Impressions of Life

These past two weeks in the Catholic Church have been absolutely devastating to the victims of the abusers and the families of these terrible perpetrators. Colm ‘O Gorman of the ‘One in Four’ organisation has been lobbying for these victims for a long time now and has written a book on his abusive childhood under these Catholic Priests. The book is called: ‘ Beyond Belief ‘ A true story of his incarceration since he was a boy in the parish of Ferns, Co, Wexford.

The reports are long and people are extremely angered here about the sexual abuse by the Priests of the Catholic Church, especially during the sixties and seventies in Ireland to many of the children then who one happens to be Colm ‘O Gorman (in the video clip above). It’s now only re-immersed in Ireland about this on going saga - and it’s NOT going to go away in a hurry. It’s complicated to explain to people outside Ireland to explain the full implications of the subject. The bottom line: The Priests here during the period of the 60’s and 70’s owe a full apology to each and everyone of their suffering victims, and it’s simply NOT emerging. The State (Government) is backing them up too (allegedly) - which people are really sick to the teeth of. We all want to here the Church say: “SORRY, we were wrong, and commited barbaric crimes of humanity among our innocent youth”

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Amateur Irish Golfer Shane Lowry wins the 2009 3 Irish Open over Robert Rock on the 3rd playoff hole. Enjoy the final putt by Shane and the aftermath of the Irish fans swarming the young Irishman. Includes a great on-course interview and the trophy. Lowry tapped home a six inch- putt to take the title. He admitted he was a “bag of nerves” on Sunday morning, knowing he was in with a major chance of  history in the making.

This was a fantastic win by one of our amateur golfers -22 year old Shane Lowry from Clara, Co.Offaly. Shane out gunned all challenges and eventually defeated England’s Robert Rock at the third play off hole to capture the title. So what if Lowry, as an amateur, couldn’t put the cheque for €500,000 in to his back pocket; that prize went to the runner-up, Rock. That’s what the consequences are been at this level unfortunately. He only took up amateur golf in his teen’s, playing mostly pitch-and -putt. That lead him to join Esker Hills Golf Club, Co Offaly. That course became his classroom. Shane is now the country’s top amateur. Asked will he turn Pro now, he said. ” No, I’m going to have to think about that” I think this is the right time. He is at the right age now and delaying it will surely bring hast.

One of the men shot during an attempted robbery in Lucan, west Dublin this morning has died.

Another man is in hospital and four others have been arrested after a number of shots were fired during the attempted robbery.

The men were attempting to rob a G4S cash-in-transit van as it was delivering money to an ATM in a Centra shop in the Foxborough Park estate at around 11.30am when they were confronted by gardaí.

Gardaí moved in as the attempted robbery was under way and a number of shots were fired. The scene has been sealed off by gardaí.

The shooting involved members of the Garda’s Organised Crime Unit at the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation. A Garda statement said: “During the incident a number of shots were fired and two men were injured. One of the men has since died in hospital. The State Pathologist has been contacted.”

It said the four men arrested were in their 20s and were being questioned in Lucan and Ronanstown Garda Stations under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

The raiders are believed to be members of a criminal gang based in Sherriff Street in Dublin’s north inner city. One of the injured men is said to be in a serious condition in hospital.

One of the three men arrested by detectives is related to a very well-know armed robber from Dublin’s north inner city and is a suspect in the €7.6 million raid on the Bank of Ireland in College Green Dublin in March.

One eyewitness told The Irish Times he heard up to six shots being fired. “There were undercover gardai everywhere the minute this thing happened,” he said.

'Pleasure Boats moored' (Dun Laoire)

This is a watercolour i did a short while back. With all my images - i love to show a dept of reality in my subjects, here is no exception. I love the water and the ‘wet into wet’ approach. I did this sketch…that’s all it really is - on a pretty sunny afternoon on my portable easel…my knees! It’s a great way to paint, fast and no fuss. When a subject confronts you - you must take full advan.tage and time wasting is not my forte. The dark back round was vital to show the highlights of the boats and there shapes, also the colour of the water.

'Trawler been painted in dry dock'

This sketch is from the same area, but it’s a trawler on a mobile boat crane. The men were hard at work painting and priming the whole hull and base of the boat. I had to capture it on paper. What attracted me was the red colour of the trawler. The new paint was so vivid and sharp in the sunlight, it was just right timing. The crane framed the whole design of the painting i think. I felt i had to put in the van, as this represented the workmen. I’m sure it’s blocking the view of the scene, but, also it adds a reality of life.

This is the sign of the times in our little island: our country: Ireland is now in deep recession. As you look at the clip, it’s all clear that jobs are lost EVERY five minutes! It’s really startling. Every day you look or listen to the news reports and hear another Company or Business gone ‘to the wall’. Given we were one of the best secure economies in Europe up to last year, now, we are a sorry shadow of them long gone days. The ‘Celtic Tiger’ as we knew it…(past-tense) was a blessing, but, also a demonic beast ready to pounce and inflict the deepest cuts: we all knew it was coming, but we waited till we shot ourselves in the foot. A lot of people will say…(and i agree) the Property Developers and Banks were solely to blame. Given A.I.B (Allied Irish Banks) lent out some €22 billion euro to Property Developers alone was a trick of greed and hidden charm with cunning bankers under the counter handing out money ‘willy nilly’. This and many other secretive cash ‘deals’ was happening when we were still struggling.

We all know now how detrimental it’s all been. Now the hard working tax payer (working class) has to suffer and take the pain of the Bankers along with Investment Bankers and large building construction firms who capitalised on this final hurdle of the so call ‘boom’. When i turned on the news today. A.I.B had their EGM: (Emergency General Meeting) at their head quarters in Dublin this afternoon and had to express their losses to their share holders - (the one’s that pay THEIR wages to the executives of this massive bank) There was one indivdual who threw an egg in the face of the CEO of A.I.B: Mr Dermott Gleeson. I say fair play to ‘em! We must be more forceful, just like the French - and give ‘em stick!  Another one that should get an egg in the face is one :Mr Michael Fingleton: CEO of Irish Nationwide Building  Society. He got a ‘golden handshake’ of  €1 million euro as his fare well bonus in the Company for his 37 years of service. His pension package is €27 Million euro alone! He resigned at the end of last month.

Jenny Saville: With the transvestite I was searching for a body that was between genders. I had explored that idea a little in Matrix. The idea of floating gender that is not fixed. The transvestite I worked with has a natural penis and false silicone breasts. Thirty or forty years ago this body couldn’t have existed and I was looking for a kind of contemporary architecture of the body. I wanted to paint a visual passage through gender — a sort of gender landscape. To scale from the penis, across a stomach to the breasts, and finally the head. I tried to make the lips and eyes be very seductive and use directional mark-making to move your eye around the flesh.

Simon Schama: So you really do manipulate what’s in front of you through the mark-making. It’s very striking — I’m looking at a photograph of your transvestite painting Passage and that passage that moves from the penis and balls to the belly is really about the anatomy of paint as it constructs the body.

I Love this Artist: Jenny Saville. Born in Cambridge England 1970. She studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1988 to 1992. Where she won the Craig award and Newberry medal. She won a scholarship to attend Cincinnati University for six months, where her fascination with the human form started to influence her work and Saville became interested in ‘the malls’. Where you saw lots of big women, big white flesh in shorts and tee-shirts. Depicting bodies that live outside the standard boundaries of attractiveness. Jenny moved to New York in 1994, where she was able to sit and observe the work of plastic surgeon Dr. Barry Martin Weintraub, she was allowed to take photos of the cosmetic surgery and liposuctions Dr. Weintraub performed in the theatre and gained a much better understanding of the human body. She is based in Sicily,Italy where she lives and works.

Jenny has established herself at a relatively young age. She is only 39, and her awards are ‘as long as her arm’. What I’m fascinated about this artist is not only is she true to her work, but, her representation of the human form with ‘warts ‘an all’. She has a genuine feel for the emotions on the faces and bodies she depicts, and also she paints with sombre colours in her limited palette. Black is featured in a lot of the works…(probably very dark blues and earth tones though). Jenny’s work  is represented on the new album (cover) of  the  Manic Street Preachers : Journey for plague lovers. Anyone interested in painting/drawing the human body will appreciate this talented woman.

This is a ’storm in a teacup’ episode that took place in John D’s Bar Balbriggan, Co Dublin - involving a group of travellers who locked themselves in a public house and ran riot literally. It was on the news Bank Holiday Monday evening’s news bulletin at 9pm. I saw some of the U tube clips and saw a fire extinguisher been sprayed out of one of the windows to annoy the public and entice the Gardaì to bring them in to the premises for a bar brawl show down. After a short while they were professionally escorted from the pub by members of the Gardaì and the  ERU (Emergency Response Unit) to a quick ending to a potentially dangerous fracas. There were no fatalities and just minor facial injuries sustained mostly from travellers.

Nine charged after pub fracas

One woman and eight men were charged yesterday with offences in connection with an incident in Balbriggan, Co Dublin, on bank holiday Monday.

Gardaí were called out to deal with a violent fracas at John D’s pub in the town shortly before 7pm.

The men from Balbriggan and Skerries were charged at Swords District Court and at the Bridewell with breaches of the peace and being drunk in a public place as well as property damage.

The charge sheets listed damage to windows, furniture, glasses and spirit bottles belonging to publican William Roe at John D’s.

This footage is pretty horrific, so viewers be aware before you play it! It’s a scene many people around the globe will have seen.

A SIXTH victim, a military policeman on security duty protecting the royal family, has died as a result of the Apeldoorn attack in the Netherlands.

Thursday’s attack appeared to have been ruthlessly planned against the Dutch monarchy on the one day in the year when they are truly among the people, mingling, chatting, at pains to act normally – and easy targets? Or was it the desperate deed of a madman, unhinged after losing his job and about to be evicted from his home?

The real reason for Karst Tates’s drive of death through the streets of Apeldoorn on Koninginnendag (Queen’s Day), the Netherlands’ biggest national holiday, may never be known. The 38-year-old former security guard died in hospital yesterday of injuries he sustained after crashing his car into a monument beside the bus carrying Queen Beatrix and most of the Dutch royal family, having left carnage in his wake. He told the emergency services at the scene that it was a deliberate action against the royal family.

Really horrible footage, but, it does say something - this lunatic obviously disregarded the life of young children, to whom he did not kill. However, the police woman who was knocked down..(she is in footage with stab vest) died soon after due to tremendous internal injuries. I feel the need to show this, as it’s an indication of just how some people are totally void of the fragility of human life. Given the fact that this parade was going along with great joy on a beautiful afternoon, then in one instant it took one man to destroy so many families with children watching this.

The new Nora Dunne Gallery situated at: 52-54 Kimmage Rd West, Dublin 12. has just accepted new and exciting works from Artists of all ranges in style and colour. This new and prosperous gallery is bustling at the seams with fresh work regularly. This morning was no exception - i was there and was there were NONE of the previous works i last visited as they were ‘eaten’ up at the Auction  at the unforgettable last April Auction - it WAS a success, as everything went! WOW i say. Well done ye lot - can i have the formula please..!!

‘Camden Street’ John Morris.

‘Solace’ Markey Robinson

'Country Road, Kilternan'

This is yet another sketch i did a few weeks ago while not busy, which is rare! Maybe i am lazy though and should sketch more. I think this might make a good finished painting - maybe in oils. It deserves strong colours, and , i think oil is the medium for it. What drew me to this was the serenity of the scene and the colours of the trees. The road gives a feeling of  emptiness in the desolate landscape. A well know Irish Artist: Trevor Geoghagen is a master at this type of perspective. He loves country roads, barns, and all things relating to his beloved Co Wicklow.

'Trawlers in dock ready to unload'

This painting was done on the spot. It was painted very quickly, as i had to hurry to avoid the rain coming down. Watercolour and rain don’t go hand in hand! I was happy with the out come - even though it was done quickly, i feel you can work more diligently and effectively, as your senses are more heightened when your under pressure. I must admit - i love the transparent colours of the trawlers. Marine life never seizes to amaze me. This will probably be the start of a painting to be. I can relate to these scenes as there’s an empathy when i put brush to canvas.