Sarah Carey: With Mairead McGuinness out of the race, getting a credible president has just become a lot harder
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RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
Last surviving WWII Victoria Cross recipient dies aged 105
Britain's last surviving World War II Victoria Cross (VC) recipient has died aged 105. Flight Lieutenant John Cruickshank, from Aberdeen in Scotland, received the VC for bravery during an attack on a German submarine that left him seriously injured. A total of 181 people received Britain's highest military decoration for their actions during the war. The RAF captain's family told the BBC he died last week and that a funeral would be held in private, it said. Mr Cruickshank was the captain of a Catalina flying boat with the 210 Squadron, flying submarine-hunting missions from RAF Sullom Voe in the Shetland Islands, Scotland. On 17 July 1944, aged 24, he was sent on a patrol to protect the British Home Fleet as it returned from an attack on the German battleship Tirpitz. A U-boat was spotted on the surface near Norway and the aircraft he was captaining and piloting launched an offensive. The first bombs failed to release but Mr Cruickshank turned the plane to face enemy fire and attack again. He dropped depth charges during the second attempt, sinking the U-boat. He sustained 72 injuries, including two to his lungs and 10 to his lower limbs, during the assault. The navigator was killed, three other crew members were severely injured and the badly damaged aircraft was filled with fumes from exploding shells. Mr Cruickshank subsequently left the cockpit but refused painkillers and continued to advise his second pilot who had taken control. The surviving crew members spent five-and-a-half hours flying back to Sullom Voe. Despite losing consciousness multiple times during their return, he assisted the second pilot with the landing which took an hour. In 2013, Mr Cruickshank said the mission was "normal", adding "we were trained to do the job and that was it". He said: "I wouldn't like to say I'm the only one that has an amazing story, there are plenty of other stories coming from that time. "It wasn't that wonderful in those days, I can tell you that. We could only think in those days there were better days to come."
Irish Independent
3 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Asking for a friend: I'm excited to be pregnant after a one-night stand but I'm afraid the dad won't want anything to do with us. Should I tell him?
Q: I got pregnant after a one-night stand, and I am conflicted about telling the dad. We aren't close, and only hooked up one time when we were out as we share some mutual friends and were at a party together. I wasn't planning on getting pregnant, but now that it's sunk in a little, I am excited. I've been single for a long time and was thinking of children at some point, but now that I'm in this situation, it is sooner and not exactly the circumstances I would like, but I can't help feeling excited. The father made it clear it was just a hook-up, and we haven't spoken since. I'm really torn between telling him or not, as he doesn't seem like the settling-down type or very family focused. I think I can do this on my own, but I am unsure whether to tell him at all as I don't want any fallout. I know lots of single parents so I know it's hard, but I think I feel OK and ready for it. Do you think he would want to know or cause any issues? I really feel he wouldn't want anything to do with us, and that would break my heart.
Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Irish Times
Delusions of Paradise: Escaping the Life of a Taliban Fighter by Maiwand Banayee - New insights on every page
Delusions of Paradise: Escaping the Life of a Taliban Fighter Author : Maiwand Banayee ISBN-13 : 978-1837731909 Publisher : Icon Books Guideline Price : £20 Born into poverty in Kabul , Maiwand Banayee has written a memoir of Taliban radicalisation and his subsequent escape to Europe (including time spent in direct provision in Ireland) that sheds light on the immensity of the chaos caused in his nation by western interference. As Banayee's father states, 'When elephants fight, frogs get trampled'. Banayee is brought up in a patriarchal Pashtun community where the pride of ancestors comes before all. His insights into the tribal divisions of 1980s and 1990s Afghanistan are enlightening, with neighbours from Hazara and Pashtun backgrounds sheltering each other even as their leaders call for mutual slaughter. After fleeing a war-torn Kabul, belonging comes in the form of Taliban teachers who insist that life is only an illusion, and fulfilment comes in the next world. Denied access to formal education as a refugee in Pakistan, Banayee must study at local madrasas that use textbooks originally developed by the University of Nebraska, initially intended to train Afghanis to resist the Soviets: 'Through this curriculum, children as young as four or five learnt jihad along with their alphabet: A is for Ahmad, J is for jihad, G is for gun [ ...] Instead of teaching us to live, they were teaching us to die.' Over the course of the memoir, the complex decisions that families must make in order to survive, and the dehumanising effects of warfare, are illuminated for the reader. Every page of this book offers new insights, while also feeling distressingly familiar to anyone following the genocide in Gaza. READ MORE While searching through Russian and Mujahideen shrapnel for metal to sell to Pakistani merchants, Banayee finds what looks like a toy, only for his friend to pull him away from the disguised bomb just in time: 'How could scientists in white coats, enlightened by science and reason, spend time inside a lab to invent a bomb that could deceive and kill a child? When did children become part of their war?' The answer that the book offers, convincingly, is that children are always a pawn of war, but that with empathy and support even the most radicalised can turn towards peace. But this can only happen if we can find the small shred of generosity it takes to offer that support.
