Using vacant property grants to renovate an old family house
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Irish Independent
17 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Stripe apologises after support team staff wrongly said it had LGBTQ+ ban in place for purchases
The firm established by Patrick and John Collison, which acts as a payment processor for millions of businesses in online transactions, had been facing criticism for not allowing its services to be used for purchases of adult content online. When some people called the company to complain, they were told by customer service operators that the ban actually extended to all LGBTQ+ content, including material that is legal and not adult in nature. The adult artist Dieselbrain reportedly called Stripe's customer service twice to complain. In a post on Bluesky the artist said on both occasions Stripe operators had said customers could not use its services to purchase LGBTQ+ content. Speaking to the website Aftermath, the artist said that after confirming Stripe could not be used to purchase such content, they then said 'something along the lines of this being Stripe's right to do so as a private business". "The information given by our support team was totally wrong," a Stripe spokesperson told the BBC. "Stripe has no prohibitions on the sale of LGBTQ+ content or goods. We're looking into this and making sure future inquiries are answered correctly." The journalist Mady Castigan had also shared an audio recording of a telephone conversation with an operator, who said Stripe had restricted LGBTQ+ content purchases 'three weeks ago'. Later, after stepping away to check, the operator returns to clarify that only 'abusive behaviour' is banned, 'but there is not, like, a specific target for the LGBT". The issue first became a focus of contention after Visa and Mastercard were pressurised by an Australian campaign group to stop online video game distributors selling certain pornographic games. The group claimed games were listed for sale online which included themes of "rape, incest and child sexual abuse". This led to the online game distributors Steam and removing games from their libraries, a move that was criticised by gamers. In the past, other payment processors have distanced themselves from distribution of adult content online. Five years ago Mastercard and Visa stopped use of their cards on the Pornhub site following reports, which the company denied, that the site was 'infested' with videos of child abuse.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Irish Times
Murder most vulgar: Frank McNally on an infamous case of the 1820s
That there is nothing new under the sun is well illustrated by an entry in the Faber Book of Diaries from 197 years ago this week, in which a Somerset clergyman laments the vulgarisation of public tastes by clickbait media, although not in those exact terms. 'Still the same dreadful weather,' Rev John Skinner begins his account of August 14th, 1828. Then his mood darkens further as he surveys a two-page newspaper spread on the notorious 'Red Barn Murder' of a year before. In an earlier entry, he had deplored the grisly tourist industry that had since arisen, whereby 'people of all kinds and classes flocked to the barn' in Suffolk where one Maria Marten had been killed and buried by her lover, William Corder. Now he was appalled by news that 10,000 people had turned up to watch 'when [that] detestable wretch was launched into eternity'. READ MORE In the short-term, the Suffolk murder scene attracted tourists 'from as far afield as Ireland' Rev Skinner was especially depressed to read of 'well-dressed and delicate females' jostling to be close to the gallows where the hangman had to supplement the basic procedure by himself hanging out of the condemned man 'for two minutes' to finish the job. But he was in no doubt about where the blame for such bad taste lay. Of the newspaper coverage, he summarised: 'There needs not any other proof of the deplorable state of depraved feelings in which this country has gradually arrived through the instruction of novelists and fatalists ...' In a famous essay of 1946, George Orwell mock-lamented the 'Decline of the English Murder'. He was satirising British tabloids, especially the now late and little lamented News of the World, for their sensationalist (and very popular) reporting. But he cut the irony so fine you could easily mistake the essay as nostalgia for a golden age of homicide, whose practitioners included Dr Crippen, Mrs Maybrick, and Jack the Ripper. By Orwell's calculation, England's 'Elizabethan period' of murder occurred 'between roughly 1850 and 1925'. Since then, he suggested, the crime had become too commonplace and banal to merit the dramatic journalism and fiction of old. Recalling the 'most talked of English murder of recent years', he wrote: 'It is difficult to believe that this case will be so long remembered as the old domestic poisoning dramas, product of a stable society where the all-prevailing hypocrisy did at least ensure that crimes as serious as murder should have strong emotions behind them.' Whatever about 1925 being the endpoint, the Red Barn Murder suggests Orwell should have predated the start of his golden age by a generation at least. Certainly, the crime had no lack of strong emotions. And its infamy inspired many ballads, books and stage adaptations, one as recently as the 1990s. On the gallows, prompted by the prison governor, the murderer did indeed confess In the short-term, the Suffolk murder scene attracted tourists 'from as far afield as Ireland'. But blame for the murder had a similarly reach, and for long afterwards. In a 1996 column for the Belfast Telegraph, for example, Sam McAughtry recalled the anti-Catholic propaganda of his 1930s childhood in Tiger's Bay, Belfast: 'The accusation that sticks in my mind from those far-off days was to the effect that the Micks were at the back of a famous case which was dramatised under the name of Maria Martin [sic] and the Red Barn Murder.' In fact there was no known Irish angle in the 1827 case, although it has similarities with the 1940 one involving Moll McCarthy, which was still haunting Tipperary as recently as last year. Marten was an attractive, unmarried young woman who had children by different local men, including Corder, a known corner boy. She hoped he would marry her and the pair had discussed elopement, which was assumed to have happened when they both disappeared. When he turned up again and could not produce her, however, worse was suspected. Then came the big breakthrough in the investigation, when Marten's stepmother had a supposed dream in which Corder confessed guilt, leading to a search of the barn where the couple often met. On the gallows, prompted by the prison governor, the murderer did indeed confess. But among the competing theories during his trial was that the stepmother had been having an affair with him too and the 'dream' was cover-up for her own involvement. In any case, as was the way then, the saga also spawned a lucrative trade in memorabilia. Pieces of the barn door were stolen as souvenirs. The hangman's rope was sold in sections for a guinea each. After the usual public dissection of the body, the skeleton was displayed for a time in a hospital, with a tasteful mechanism attached that caused one of the arms to move, drawing visitors attention to a collection box. There's an old saying in publishing that 'everyone has a book in them'. This was more than usually true of Corder, who had part of a book on him, at least. Earlier this year, British newspapers reported the find in a Bury St Edmonds museum of a 200-year-old account of the Red Barn trial, one of two volumes now known to be bound with the murderer's skin.
Agriland
3 days ago
- Agriland
FSAI goes to High Court to enforce closure order on food business
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) went to the High Court last month to enforce a closure order on a business after it continued to trade despite the order. The closure order was one of 10 closure orders and two prohibition orders issued in July. These orders, collectively referred to as enforcement orders, were issued for breaches of food safety legislation under to the FSAI Act, 1998 and the European Union (Official Controls in Relation to Food Legislation) Regulations, 2020. Closures orders can refer to the immediate closure of all or part of the food premises, or all or some of its activities, while prohibition orders are designed to prohibit the sale of a product, either temporarily or permanently. The enforcement orders were issued by environmental health officers in the Health Service Executive (HSE). Four closure orders were served under the FSAI Act, 1998 on: Lidl Sallynoggin Road, Glenageary, Co. Dublin (order lifted on August 1); Creed's Foodstore, Burncourt, Cahir, Co. Tipperary (order lifted on August 6); Brandon Hotel (closed areas include all kitchen areas, including dry goods store, wash up areas, staff canteen, restaurant and stills area), Prince's Street, Tralee, Co. Kerry (order lifted on July 25); Emerald Park (closed area includes the storage unit located to the rear of 'coffee dock' in Emerald Park), Kilbrew, Ashbourne, Co. Meath (order lifted on July 15). A further six closure orders were issued under the European Union (Official Controls in Relation to Food Legislation) Regulations, 2020 on: Londis Athboy (closed areas include the deli/food preparation area and ice cream service area), Connaught Street, Athboy, Co. Meath (order lifted on July 28); KRS Catering Stall (closed activity includes the service of all foods prepared off-site and transported to the venue; closure does not apply to the sale or service of beverages and foods prepared on-site), Powerstown Park Racecourse, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary (order lifted on July 17); Tim Nessa, 2A John's Street, Co. Limerick; Hidden Dojo Asian Street food, 47A Phibsborough Road, Phibsborough, Dublin 7; Wakami Sushi & Asian, 47A Phibsborough Road, Phibsborough, Dublin 7; Costa Coffee, 1 Dawson Street, Dublin 2 (order lifted on July 4). In relation to one of the businesses listed above, Tim Nessa, 2A John's Street, Limerick, the FSAI said: "The FSAI is aware that this food to trade despite the service by the HSE on July 8, 2025 of a closure order. "As a result, and in accordance with the applicable legislation, the FSAI applied to the High Court for various orders including that the continuance of the food business operator be prohibited and that the food business premises should immediately close until the food business is notified in writing that contraventions in the closure order have been remedied, or further order of the High Court," the authority added. The FSAI said the court granted an order to this effect on July 29, and that the parties concerned are at liberty to apply to the High Court in the meantime. The authority said that the food business concerned will be monitored to ensure it complies with the High Court's order, the HSE's closure order, and the relevant food legislation. Elsewhere, one prohibition order was served under the FSAI Act, 1998 on Ballymaguire Foods Unlimited Company, Rathmooney, Lusk, Co. Dublin for pre-packaged turkey and ham dinners. Finally, one prohibition order was served under the European Union (Official Controls in Relation to Food Legislation) Regulations, 2020 on Timothy Onwuegbusi, 2A John's Street, Limerick and Emeka Ikebudu, 2A John's Street, Limerick, for various products. Without referring to any particular business, the FSAI said that some of the reasons for enforcement orders in July include: rat droppings in a dishwasher room and food store; inadequate means to wash hands; owners and staff not wearing clean protective clothing; dead beetles observed in the bottom of a container of packaged food; various foods being kept at unsafe temperatures; rat droppings found in a storage unit; numerous rodent droppings on shelving; dead cockroaches in a main kitchen; and extensive food debris. Commenting on July's enforcement orders, FSAI chief executive Greg Dempsey said: "Recent foodborne incidents serve as a stark reminder of the need for food businesses to maintain the highest food safety standards. Consumers are entitled to expect that the food they purchase is safe, and food businesses have a clear legal and moral responsibility to ensure that it is. "The FSAI can provide support and advice to food businesses to help them meet their obligations. However, as demonstrated by the enforcement actions this month, where food businesses do not comply with their obligations, we will take action," Dempsey added.
