireland,

14:35

they're really high. It's like 1,100 men

14:38

in Ireland seeking international protection

14:41

haven't been accommodated. So that's a thousand

14:43

people or more sleeping rough. And

14:47

certainly when you have situations like snow

14:49

or like sub-zero degree temperatures at nighttime,

14:51

those people are in serious danger because

14:54

I mean, I think people make a

14:56

delineation in their minds between men and

14:58

women and children. But like there's

15:01

really no reason men can't be vulnerable as

15:03

well. Like those men, they could be sick,

15:05

they could be injured, they're coming over from

15:08

a place where they're fleeing and seeking

15:10

international protection. So who knows what

15:12

kind of vulnerabilities they could have physically

15:15

or anything. I actually drove

15:17

by there the day after, the day

15:19

before and Friday. So

15:23

what's that? The day after? No, the day of.

15:26

Yeah, the day of the snow. Sorry. I literally couldn't

15:28

even tell you my name today. On

15:30

the day of the snow in the evening. So when

15:32

the snow had stopped, I drove by there because I

15:35

was on my way to collect my son. And

15:37

it is quite shocking the number of

15:40

tents and the number of men and

15:42

it is men. Like I

15:44

mean, a proper large crowds of

15:46

generally young men outside all day

15:48

long in that freezing cold weather.

15:51

And it's not okay.

15:55

I mean, it's ridiculous and it's such a, I

15:57

mean, it is such a failure of planning. at

16:00

a state level, you know, I hate

16:02

the phrase joined up thinking, but it is

16:04

a lack of joined up thinking. You

16:06

know, we have one policy from one

16:08

department and another policy from another department

16:10

and it just results in gaps whereby

16:12

you have people not being supported, which

16:14

is, you know, it's unacceptable whether those people

16:17

are Irish or whether they're international protection

16:20

seekers, it's kind of it doesn't matter.

16:22

Like, you know, everybody is entitled to

16:24

have a roof over their head, particularly

16:26

when the weather conditions are so bad.

16:29

So and like it is just, it

16:31

is really sad. And you know, you have the

16:34

CEO of safety,

16:36

you know, primary care saying that like, you know,

16:38

being out in the cold and wet, it

16:40

exacerbates conditions like asthma, heart disease, diabetes, high blood

16:42

pressure. So really, like just if you're out

16:44

in the cold and wet, no matter who you

16:47

are, you're going to

16:49

be kind of more at risk of falling

16:51

ill or being unwell, which is kind of

16:53

crazy, because then you're in a situation where

16:55

you have international protection, international protection seekers in

16:58

Ireland, ending up in hospital or this or

17:00

that. And it's like all these things could

17:02

be avoided if we just had a system

17:04

in place where we were able to process

17:06

these people as quickly as possible, you know, get

17:08

them somewhere to live, get them somewhere to work.

17:11

And I mean, obviously, I'm saying that really flippantly

17:13

as if that's easy to do. That is difficult.

17:15

There's no question. But it is it's, it's something

17:18

that the Irish government, I think hasn't taken seriously.

17:20

And it's something that we do need to take

17:22

seriously. And it becomes more stark when you have

17:24

a situation where, you know, people are getting soaked

17:27

through. We had a Macaulay from the journal, she

17:29

was down there speaking to people. She

17:32

saw one man like one man

17:34

had Google Translate on a phone, you

17:36

couldn't speak English. But he was, you know, typing

17:38

out messages like looking for help through Google Translate.

17:40

I just thought that was so kind of I

17:43

mean, it's moving, but it is also just so

17:45

sad. And it seems like,

17:47

you know, these people are right outside the Office of

17:49

International Protection or the International Protection Office, like

17:51

it feels like more could be done. Yeah.

17:56

And like, you know, the thing always to remember, I think in this

17:58

context as well is that these are people who you don't know

18:00

what they're coming from. Like you know they could

18:02

be, you know, already you

18:04

would assume that anyone who's had to make

18:06

the journey to another country on the basis

18:08

of international protection is not

18:10

at 100%. So you know you're talking about

18:13

vulnerable people and it's got to

18:15

be only a matter of time before someone dies. I

18:17

mean it really does feel that way. Like we, there

18:19

was just recently a death of a homeless woman on

18:21

the street who I know was much

18:24

beloved in Dublin and who

18:26

spent most of her time recently on Ager

18:28

Street and you probably saw loads of posts

18:30

about that online which I thought was

18:32

really gorgeous to see so much love for her and

18:34

care for her and so many people who had relationships

18:36

with her. But you know this

18:39

is gonna happen and we will have

18:41

to live with that. Like I mean there was that

18:43

horrific video that went viral last week of

18:45

a like a bin

18:48

truck basically driving over tents

18:50

there in that area. Like

18:53

there could have been someone in there. Precisely

18:55

and I think and you know and we've had

18:57

kind of issues like that in the past. I

18:59

remember before the 2020 election down by the canal

19:01

a bin lorry picked up

19:04

a tent without somebody within. You

19:06

know and I think that's it when you have

19:08

people living in the intent of the accommodation you

19:10

have people kind of in the general public who

19:12

they don't have respect for that you know because

19:14

it's a tent and because it's sort of makeshift

19:17

and it's temporary. I think people assume it's a

19:19

choice as well. I

19:21

think there's yeah there's so many different attitudes

19:23

that I think play into the

19:25

dangers that those people face and I think

19:27

you know that is

19:30

all exacerbated when the snow comes down or

19:32

when freezing cold. And

19:34

it's the responsibility of the government and Dublin

19:36

City Council in this case. Although of course

19:38

there are like you know there are people

19:40

in tents across Ireland but in this specific

19:42

case yeah Dublin City Council have a lot

19:44

of responsibility. Yeah and obviously that's not to say

19:46

that there is no concern for people who live in tents

19:48

in different areas of the city and indeed around the country.

19:51

Like I would be concerned about anyone who is living in

19:53

a tent in the winter but like all

19:55

winter long and indeed all year round because

19:57

there's loads of danger there. when

20:00

you're in that kind of situation. Ryan

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site for details. Okay,

21:39

let's move on. There was a absolutely

21:42

horrific story during the week

21:44

about Toussla and some

21:47

of the agencies that it

21:49

was using to care for

21:52

vulnerable children. Yeah, this

21:54

is kind of an unusual

21:56

story. This came out during the week

21:58

that Toussla was going to be a very good source of support. to stop

22:00

engaging with two for-profit agencies after

22:02

it paid at $14 million to

22:05

provide unregulated emergency accommodation to vulnerable

22:07

children. And just to remind people,

22:09

just in case you're not familiar, TUSLA is the Child and

22:11

Family Agency. It's a governmental agency which

22:13

is responsible for the wellbeing and outcomes for children

22:15

and families in Ireland. So if you are a

22:18

child in care, that they would be responsible for

22:20

you, no matter what your circumstances

22:22

are. Yes, so this week, TUSLA

22:25

appeared before the Public

22:27

Accounts Committee, the Joint Interruptive

22:29

Committee. And, yes, pretty serious questions

22:32

were asked. It was found that they had paid €14

22:34

million to two companies

22:37

who had done inadequate background checks. So

22:40

one of these companies was called Ideal Care.

22:43

It was used for emergency

22:45

accommodation for young people in

22:47

Ireland. And yes, it was

22:49

found that there was an inspection done

22:52

of Ideal Care and they found that

22:54

their checks of prospective employees had been

22:56

fabricated, which is to say

22:58

that the background checks they were doing

23:00

were either false or altered or fake

23:02

in some way, which is, I mean,

23:04

extremely disturbing. Like if you were to

23:06

find out that your child or a

23:08

child that was important to you in

23:11

some way had been housed somewhere where the

23:13

people taking care of them, quote unquote, taking

23:15

care of them weren't properly background checked. I

23:17

mean, I find it disturbing just as a

23:19

human being without any child who's connected to

23:21

this service. Like the idea that you would

23:23

take vulnerable children, like I've

23:27

said it so much, I've said it so

23:29

many times on this podcast, and

23:31

I'm going to say it again. And I'm sorry, because

23:33

I know I'm like a broken record, but like as

23:37

someone who had to be separated from my

23:39

parents, well, my dad died, but from my

23:41

mom as a result of her addiction. Now,

23:44

I was very lucky that my parents, my

23:46

aunt and uncle were in a position to

23:48

take me on, but I know how easy

23:51

it is to find yourself in a situation

23:53

as a kid where you are taken

23:56

from one traumatic situation and put into a new one.

23:58

And if you're lucky, that new one is better

24:00

but like you're coming into it already broken

24:02

like that's the reality any child who has

24:04

to be separated from their parents for whatever

24:06

reason is maybe

24:09

broken is the wrong word because I don't want to suggest

24:11

that there's something wrong with these children but like you are

24:13

you are heartbroken anyway and

24:15

I can say that from personal experience

24:17

like no nothing will compare to

24:19

the pain that I experienced as a result of

24:21

being separated from my mother I don't want to

24:23

start getting emotional but like you are so vulnerable

24:26

and we see time and time

24:28

again that these children you

24:30

know often carry that with them through their

24:32

entire life and they never sound a chance

24:35

because they're not cared for properly you know

24:37

these are children who have already been failed

24:39

on some level whether it's by the system

24:41

or whether it's by their family or some

24:44

adult in their life and the idea that

24:46

we would not be taking the utmost care

24:48

that we would not be bending over backwards

24:50

to make sure that these children have everything

24:52

that they need and that the every need

24:55

is met from psychological needs to physical needs

24:57

everything is revolting to me

24:59

and then 15 years later should

25:02

one of these children end up being someone who's

25:04

exhibiting antisocial behavior we will talk about them as

25:06

if they're pieces of dirt and we'll spit on

25:08

them as we walk by them on the street

25:11

maybe not physically but like in our minds like we

25:13

will look down on them and it

25:15

will be our fault as a society and I just

25:18

it is so galling to me that

25:20

this kind of casual moves

25:23

would be made by the

25:25

agency by this country by this society in

25:28

terms of caring for these children it makes

25:30

me sick I really

25:34

you know I don't think I can even add anything to that

25:36

like that is I mean I

25:38

can add that I'm sort of feeling in the mood to

25:40

vote for like a t-shirt Louise McCherry right now

25:44

this is my this is just this hit this

25:46

just breaks me like I I can't there's

25:48

nothing else that gets me as much as this like I

25:50

mean if we are not taking care of children what are

25:52

we doing like what are we doing like we can all

25:55

pat ourselves on the back and we can say oh we've

25:57

put money in the rainy day funds and the economy is

25:59

booming and know, we're performing well at this, we're

26:01

performing well at that. If we are not taking care

26:03

of children, we are failing. Like

26:05

that's it. And

26:08

it raises such questions over like what kind

26:10

of due diligence is actually doing in these

26:12

cases, because, you know, as you

26:14

could be kind of difficult to find

26:16

out maybe that like a company is

26:18

forging background checks for its staff. But

26:21

like, as we can see here, like

26:23

the owner of this company is an

26:25

evangelical pastor, which is like

26:27

already that's the kind of thing where like your eyebrows

26:29

are raising and you're like, I

26:31

would like to know more about this. Well, you just

26:34

kind of think is it appropriate for someone with like,

26:36

you know, a religious kind of direction,

26:38

no matter what religion it is, is it

26:40

appropriate for them, you know, and maybe there's

26:42

no issue, but maybe there is evangelical Christianity

26:45

is all about trying to bring people into

26:47

your religion, you know, they kind of

26:49

make their own rules. So for me, and

26:51

this is like, no disrespect to like evangelism, but like

26:53

they do sort of make their own rules. The

26:56

end result is that these companies are no longer being

26:59

used because they were not doing their due diligence

27:01

and they weren't doing their job properly. And,

27:03

you know, just as normal people, you can

27:05

read it and go, well, would

27:08

you not have double checked that? Like, I mean, would you

27:10

not have been really careful about

27:12

that? It just feels so

27:14

disgusting. Sorry, I'm really on

27:16

one. Like, I can't be reasonable about this stuff. I

27:19

think you said more than reasonable. I didn't

27:22

see, you know, there's a lack of reason

27:24

is the situation that's leading to us having

27:26

children in emergency care that's not suitable whatsoever.

27:29

I just like, I honestly like, I feel like

27:32

a compulsion when I read this, I just feel

27:34

like what am I doing with my life? Like,

27:36

why am I doing all this stupid stuff when

27:38

I should be spending every single like, I want

27:40

to like go and kidnap children from care and

27:42

somehow bring them to a safe place. Like, and

27:45

I just don't understand how everyone doesn't feel

27:47

that way. And I know, like, look,

27:49

I know that Toussaint is under immense

27:51

pressure. I know that. Like,

27:53

we've all read the stories we have read.

27:56

We've spoken about it on here. I've written about it

27:58

in my opinion, Like. You know

28:00

we know that there aren't enough staff. We

28:02

know that there aren't enough resources, We know

28:05

they are overstretched and there are unfortunately too

28:07

many children in care like.a reality. But like

28:09

it is still unacceptable for this to be

28:11

the result of us number one and number

28:14

two. if there are too many children in

28:16

care, maybe we should look at what the

28:18

other societal issues are that are leading to

28:20

children in being in care. You know what

28:23

I mean. Like if we continue to say

28:25

for example criminalize addiction and we don't provide

28:27

addiction treatment series a services in the and

28:29

an appropriate. Way if there aren't enough places if we

28:31

don't make it so. Easy for people who are

28:33

addicted to get treatment if they want it

28:36

should be. It should be so easy

28:38

because it would save us money and it

28:40

would save children and you know or the

28:42

other. Country. We would only benefit the making

28:44

it an easy as someone asking to get

28:46

treatment for addiction and but instead we may

28:48

people jump through hoops. We make it a

28:51

few advantage, we make it inaccessible, we make

28:53

it almost impossible to access and then we

28:55

signed addicts to prevent and then their children

28:57

go into care and then we have this

28:59

cycle of you know it again it's just

29:01

like a little bit of joined up thinking

29:03

guys like we would all benefit from this

29:05

on and these children would benefit. From it.

29:09

Or. Maybe I should run for these are. I

29:11

don't. I know you can't run for these are

29:14

what? like oh god I don't know. I mean

29:16

at least have been on the presidential election, have

29:18

some of the idea of a decent chance and

29:20

presidential elections around us. and I mean for the

29:22

Y nos. The thing about it as is

29:24

that like sorry I will sell talking in

29:26

a second. The thing about it is is

29:28

that I don't say that there are loads

29:30

of politicians who feel league them same way

29:32

that I do like. I know that there

29:34

are. I don't suggest that people think this

29:36

is acceptable, but I think that it's just

29:39

one of those things where there's so many

29:41

problems to solve that you kind it and

29:43

hope it doesn't end up being important enough.

29:45

But I just kind of think what could

29:47

be more important than their like? It should

29:49

be the number one priority because again it

29:51

feeds into every other area, society and. And

29:53

the idea that someone could be

29:55

making. Massive.

29:57

Profit. From. taking

30:00

Children at their most vulnerable times

30:02

into their you know care agency

30:04

or whatever and not even be

30:07

Checking that the people who are there are safe

30:10

Yeah, it's yeah, I think I've made

30:12

my point that I need to stop talking. I'm sorry Carl. Sorry

30:15

everybody Feel

30:20

very galvanized I'm hoping

30:22

they feel energized I'm

30:25

sorry. I just yeah, I you know where

30:27

you get me. I don't know stop working.

30:29

Okay, let's move on Now some

30:31

people probably know what to hear this, but I actually

30:33

find this kind of amusing I don't agree with it

30:35

in principle But I did find it kind of amusing

30:37

a statue of Queen

30:40

Victoria was vandalized in Scotland

30:42

And one of the perpetrators was an Irish woman Yeah,

30:46

which is how cool is that? I mean,

30:48

you know, I know I know where I

30:50

was supposed to not really like yeah Not

30:52

supposed to endorse this kind of thing in

30:54

principle Me personally, I

30:56

don't know throwing porridge and jam over

30:58

Queen Victoria is kind of funny Yeah,

31:00

even if you don't even if you

31:02

don't have an ideological standpoint Like

31:05

even if you're just doing that just to be funny.

31:07

I think it's kind of funny It's sort of like

31:09

the Luke Kelly head thing like I felt so bad

31:11

like, you know I guy was arrested and charged and

31:13

sent to jail for that But I always kind of

31:15

thought the vandalizing of the Luke Kelly head was sort

31:17

of like Had a bit of a traditional

31:19

bent to it or something, you know That

31:22

though that story was actually awful he was being Paid

31:26

and manipulated to do that. Yeah, but anyway, but I know

31:28

what you mean as a concept

31:31

Yes, it's sort of like amusing But

31:34

it may be in a way that maybe we

31:36

shouldn't indulge as a society Yeah, in any case

31:38

these people had a point and they

31:40

were doing it for a reason It

31:42

was a group called this is rigged

31:45

and that what their whole aim is

31:47

they're trying to essentially reform

31:49

Scottish governance and

31:52

yeah, it's They

31:54

they this girl's certainly Martin.

31:56

She's she's the Irish girl she

32:00

is 30 and she was part of a

32:02

duo that threw, as we

32:04

were saying, porridge and jam over a bust

32:07

of Queen Victoria in

32:10

Glasgow's Kelvin Grove Art Gallery Museum.

32:12

They were arrested, which is in

32:15

charge. It's

32:21

a tough one because you can't really just

32:23

get away, we see this with just stop

32:25

oil as well, you can't quite get away

32:28

with throwing soup over precious artwork and heirlooms

32:30

and not be arrested. But at the same

32:32

time, whenever I do read these articles, I

32:34

always do feel like it's a bit harsh

32:37

or something. I would kind of winse at

32:39

it a little bit, these

32:41

people get charged with a crime. Because being charged with a

32:43

crime and then found guilty, it's no joke, it really messes

32:46

with your life. I do think

32:48

though these people go in with their

32:50

eyes open, I think they know what

32:52

the consequences are. But yeah, I mean,

32:55

look, when I saw the video initially,

32:57

I was very, I was like, that's

32:59

actually, genuinely my first response was that's

33:01

gross. I don't like the idea of

33:03

damaging art for any reason. It doesn't

33:05

say well with me. But then,

33:07

sorry, didn't you? I

33:10

think in most these cases, the art

33:12

is protected in some way or it's

33:14

very rarely permanently damaged. And that's how

33:16

I reconcile it to myself. Because I

33:18

do think as well that to like,

33:20

rest priceless art is bad. But I

33:22

think typically it's either behind a glass

33:24

case, in this case, it's a marble

33:26

book. So they'll just like wipe it

33:28

down, I guess. Yeah, yeah, no, I

33:30

mean, well, this is the thing as I as I

33:32

read on and I read the point that they're trying

33:35

to make, and I realized that like

33:37

no permanent damage having done to it, I

33:39

was kind of able to sit more easily

33:41

with it, because their whole thing is that

33:43

they refuse to be dragged back into the

33:45

Victorian era. So they say diseases of starvation,

33:47

including scurvy and rickets around the rise. Freedom

33:49

begins with breakfast, hence the purge and jam.

33:52

And if you can't understand that, we'll shove it in your

33:54

face food is a human right, we call it the rotten

33:56

systems under which we were suffering and I see it like

33:58

that's joined up thinking that makes sense. like I get

34:00

the point that they're making. Yeah, and

34:02

food security both in Ireland and the UK is such

34:04

a huge issue at the minute. Yeah. I

34:07

mean, it is an issue in Ireland. It is particularly

34:09

an issue in the UK. Of course, it's been

34:11

like use of food banks has exploded since 2011, you

34:13

know, and that's you're looking at

34:15

a decade and a half of

34:17

just severe poverty in the UK.

34:20

So I mean, something like this, I think to a lot of

34:22

people in the UK, this would probably look quite reasonable.

34:24

Because I mean, you are just seeing a lot of

34:26

protest stuff in the UK at the minute. We don't

34:29

need to get into it. But of course, George Galloway

34:31

was elected as an MP in a by-election this week.

34:33

I think we shouldn't talk about that right now because

34:35

it'll just take too long to talk about George Galloway.

34:37

Would like that again as an example of just kind

34:39

of, I think the desperation that's being felt by certain

34:41

people in certain sections of the UK. And

34:44

yeah, I mean, if you're going to engage

34:46

in some kind of protest or another, I

34:48

would always recommend, you know, throwing jam over

34:51

someone before electing George Galloway. Even

34:55

though he is a very pro-Palestine voice at the moment,

34:57

but there's other problems with George Galloway. Let's not talk

34:59

about George. I said I wouldn't talk about George Galloway.

35:01

And now I'm starting to talk about George Galloway. So

35:03

let's stop talking about George Galloway. I will

35:06

say a member of my family once

35:08

got into trouble for throwing, I want

35:11

to say spaghetti. I

35:14

was going to say Chinese emperor, but that can't

35:17

be. There aren't Chinese emperors anymore. But

35:20

someone in a similar role came

35:22

to Dublin. And my role, someone

35:24

I know, was a teenager at

35:26

the time. And was involved

35:29

in throwing, I think, spaghetti or noodles at

35:31

them. And was it like premeditated? Or

35:34

was it like just an opportunistic thing of like,

35:36

oh, there's the premiere of a country. I guess

35:39

I'll throw whatever food I need. No, I think

35:41

it was a human rights thing. Oh,

35:43

really? Yeah, no, it was like for a

35:45

good reason. But I remember just being

35:48

like, wow, what a

35:50

thing to find yourself involved in. I

35:53

would assume that if I were to throw anything at

35:55

anyone of any importance, that like a sniper would take

35:57

me out in like seconds. You know, that's what I

35:59

hate. That's what I figured. I feel like

36:01

you're always not particularly when these kind of big shop

36:03

people are in town I just feel

36:05

because remember when Queen Elizabeth visited in

36:07

like 2010 2011 And

36:10

there was all that talk of like old people were gonna

36:12

be on lists So there would be snipers on top of

36:14

the buildings and stuff and like they'll be watched so closely

36:16

I think that made quite an impact on me Well,

36:19

I just would never like I'm a chronic rule

36:21

follower. So I could never do anything like I've

36:24

been there I've been watching

36:26

the the protesters like walking

36:28

into and Say

36:31

public engagements of people where people are speaking

36:33

and just disrupting them just by shouting I

36:36

mean what's happening in Gaza and stuff and I've

36:38

been thinking wow I just would be so not

36:40

brave enough to do that. I so yeah, unfortunately

36:42

I am a chronic rule

36:44

follower, so you will never see me taking that kind

36:47

of action I will go for a nicely organized protest

36:49

though that I'm not too afraid to do and We

36:52

might have your throne spaghetti eventually I

36:56

Don't wreck it just to be clear. I

36:58

do not recommend or condone that behavior and

37:00

clearly because I'm such a rule follower Okay,

37:03

I wanted to briefly touch on the fact

37:05

that drone delivery has begun in Blanchett's town

37:07

Which is something I think a lot of

37:09

people have been wondering if it will come

37:11

to Ireland because they've been doing it in

37:13

America for a while and but people have

37:15

obviously because we're Irish we have begun complaining

37:17

about it Yeah,

37:19

I like so I don't know quite I haven't

37:22

decided how I feel about this I will say

37:24

about a week or two ago. I was walking

37:26

to the supermarket here in Amsterdam and a robot

37:29

Word passed me on the like on the sidewalk

37:31

You know the fourth class like just this like

37:33

this like little machine or 2d2 thing

37:36

like flew past me And I was standing by myself,

37:38

so I was just standing there like looking at it,

37:40

and I was like what I was like

37:42

first Well, I was like did that just happen What

37:45

was that where's it going? What's it doing?

37:47

And then when I saw the news about

37:49

the drone deliveries starting in Ireland

37:51

I realized that like it's a similar little

37:54

it's a little it was a wheeled drone

37:56

Doing some kind of delivery, but like it was so job

38:00

paying. That's what freaks me

38:02

out. They're doing jobs. They're doing and I

38:04

don't want to be like an anti robot

38:06

person. But like, my God, it is it

38:08

is a bit scary. Yeah. So it's the

38:13

company manna. It's

38:15

they're the ones leading the the drone

38:19

charge in Ireland. So yeah, it's

38:21

Dublin 15. Blanchett 10. It's

38:23

really funny that we often launch these things in

38:25

Blanchett 10. Like we also launched Krispy Kreme in

38:28

Blanchett 10. There must be something demographic about Blanchett

38:30

10 that makes it a good place to like,

38:32

try these things. Which I'd love to maybe densely

38:35

populated. I'd say it

38:37

probably is quite densely populated. But I would have said

38:39

less so for example, than Tala and less so than

38:41

other areas. Basically, I'm just

38:43

advocating for Tala to get some stuff. Right. That's what

38:45

I want to bring you some of the structure. Cool.

38:47

Got it. But you

38:50

know, the drones are very interesting. Like they, I,

38:52

you know,

38:55

they, they are causing

38:57

problems, you know, people are annoyed, like, which makes

38:59

perfect sense. Like drones are loud. I don't know

39:01

if ever been around, but like, I think the

39:03

justification that's being given by manna is that like,

39:06

thousands of drones are being flown around Ireland all

39:08

the time. People are drone hobbyists. Drones are quite

39:10

commonplace, you know, it's kind of hard to go

39:12

to a big park now or my son has

39:14

a drone. Yeah, like they are

39:17

kind of ever and does he play with the drones

39:19

to see like actually, I

39:21

bet like, I mean, to be honest, within 48 hours

39:23

of receiving the drone for Christmas, he flew it over

39:25

our neighbor's wall and they were in Australia for the

39:27

month of January. So that's

39:29

amazing. So we didn't get a

39:31

while. I'm actually not sure if it's

39:34

in operation. So yeah, no, no real

39:36

report here on absolutely

39:39

classic Christmas toy. Just

39:42

got destroyed somehow, you know. Yeah. They've

39:47

done 170,000 delivery flights. Bobby

39:49

Healy said Bobby Healy is the is the Dragon's

39:51

Den guy in charge of Bobby Healy was on

39:53

Dragon's Den. I'm pretty sure. I'm not like, yeah,

39:55

yeah. But

39:59

yeah, the IAA has said

40:01

that it's like it falls into quite

40:03

a complex specific regulatory category, which

40:06

requires explicit authorization from the

40:08

IAA, Irish Aviation Authority. So

40:12

yeah, it's interesting to see where it'll go because

40:14

you know, it's the kind of thing that it

40:16

only really works at this scale because you couldn't

40:18

really have, you know, 50 drone deliveries.

40:21

Oh wait, pause, Bobby Healy was not on Dragon's

40:23

Den, Bobby Kerr was on Dragon's Den. Oh

40:26

my god, can I just correct that? I'm

40:28

just gonna correct the record. Yeah, that's fine. Bobby

40:31

Healy, he won't sue me for that, I don't think. No, I

40:33

think it's okay. I'm sorry, Bobby Healy. It's

40:35

okay, all's forgiven, I'm sure. Anyway,

40:41

yeah, so there's Hausil, people are complaining,

40:43

people are saying it shouldn't happen. I

40:46

mean, this feels par for the course, really, doesn't it? Yeah,

40:49

pretty much. I would have to sort

40:51

of experience it myself to really make my mind up

40:53

as to whether or not I, you know, like, whether

40:56

or not I feel like it's worth complaining over, I need

40:58

to feel the noise, you know, I want to know exactly

41:00

what these people are experiencing. But you

41:02

know, I can I can see it being like

41:04

weird for people. But Tina Fall counselor, Howard Mahoney,

41:06

he said he had received largely positive feedback. So

41:09

you're also definitely going to have people who are

41:11

in favour of it. I

41:13

think is Mary McCamley, a

41:15

Labour Party counselor said she had had a

41:17

few complaints. But

41:20

you know, like, I guess everything that happens is

41:22

going to bring in a few complaints. Yeah,

41:24

I don't really know what I think. I think I agree

41:26

with you. I'd need to I need to see it and

41:29

experience it. And I'd also need to know, like, what is

41:31

the convenience of it? Like, does it actually make things easier?

41:33

Does it make deliveries quicker? Like, is it going to make

41:35

my life better? Because I'd be willing to compromise a lot

41:37

if it's going to make my life better. Yeah.

41:39

And also, well, for me, it's also how much

41:41

does it impact delivery drivers as

41:43

well? Like, is it driving? Is

41:46

it driving wages down? Because I feel like it probably

41:48

almost certainly is like if you've got these roadblocks who

41:50

are going to do the job for free. Yeah, you

41:52

know, it's less incentive to pay human

41:55

beings. So that that's a concern. You know, if you

41:57

if you go forward now and you have McDonald's and

41:59

the old. that these other huge companies all

42:01

relying on mana. I

42:03

think that would not be great. But

42:06

I mean, I suppose this is a very

42:08

early, sort of early stages

42:10

of this technology. So we'll see how it unfolds.

42:13

Exactly, we'll watch and learn. Carl, I was gonna get

42:15

you to talk about Kate Middleton, but we've actually run

42:17

out of time. And so I'll say that for showbiz

42:19

on Wednesday. Are you devastated? I'm sorry. So

42:22

I wrote quite a lot about this last

42:24

week. I think that might be all Royal

42:26

families out. Okay, I thought so. So

42:29

I think that's one for the entertainment episode. Okay,

42:31

thank you so much. Carl Kinsler, you can read

42:33

him. His serie link in the years column is

42:35

every Saturday on the journal.ie. Highly recommend, it's very,

42:37

very good. You can also read

42:39

other bits of his work there. And of course

42:41

you can find him on the internet. He

42:44

is, am I gonna be able to do, no, I know on

42:47

Twitter, at TV's Carl Kinsler, on

42:49

Instagram, just Carl Kinsler, no? Carl.Kinsler.

42:53

Carl.Kinsler. I should have gone with my

42:55

gut. That's what my brain initially said. Well, Carl,

42:57

thank you so much. Have a great week. Thank

42:59

you. I

43:02

you too. Carl. car, Carl

43:07

Qubalz Carl

43:19

Carl Carl

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