GREGAN MAKES IT TO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI-FINALS

Olypic Stadium London

Brian Gregan

Donor Harriers Brian Gregan has once again proven he is one of the top sprinters in Europe by making it to the Semi-Finals of the Men’s 400m at the World Athletics Championships in London.

He was a tad unlucky to be drawn in what was deemed the much harder Semi-Final, which contained the bulk of the medal favourites, including the eventual Gold Medal winner Wayde Van Niekerk of South Africa.

Gregan was in fine form coming into the Semi-Final after finishing third in his previous heat with a time of 45.37s, which was just 11 hundreths of a second off his Personal Best he set in Morton Stadium just a few weeks back.

To underline just how competitive the Semi-Final race was, Gregan finished ahead of Olympic Bronze Medallist LaShawn Merritt.
While obviously any athlete would be disappointed to not make a World Championship Final, Gregan will still be very happy at his time of 45.42 seconds, which left him in sixth place, just outside a qualifying berth for the final.

Given his riveting performances at the World Championships, and performances in the Diamond League meetings these past 12 months, the Tallaght man will be one of the favourites to take gold at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin a year from now.

Also competing for Ireland was Ratharnham WSAF’s Seán Hehir, who finished in 63^rd place in the Men’s Marathon with a time of 2 hours 27 minutes, and Dundrum South Dublin’s Siofra Cleirigh-Buttner who finished 6th in heat 5 of the Women's 800m.

She was over 2 seconds off an automatic qualifying place with a time of 2:06:54

Solidarity Cllr Mick Murphy and Lisa Maher speak about the Jobstown trial

ONE of the men acquitted of all charges in relation to a protest in Jobstown, has spoken out at media assertions regarding social media comments made during the trial.
 Solidarity Councillor Mick Murphy said “I think you can’t control public comment on Social Media, it is an open newspaper.”
“Journalists from the main newspapers are just worried that people, via social media, are blowing holes in their agenda”.

When asked about the concerns raised as to how such online commentary might endanger the way juries are picked and operate during court cases, the Tallaght Central Representative added “There is no legal understanding that says what is said to a jury, cannot be said to the public”
“There were numerous persons monitoring what was being said on social media throughout the trial, and it wasn’t until the last week, when Paul Murphy TD was asked to remove tweets he had retweeted from his twitter account”.

He then spoke about plans by Fine Gael TD and lawyer Josepha Madigan to bring legislation to The Dáil that seeks to clamp down on social media comment re trials that are in situ;
“The various legal people in our trial were at pains to reiterate that it is important that that justice is done and seen in public, and in my view the coverage online by the Tallaght Echo, in particular, was far more accurate than that published by the mainstream media”

 

Mr Murphy also questioned those claiming the protest in Jobstown on 14 November 2014, was excessively violent; “It was not established in court that there was violence.
Yes, there was some egg throwing on the fringes of the protest, which were inexcusable and wrong, but the main protest featured ‘sticks and stones stuff, name calling and the like, and that’s it”.

Solidarity TD Paul Murphy has called for a public enquiry into the conduct of the Gardaí, from the day people were initially arrested, to the trial itself, a call which Cllr Murphy echoes; “Paul called a street meeting in Jobstown before the Gardaí arrived to try and put some order on proceedings”
“Various Gardaí claimed in sworn testimony they heard him say “Will we keep her here all night?”, but nobody at that protest uttered those words.
I was also accused of directing people via megaphone, but the video evidence also showed I did no such thing”.

When asked as to his future plans, the Solidarity councillor said he will now focus his energies on supporting those who are still before the courts as a result of the Jobstown protest, and is looking forward to getting back to a 9-5 routine. 

I also spoke to his wife and fellow long time left wing activist and solidarity member Lisa Maher.

"I'll never forget the day he was arrested.  I woke up and was shocked to see Mick's car still in the driveway, as he is usually gone by 7am, but I had no sight or sound of him.
But for neighbours ringing me to tell me what had happened I don't know what I would have done, Mick didn't even get a chance to let me know he was being arrested etc, and I was toally in the dark til my phone rang."

I also raised with Lisa the issue of social media comment during the trial, and the media outcry that followed when the trial had ended.
"The Defence said it would be preferable if the men on trial, and their families did not comment on the internet about the trial, and we agreed to that request, and we kept our promise too.
Anytime improper comments were put online by others, we did our best to ensure such comments were removed as soon as possible".
Regarding the media reporting during the trial Mrs. Maher was very critical of one particular aspect; 
The media published everything that Joan Burton said in the witness box, including, including unsavoury and untrue things she said about the people of Jobstown"

I explained to Lisa that when I saw the men coming out of the court on the day they were acquitted via the Six One News, she was behind them, and her skin was as white as paint.
I asked the long time activist as to how she felt after the men's acquittal?
"I am not in a celebratory mood, I am very angry that the men were put on trial.
I will continue to build and recruit new people into Solidarity so that it becomes bigger than the Labour Party.
I will not let up to make things better for ordinary people"

The Whitechurch couple can now look forward to more leisurely walks with their two new pugs, and Mick is also preparing himself to get himself back into the 9-5 scheme of things, putting his vast wealth of engineering knowledge into good use, as he and his wife steadfastly support the others still before the courts in relation to the protest in Jobstown on the 15th of  November 2014.  

ALL PHOTOS (c) SEÁN HEFFERNAN

My reflections on the U.K election...

June 8^th 2017 will be one of those days that will live on in history, like the day Aneurin Bevan announced the creation of the NHS, or Margaret Thatcher secured her landslide victory in 1983.
When Theresa May announced the snap election, the media claimed The Conservatives were set to get a massive majority, and labelled it Theresa May’s coronation.
But I texted a friend “The Carriage is being pulled by lame horses”.

The media desperately tried to portray Jeremy Corbyn, since the day he was elected Labour Party leader, as deeply unpopular, and somebody most voters distrusted etc.
But when you actually went looking for, and poring over the hard data, you say a different picture indeed.
Hundreds of thousands of people had joined the Labour Party, as a result of his election, and in a number of By Elections, the party increased its vote share, for example in  ‘Oldham West Royton’
In the 2015 General Election, Labour held the seat with 54.8% of the vote, but just a few months later, mere weeks after Corbyn was elected leader, they retook the seat in a by election with 62.1% of the vote. 
In fact last Thursday the vote share increased yet more, and they held the seat with a very impressive vote share of 65.2%.

In 2015, a lot of Labour voters switched to U.K.I.P. over the issue of an E.U. Referendum, and in part, due to the right wing policies of Ed Miliband.
The polls showed that a lot of the 13% UKIP got in the election, would desert them this time round, with a lot of it expected to go back to Labour.
Like a lot of ye out there, I was bemused at the wide disparity between the various opinion polls, with the gap between the Conservatives and Labour said to be anywhere between 1 % and 12% depending on what poll you read.

Hence as people would have seen in my previous blog post, I set about finding the marginal seats, and analysing them to give myself a better perspective as to the lie of the land.
Allied with all signs pointing to an increase in the youth vote, there were a number of marginal seats held by the Tories that were near certainties to be taken by Labour (and on June 8^th they were).
Thus all roads led to the Conservatives remaining the largest party, but either gaining a very slim overall majority of up to eight seats maximum, or a hung parliament.

So when people were asking me on Wednesday night as to how I thought the U.K. election would go, I told them that if the youth vote turns out in droves, Labour will do very well, if it does not, they won’t.
Those that know me, know that I eat sleep and drink current affairs, and from 11am on Wednesday I spent the day glued to my laptop, and the #Electionturnout tag stream on Twitter, as I sought to get a picture of the turnout among young voters on the day.

Being brutally honest, when I was making my cup of tea at 21:50, I had allowed myself be taken in by claims on Twitter that did not have any verifiable information attached to them, and so I was expecting the Exit Poll to show the Conservatives with a 3-6% lead over Labour.
To say I nearly choked on my biscuit when the exit results were released!
And I settled down on the couch with the BBC on the television, and me constantly refreshing various twitter streams on various key marginal seats, including Bedford and Hasting and Rye.
 In the end Bedford did indeed go to the Labour Party, but the Home Secretary Amber Rudd held on in Hastings, though with her 4,796 majority dwindling to just 346.

SCOTLAND:

Well, well, well! Where does one start when it comes to the shock in Scotland?
I could see the SNP losing a number of MP’s alright, all going to Labour, but I didn’t expect the Nationalists to lose as many seats as they did.
If someone had told me on Wednesday that 12 of them would go to the Conservatives, AND it was these new MP’s that kept Theresa May as Prime Minister, I would have self-certified that person as insane, there and then.
The SNP has implemented swinging austerity measures at local level, in councils they have control of in Scotland.
This led to a lot of anger among constituents, who felt they were fooled by the strong anti austerity message Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond espoused during the 2015 General Election.
There was also the 38% of Scottish voters who had voted to leave the European Union, many of these seem to have ‘held their noses’ and voted for the Conservatives, as their dislike of the Brussels based bureaucracy trumped their feelings for the party of Thatcher and Tebbit.
I thought David Dimbleby made a rather prescient point on the BBC when interviewing Mhairi Black, upon her retaining her seat in Renfrewshire South, he pointedly remarked about how she had been kept out of the limelight by her party, and had not featured at all in their public media campaign.
I personally think this was a very big mistake, and cost the SNP seats, as they really should have let Mhairi loose, due to how popular she had become, due to her excellent radical speeches in The House of Commons etc.
My gut feeling is that it could have stemmed the flow of SNP voters to Scottish Labour.
But they have certainly reaped what they have sown.
And the leader of the Scottish Conservatives is now the bright new shiny thing in the party (What was that Boris?) after she masterminded the remarkable success up north.
It is very interesting to read that Ruth Davidson shunned orders from London to carry on the “Strong and Stable” mantra, and instead campaigned on the issue of Scotland’s status in the U.K.
What the SNP do now, will be closely watched by political analysts and anoraks across the water for sure.

WALES:

The much derided opinion polls actually called the result in Wales, with polls predicting a 16% lead for Labour, the party ended up winning by a 15.1% margin on the night.
They will be happy at having taking the scalp of three Tory seats, and fighting off an intense Tory battle in Chester City.
Plaid Cymru will be delighted to have snatched the Caerdigan seat off the Liberal Democrats, who now have no Welsh MP’s.

We’ve moved on from the salad and the dressing and arrived at the meat of the sandwich;

ENGLAND.

The analysts were adamant that Labour was set to be massacred all the way from Langeleefod to Porthcurno, with MP’s falling like lambs to the slaughter.
But the rationale for this bamboozled me.
You see one minute they were proclaiming astonishment that Brexit had not featured in anyway in the election, with hardly anyone on the doorsteps speaking about it to canvassers of the various parties, and the next they were saying Labour would lose a load of seats in the north of England solely due to Brexit.
That didn’t make sense to me I can tell you!

From the day the snap election was called, I was firm in my conviction that Theresa’ Mary’s majority on June 9^th, would not be anywhere near as big as people had been predicting.
Given the clear, concise message Jeremy Corbyn was relaying with a cool calm demeanor on television and radio, and the fact tens of thousands more people than in 2015, would now be pounding the pavements for Labour, it had to have a positive effect on its eventual support level I thought.
And so I was to be proven right - albeit aided and abetted by a large dollop of Tory media meltdowns, and the backlash over the Dementia Tax proposal.
A brilliant headline in the Guardian put it oh so succinctly “Jeremy Corbyn inspired the young, Theresa May terrified the old”.

And indeed one of the big stories of this election, was indeed the under 30’s turning out in droves to cast their votes.
Usually the turnout among the Under 30’s stands at around 50%, in this election it was just under 69%.
Given the startling drop out rates from college, due to students simply being unable to afford to pay the high levels of fees charged, is it any wonder, so many turned out to back a party that had promised to abolish them, and make going to college free for all?

The Liberal Democrats banked their house on the Brexit issue, but it backfired rather badly on them.
The simple fact is that, while opinion polls now show a majority of the people are AGAINST Brexit, many resigned themselves to their fate a long time ago, and were thus attracted to Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘soft Brexit’ narrative, especially his promise to keep the U.K. inside the Single Market.
Obviously those of us here in The Republic are keeping our fingers crossed that the U.K. will decide after all to remain inside the Customs Union and The Single Market, as a consequence of the election result.

So Queen May’s carriage overturned, and some of her Yeomen are now content to attack her from all corners.
Given the narrative for calling the snap election in the first place, and her numerous exhortations to those within her party, prior to it being called, it is no wonder the knives are being firmly clasped behind peoples backs at the moment.
I can only imagine the bitter recriminations those who lost their seats, and others who saw unassailable majorities drastically reduced, and now sitting in red alert territory, must be feeling right now.
Many a husband/Wife of an ex, or skin of their teeth re-elected Tory MP have likely heard the roar of “DON’T MENTION THAT WOMEN’S NAME IN THIS HOUSE!” more than once by now.
How long she will hang on is anybody’s guess, but with today's Survation poll now showing Labour 5 points AHEAD of The Conservatives, her use by date has shortened dramatically.  If after three months, there is no improvement in the polls, I suspect either a full on heave against Theresa May, or the Maidstone MP being forced to name the date ala Enda Kenny, with Government ministers publicly stating, they don’t want to cause any serious upheavals during sensitive negotiations on Brexit with Europe.
However if the polls start to show a Labour lead of 12% or more, The Prime Minister will be walking down that plank faster than a North Korean test rocket is fired.

What the DUP will seek, and what it will eventually get, in return for supporting a Conservative Queens Speech is anyone’s guess at this time.
Given that the D.U.P. have been loudly proclaiming that it is essential that the U.K. stays within the Common Market, will they make it a red line, take it or leave it issue in the talks with the Tories?
Given the uproar and division a U-turn on the pledge to leave the single market would cause within her own party, would Theresa May decide she would prefer to face yet another General Election, rather than do a deal with the D.U.P.; that included a number of policy changes that would churn the stomach of even the most right wing  MP’s on the backbenches?
The Prime Minister could soon find herself wrapped far more around Ruth Davidson’s finger than she expected.
Trident’s replacement to be speeded up, and extra monies bankrolled for the project perhaps??

And last but not least I wish to finish my musings on the issue of Jeremy Corbyn.
The abuse he received in the British Press was stomach wrenchingly awful.
If a similar level of lies and smears had been propagated against Enda Kenny by our own newspapers, even Joe Higgins and Gerry Adams would be exclaiming “Ah here now lads, that’s a bit much”.
During the election campaign under a Facebook post someone had written detailing yet another disgusting falsehood being labelled by a newspaper, and how angry it made them, I commented that the worse thing of all in this regard were the Blairite MP’s actively spinning, and briefing against their party leader.
The highlight for me on election night was (Boris Johnson racing past the media in a frantic bewildered state a close second, mind) was seeing Margaret Beckett get her tongue rightly tied, when Jonathan Dimbleby asked her to elaborate on previous comments she had made about Jeremy Corbyn, and if she felt the same way no?
As I remarked in a Facebook post "Can someone please get Margaret Beckett some Gaviscon?"

If one pores through the election results, there are a number of Labour seats there were won, without doubt, due to an increased number of younger voters coming out to vote.  A most startling example, would be Newcastle Under Lyme, where Paul Farrelly held onto his seat by just 30 votes.
Also it could not have gone unnoticed by Blairite MP’s in many constituencies, the big increase in people out door knocking, and conversing with people on town squares on their behalf, which was due to Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, and the message he has been spreading.
Knowing that having Jeremy at the helm will likely mean more activists joining the local Constituency branch, and thus strengthening their chances of keeping their seat next time round, considerably lessens the chances of another heave against the Labour leader in my view.
I would also say the Survation Poll showing Labour now on a very high 45% in the polls, and Jeremy Corbyn now viewed as the most popular leader in the country, will keep mouths shut for longer.
the only blood letting in The Labour Party will be from Blairite MP’s biting their lips ever tighter.

LIST BELOW IS ONE I PUT TOGETHER OF MARGINAL SEATS COMING INTO THIS ELECTION, AND THE DIRECTION THEY WENT. (Again apologies for it not transferring properly from M.S. word to my blog)

CONSTITUENCY               2015 MAJ                         2015          2017                              2017 MAJ

1.       ABERCONWY                   4,999                   CON         N/C                                635

2.       ALYN & DEESIDE             3,500                  LAB        N/C                                   5,235

3.       ARFON                              4,600                   PC          N/C                                    92         
                            

4.       BARROW & FURNESS     795                      LAB        N/C                                    209       

5.       BEDFORD                          800                      CON      LAB GAIN                         789
             

6.       BIRMIN EDGBASTON     2,700                   LAB        N/C                                   6,917

7.       BIRMIN NORTHFIELD     2,500                   LAB        N/C                                   4,667

8.       BISHOP AUCKLAND        3,600                   LAB        N/C                                    502
             

9.       BLACKPOOL NORTH       3,350                   CON      N/C                                    2,023

10.   BLACKPOOL SOUTH        2,400                   LAB        N/C                                    2,523   
             

11.   BOLTON NORTH EAST    4,400                   LAB        N/C                                    3,397
             

12.   BOLTON WEST                801                      CON      N/C                                    936

13.   BRIDGEND                        1,900                   LAB        N/C                                    4,700

14.   BRIGHTON KEMPTOWN              710        CON      LAB GAIN                         9.886

15.   BRIGHT PAVILLION         2,500                   GRE       N/C                                    14,689
             

16.   BRISTOL EAST                  3,980                   LAB        N/C                                    13.394

17.   BRISTOL N/W                  4,900                   CON      LAB GAIN                         4,761

18.   BROXTOWE                      4,300                   CON      N/C                                    863

19.   BURY NORTH                   378                      CON      LAB GAIN                         4,375
             

20.   BURY SOUTH                   4,922                   LAB        N/C                                    5,965

21.   CALDER VALLEY               4,427                   CON      LAB GAIN                         609

22.   CANNOCK CHASE            4,923                   CON      N/C                                    8,391

23.   CARDIFF NORTH             2.137                   CON      LAB GAIN                         4,147

24.   CARLISLE                           2,744                   CON      N/C                                   2,599   

25.   CAMARTHEN EAST         1,205                   PC          N/C                                   3,908                  

26.   CHESTER CITY                  93                        LAB        N/C                                   9,196                  

27.   CLWYD SOUTH                2,402                   LAB        N/C                                    4,356

28.   COPELAND                       2564                    LAB        CON GAIN                        1,695

29.   CORBY                               2412                    CON      N/C                                    2.690

30.   COVENTRY N/W              4,509                   LAB        N/C                                    8,580

31.   COVENTRY SOUTH          3,143                   LAB        N/C                                   7,947   

32.   CREWE                              3,620                   CON      LAB GAIN                         48

33.   CROYDEN CENTRAL        165                      CON      LAB GAIN                         5,652   

34.   DARLINGTON                  3140                    LAB        N/C                                    3,280

35.   DELYN                               2,930                   LAB        N/C                                    4,240

36.   DERBY NORTH                 41                        CON      LAB GAIN                         2,015                 

37.   DEWSBURY                      1451                    LAB        N/C                                   3,400   

38.   DUDLEY NORTH                            4,181    LAB        N/C                                    22

39.   DUDLEY SOUTH               3,820                   CON      N/C                                    7,822

40.   EALING CENTRAL            274                      LAB        N/C                                    13,807

41.   ELTHAM                            2,693                   LAB        N/C                                    25,128

42.   ENFIELD NORTH              1,086                   LAB        N/C                                   10,247

43.   ENFIELD SOUTHGATE     4,753                   CON      LAB GAIN                         4,355                 

44.   EREWASH                         3,584                   CON      N/C                                   4,345   

45.   GEDLING                           2986                    LAB        N/C                                    4,694   

46.   GOWER                             27                        CON      LAB GAIN                         3,269   

47.   GREAT GRIMSBY             4,540                   LAB        N/C                                    2,565

48.   HALESOWEN                    3.082                   CON      N/C                                   5,232                                

49.   HALIFAX                            482                      LAB        N/C                                   5,376   

50.   HAMPSTEAD                    1,138                   LAB        N/C                                   15.560                              

51.   HARROW EAST                4,777                   CON      N/C                                   1,757                  

52.   HARROW WEST              2,205                   LAB        N/C                                   13.314 

53.   HASTINGS                         4,796                  CON      N/C                                   346       

54.   HENDON                          3,724                   CON      N/C                                   1.072   

55.   HIGH PEAK                       4,894                   CON      LAB GAIN                         2,322                 

56.   HOVE                                 1.236                   LAB        N/C                                   18,757 

57.   HYNDBURN                      4,400                   LAB        N/C                                   5,815   

58.   ILLFORD NORTH              589                      LAB        N/C                                   9,639   

59.   IPSWICH                           3,643                   CON      LAB GAIN                         831                     

60.   KEIGHLEY                          3,073                   CON      LAB GAIN                         249                     

61.   LANCASTER & FWOOD  1.256                   LAB        N/C                                   6,661                  

62.   LEEDS NORTH WEST      4.958                   LAB        N/C                                   4,224

63.   LINCOLN                           1.433                   CON      LAB GAIN                         1,618                 

64.   MIDDLESBROUGH S       2,268                   LAB        N/C                                   2,268   

65.   MORECAMBE                  4,590                   CON      N/C                                   1,399   

66.   MORELY & OUTWOOD  442                      CON      N/C                                   2,104                  

67.   NEWCASTLE UND L         659                      LAB        N/C                                   30         

68.   NEWPORT WEST             3,540                   LAB        N/C                                   20,958 

69.   NEWPORT EAST              4,705                  LAB        N/C                                   8,003   

70.   NORTH EAST DERBY       1,883                   LAB        CON GAIN                        2,861                                

71.   N WARWICKSHIRE          2,973                   CON      N/C                                   2.973   

72.   NORTHAMPTON N         3,245                   CON      N/C                                    807                                    

73.   NORTHAMPTON S          3,793                   CON      N/C                                    1,159

74.   NORWICH N                     4,463                   CON      N/C                                    507

75.   NUNEATON                     4,882                   CON      N/C                                    4,739

76.   PETERBOROUGH             1,925                   CON      LAB GAIN                         607       

77.   PLYMOUTH MOOR V     1,026                   CON      N/C                                    5.019

78.   PLYMOUTH S&D             523                      CON      LAB GAIN                         6,002                 

79.   PEMBROKESHIRE            4,969                   CON      N/C                                    314

80.   PUDSEY                             4,501                   CON      N/C                                    331

81.   SCUNTHORPE                  3,134                   LAB        N/C                                    3,431
                            

82.   SHERWOOD                     4,647                   CON      N/C                                    5,158                  

83.   SOUTHAMPTON IT         2,316                   CON      N/C                                    30

84.   SOUTHPORT                    3,862                   CON      N/C                                    2,914                  

85.   STEVENAGE                     4,995                   CON      N/C                                    3,384                  

86.   STOKE NORTH                 4,736                   LAB        N/C                                    2,359

87.   STROUD                            4,866                   CON      LAB GAIN                         687                     

88.   TELFORD                           730                      CON      N/C                                    720
                            

89.   THURROCK                       536                      CON      N/C                                    354                     

90.   TOOTING                          2,842                   LAB        N/C                                   15,548 

91.   VALE OF CLYWD              237                      CON      LAB GAIN                         2,379
                            

92.   WAKEFIELD                      2,613                   LAB        N/C                                    2,176                  

93.   WALLSALL N                    1,937                   LAB        CON GAIN                        2,601
                            

94.   WARRINGTON S              2,750                   CON      LAB GAIN                         2,549                  

95.   WAVENEY                        2,408                   CON      N/C                                    9,215                  

96.   WEAVER VALE                 806                      CON      LAB GAIN                         3,928                  

97.   WESTMINSTER N            1,977                   LAB        N/C                                    11,512

98.   WIRRAL SOUTH               4,599                   LAB        N/C                                    8,323

99.   WIRRAL WEST                 51                        LAB        N/C                                    5,365   

100.                       WOLVERHAMP S.W.801              LAB        N/C                                    2,185

101.                       WORKINGTON                4,686    LAB        N/C                                    3,925   

102.                       WREXHAM                       1,831    LAB        N/C                                    1,832   

YNS MÓN                         3,478    LAB        N/C                                    5,259