Dundalk mural of St Oliver Plunkett became subject of far-right misinformation
The Argus
A new mural of St Oliver Plunkett which is being painted by a Spanish artist as part of Dundalk's EPSO festival became the centre of misinformation being spread by far right anti-immigration campaigners over the weekend.
As images of the partly completed mural entitled Letters of Light by Catalonian artist Slim Safont emerged online, anti-immigration accounts began sharing posts claiming that it wasn't St Oliver but a portrait of a Muslim, the Prophet Muhammad or even more outlandishly, Mohammed Morei, the 18-year-old convicted of murdering a Japanese worker in Dundalk in 2018.
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The Irish Sun
3 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
‘I got caught', cry tourists as new ‘they take your money' Spain scam sweeps busy town amid warning for Irish holidayers
IRISH holidaymakers travelling to Spain this summer have been warmed to be wary of a scam targeting tourists on the beachfront. Some tourists have already admitted they "got caught" by the bogus scheme. 2 A warning has been issued to Irish holidaymakers in Spain as a new 'scam' sweeps the popular resort town Credit: Getty Frank, known as Frank the Stag Man, has been living in Benidorm and hosting lively events for tourists for over a decade. He took to Frank has captured a number of people on the beachfront in Benidorm holding clipboards and approaching tourists following an invitation to fill out a "petition." Holidaymakers are asked to sign a petition and are pushed into making a donation. Read more in Travel Frank said: "As you've seen there, this is one of the His partner interjected, saying: "They'll say it's for the blind or the disabled and that they are petitioning to get something sorted here in Spain. "It's full of a load of rubbish and illegal to do this here in Spain." Frank added: "They're illegal, scamming, and they will take your money. Some people even get their wallets out and give them a few quid." MOST READ ON THE IRISH SUN Horror moment dirty water pipe EXPLODES near tourists' balconies on Costa Del Sol But multiple people visiting the beautiful spot have been caught out by the fraudsters. Taking to the comments section, one TikTok user said: "My husband fell for this in Old Town. "A guy claiming he was deaf, my husband being deaf, we didn't realise the scam till after." Someone else added: "I got caught in Old Town, he wanted €10 from me, when I said no he was so rude until my husband showed up." A third recalled: "I had this scam done to me and my partner luckily we had no cash on us." A fourth wrote: "I had the same guy do it at Placa del Castell last Wednesday. Told him no three times for him to go away. "Felt bad for the ones who stop and listen to him that don't know any better." ANOTHER 'BIG PROBLEM' Frank has also shared a separate video last week highlighting another "big problem" with holidaymakers having their phone stolen while visiting the Spanish spot. He said: "Generally, what happens is, someone comes up to you and they'll say to you, 'Oh, I'm with some friends, and I'm lost, and I don't know where I'm going. Can you do a Google Map search for me?' "What you do, because you're a nice person, is you whip your phone out, you get your Google Maps up, and as soon as you get your Google Maps up, they grab the phone and run off with it." Benidorm was the most searched destination from Ireland on Google last year, according to The Travel Expert. And Spain is the favourite holiday sport for Irish holidaymakers with around 2.5 million people heading there each year. 2 Benidorm was the most searched destination from Ireland on Google last year Credit: Getty Images - Getty
The Journal
6 hours ago
- The Journal
US anti-deportation protests continue and spread beyond 'test case' Los Angeles
PROTESTS AGAINST AGGRESSIVE immigration raids have continued in the United States after President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of National Guard troops and US marines in Los Angeles this week, against the wishes of the state's Democratic governor. More than 1,000 people massed yesterday in America's second-biggest city for a sixth day of demostrations, as peaceful protesters marched through the streets. A second night of curfew was in place as city leaders try to get a handle on the after-dark vandalism and looting that scarred a few city blocks in the city. 'I would say for the most part everything is hunky dory right here at Ground Zero,' protester Lynn Sturgis, 66, a retired school teacher, told the AFP news agency. 'Our city is not at all on fire, it's not burning down, as our terrible leader is trying to tell you.' The mostly peaceful protests are the result of a sudden escalation by the Trump administration to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants. Police kettle protesters under arrest on in LA Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Pockets of violence have included the burning of self-driving taxis and the hurling of stones at police. Arrests by masked and armed men, who have refused to identify themselves during raids, continued yesterday. A pastor in the LA suburb of Downey said five armed men driving out-of-state cars grabbed a Spanish-speaking man in the church's carpark. When she challenged the men and asked for their badge numbers and names, they refused. 'They did point their rifle at me and said, 'You need to get back,'' Lopez told broadcaster KTLA. 'The first, perhaps, of many' Police and National Guard members have fired rubber bullets at protesters, and reporters , while Los Angeles residents have been demanding the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) to get out of the city. The deployment of US military personnel on the streets of a major American city has been met with shock and concern by many. This week, Mayor Karen Bass said LA residents are living in fear and that the city had become the site of an 'experiment' conducted by the Trump administration. 'Our city is actually a test case for what happens when the federal government moves in and takes the authority away from the state or away from local government,' she said on Tuesday. LA police officers on Wednesday Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo 'By having the military, it de-escalates,' Trump said about the decision to send 700 marines to LA. Advertisement 'They're stopping an invasion,' he told graduates in an address at West Point military academy. 'This is the first, perhaps, of many,' Trump said yesterday of the National Guard and Marine deployments. 'Democracy is under assault' Trump won the election last year partly on promises to combat what he claims is an 'invasion' by undocumented migrants. 'We're going to have a safe country,' he told reporters on his way into a performance of 'Les Miserables' in Washington. 'We're not going to have what would have happened in Los Angeles. Remember, if I wasn't there… Los Angeles would have been burning to the ground.' Around 1,000 of the 4,700 troops Trump deployed are actively guarding facilities and working alongside ICE agents, said Scott Sherman, Deputy Commanding General Army North, who is leading operations. The Pentagon has said the deployment will last for 60 days and cost taxpayers $134 million. Governor Newsom, a Democrat widely viewed as eying a 2028 presidential run, has charged that Trump is seeking to escalate the confrontation for political gain. He warned on Tuesday that the unprecedented militarization would creep beyond his state's borders, claiming 'democracy is under assault right before our eyes.' Los Angeles Metro police ride on a vehicle during a protest on Wednesday Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Lawyers for California are expected in court today to seek an order blocking troops from accompanying immigration officers as they arrest migrants. Trump administration lawyers called the application a 'crass political stunt.' Not just LA Despite Trump's threats to deploy the National Guard to other Democratic-run states, protesters appear to be undeterred. In Spokane, Washington, a night curfew was declared after police arrested more than 30 protesters and fired pepper balls to disperse crowds, police chief Kevin Hall told a news conference. Demonstrations were reported in St Louis, Raleigh, Manhattan, Indianapolis and Denver. In San Antonio, hundreds marched and chanted near city hall, reports said, where Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has deployed the state's National Guard. A nationwide 'No Kings' movement is expected on Saturday, when Trump will attend a highly unusual military parade in the US capital. The parade, featuring warplanes and tanks, has been organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the US Army but also happens to be the day of Trump's 79th birthday. With reporting from AFP Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Irish Daily Mirror
7 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Jay Slater investigator shares new information on death of missing teen
A former detective has shed new light on the disappearance of Jay Slater, revealing information and recordings of conversations with family, friends and key witnesses in the case. The 19 year old, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was holidaying on the Spanish island of Tenerife and had been to the NRG music festival with friends at the Papagayo nightclub in the resort of Playa de las Americas on June 16 last year. Jay is believed to have gone to the Airbnb apartment in the early hours of the next day, then subsequently vanished and was reported missing on June 18. His body was found in a steep and inaccessible area by a mountain rescue team from the Spanish Civil Guard near the village of Masca on July 15. Now Mark Williams-Thomas has given his findings on the case. Follow the latest updates on the Jay Slater findings here: Ayub Qassim says that he took Jay Slater back to the Airbnb and claims that the teen was under the influence of drugs. At one point Jay is alleged to have got out of the car to urinate and then wouldn't get back inside. And Mr Qassim told Mark Williams-Thomas, that he phoned a mutual friend Brandon. He said how through a phone call Brandon tried to reason with Jay and then Mr Qassim claims he told the mutual pal: 'Look Brandon one of your mates yesterday walked away because he is f***ed off with the ket and he went missing." Mr Williams-Thomas explained: "When Qassim said ket he is referring to ketamine and my information is that this drug was readily available and Jay had definitely been using it. "I had further information about the supply of ketamine into the country. In the UK ketamine is a class b drug, carrying a maximum of five years for possession and 14 years for supply." He also gave a break down of prices saying that a gram of ketamine costs around 50 euros. Lucy Law told how Jay Slater had said he was "going on a mission" the night before his disappearance and then sent a photo carrying knives to a friend the following day. "On the night before, when i was still awake, before we went home, he messaged me saying 'I'm going on a mission', then I've gone home, tried to find him…," she told Mark Williams-Thomas. 'Woke up to the call from Brandon in the morning 'oh my God he's in the mountains, trying to walk…. He's said 'can't go back there, can't go back there' (referring to the Airbnb rental where he had stayed)." Lucy then spoke to Jay and told him: "Go back to where you came from, do you know anything about where you are?" She then talked to Josh, who was a friend of Jay and staying in Tenerife, who had received the photo of the teenager carrying the knives. Lucy said that Jay had met Josh on the plane to the holiday island. "He sent the video to Josh," said Lucy, of the footage showing Jay with the knives. "Took the kitchen knives from the Airbnb and put them down his pants, lifted his top up and shown it to him 'Just in case anything kicks off'. I'm like…" She added: "It could have just been a coincidence but with him also saying about going on a mission..." Ayub Qassim said that he 'never saw' Jay Slater with a Rolex watch but added it was 'mad' that many were stolen on the nightclub strip where the teenager had gone out. He told Mark Williams-Thomas: 'I never saw him with a watch, I never saw him nick a watch. I was on my way home and thinking 'who's buying a watch … 6.30am. It's mad that Veronica's strip (Playa de las Americas) around nine watches going missing.' Mr Williams-Thomas added: 'What's interesting is that just two months earlier a burglary took place at the coffee shop that Qassim worked at the Potter Payper Cafe, the shop was ransacked and some of Potter's music awards stolen along with a Rolex watch. "The burglary was filmed and released online, leading to speculation that the stolen watch in the video was the same watch that Jay had referred to taken from someone in his Snapchat video. "While we have been unable to confirm if this is connected in anyway, it does seem very unlikely as the burglars had already returned to the UK and filmed themselves smashing Potter's awards on the ground in London in view of the London Eye." Potter Payper is a rapper and songwriter from London. Jay Slater admitted stealing a £12,000 Rolex and was pictured with knives before he was found dead in a remote national park in Tenerife last June, an inquest heard last month. The 19-year-old suffered catastrophic injuries consistent with a steep fall in a rocky area, with his remains finally found a month after search and rescue teams scoured an area near the quiet Spanish village of Masca. The teenager had vanished after attending the NRG music festival on the Spanish island with pals. An inquest into his death on Wednesday heard claims that Jay stolen a Rolex worth an estimated £12,000 before he went missing. Between 5:03am and 5:52am on the morning Jay vanished, a message was sent from his phone saying: "Just took a £12k Rolly off some **** off to get 10 quid for it now." The inquest heard Jay sent a message to witness Josh Forshaw where he said: "Ended up getting thrown out with two Mali kids, just took an AP [expensive watch strap] off somebody and was on the way to sell it." Lucy Law is understood to have posted an appeal for help on a Tenerife Facebook page after losing contact with Jay Slater. She tried to find out the location of the Airbnb rental from the backdrop of an image she had received from Jay before his phone had died. Lucy was given a lift to the spot by a woman who responded to the appeal. Lucy told Mark Williams-Thomas how she spoke to a woman who asked about a bus that would go to the south of Tenerife. She said: "I spoke to a woman who lived next door, bearing in mind her brother owns the Airbnb, she said to me 'I saw him at the bus stop, he said he was getting the bus', but never said she had seen him walk up the hill, she didn't say that.' Lucy said how the woman emphasised how he walked in marching fashion and quickly. She added: 'I just think that's all weird, he has left in a hurry with two knives down his pants and he's been fine?" Jay Slater was found dead in the Juan Lopez ravine on July 15, more than a month after he was reported missing in mid-June, near the remote village of Masca in Tenerife. He had stayed the night there at an Airbnb with two men after attending the NRG music festival in Playa de las Americas, and opted to start walking back to his accommodation on the opposite side of the island after missing a bus. His body was found in a steep and inaccessible area by a mountain rescue team from the Spanish Civil Guard. An inquest was told that traces of drugs, including cocaine, ketamine and ecstasy, were found in Mr Slater's body and pathologists concluded his death from head injuries was consistent with a fall. Brandon Hodgson was partying with Jay Slater on the night before he disappeared and the friend has revealed the final conversation between the pair the following morning. The two were messaging and talking on Snapchat video from the Airbnb rental in Masca on the morning that Jay disappeared. And then Brandon told Mark Williams-Thomas how he called Jay when he had decided to walk. "He said, 'I've started walking', he was laughing at first, then he sent me his location," said Brandon. "On the phone he said to me 'I've been walking for half an hour', I told him to go back and he said, 'I've already been walking for half an hour, I'm not going back, I don't want to go back, I just want to go home." Mark Williams-Thomas said he went to check for CCTV from inside the Papagayo nightclub in the resort of Playa de las Americas and he was surprised by the smell of drugs on the strip. He revealed that he was told to come back later and then also enquired at another club opposite which didn't have CCTV. "I went to a club just across the road which is a club that we know Jay went to, and we know Jay was with the two black men, interestingly enough no CCTV inside, you have to question why," he said. "Less than 30 seconds after getting out of the vehicle I was approached by a number of men offering me drugs, offering me cannabis, cocaine straight away, actually it is rife along the street. I've never walked down a street where you can smell cannabis to the degree it is here, so prevalent, and there are police driving around, no one cares, no one cares at all." Mark Williams-Thomas tried to get to the bottom of a photo that Jay Slater had sent to a friend on Snapchat where he had two knives at the Airbnb and said "I've got these for my protection". But asked about the photo Ayub Qassim said that he know nothing about it. 'I was asleep upstairs this is the first I've heard of knives,' he said. "I let him come to my house.' Revealing his conversation with Jay on the morning he left, Mr Qassim said: "He (Jay) said to me pal I'm off, this woman told me I can get a bus every 10 minutes, I told him that he's mad, there's no bus that's coming here every 10 minutes, chill out for a bit and I'll drop you off later on. "He said: 'No, no I've got to go to Los Cristianos, I need to scram, I need to chip out'. There's nothing more that I could do. I saw him walk off maybe down the steps. I maybe shut the door and said if you need me..." Ayub Qassim, who rented out the Airbnb in Masca where Jay stayed after the festival, told Mark Williams-Thomas how he became "public enemy number one". Speaking to the former detective he first of said he was in contact with friends and family of Jay. "Lucy (Law) has my Snapchat, so has Brad (Hargreaves) we have each other on social media. I can chat to the mum, I don't need any of this. I've got journalists turning up at my house," he said. "I genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, let a guy come to my house, because he said to me 'mate they've all left' and chatting to them, they said he wanted to carry on partying. "I'm black, it's an unfortunate situation. I'm being nice in letting someone stay at mine and now I'm public enemy number one." Jay Slater's friend Lucy Law told how she went looking for the hotel in the north of Tenerife after receiving the call from him to say he was in trouble. Williams-Thomas asked her: "How did you know to go to that location?" And she replied: "Because he uploaded a video on his Snapchat story, there was a cigarette a white car (...) I had no idea where this house was, we were driving around looking for clues. I was doing this before the police, why was it not the police? I don't understand." In a telephone conversation with Mark WIlliams-Thomas during the early stages of Jay's disappearance, Jay's friend Lucy Law claimed police did not take her reports of his disappearance seriously. She told him: "Police kept ending the phone on me, they weren't taking me seriously. I ran down to a taxi rank and went to the nearest police station. "I went in and they gave me this piece of paper that said 'go on this website' but I can't remember what else was on there." Jay Slater's friend Lucy Law told Williams-Thomas that she did not know who were the two men who the teen had gone off with after leaving the nightclub. He had been to the NRG music festival with friends at the Papagayo nightclub in the resort of Playa de las Americas on June 16 last year and then strangely headed to the north of the island with a couple of men. But Lucy said she didn't have know who they were when asked by the former detective. 'I have no idea,' she said. "I dont know who they are! How would I know who they are?" Williams-Thomas persisted: "But you dont just pass people in a coffee shop and spend two nights with them and then Jay gets in a car with them. Why were they staying so far away?" But she said; "I dont know I had never met these people in my life." The former detective told the podcast how he immediately became concerned about a drug culture on the party strip where Jay Slater had gone out before he went missing. He goes through his investigation into the case from the start during the podcast where he said: "In the short space of time that I had been in Tenerife, I was not only aware that Jay and his friends had been taking drugs but also of a sinister drug underworld." And then speaking to reporters early on Williams-Thomas said: "here is certainly an aspect that concerns me with regards to drugs which is certainly a fraternity which exists here and in the last 24-48 hours there is certainly information which gives rise to concern around the drug aspect of it. "Young people here, you only need to go down the strip and in a matter of 30 seconds of not being in a car you will be offered every single drug you want." Jay Slater's friend Lucy spoke to Mark Williams-Thomas about what she did after the teen vanished with the pair on holiday in Tenerife. Lucy Law told how she went to the police but claims they didn't take her "seriously". She said: "Police kept ending the phone on, me, they weren't taking me seriously. I ran down to taxi rank and went to nearest police station. I went in and they gave me this piece of paper that said 'go on this website' but I can't remember what else was on there." Mark Williams-Thomas has given fresh information on the Jay Slater investigation in a new podcast. He covers key witness Ayub Qassim giving a first hand account of Jay's disappearance, talks about the drug culture in the resort where the teenager was staying and reveals what was in first police report about Jay when he went missing.
