Over 100 people rushed to the Burlington Hotel in Dublin with the hope to get catalog, catwalk or advertising work. The reason was that Regardez model management agency had announced a modeling competition with free photo trials.
You could see all kinds of people there – parents dragging along their photogenic children, older people in dire need of money and/or a career change and young starry-eyed women. They all had one thing in common – the disappointment that the campaign wasn’t actually free.

Baiba Saulite, a woman of Latvian origin, was shot to death in front of her home in north Dublin in what police suspect may have been a contract killing. This happened just before 22 pm. Her two sons, Mohammed Rami Hassan (3) and Ali Alexsandre Hassan (5), were asleep upstairs at the time.
Her husband Hassan Hassan, who is in jail for car robbery and awaits sentencing on a charge of abducting his children, will be questioned by police with regard to the incident.

Following the grisly murder of Kenyan man Farah Noor in Dublin, there is evidence that the perpetrators Linda and Charlotte Mulhall will be brought to justice. The Dublin sublings were nicknamed the Scissor Sisters following the event. 31-year old Linda Mulhall appeared in Dublin District Court on a charge of criminal damage of a house in the area of Crumlin/Drimnagh, Dublin, in July this year. Prosecuting officer Niall Keena told the court that Linda referred to the charge as ‘ridiculous’. Linda Mulhall, a mother-of-four from Tallaght, was found guilty of the manslaughter of her mother's African lover last month. The court found her 23-year old sister Charlotte guilty of his murder. The sisters will be sentenced on December 4 of this year.

Low-cost Irish carrier Ryanair is planning to open a number of new bases next year and is considering destinations in Eastern Europe to this end, The Irish Examiner reported. The airline was quoted in saying that it was negotiating with airports in Cyprus, Switzerland and the soon- EU members Bulgaria and Romania about launching new flight routes. Ryanair reportedly hasn’t contacted Bulgaria’s Civil Aviation Authority. Sofia airport declined to comment the issue. A month ago a source from the airport said Ryanair had expressed an interest in using the airport and that several meetings with representatives of the carrier had taken place.

Ireland and Cyprus are the only two EU countries set for a boom in the population between 20 and 34 years of age. The members of this group will increase exponentially in the period until 2010 according to a NCB Stockbrokers report. Generally the number of people in this age group is declining throughout Europe.
The report indicates that the EU population will remain largely unchanged until 2020. However, the 15-64 age group in Ireland will rise more dramatically than in all other EU states.

Last night downtown Dublin played host to an alcohol-fueled rampage. Teenagers celebrating their Junior Cert results pushed each other out into the streets, passed out, cried, laughed, got arrested and generally did all the things that go along with getting very drunk. Eyewitnesses called the spectacle “a disgrace”. 20 pubescent boys and girls were taken to the Garda station at Store Street and later released into the custody of the bewildered parents.

Irish transport minister Martin Cullen announced intentions to spend around EUR 360 million on new train tracks and stations on the Kildare route. The grandiose project will include three new stations and will increase the number of train services along the Kildare to Heuston section twofold. Passengers accordingly will rise from 11,000 to over 36,000 a day in both directions.
The rail tracks will rise from two to four between Hazelhatch and Cherry Orchard, Kildare.

It has emerged that the Irish state plans to sell Aer Lingus to a private investor. Aer Lingus, the national Irish air carrier, is based in Dublin and operates over 30 aircraft serving the US, Europe, and Dubai, UAE. The Irish government owns 85% of the company. It recently endorsed privatization. Irish transport minister Martin Cullen announced that the future managers of the carrier would not be able to sell its attractive landing slots without the government’s approval. The minister unveiled a plan to protect state interests while raising capital with the aim to fund expansion of the carrier. The minister did not specify the investment amount necessary, nor did he comment on specific dates for execution.

Dubliner Mary Johnson, who was a member of the Church of Scientology between 1992 and 1994, is filing claims against the organization in a legal action before the High Court. She states that she sustained emotional damages and posttraumatic stress disorder from the experience, and also claims that she was controlled by a cult. She suffered excessive pressures as a member of the church and faced intimidation and threats when she tried to leave. Her attorney Sean Ryan said in court that evidence will show how she was drawn into the church and subjected to procedures, which brought her under its influence and authority.

A telemarketing company in Dublin is looking for telesales personnel. This e-commerce business is called DotCom Directories. The opportunities for career growth are probably wonderful. But remember that if you’re a smoker, this doesn’t apply for you. In fact, don’t even bother coming for an interview.
The director of the company, Philip Tobin, commented that he always asks if a candidate has any habits that would prevent him from doing a good job at work. Obviously the man believes that smoking is one such habit. He cites factors such as illnesses, the smell, and the intelligence of people who smoke. Apparently it is lower than that of non-smokers, because smokers ignore the signs on cigarette packs, which helpfully warn them against the potential damages. Additionally, smokers take cigarette breaks, which may probably amount to half an hour a day, meaning that they are working less than their non-smoking colleagues for the same salary. And that isn’t fair, now is it?

Online travel agency Ebookers plans to close its shop in Dublin in May 2006, thus becoming an exclusively online travel agent operating with the support of a call center, the media reports.
This decision was made in the wake of a review of the Irish business, which was purchased by Cendant Corporation in March of 2005.
The demand for online booking has escalated, while the income from the agency’s offline business has remained at the same level for over five years. Ciaran Lally, managing director of the agency in Britain and Ireland, commented that the store drew 60% of business a little over a year ago, while at the present it comprises just 15%. There has been a dramatic shift to online booking, which is why the managers decided to close down the store.

Gardai arrested Peter Clarke in connection with the devastating traffic accident on Naas Road in Dublin, which claimed the life of social activist Maire Buckley. The 62-year old woman died while trying to protect her daughter. Clarke’s bus almost flattened Buckley’s car to the ground.
Mrs. Buckley was a respected teacher, who retired last year. Her heartbroken family described her as a vibrant, fun-loving woman who enjoyed life. Every community in north Dublin mourns her. The victim devoted her entire life to helping the poor and children in disadvantaged areas of Dublin.

Dublin is the cultural capital of Europe, supporting 6 festivals, 14 theatres, 37 libraries, 200 art groups, 29 museums and much more. This was the hometown of some of the most famous authors in history, including James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, and Jonathan Swift. Moreover, in recent times the city has given rise to some extremely talented music artists, with great potential and a bright future. Artists like The Thrills, Gemma Hayes, David Kitt, The Frames and Damien Rice have caused quite a stir in the music business. This wealth of creativity has bridged the gaps between Dublin and the international community. This city’s reputation is based on its cultural talent. We tend to read and hear more about Dublin’s economic progress and social development than about its cultural development, but culture is a major factor of the economic wealth of Dublin businesses. The Dublin City Development Board aims to place cultural issues on par with business and social issues, to take them out of the shadows and shed light on them in a celebration of Dublin’s unique heritage.

In the wake of the blockbuster novel’s presentation in Ireland, severe religious conflicts erupted to the extent that the hundreds of thousands of people watching the Late Late show on May 13 felt like they had entered the twilight zone. Several priests were guests on the show. They proceeded to rant about Jesus and the Second Coming. Sparked by Dan Brown’s rather unsympathetic portrayal of Roman Catholic priests in his hit novel, they did not speak about why priests should get married, nor did they talk about social justice or any other relevant present-day issues. When a viewer called and asked why a woman couldn’t become Pope, a priest remarked, “The Lord wouldn't want it." I guess we are just supposed to deal with the fact that the Lord is sexist. As for the viewer, the texts at the bottom of the screen simply dismissed him as a heretic.

Presently 167 languages are being spoken in the Republic of Ireland, according to data of the National University of Ireland Maynooth. This is placing great obstacles before the justice, education and especially health systems.
Rwandan interpreter Deo Ndakengerwa, 36 years of age, spends a better part of his day trying to settle differences and clear up confusion between non-English speaking patients and hospital staff. These days he is in great demand. He tells of a Cameroon woman who kept complaining that she couldn’t stop running. Her doctor failed to see why that was a problem until he was informed that this expression meant she was suffering from diarrhea.

The Irish government will put a veto on the employment of Bulgarian and Romanian workers following their joining EU in 2007, according to the London daily Sunday Times.
This is a drastic shift of the position stated by the Prime Minister Borty Ahorn last week. At the time he rebuked several of his EU colleagues for the delays in granting free access to the 10 new member-states, Sunday Times reported.

This entry is dedicated to the safety of tourists in Dublin. Considering the escalating crime rate in the city, here are several precautions to keep in mind if you want to enjoy your visit and avoid suffering from crimes:

Hold you handbag or satchel firmly and securely, and observe it closely in crowded streets, cafes, eateries and shops. If you are in downtown Dublin, park your car in a secure parking zone and keep the parking ticket with you. Needless to say, always lock your car when you get out. Inquire about safe parking areas at the reception desk at the hotel where you are staying. If you are traveling in a group, divide the money amongst yourselves – that way you’ll have a chance to keep the better part if one of you gets mugged. Photocopy all your travel documents and keep the copies and originals separate. Do not leave valuables exposed in your car or luggage – take special care to keep this in mind. Do not give money to beggars, because that way you encourage them and they’ll keep at you. Camp only in approved areas, and not in open or public areas.

Dublin Archdiocese has introduced a new drug-awareness program targeted at young people. It is in the format of a text-messaging service for mobile phones. Everyone who owns a mobile phone can text a drug-related term to a phone number. In a matter of seconds they will receive detailed information about the drug and the negative effects it may have. The social services branch of the archdiocese, Crosscare, provides the service. It includes hundreds of jargon words, code words and street language associated with the drug culture. The text reply cannot be shorter than 160 characters. All text messages contain a phone number for further information and the web address of Crosscare's drug awareness program.

Trinity College Dublin faced excessive embarrassment after handing out incorrect results to students twice. Second-year students in the nursing school were severely disturbed by the errors following their exams. Some students, who had failed, celebrating passing, and others were sorrowful about failing an exam that they actually passed.
The first time students received results they had gotten for an assignment the previous year as the result for their most recent test. After that the wrong results for the Nursing Studies paper were posted. This was one of three exams students took at the end of the first semester. One student commented that the wrong results for the paper were posted over two full days before it emerged that they were faulty. In both cases the students eventually received revised results, but that didn’t take away from their pain. Students that typically achieved very high results were shocked to discover that they had failed miserably on this test. A spokesperson of the college described this as an unfortunate and highly regrettable event. The cause of it was administrative error. The staff member responsible for the results was on sick leave at the time. Nursing school staff met with students and apologized to them.

Due to its excessive traffic problems, Dublin has been demoted two places on the international ranking of cities. This ranking looks at the best and worst cities in which to live. Currently Dublin is eighth among EU cities. This list is headed by Vienna. Dublin has the highest quality of life compared to all other cities in Ireland and the United Kingdom. The survey considers personal safety, corruption, the environment, education, transport, access to health care, crime and other social factors. It covers 215 cities. Dublin has dropped to 24th from 22nd. Other EU cities ahead of Dublin are Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Brussels and Luxembourg. London is 11th among EU cities and 39th worldwide. Its position has not changed since last year. Paris is 33rd worldwide and 10th in the EU. Other European cities in the top 10 are Zurich, Geneva, Bern, Dusseldorf, Munich and Frankfurt. New York ranks 46th in the world. Glasgow and Birmingham, the other British cities in the survey, ranked 55th together with Tsukuba in Japan and Los Angeles.

Drug-related gun crimes are the biggest problem the Irish police force Garda face today. The persistence of these crimes has resulted in a decline of detection rates for other crimes. Previously narcotics trade was limited to big cities, but now it has spread throughout small towns in the countryside. The number of patrols carrying weapons has increased as well.
Most of the weapons used by drug gangs in fatal shootings are imported from Eastern Europe. Others are being sourced into Ireland along with shipments of illegal drugs. Detection rates of other crimes are still around 35%, a lot more than in many other jurisdictions. Moreover, some particularly heinous crimes that occurred recently have garnered great media publicity, and this has resulted in heightened criticism of the Garda, which was not warranted.

71 students, flying home to Dublin from Paris, were caught up in a bomb ruse, causing their flight to be diverted to Scotland. They were aboard a Ryanair FR25 plane. The cabin crew received a note with a bomb threat. The captain immediately contacted the National Air Traffic Service and received orders to land at Prestwick, an airport designated for emergency cases in the UK.
The children arrived in Dublin around midnight on April 12. They greeted their parents with tears.

Two days ago Dublin witnessed the most horrifying car crash in a very long period of time. Pamela Boylan (32) and her nine-year-old son Thomas died after their Toyota collided with a Mitsubishi around midnight on a hazardous curve on the N81 highway south of Blessington. These two deaths brought up the death toll in Ireland to 113 in 2006 alone.
Five people died on the nation’s roads this week, including the young mother and her son. Another five have sustained injuries in result of traffic accidents. A man was arrested in relation with the accident, but the police at Naas Garda Station eventually released him without pressing charges. A file was submitted to the Public Prosecutions office. The driver of the Mitsubishi was taken to Naas General Hospital after sustaining minor injuries.

Macduff: What three things does drink especially promote?
Porter: Marry sir, nose painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance...
- MacBeth, Act 2, Scene 3

Binge drinking is a major problem in Ireland, more so in Northern Ireland. The Irish Department of Health has funded a campaign targeting binge drinking. It has emerged that binge drinking is a defining aspect of Irish drinking patterns. This may not come as news, but the fact that health service officials are starting to take preventive measures is what makes the difference. According to Rob Phipps of the Department of Health, drinking is “unhealthy on a personal and social level, an issue that needs to be addressed urgently”. Campaign results have shown that even moderate alcohol intake can prove disastrous in certain cases, and one doesn’t need to go on a drinking binge to damage his/her health. The Irish Health Promotion Agency has established the notion of drinking units. Generally one unit can be described as one beer / a glass of wine / 50 ml of hard liquor. Consuming one of each in one sitting counts as three units total. The HPA aims to raise awareness of alcohol intake and reduce consumption. The agency has fixed 10 units for men and 7 units for women as the equivalent of a binge. HPA representatives remind that men should drink no more than 21 units and women – less than 14 units over the course of one week (seven days). The campaign involves distribution of certain materials to clubs and pubs in Northern Ireland.

After a decade of the Celtic Tiger, it seems that there’s nothing stopping the Irish economy (for Celtic Tiger disambiguation, please refer to my previous post). This socio-economic phenomenon is most evident in Dublin, where a plot of land for a small two-story house was sold for 538 000 euros last week. Don’t think it was prime location either. This land was squeezed between a canal outside the downtown area and a major motorway. Billionaire Denis O'Brien purchased a house with seven beds in Dublin for a heartbreaking 35 million British pounds recently. It seems the Celtic Tiger is taking its toll on the fabulously rich as well. The buoyant economy has generated a shift in the mentality of Dubliners – you will see people in their 30s driving Bentleys and Ferraris, a plethora of foreign laborers, and an excessive demand for private education in a country that used to be proud of its public schools. At the same time, we have seen a decline in health care, a deteriorating road infrastructure and skyrocketing prices in bars, restaurants and banks.

The Celtic Tiger is an economic phenomenon, which emerged in the early 1990s and ended around 2002. We speak of it in relation to time, as in Celtic Tiger years, and also use this term to refer to Ireland.
Ireland was the poorest nation of the Western world two decades ago, but today it is among the wealthiest. Real estate property construction is at a record high, the economy is growing at twice the average for the European Union, and economists predict these tendencies will continue in the next 15 or so years. The term Celtic Tiger is analogical to East Asian Tigers, a nickname applied to the economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and other countries in Eastern Asia during the period of their skyrocketing growth in the 80s and 90s of the last century. Sometimes Celtic Tiger is used to refer to renewed or continued Irish economic development and growth, which took place after 2002.

Until recently, you could attribute every bomb going off in England to the IRA and you wouldn’t be far from the truth. Likewise, all bombs in Spain could be attributed to Basque separatist group ETA. Both of these nationalist organizations must have realized their efforts were futile decades ago, but only now have they adopted a practical orientation. ETA and IRA leaders have taken peacemaking measures in light of the new player on the field - al-Qaeda.

National Irish air carrier Aer Lingus will hold flights from Dubai to Dublin three times a week. This is the company’s first long-distance route apart from flights to the US. Aer Lingus expects the flights to draw 70 000 passengers in the first year alone. Promotional rates will start from Dh 1 500 without taxes.
Dermot Mannion, Chief Executive at Aer Lingus, announced that the company was very happy to launch this route. The company’s strategy involves both short- and long-distance routes, giving it an advantage over the competition. It will also present wider options before the airline’s clients.

The traditional Love Ulster parade, which begins at O’Connell St. in Dublin, was marred by an unfortunate event this year. A marginal nationalist group caused disruption, using the parade as a venue to rage against the Irish government’s economic and social policies. A large group of disenfranchised youths participated in this protest and came prepared, wearing masks and scarves over their faces so they wouldn’t be recognized on police videos. They threw eggs, stones and bottles at journalists and police and carried IRA slogans. Many of the protesters were wrapped in the Irish flag, leading some prominent community figures to advocate adoption of a law on misuse of the national flag. The United States government has adopted a similar one.

The brutal murder of Siobhán Kearney in south Dublin, which caused a public outcry, may be solved very soon, the Irish police force (Gardai) believes. The police hope that they will find her killer after receiving information from sources close to the case.
The investigation is placing an emphasis on the chief suspect’s actions at the time of the killing. Information has surfaced of the whereabouts of at least one person seen in the area at the approximate time of the murder. These circumstances do not confirm the suspect’s alibi, and the Gardai have observed certain discrepancies that may help them solve the difficult case.