Burglar or bungler? A chicken takeaway he won’t forget

Man thought to have been stuck for hours in Birmingham extractor fan unit calling for help

Offbeat

Thu, Nov 02, 2017, 15:46 Thu, Nov 02, 2017, 15:48

A man is being questioned about a suspected break-in after police found a person stuck in a takeaway extractor fan unit.

Officers posted a photo of the scene, showing a man’s legs, wearing jeans and black socks, poking out of the side of the DFC Chicken building.

The rest of the man’s body could not be seen, and he is thought to have been stuck for several hours, calling in vain for help.

A passerby saw a pair of legs sticking out of the building, in Rookery Road, Birmingham, and rang the police.

Officers from West Midlands Police’s response team arrived and took the photograph, posting it on their @Responsewmp1 Twitter account.

The image was captioned: “#dontgetstuck if you’re trying to break in. 5 hours later shouting help #triptocustody by all means.”

Police officers ended their message with three crying-with-laughter emojis.

PC Matthew Willocks, who took the photo, said: “The extractor unit had been removed and the suspect had climbed into the extractor outlet at around 2am. He was completely stuck and couldn’t move at all.

“The fire brigade had to come in and use the jaws of life to pull back all the extractor casing to release him.”

A 45-year-old man from Handsworth was taken to hospital for a check-up and was later arrested on suspicion of burglary.

Re-tweeting the photograph, the force’s chief constable, David Thompson, said: “Most excellent.” – Press Association

Fake news is ‘very real’ word of 2017 and Trump didn’t ‘come up with it’

Donald Trump’s favourite word actually dates back to the noughties

Offbeat

Thu, Nov 02, 2017, 08:49 Thu, Nov 02, 2017, 08:49

“Fake news” has acquired a certain legitimacy after being named word of the year by Collins, following what the dictionary called its “ubiquitous presence” over the last 12 months.

Collins Dictionary’s lexicographers, who monitor the 4.5bn-word Collins corpus, said that usage of the term had increased by 365% since 2016. The phrase, often capitalised, is frequently a feature of Donald Trump’s rhetoric; in the last few days he has tweeted how “the Fake News is working overtime” in relation to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections, and of how “Fake News [IS]weak!”

Trump has used the term frequently, and claimed last week to have invented it saying, “the media is really, the word, one of the greatest of all [THE]terms I’ve come up with, is ‘fake’ ? I guess other people have used it perhaps over the years, but I’ve never noticed it,” he told an interviewer. This etymology was disputed by the dictionary.

Collins said that “fake news” started being used in the noughties on US television to describe “false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting”. Its usage has climbed since 2015, according to the dictionary, and really took off this year, with its ubiquity to be acknowledged with a place in the next print edition of the Collins Dictionary.

A number of other words related to politics and current affairs were also in its list of the words of the year. “Echo chamber”, defined as “an environment, especially on a social media site, in which any statement of opinion is likely to be greeted with approval because it will only be read or heard by people who hold similar views”, has seen a “steady increase” in usage over the last five years , while “antifa” saw its usage rise by almost 7,000% following violent clashes between anti-fascist protesters and the far right, particularly in the US.

Corbynmania, up by 310%, was also on the list: Collins said the term for “fervent enthusiasm” for Jeremy Corbyn “first emerged in 2015 and after a dip last year made a striking comeback in 2017 as the Labour leader impressed on the campaign trail”.

“Much of this year’s list is definitely politically charged, but with a new president in the US and a snap election in the UK, it is perhaps no surprise that politics continues to electrify the language,” said Collins’s head of language content, Helen Newstead.

“’Fake news’, either as a statement of fact or as an accusation, has been inescapable this year, contributing to the undermining of society’s trust in news reporting: given the term’s ubiquity and its regular usage by President Trump, it is clear that Collins’s word of the year is very real news.”

Other words selected by Collins for its list of “new and notable words that reflect an ever-evolving language” include “gender-fluid”, defined as “not identifying exclusively with one gender rather than another”, which increased in use by 65% over the last year, “cuffing season”, defined as “the period of autumn and winter when single people are considered likely to seek settled relationships rather than engage in casual affairs”, and fidget spinner, the toy that is being twirled by children across the UK.

“Gig economy”, defined as “an economy in which there are few permanent employees and most jobs are assigned to temporary or freelance workers”, also makes the list, as does “Insta”, relating to social-media app Instagram.

The remaining new words and meanings will be added to CollinsDictionary.com, and considered for inclusion in future print editions of the dictionary. - Guardian News and Media.

Michael Jackson named the highest-earning dead celebrity

‘Forbes’ analysis reveals estates of 10 dead stars raked in €250m in total in a year

Offbeat

Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 17:42 Mon, Oct 30, 2017, 17:42

The estates of the top 10 highest-earning dead celebrities pulled in revenue of nearly €250 million in total over the last year, according to an analysis carried out by Forbes magazine.

The Forbes list is topped by singer Michael Jackson, whose estate took in $75 million (€64.5 million) in the last year, eight years on from his death in 2009.

Singer Elvis Presley, whose name appears fourth on the list behind golfer Arnold Palmer and cartoonist Charles Schulz, actually increased in value, from earnings of $27 million (€23.2 million) in 2015/16 to $35 million (€30 million) across 2016/17, due to the opening of a new entertainment complex and hotel at Graceland.

The list takes account of pre-tax income from October 15th, 2016, to October 15th, 2017, minus deductions for agency, management and legal fees.

The combined total for the top 10 dead celebrity earners amounted to $287 million for the period, or €246.6 million.

Appearing in the top 10 alongside the likes of Bob Marley, Dr Seuss, John Lennon and Albert Einstein are some recently deceased individuals, including singers Tom Petty and Prince, whose revenues topped $20 million (€17.2 million) and $18 million (€15.5 million) respectively.

Petty, who died earlier this month, was the only person to be included in the list who was actually alive at any point during the sampling period.

On your bike: Cyclist gives Donald Trump the middle finger

Woman gestures to US president’s motorcade as it leaves Virginia golf club

Offbeat

Sun, Oct 29, 2017, 14:11 Sun, Oct 29, 2017, 14:11

The president of the United States is used to being saluted, but a cyclist in Virginia put her own particular slant on the tradition on Saturday when she was overtaken by Donald Trump’s motorcade.

The woman on her bike was photographed raising her middle finger when Mr Trump’s cavalcade passed her on its way out from the Trump National Golf Club on the banks of the Potomac river, on the outskirts of Washington DC.

She then repeated the gesture when she caught up with the motorcade.

The White House pool report noted drily: “POTUS’s motorcade departed the Trump National Golf Club at 3.12pm, passing two pedestrians, one of whom gave a thumbs-down sign. Then it overtook a female cyclist, wearing a white top and cycling helmet, who responded by giving the middle finger.

“The motorcade had to slow and the cyclist caught up, still offering the finger, before turning off in a different direction. Motorcade is now gathering speed and heading for DC.”

According to a report, Mr Trump has spent four consecutive weekends at his Virginia golf club.

He often criticised Barack Obama for playing golf while he was president and has subsequently faced accusations of hypocrisy for doing so even more regularly himself.

Guardian Service

A bogus priest who paid for his pints with blessings

Costume capers in 1902: ‘He raised his hand and blessed the giver, saying the blessing was better than money’

Offbeat

Dean Ruxton

Sun, Oct 29, 2017, 10:26 Sun, Oct 29, 2017, 10:36

Seargent Sheehan approached a middle-aged priest standing on North Earl Street in Dublin city centre. It was a Friday morning in winter 1902 and the officer was looking for a different clergyman; he asked the priest to accompany him the short distance to the cathedral on Marlborough Street.

The priest hesitated, to Sheehan’s surprise, and eventually declined to help, explaining that “the Lord directed him not to go.”

“How quickly the Lord spoke to you,” Sgt Sheehan replied, according to a report in The Irish Times on December 13th.

They parted. Sgt Sheehan, accompanied by Sgt Ahern, tailed the priest as he walked through Dublin, stopping him a short time later for a second chat. This time, the man explained “he was a Father Walsh from America”.

The police let the priest on his way again, this time following him down Henry Street and Mary Street, onto Ormond Quay and eventually into Adam And Eve’s Chapel - or the Church of the Immaculate Conception on Merchant’s Quay.

“He obtained a glass of port in a public house,” reads the Irish Times report, “and not having money to pay for it, he raised his hand and blessed the giver, saying the blessing was better than money.”

He didn’t stop there, according to the Sergeant.

While in the chapel, the priest “appeared to be fervent in prayer, and after leaving he proceeded to one restaurant and then to another; he had a herring in each place, and again he gave his blessing.”

Having let the charade run its course, the officers arrested the “priest”. When they brought him back to the station, he said his real name was James Corbett, and that he was an “American prize-fighter”.

James “Gentleman Jim” Corbett was a real - and very famous - heavyweight boxing champion operating in the US at that time. However, a search of Corbett’s pockets threw up some documents bearing yet another alias, “Walsh”.

The first was a letter inside an envelope with the Brooklyn post office mark and the address: Robert Walsh, 7917, HM Prison, Liverpool England. It was posted on November 10th - on the corner was written: “Discharged 22, 11, 02”.

The letter in the envelope revealed a clue as to his financial situation:

“Brooklyn, November 10th

Dear Mr Walsh,

I received your letter and am very sorry to hear that you are in trouble and as I write this to you my mother is very sick and she is unable to send you any money.

She cannot help you, as she has got nothing to help you with.

No more at present,

From yours,

Dolly.”

The police also found a card from The Liverpool Society of Friends and Foreigners in Distress, this time bearing the name Samuel R Walsh.

Unsuspecting members of the public who had been duped by Corbett came forward to give evidence. At a court hearing in December, one unnamed woman living on Parnell Street - then Great Britain Street - said she gave him sixpence after he pretended to be a “Dominican priest from America”.

A report in the Ulster Herald published on December 20th remarked that when he next appeared in court, he refrained from wearing his costume. He was remanded and sent forward for trial at the following city sessions.

Corbett had been busy in the weeks before his arrest in December, an Irish Times report in January reveals. In one instance, he told a man named Michael Henry “that he was an ordained priest named Father Walsh of Philadelphia, by means of which he obtained food, lodging and money”.

A 27-year-old stationer named Emily Wilds - who lived with her husband James on Capel Street, according to the 1901 census - was tricked into handing over an undisclosed sum of money on December 5th that year, about a week before Corbett was found out.

The false priest had for some time been a soldier stationed in Malta, before eventually coming to Ireland and begging for food and money, sometimes door-to-door. In one case, the court heard, he encountered a familiar face during his rounds: “. . . and by a curious coincidence, in one of the houses to which he called, there was a man who had served in the same battery with him.”

Corbett told the court he had arrived in Ireland from America the previous July. “He had a good position there. He brought here over 1,000 dollars, all of which he had spent in drink.”

He pleaded guilty to the charges, and was “let off with two months’ imprisonment, and he could then go back to America,” according to The Irish Times.

On the Irish Prison Register, he’s listed as being about 6 feet tall with blue eyes, fair skin and brown hair. He was recorded as being 39 that year - slightly younger than the description first given by Sgt Sheehan in evidence.

On court papers, the charge against him is listed simply as “begging”.

This story is part of the Lost Leads series - a revisiting of lesser-known stories that have made the pages of The Irish Times since 1859. What can you find? Let us know on Twitter: @irishtimes or @deanruxton. For more information on subscribing to the archive, see www.irishtimes.com/archive

Carded! Bridge does not qualify as a sport, says EU court

The English Bridge Union, which took the case, expressed disappointment at the ruling

Offbeat

Patrick Smyth Brussels

Thu, Oct 26, 2017, 12:33 Thu, Oct 26, 2017, 12:33

Bridge, specifically duplicate bridge, is not a sport, the heartless European Court of Justice has ruled.

The EU’s Luxembourg-based court has ruled that although bridge is a competitive game that is beneficial to mental and physical health, a VAT regulation exempting sports should be understood in “everyday language” to define sport as an activity which includes greater physical exertion.

The court found that the UK tax authorities were entitled to levy VAT on bridge although it also advised that they might also be able to finesse the issue and help the game by recognising it as a VAT-exempted “cultural service”.

If the activity, its history and the traditions to which it belongs holds such a place in the social or cultural life of a country it may be regarded as part of its culture, the court said.

The court unusually reversed – or trumped — its advocate general who had recommended in June that the court find that the VAT exemption for sports was intended for activities which offered “training of mental or physical fitness in a way that is generally beneficial to the health and well-being of citizens”, and that bridge fits this category.

The court said that such characteristics, which it acknowledged, were not sufficient to define bridge as a sport. Duplicate bridge is a particular form of the game in which each pair successively plays the same hands as counterparts at other tables. Scoring is based on their relative performance.

The English Bridge Union, which took the case, expressed disappointment at the ruling and said it would inevitably add to the cost of tournaments.

The European Commission would not say more than that it welcomed the court’s clarification of the VAT directive and that it will give the ruling further study. It refused to be drawn on its attitude to the status of chess.

Dogs use ‘puppy eyes’ on purpose, study finds

New research claims that canines move their faces in response to human attention

Offbeat

Thu, Oct 19, 2017, 15:48 Thu, Oct 19, 2017, 15:48

Dogs give their “puppy-dog eyes” look when humans are looking at them but are unlikely to alter their facial expressions for food, according to new research.

Scientists at the University of Portsmouth’s Dog Cognition Centre say they are the first to find clear evidence that dogs move their faces in direct response to human attention.

A spokeswoman said: “Dogs don’t respond with more facial expressions upon seeing tasty food, suggesting that dogs produce facial expressions to communicate and not just because they are excited.

“Brow-raising, which makes the eyes look bigger — so-called puppy-dog eyes — was the dogs’ most commonly used expression in this research.”

Dr Juliane Kaminski, who led the study published in Scientific Reports, said: “We can now be confident that the production of facial expressions made by dogs are dependent on the attention state of their audience and are not just a result of dogs being excited. In our study they produced far more expressions when someone was watching, but seeing food treats did not have the same effect.

“The findings appear to support evidence dogs are sensitive to humans’ attention and that expressions are potentially active attempts to communicate, not simple emotional displays.”

Dr Kaminski said that previously it was thought that animal expressions were involuntary and dependent on the individual’s emotional state, rather than being a response to their audience.

She suggested that dogs’ facial expressions might have changed as part of the process of becoming domesticated.

The researchers studied 24 family pet dogs of various breeds, aged one to 12.

Each dog was tied by a lead a metre away from a person, and the dogs’ faces were filmed throughout a range of exchanges, from the person being oriented towards the dog, to being distracted and with their body turned away from the dog.

The dogs’ facial expressions were measured using DogFACS, an anatomically-based coding system which gives a reliable and standardised measurement of facial changes linked to underlying muscle movement.

PA

A loaded gun and a deadly row over wandering cattle

James Flynn never held a revolver before, but on a summer night in 1926, he had a dispute to settle

Offbeat

Dean Ruxton

Sun, Oct 15, 2017, 07:47 Sun, Oct 15, 2017, 08:27

James Flynn had never held a revolver before. Using what little knowledge he had, he checked the chambers and was sure, he said, the gun was not loaded.

As he stood in a laneway near his house in Bishopscourt, county Waterford, on a summer evening in 1922, he wanted to scare his neighbour, with whom he had been fighting.

Census records from 1911 note a farmer named James Flynn living in the Bishopscourt townland.

That year he was 46 and lived with his wife, three young children and three teenage servants. According to a report in The Irish Times in November 1923, he was a “well-to-do” farmer.

Mary Anne Gaffney lived nearby and, Flynn would say, was prone to swearing and giving him and his family abuse. He and she, to put it mildly, were “on bad terms, owing to the trespass of cattle on his lands”, according to The Irish Times.

In July 1922 he intended to end the dispute.

When Mrs Gaffney arrived up the lane, Flynn confronted her. He drew the revolver and pointed, “saying he would put it in her eye,” according to a report in the Sunday Independent from the week of the incident.

Mrs Gaffney made a move to grab the gun, Flynn stood back and a shot rang out.

Mrs Gaffney fell. Flynn fled, jumping over a nearby fence and running across the fields; he immediately discarded the gun and headed for the priest’s house.

A man named Patrick Sheehan drove by the scene moments later. There, he discovered Mrs Gaffney lying on the ground, blood pouring from her mouth and “beside her was a book - a novelette, opened,” according to a report in the Freeman’s Journal.

She was still alive, but died in the laneway after a short time.

Mrs Gaffney’s husband, Philip, was immediately called to Bishopscourt road. There, “he found the dead body of his wife. It was covered with blood and her hat was stuck to her head with blood.”

A doctor would later confirm a bullet entered Mrs Gaffney’s mouth and lodged behind her right ear, according to The Irish Times. Remarkably, he didn’t definitively say the bullet was the cause of death, adding that he believed Mrs Gaffney had a weak heart.

After running through the fields in the direction of Waterford, Flynn eventually reached the house of Fr Dowling. He then turned himself into the police barrack, reporting the death as a terrible accident.

He was charged with murder. Flynn maintained under questioning that he did not own the gun - armed men had arrived to his house and left a gun on his property, he insisted. Amid the outbreak of Civil War in Ireland, armed “irregulars” in the region were not uncommon; the prosecution alluded to unrest in the area during a court hearing at Green Street, Dublin, in November 1923 - more than a year after Mrs Gaffney was killed.

“At the date in question,” said Mr Carrigan, prosecuting, “there was a great deal of turmoil and unfortunately when what was euphemistically called Civil War prevailed there appeared to be very little regard for human life.”

Giving evidence, Philip Gaffney was asked, as implied by the defendant, if his wife had a bad temper - “I never saw it in 28 years,” he replied.

The Freeman’s Journal report details testimony by Michael, a son of Mary Anne and Philip. Revealing further tension between the families, he recalled being threatened by Flynn over a bull that had wandered into his field - he said “if the bull was not kept off the land he would ‘burst it up’ and ‘burst up’ (Michael) too.” During the argument, Flynn labelled Michael and his family “informers”.

Patrick Flynn’s daughter was called and she corroborated her father’s story about how he came to have the gun, saying when she lived at home, “there used to be a number of armed men about the place.”

Ms Flynn confirmed one of the men had left a gun behind them and that her father had found it. She also gave evidence, according to reports, of frequent complaints of cattle trespassing between the Gaffneys and her father.

As it turned out, the prosecution revealed, Mrs Gaffney did not actually own the cattle that had been straying onto Flynn’s land.

After the evidence was heard, the prisoner made a statement, again pleading his innocence and ignorance about firearms.

“I am innocent, my Lord,” he began, according to The Irish Times. “I never handled a revolver in my life.”

He described finding the gun in his hay shed and examining each bullet chamber- excluding, crucially, the one opposite the barrel.

“I went across to frighten Mrs Gaffney. I thought that when she would see the revolver, that she would not use scandalous or abusive language in the presence of my children,” he said. “She made a grasp at the revolver. I moved a step backwards. It went off.”

He finished by saying: “I am heartily sorry for what occurred - no man felt it more than I did.”

The jury found Flynn guilty of manslaughter and he was sentenced to 15 months in prison, on top of three he had already served.

In sentencing, the judge said he took the circumstances into consideration, but “he had also to protect human life; to teach people, farmers and others, that the reign of the gun was over, and that the gun could not be used against a defenceless woman, either to kill her or frighten her.”

This story is part of the Lost Leads series - a revisiting of lesser-known stories that have made the pages of The Irish Times since 1859. What can you find? Let us know on Twitter: @irishtimes or @deanruxton. For more information on subscribing to the archive, see www.irishtimes.com/archive

Man in shark suit falls foul of Austria’s anti-burka law

Young man is given a citation under rules that prohibit any kind of full-face covering

Offbeat

Mon, Oct 09, 2017, 18:34 Mon, Oct 09, 2017, 18:34

A young man wearing a shark suit has been given a citation under Austria’s “burka ban” law.

The country has a law that forbids any kind of full-face covering, including Islamic veils.

Austrian police issued a citation on Monday after the man, who was part of a street advertising campaign for the McShark computer chain, refused several requests to take off his shark head.

From this month, most full-face coverings are prohibited in public in Austria, including off-slope ski masks, surgical masks outside hospitals and party masks on the street.

Popularly known as the “burka ban”, the law is mostly seen as directed at the clothing worn by some conservative Muslim women.

Violations carry a possible fine of €150.

Only a handful of citations have been issued.

AP

Meet Mochi: the dog with the longest tongue in the world

St Bernard with 18cm tongue becomes face of ‘Guinness World Records: Amazing Animals’

Offbeat

Ronan McGreevy

Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 08:58 Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 09:43

Mochi ‘Mo’ Rickert is a dog with a difference. The eight-year-old St Bernard from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has a tongue measuring 18.58cm (7.31in) in length.

She was found in a rescue dog centre in Sioux Falls. Mo smashes the previous record held by a male Pekingese named Puggy whose tongue measured 11.43cm (4.5 in).

Mochi is constantly stopped in the streets by admiring passers-by and is described by her owner Carla Rickert as a “resilient, happy-go-lucky dog, with a big personality”.

Having a long tongue has drawbacks. Mochi faces breathing challenges and extra slobber. When she is nervous, dirt, dust and leaves sticks to her tongue and she needs help to pick things up off the floor.

Treats also have to be given to Mochi in a particular manner as she cannot grab onto them the same way other dogs do.

Mochi is the face of the inaugural Guinness World Records: Amazing Animals book, which has just been published.

Tomb of St Nicholas may have been discovered in Turkey

Fear not, kids, Santa Claus is alive and well and busy getting ready for Christmas

Offbeat

Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 15:26 Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 15:26

Turkish archaeologists have claimed to have uncovered the likely burial place of St Nicholas, the 4th-century saint who gave rise to the legend of Santa Claus.

We say “claimed”, because as everyone knows , Santa Claus is alive and well and living in Lapland.

Surveys have uncovered an intact temple and burial grounds below St Nicholas church in the province of Antalya, where the saint who was revered for his gift-giving and aid to the poor, is believed to have been born, archaeologists told the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet.

“We have obtained very good results but the real work starts now,” said Cemil Karabayram, the director of surveying and monuments in Antalya.

“We will reach the ground and maybe we will find the untouched body of St Nicholas.”

In recent years, the church in Demre in Antalya has been restored, drawing many visitors.

Demre is built on the ruins of Myra, the city where St Nicholas, revered by many denominations in Christianity, is believed to have lived.

It had been thought that the remains of St Nicholas were transferred from Demre by sailors, who smuggled them to the city of Bari in Italy, where the St Nicholas Basilica still stands.

But based on documents obtained from the area, Turkish archaeologists now believe that those remains belonged to a local priest rather than the legendary saint, whose body may still be within the temple complex in Demre.

The archaeologists recently began fresh surveys of the area, discovering the temple below the modern church using geo-radars. They said the temple was almost fully intact, but was inaccessible due to the presence of stone reliefs and mosaics that need to be preserved.

Excavation work will allow scholars to access the temple grounds below the church to determine whether it still holds Nicholas’s body.

Guardian service

Louvre withdraws ‘sexually explicit’ Dutch installation

‘Domestikator’ artwork ‘risks being misunderstood,’ says museum director

Offbeat

Tue, Oct 03, 2017, 17:37 Tue, Oct 03, 2017, 17:42

The Louvre has withdrawn a large installation by a Dutch art and design collective for being sexually explicit.

The piece, “Domestikator”, by the collective Atelier Van Lieshout was to go on view on October 19th in the Louvre’s Tuileries Gardens as part of Hors les Murs, a public art programme organised by the Fiac contemporary art fair.

“This is something that should not happen,” Joep van Lieshout, the collective’s founder, said in a telephone interview. “A museum should be an open place for communication. The task of the museum and the press is to explain the work.”

“The piece itself, it’s not really very explicit,” Mr van Lieshout added. “It’s a very abstracted shape. There are no genitals; it’s pretty innocent.”

The London-based gallery Carpenters Workshop, which represents Atelier Van Lieshout, said in a statement that the Louvre’s decision was “very damaging for the artists and the Fiac programme,” adding, “The artwork symbolises the power of humanity over the world and its hypocritical approach to nature.”

A spokeswoman for the Louvre said that the choice of the works exhibited in the Tuileries Gardens within the framework of the Fiac is made by three committees. “The work ‘Domestikator’ was presented after these commissions,” the spokeswoman said, which didn’t allow for a discussion of the “presentation in the garden collegially.”

The number of contemporary works presented in the Tuileries during this year’s Fiac is particularly important, the spokeswoman added. It is about 30, while some 20 pieces were usually offered for public view by the many garden visitors.

The French newspaper Le Monde reported that the Louvre’s director, Jean-Luc Martinez, sent a letter to Fiac raising concerns about the piece. “Online commentaries point out this work has a brutal aspect,” Martinez said in the letter. “It risks being misunderstood by visitors to the gardens.”

The museum also raised concerns about the sculpture, which is 40ft high, being situated near a children’s playground. In the past three years, the “Domestikator” has been exhibited at the Ruhrtriennale in Bochum, Germany, where it remains on view until Wednesday. The Carpenters Workshop said that the Paris City Hall had offered to help find an alternative public space for the artwork, but that “it was too late.”

New York Times service

Alan Shatter reads out ‘fake news’ poem on Claire Byrne show

Former minister for justice pens critique of Donald Trump era

Offbeat

Jack Power

Tue, Oct 03, 2017, 11:24 Tue, Oct 03, 2017, 11:24

Former Fine Gael minister for justice Alan Shatter surprised the audience of the RTÉ Claire Byrne Live television show on Monday night when he recited a poem.

His poem, Confusion, was a short take on the era of fake news and US president Donald Trump. He apologised to the audience before reading out the poem.

“The news is confused, nothing is quite right, alternative facts, newsreader contrite. Different versions of events portrayed, in the post truth age,” Mr Shatter read.

“Black is white, good is bad, the rain is dry, happy is sad. Newspeak triumphant, love is hate, words no longer matter, with this linguistic update,” he said.

“The world is flat, the moon is cheese, just lie back and enjoy the breeze. For very few care about what is said, remember that ultimately, we will all be dead.”

The former front-bench Fine Gael TD lost his Dublin-Rathdown seat in the 2016 general election, with his party running mate Josepha Madigan securing a seat.

Mr Shatter was beaten to the fourth seat in the constituency by Green Party deputy leader Catherine Martin.

The Guerin report on the official response to allegations from Garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe led to Mr Shatter’s resignation in May 2014, after he was told then taoiseach Enda Kenny would not be able to express confidence in him in the Dáil.

The report found Mr Shatter did not properly heed warnings of malpractice within An Garda Síochána.

However, a statutory inquiry later found that Mr Shatter had responded appropriately to the claims.

The Malahide mystery: A family massacred and burned at home

A gardener arrived to the ‘La Mancha’ house in 1926 and quickly saw things weren’t right

Offbeat

Dean Ruxton

Sun, Oct 01, 2017, 09:00 Sun, Oct 01, 2017, 09:00

When Henry McCabe arrived to work on the gardens at La Mancha, a large country house in Malahide, Co Dublin, he quickly discovered things weren’t right.

It was shortly after 8am and smoke billowed from each of the chimneys, but there were no signs that his employers, the McDonnell siblings, were awake.

“It soon seemed to him that the smoke issuing from the top of the house was excessive and he made to go in at the back door,” reads a report in The Irish Times a day later, on April 1st, 1926. “He saw flames and other signs that things were not as they should be, and he set off at once for Malahide to call the fire brigade, and, on his way, told men whom he met that the house was on fire.”

La Mancha was a prominent building on about 30 acres of “prime land” and was “pleasantly situated and well-kept residence, not of mansion proportions”. Four middle-aged siblings of the McDonnell family had lived there for about six years, having bought it after retiring from a successful grocery, drapery and general store business in Ballygar, Co Galway. The house had recently been put up for sale, with the first mention of the house in The Irish Times appearing days before in a short advertisement.

Before the fire brigade arrived, a Garda sergeant and a local man reached the house and broke into a basement room - that of the family’s yardman, James Clarke. They found him partially dressed on his bed and on dragging him out through the window, saw he was dead.

James had what looked like defensive wounds on his forearms and one deep wound across the left front of his skull, “and from later indications it would seem that his head had been opened by the blow of a poker or some such instrument.” He had been dead for some time.

Firefighters arrived just before 9am and lines of hose were laid from a nearby pond, according to early reports. Water was pumped into the rooms and over the roof of the house, but “the whole of the roof was eventually burned and fell in”. Most of the interior, too, was gutted.

The remains of the McDonnells - Annie (56), Joseph (55), Peter (51) and Alice (47) were recovered, along with that of Mary McGowan, a house servant. The two sisters were found in the same room and were nearly indistinguishable - the rest of the bodies were found throughout the house.

“Four of the bodies were burned, and actually were being charred by the flames when the Fire Brigade arrived; another body bore marks of violence, and the sixth was found stripped,” reads an early report.

Peter McDonnell’s body was “entirely unclothed, but a woollen singlet and a pair of pants were lying loosely over it. This circumstance is one that gives a peculiar depth to the mystery.” He seemed to be the last in the house to die, yet the “garments had the appearance of having been placed over his body by the hands of another.”

A fire poker, which had what looked like brain matter on it, was found near Peter. From the outset, reports point to “mysterious circumstances”.

“All over the house - and the observations of the firemen as to the course of the burnings were to the same effect - it is plain that fires were started in many separate places, apparently by the spreading and lighting of some inflammable spirit.”

The rumours began. Neighbours theorised as to possible culprits within the house - with “peculiarities” mentioned about Alice in particular. Those close to the family would roundly dismiss any conflict between the siblings and deny there was “real evidence of any predisposition to such an extremity of madness” among any of them.

The mystery drew the close attention of newspapers and holiday makers; hundreds travelled to the house to get a look. A week of fruitless searches ensued and no hard leads could be formed. Subsequent medical reports discovered trace amounts of arsenic in some of the bodies; not lethal doses, but enough to make them weak. Each victim had died before the fire was set, by about 5pm on the Monday, one doctor said.

At the inquest, a family friend named Martin Wall further dispelled any idea of friction within the family. As to whether they had any enemies, he said: “They couldn’t have. . . they were too harmless for that,” according to a report on April 10th.

Suspicion turned then to the gardener, McCabe, who lived with his wife and nine young children in Malahide. He was first detained on April 2nd, three days after the fire.

While in custody, he made a statement to police, detailing a story about a safe which had been hidden on the La Mancha property. Shortly after the McDonnells arrived in Malahide, McCabe said he and Clarke were ordered to bury a box near the front porch. Three years later, they were ordered to dig it up and put it in the store.

McCabe was later found to have the keys to the same safe in his pocket when he gave a statement. When police searched the house on the morning of the fire, they found no valuables and it was said some possessions were missing.

Det Sgt John Mooney gave evidence of an encounter with McCabe on the morning of the fire. When he arrived to the scene, he found McCabe standing near the house, smoking a cigarette.

“This is an awful business,” the detective said, according to a report on June 29th, to which McCabe replied: “It is, and I after being up all night. They were all right when I left here last night, and when I got here this morning, I got an awful fright: the back door was broken in.”

The door was indeed broken, though it seemed the damage came from the inside. On the same morning, McCabe was also found to be wearing a pair of new, grey trousers that had belonged to Peter McDonnell.

On the day he was officially charged, April 12th, a garda named Hayden asked McCabe how he was: “It is all up with me now,” the gardener said. “I am going to Mountjoy in the morning, and it is all over the pants I have on me. Would I be able to get out and tell my wife to say I got the pants some time ago in a parcel which the McDonnells sent me?” The garda made no reply.

More than 60 witnesses gave evidence of comings and goings to the house over the last days of March. It seemed that McCabe had, on a number of occasions, steered visitors away and said the McDonnells were unwell.

Other evidence included bloodstains on McCabe’s shirt, as well as his access to weed killer, which contained some amount of arsenic. The defence would dismiss the blood stains as common among manual workers and argue that he wouldn’t know how to extract the arsenic from the weed killer: “was McCabe such an expert chemist that he knew?” asked the defence council at the closing of the six-day trial on November 15th, according to a report in the Examiner.

The prosecution’s case, the defence argued, was largely circumstantial. The prosecutor, “could not make bricks without clay, and out of the rotten rubbish and half-baked clay, he was not able to build the house of the prosecution.”

After less than an hour, the jury found McCabe guilty of the six murders.

Asked why he should be spared the death sentence, McCabe, who protested his innocence throughout the trial, said: “All I have to say is God forgive them. I am the victim of bribery and perjury.”

He was sentenced to hang on December 9th, 1926.

The last mention of Henry McCabe in The Irish Times comes seven years later in October 1933, when a boy named Denning found jewellery inscribed “James Clarke” and “J McD” while digging in a garden on Church road, near where McCabe lived. The executed gardener had also reportedly planted the shrubs that were growing in the same garden.

This story is part of the Lost Leads series - a revisiting of lesser-known stories that have made the pages of The Irish Times since 1859. What can you find? Let us know on Twitter: @irishtimes or @deanruxton. For more information on subscribing to the archive, see www.irishtimes.com/archive

‘Stupid’ rugby player apologises after lion bite causes missed match

Welsh player Scott Baldwin was bitten on the hand while trying to pet a lion in South Africa

Offbeat

Sat, Sep 30, 2017, 12:02 Sat, Sep 30, 2017, 12:05

Wales hooker Scott Baldwin has apologised after being bitten on the hand while trying to pet a lion in South Africa, causing him to miss Ospreys’ defeat to the Cheetahs in their Pro14 match on Friday.

The 29-year-old was described as “stupid” by Ospreys coach Steve Tandy after suffering the wound, which needed stitches, during a pre-match visit to a game park.

Mr Baldwin took to social media on Saturday to apologise.

“Sorry all Ospreys fans for letting you and the team down by missing the game through the bite!” he said on his verified Twitter account.

“Should (have) known he wouldn’t be impressed with me stroking his lioness before introducing myself to him first.

“And for those asking, my hand is on the mend thankfully and should be up and running round soon enough, thanks for your support and concern.”

Mr Baldwin came in for a ribbing from his coach after Friday’s 44-25 defeat at the Free State Stadium, where Mr Tandy explained the incident to the media in candid terms.

“There was an incident with a lion, but in fairness it was nothing to do with the lion. He did bite Scott but when you put your hand in a fence where there is a lion, then you will get bitten.

“It was pretty stupid on Scott’s behalf and he is pretty lucky... I don’t know what sort of wildlife show Scott has been watching where you can pat a lion on the head as if it’s a kitten.

“It’s probably one of the silliest things I’ve ever been involved in, but thankfully he is okay and hopefully he will be back up and running in the next couple of weeks.”

The club confirmed that Mr Baldwin had suffered the injury on Wednesday and said he was treated at the scene by the team doctor before being admitted to a local hospital in Bloemfontein on Thursday for further treatment to prevent infection.

He was released on Saturday to travel home with the rest of the squad as planned.

Reuters

Parliaments that fight: Eggs, tear gas and grabbing the PM’s groin

Fighting broke out in Uganda’s parliament this week but they’re not the only politicians to exchange blows at work

Offbeat

Fri, Sep 29, 2017, 11:03 Fri, Sep 29, 2017, 11:03

Earlier this week fighting broke out in Uganda’s parliament for a second day between lawmakers pushing for a change in laws to remove age limits for presidential candidates and those opposing it.

A Reuters journalist present in parliament at the time said he saw microphone stands being used as weapons, and at least two female lawmakers being carried out after collapsing. People exchanged blows and kicks after security personnel were called in to remove lawmakers who had been ordered out of the chambers.

The Ugandans aren’t alone however in resorting to fisticuffs rather than words to express themselves in parliment, as the above video shows.

Ukraine’s parliament is no stranger to scuffles and in December 2015 Oleh Barna – a deputy from the party of Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko - walked up to the rostrum where the then prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk was answering questions on his performance, handed the premier a bunch of red roses, and started manhandling him. Barna pulled Yatsenyuk to the side of the rostrum and then grabbed him around the waist and groin, hoisting him into the air, before the premier’s allies dashed through the chamber to help, punching his assailant and hauling him away.

In 2015 Japan moved a step closer to allowing its troops to fight abroad for the first time in 70 years after a chaotic parliamentary vote on controversial security Bills. Live television pictures showed politicians scuffling inside the Diet (parliament) before an upper house committee approved the Bills.

Lawmakers pelted Kosovo’s prime minister Isa Mustafa with eggs in September 2015 as he addressed parliament, protesting over a deal with former master Serbia giving greater local powers to minority Serbs in the young Balkan country. Several opposition lawmakers suddenly stood and began throwing eggs at Mustafa as he made an address and his bodyguard rushed to shield him with an umbrella.

Parliament speaker Kadri Veseli halted the session, shouting “Shame, shame, shame!” at the egg-throwing MPs.

A few weeks later, on October 15th, two opposition lawmakers release teargas canisters in the country’s parliament again in a protest against a potential government accord with Serbia. In November, three opposition lawmakers were arrested in Kosovo amid chaotic scenes in parliament which filled once more with tear gas in a fresh protest on the same issue.

In May 2016, a brawl broke out in South Africa’s parliamentary as protection services forcibly removed members of the ultra-left Economic Freedom Fighters party from the chamber as they attempted to prevent an address by president Jacob Zuma. The party argued that Mr Zuma was not fit to address the house after recent court decisions against the president.

Members of Turkey’s ruling AK Party and Republican People’s Party exchanged kicks and punches at the parliament’s general assembly during a debate on constitutional changes that would expand president Tayyip Erdogan’s powers.

There were further fisticuffs in South Africa’s parliament in 2017 when Zuma’s state-of-the-nation speech descended into chaos as far-left lawmakers brawled and members of parliament traded insults, with one sign language interpreter signing them all.

Agencies 

‘I have been touched to see you in tears’: Kim Kardashian receives letter of apology from man who robbed her

‘I want to come to you as a human being to tell you how much I regret my gesture’

Offbeat

Fri, Sep 29, 2017, 09:18 Fri, Sep 29, 2017, 09:18

Almost a year after she was bound, gagged and robbed at gunpoint in Paris, Kim Kardashian has received an apology letter from the man who allegedly orchestrated the burglary.

TMZ’s website first reported the story, saying that Kardashian’s legal team received the handwritten letter from Aomar Ait Khedache while he was in prison.

It partly reads: “After observing your emotion and realizing the psychological damages I inflicted . . . I decided to write to you, not to obtain from you some sort of indulgence. . . . I want to come to you as a human being to tell you how much I regret my gesture, how much I have been moved and touched to see you in tears.”

Kardashian has been vocal about the Paris robbery in which millions of dollars worth of jewellery was stolen from her, on her TV show Keeping Up With The Kardashians and it appears that Khedache has been watching the show in prison. He said, “Know that I fully sympathise with the pain you are enduring, your children, your husband, and your close ones.

“I hope that this letter will allow you to forget little by little the trauma that you suffered by my fault.”

The news arrives just days after the airing of the tenth anniversary special of Keeping up with the Kardashians.

In other Kim Kardashian news, the reality TV star has confirmed that she is expecting a child with husband Kanye West via surrogate.

Nambia? Trump invents a new African country and sings its praises

The African Union has 55 countries, but Nambia isn’t one

Offbeat

Emer Sugrue

Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 10:33 Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 11:08

As US president Donald Trump enthusiastically praised African leaders at a working lunch in New York yesterday, he referred to a yet-to-be-created African country.

In his address Mr Trump welcomed leaders from all over the continent, including Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea... and “Nambia”.

Commenters on social media were quick to point out that this isn’t a country and wondered whether he actually meant Namibia... or Gambia... or maybe Zambia?

Mr Trump referred to ‘Nambia’ a second time in his short speech, praising their health system which is supposedly very self-sufficient, for a non-existent country.

An offical White House transcript clears up the confusion, giving Namibia as the name of country praised. Namibia’s president, Hage Geingob, and deputy prime minister, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who were at the lunch, can’t have been too impressed.

“In Guinea and Nigeria, you fought a horrifying Ebola outbreak. Nambia’s health system is increasingly self-sufficient. My Secretary of Health and Human Services will be travelling to Africa to promote our Global Health Security Agenda,” Mr Trump told the crowd.

At the lunch Trump also praised the huge potential for growth in Africa, particularly the potential for American businessmen to make a profit: “I have so many friends going to your countries, trying to get rich. I congratulate you.”

Flush with cash: Mystery over €500 notes in Geneva toilets

Swiss prosecutors investigate attempt to flush away tens of thousands of euro

Offbeat

Mon, Sep 18, 2017, 17:54 Mon, Sep 18, 2017, 17:54

Swiss prosecutors are trying to figure out why someone apparently attempted to flush tens of thousands of euro down the toilet at a Geneva branch of UBS Group AG.

The first €500 bills were discovered several months ago in a bathroom close to a bank vault containing hundreds of safe deposit boxes at the branch, according to a report in Tribune de Genève confirmed by the city prosecutor’s office.

A few days later, more banknotes turned up in toilets at three nearby restaurants, requiring thousands of francs in plumbing repairs to unclog the pipes.

In all, police have extracted tens of thousands of euro in soiled bills, many of which appear to have been cut with scissors.

While destroying banknotes isn’t a crime in Switzerland, “there must be something behind this story”, said Henri Della Casa, a spokesman for the Geneva prosecutor’s office. “That’s why we started an investigation.”

He declined to discuss the case further. UBS also declined to comment on the incident at its branch on the Rue de la Corraterie in downtown Geneva.

Bloomberg

30 years of gifs: dancing babies, DJ cats, popcorn-eating stars

Gifs are gifts that keep giving. Here we chart their rise and rise in this their 30th year

TV, Radio, Web

Mon, Sep 18, 2017, 15:29 Mon, Sep 18, 2017, 15:39

The humble gif is turning 30. The multi-purpose bitmap image format has established itself as part of internet culture, so much so that people have almost stopped arguing over how it is pronounced (overwhelmingly it is with a hard g, although the inventor of the format says he meant for it to be a soft g).

The gif, or graphics interchange format, was created by programmer Steve Wilhite, who longed for an image format that could be used across different computer platforms. At the time, in 1987, this included the likes of Atari, Apple and IBM. Plus modem speeds were slow and images took a long... time... to... load.

In the beginning, gifs were mostly used as design accents for websites, before their current widespread use as the internet currency for expressions and feelings – so-called “reaction gifs”. Indeed, gifs are part of the online trend for expressing ourselves without proper words, alongside emoticons, emojis and abbreviations. The cry-laugh emoji was named Oxford Dictionaries’ US “word” of the year in 2015, but “gif” took this honour in 2012.

Meanwhile, Facebook added gifs to Messenger in 2015, and to celebrate the big 3-o will add them to comments. Even Twitter, which is well known for introducing features absolutely nobody wants, surprised us all by adding the in-platform gif function in 2016. Gif keyboards are also now common, with Apple adding one to Messages in iOS 10 and Google’s Gboard launched with gif support in 2016. The expansion in web-based, app and downloadable gif editors means many more people are making their own gifs too, with pre-existing ones catalogued in online repositories such as Giphy.

So, where does the gif go from here? Well, there have been some pretty darn creative innovations in the format to the point it is becoming a legitimate art medium in its own right, with IRL exhibitions and everything.

In honour of the gif’s exit from its heady 20s, here are some examples

It’s the only place to start, really. Here are our favourite partying felines for your pleasure. There are lots more where that came from.

Deal-with-it gifs have been around a long time, and are now so popular that list pieces have collated the best ones. They usually consist of a pair of pixelated sunglasses dropping onto a nonchalant character imploring the viewer to, well, “deal with it”. The first use was a version with an animated dog back in 2010 on the site Dump.fm. But I am particularly fond of the Ferris Bueller inspired version above.

The slightly scary dancing baby was born way back in 1996 by two animators at a video games company. A fellow worker at LucasArts emailed a video of the animation around the office and, boom, the baby became a phenomenon via email chains. It even appeared in the late-90s legal drama Ally McBeal as one of the neurotic McBeal’s recurring hallucinations.

The popcorn-eating trope is a well known reaction to observing a good old online argument or Twitter beef. Fortunately, there are many popcorn-eating gifs. Unfortunately, virtually everyone on Twitter chooses the first available on its gif menu, which is the Jackson version (taken from his video for Thriller). Second most popular is Jon Stewart eating popcorn.

“Dumpster fire”, shorthand for complete disaster, is truly a term for our times. In particular, a gif of a dumpster fire in Los Angeles was wildly shared in the run-up to Donald Trump winning the 2016 election. Another popular fire-themed reaction gif is a scene from Community in which Donald Glover arrives, pizza in hand, at a burning apartment.

Helen Green is a British illustrator, and in 2016 went viral with her gif featuring drawings of every single one of Bowie’s hairstyles from 1964-2014.

One of the most beautiful gif forms is the cinemagraph, which features a single animated element in an otherwise static shot. There are way too many examples, from traffic moving along New York streets to milk being poured into coffee, but all of them are transfixing.

A favourite is the cunning raccoon stealing food from underneath the noses of two cats before scampering away. This cat-burglar was popularised circa 2013 on social sites Imgur and Reddit, where it took off on r/AnimalsBeingJerks. Of course people have had fun with it, adding their own narrations. It still raises a smile. – (Guardian Service)