Latest news with #Heritage
Belfast Telegraph
3 hours ago
- General
- Belfast Telegraph
Cost of maintaining NI's historic buildings cited as main reason behind deterioration, research shows
Some 36% of listed buildings here are in a poor or very poor condition, while a third are lying vacant, according to a recent survey. Listed buildings are those deemed to be of special historical or architectural interest. Once a building is listed, it is offered a degree of legal protection. Any significant changes to such buildings can only happen with consent from the local council. There are around 9,000 listed buildings across Northern Ireland, with properties frequently being added to the list. A survey of listed building owners has recently been published by Stormont's Department for Communities, following research which revealed a significant decline in the condition of listed buildings over the last decade. More than four-fifths of respondents thought the listed building they owned or were responsible for was either very important or important in terms of the overall historic environment, the character of their local area, local history or heritage for future generations. The survey also explores the reasons behind this deterioration, with the most cited reasons relating to the costs involved in maintenance. Over three-quarters of respondents (77%) said the lack of government funding to meet higher maintenance costs was an issue, while 67% said that the cost of suitable skilled builders and appropriate materials was a factor. Around a fifth of respondents (19%) felt that the value of their building did not justify the cost of investing in it. Those surveyed gave various suggestions as to what would encourage them to carry out repairs, including grants for repairs and help with rates and VAT. Responding to the findings, Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said: 'For the first time, this research gives us a detailed picture of the views of listed buildings and scheduled monument owners on the benefits they see, the barriers they face, and the interventions they think we might make, to ensure that our privately owned heritage is as well maintained as it can be. 'Our buildings and monuments are a public good, they do more than provide benefits to individual owners. 'They help all our society by attracting jobs and tourism, reflecting civic pride, improving our wellbeing, reinforcing our identity and by being a key resource to learn about our long and unique history. 'As a society we owe our gratitude to those who look after these structures, and as a department we will use this research to refine and develop the practical support and help which we can provide to owners.' On the findings that more than a third of listed buildings here are in a poor or very poor condition, Mr Lyons said it 'paints a very worrying picture'. 'Heritage is a key driver of tourism to Northern Ireland and a source of civic pride and identity. Once lost, it and the potential that it holds are gone forever,' he added. 'I have asked my Department to consider this within the Heritage, Culture and Creativity Programme. 'The new programme will deliver policies for arts, museums, public libraries and the historic environment. 'These are due to go to public consultation this year and my hope is that the Historic Environment Policy will provide the step change that we need and help kickstart a proper appreciation of our built heritage — what we have and how it can be utilised creatively — for public benefit.'
Irish Times
a day ago
- Automotive
- Irish Times
Regal Rolls-Royces roll up to help preserve Ireland's Georgian legacy
A 1920s Rolls-Royce sweeps up a gravelled driveway, stopping all but noiselessly in front of the Palladian frontage of a beautiful house. It could be Bertie Wooster behind the wheel. It could be the Earl of Grantham. The towering radiator grille of a Rolls-Royce – inspired by nothing less than the Parthenon – and the Grecian-derived columns and pediment of Woodbrook House, in Co Wexford, share a common architectural ancestry. This is a meeting of more than glamorous looks, however. This is a coming together of like minds, as the Rolls-Royce 20-Ghost Club and the Irish Georgian Society mark 45 years of working together. The two societies are 'sympatico', and for more than four decades, the Irish Georgian Society has been inviting members of the 20-Ghost Club – and their magnificent machines, of course – on tours around the country. READ MORE The idea is that the tours raise money for the society which can be handed out in grants to those looking to restore and preserve Ireland's Georgian legacy. The 20-Ghost Club during their stop at Woodbrook House, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw The 20-Ghost Club – one of the world's longest-running car clubs, having celebrated 75 years last year – focuses on Rolls-Royce's early cars, with nothing younger than 1940 allowed, and with the emphasis on the very early Silver Ghost and 20hp models, and their derivatives. It was the original Silver Ghost, taking part in the RAC 15,000-mile challenge, which won Rolls-Royce its sobriquet of the finest car in the world. The heart-stoppingly beautiful Rolls-Royce currently making its way up the driveway of Woodbrook House actually wears surprisingly modern bodywork. It's a 1938 Wraith Drophead Coupe, and is currently in the care of John and Mary Narvell of Rhode Island. 'Our car was found in a chicken coop, wearing a limousine body by Barker,' Mary Narvell says. [ Official queried if de Valera's Rolls Royce was 'archaeological object' Opens in new window ] It's a car with a strong connection to Ireland. 'The gentleman that owned it drove it for 20 years like that, but he always wanted a sportier body for the car. So he had this one created by coachbuilder Rod Jolley, in the style of 1930s Hispano-Suizas, and used it for many years in the South of France.' The gentleman in question is Dublin docklands developer Harry Crosbie. The Narvells have other Rolls-Royces – one resides at the Audrain Motor Museum in Rhode Island, run in part by Jay Leno – but have brought this beautiful example back to Ireland so that Crosbie can see his old car once again. Making a grand entrance (or exit). Photograph: Nick Bradshaw It's far from the only car here with a fascinating history. 'Mine was an armoured car in Lawrence of Arabia!' says Ken Forbes of his 1924 Silver Ghost. Forbes is the chairman of the 20-Ghost Club. 'The deal is, we bring members of the Irish Georgian Society in the back of our cars, and they get us into all these lovely houses that aren't all open to the public. So many places are, like this one, tucked away.' Two cars were actually modified for that sweeping, epic film (Steven Spielberg still rates Lawrence Of Arabia as his favourite movie) and both survived. Forbes's Ghost was eventually stripped of its fake armour and given an elegant convertible four-door body by the Windovers coachmaking firm. Jeremy Greene (at left) with his 1923 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw The 20-Ghost Club gather for a chat. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Rolls-Royces going through multiple bodies isn't unusual: until the 1950s, Rolls-Royce didn't supply cars with a factory-made body. Instead, drivers bought the mighty straight-six engine (varying from 7.0-litres for the early Silver Ghosts up to 7.7 and even 8.0-litres, or a 7.6-litre V12 in the later Phantom III models) and a rolling chassis, and went to one of the great coachbuilding firms — Hooper, HJ Mulliner and Son, Corsica, Barker — to have a body of their own design and specification placed on top. Even in period, these cars would often have had their bodies swapped over at an owner's whim. One that hasn't swapped its shell belongs to Strone and Alexander McPherson. It's a 1914 Silver Ghost and it wears the same body as the day it was bought. 'It was ordered by an American, who wanted to bring his new bride on honeymoon around Europe,' Alexander McPherson says. A Spirit of Ecstasy sculpture found above the front grille of a Rolls-Royce at the 20-Ghost Club event. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw The Spirit of Ecstasy as seen from the front. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 'It has a Hooper body, and this owner used to ship it back and forth between Europe and America, going on tours around Europe for three months every year, up until 1939. In fact, it was one of the last cars to get out of Europe that year … It was laid up then until 1996, when we found it in a barn in Orange, Texas.' Unusually for a Rolls-Royce of this era, this Ghost wears a sporty-looking body, emphasised by a radiator that's a full three inches taller than usual to give it a flatter, sportier bonnet line. It also has a 40-gallon - that's 181 litres – fuel tank, which as McPherson says: 'is great until you have to fill it up. But then we do drive it a lot on the Continent, and you can drive for a whole day and not have to look for a petrol station.' Engine detail of one of the coveted vintage cars. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Woodbrook House, tucked away in the rolling hills of Wexford, is that rare thing – a genuine Georgian mansion which is still a family home. It's been in the Fitzherbert family since 1998, when Giles Fitzherbert – a former British ambassador to Venezuela, but a man fiercely proud of his Irish roots – bought it and started renovating and restoring it. It had previously been in the hands of the Blacker family since 1784, some 40 years after the house was built. As Billy Fitzherbert, son of Giles, explains, the Blackers almost lost the house at one stage. 'During the 1798 rebellion, the house was occupied by [United Irishman] John Coldough, and the house was knocked about a bit during the rebellion. Coldough had wanted to will the house to his three daughters, but he was captured after the rebellion and hanged, so the daughters never got it and the Blacker family regained the house.' Crispin Menefee with her 1924 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Now, Fitzherbert is determined to turn the house into a place worth visiting, not just for its beauty and the lush countryside that surrounds it, but for its environmental sensitivities. 'We're looking to have a focus on sustainability,' he says. 'My dad put solar panels on the roof here many years ago, and one of the first events we hosted was The Irish Green Gathering.' One of the innovations for the house is actually a 'green graveyard' where people can choose to be buried in a wicker casket, with no plastics and no varnish, and instead of a headstone have a tree planted above their final resting place. Anyone wondering about the ecological connection between a house striving to be green and a phalanx of vintage and veteran cars with enormous engines on the driveway? Well, it's often said that the greenest car is the one that's been built longest ago, and few cars on the road are older than Doug Magee's 1912 Silver Ghost, with its massive headlights. Doug Magee with his 1912 Silver Ghost. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Magee is from New Hampshire, and an award winner at the legendary Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance classic car event in California. He has so many significant, historical cars that he actually has his own private car museum - visitors by appointment only please.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
2.2 million-year-old teeth reveal secrets of human relatives found in a South African cave
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Small pieces of tooth enamel from deep in a South African cave have begun to reveal secrets held for 2 million years by a distant human relative, a new study finds.. Archaeologists recovered teeth from four members of the species Paranthropus robustus, a two-legged human relative who lived between 1.8 million and 1.2 million years ago, from Swartkrans, a fossil-bearing cave in Africa's Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site. Using cutting-edge techniques that can analyze fossils' amino acid sequences, the researchers were able to determine the sex of the individuals and discovered surprising genetic variation that could point to the existence of a previously unknown species. These techniques are part of the field of proteomics, or studying sets of preserved proteins — a relatively new area of science that is shedding much-needed light on the evolution of early hominins, a group that includes humans and our closest relatives. "Figuring out the human family tree using proteins is the goal," Claire Koenig, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen and co-author of a study published Thursday (May 29) in the journal Science, told Live Science in an email co-written with lead author Palesa Madupe and co-author Ioannis Patramanis. But currently "our ability to distinguish between different species is limited by the small number of different proteins present in enamel." Although DNA has been recovered from ancient skeletons in Africa, so far that technique has only successfully worked on hominin material dating to no more than 20,000 years ago — well within the lifetime of our own species, Homo sapiens — because DNA degrades quickly in that environment. To get at the roughly 6 million-year history of hominin evolution, analysis of the harder and more stable tissue of dental enamel is needed. In the new study, an international team of researchers led by Madupe employed paleoproteomic analysis to move beyond the limits of ancient DNA and understand the genes of four hominins who lived around 2 million years ago. "Proteomics is inherently a destructive technique, but we take great care to minimize impact, especially when working with rare or precious specimens," Koenig said. Related: In a 1st, ancient proteins reveal sex of human relative from 3.5 million years ago The researchers focused their proteomic analysis on four P. robustus individuals who likely all died around the same time. They were able to identify AMELY-specific peptides, which are found in the tooth enamel of males, in two individuals. The other two individuals had a high AMELX intensity, meaning they were likely female. Correctly determining the sex of a fossil is important in paleoanthropology because most hominins are sexually dimorphic, with males being, on average, larger than females. Experts therefore expect that any species will have some larger and some smaller individuals. But Madupe and colleagues discovered a surprising result: one P. robustus individual who was thought to be female, based on tooth size and shape, was actually male, based on proteomic data. "Our results thus indicate that measurements of dental size are not necessarily accurate for correct sex estimation," the researchers wrote in the study. Since sex alone could not explain the differences in the appearance of P. robustus, the team investigated whether the diversity they were seeing could be the result of different groups or species they didn't know about, or the result of interbreeding, as P. robustus overlapped in time with australopithecines and early members of the Homo genus. The researchers found a couple amino acid sequence positions that varied among the P. robustus specimens they examined, and that were different from the amino acid sequences seen in present-day humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans. This analysis revealed that one of the individuals — SK-835, whose molecular sex and morphological sex did not match up — was more distantly related to the other three individuals than they were to each other. "It would be premature to classify SK-835 as a member of the newly proposed Paranthropus [capensis] taxa," Koenig said, but it remains a possibility that the amino acid difference reflects its position in a different species than the rest. It could also be explained, however, by microevolution at different sites, study co-author Rebecca Ackermann, a biological anthropologist at the University of Cape Town, told Live Science in an email. "We need to analyse more Paranthropus material from different sites to get a better handle on the variation within southern African Paranthropus," she said. RELATED STORIES —Smallest human relative ever found may have been devoured by a leopard 2 million years ago —What's the oldest known case of cancer in humans? —World's oldest human DNA found in 800,000-year-old tooth of a cannibal Because the enamel proteome is so much smaller — and provides less information — than a full genome, reconstructions of fossil human relatives need to be cautiously interpreted, Ackermann said. Koenig expects that further methodological developments will be beneficial, including less invasive methods such as acid etching to remove an extremely thin layer of dental enamel, and the development of faster and more sensitive protein-sequencing instruments. "It remains to be seen, for example, whether or not we can molecularly tell apart a Paranthropus robustus from an Australopithecus africanus," Koenig said, "because these species are closely related and therefore their proteins are going to look very similar."
Business Wire
23-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Jury Produces $10 Million Verdict Against Grocery Store Ownership
DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A Dallas County jury has returned a $10 million verdict against the shipping arm of the El Rancho Supermercado chain, finding the organization which operates under the corporate name of Mexico Foods breached contractual agreements and promises with Dallas-based Skyward Transportation. 'We're pleased that the jury carefully considered the evidence that Heritage management intentionally breached agreements, broke promises, and betrayed the longstanding and productive business relationship between Skyward and El Rancho.' According to court documents, Skyward, founded by Curtis Lawrence when he was 19 years old, managed the majority of grocery delivery and backhaul services for the chain for more than a decade and enjoyed a mutually positive relationship until the acquisition of El Rancho in June 2023 by Heritage Grocers, a portfolio company of private equity firm Apollo Global Management. Shortly following that sale to Heritage, a California-based company with a recent record of purchasing regional Hispanic-focused grocery chains, Skyward began receiving what the company believed to be a series of falsified records and fabricated complaints, while unpaid invoices began totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. Despite the attempts by Skyward to salvage the relationship, the Skyward contracts were terminated and the company, with more than 90% of its business devoted to serving El Rancho, was replaced as the chain's preferred transportation provider in favor of companies already serving other Heritage brands. 'We're pleased that the jury carefully considered the evidence that Heritage management intentionally breached agreements, broke promises, and betrayed the longstanding and productive business relationship between Skyward and El Rancho,' says Michael K. Hurst, Skyward's legal counsel. 'Skyward's performance and commitment was exceptional, but the new ownership was determined to create new `synergies' because it believed it could save costs and make more profits, notwithstanding the 5-year contracts and 10-year relationship with Skyward. Now they have to pay the price. Most people and companies wouldn't dare take on a business giant like Apollo, but most people aren't Curtis Lawrence,' says Hurst. El Rancho operates 27 stores, with 18 locations in North Texas and others in Austin, Houston and Liberal, Kansas. The verdict does not include attorney fees and interest to be awarded to Skyward at a later date. Other attorneys representing Skyward included Jared Eisenberg, David Coale, Jamie Drillette, and Andy Kim, all with Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann LLP, and Anthony Farmer with the Farmer Law Group. The case is Skyward Transportation LLC v. Mexico Foods LLC et al., No. 23-15759, in the160th District Court of Judge Aiesha Redmond. Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann is a Dallas-based, nationally recognized commercial litigation firm whose philosophy is based on trial-tested experience, creativity and an uncompromising will to win. The firm has a consistent track record of success, trying business disputes of all types, including breach of contract, intellectual property and trade secret, class action, financial services, securities, breach of fiduciary duty, employment, and professional malpractice cases. To learn more, visit
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Project Esther' exposes the reality of Trump's agenda to fight antisemitism
President Donald Trump has enacted a raft of suppressive policies ostensibly designed to combat antisemitism, such as cutting off funding to universities that he claims haven't done enough to curb antisemitism on campus. But if you take a look at the little-known playbook that appears to have inspired many of his most aggressive moves, it becomes evident how little it has to do with ending bigotry against Jews. The playbook is called Project Esther, a policy paper created by the Heritage Foundation, arguably the most influential right-wing think tank of the Trump era. Heritage also produced Project 2025, the extreme policy manifesto that has shaped much of Trump's agenda. Project Esther is a kind of miniature Project 2025, offering guidance on using authoritarian tools to crush criticism of Israel across the country. Trump has used many of the extreme policies it has recommended, including deporting immigrants who express pro-Palestinian sentiment and attacking academia using public defunding. There was some reporting on Project Esther before Trump entered the White House, although it got relatively little attention. But new reporting from The New York Times details how it came together and lays out how much Trump appears to have hewed to it. The White House didn't respond to the Times' query about Project Esther's influence on its goals, and Heritage couldn't confirm its influence, but a co-author of Project Esther told the Times he believed it was 'no coincidence that we called for a series of actions to take place privately and publicly, and they are now happening.' The Heritage Foundation formed an antisemitism task force after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, which helped lay the groundwork for the Project Esther paper. Strikingly, only one of the four people who started the task force was Jewish, according to the Times, while two of them were Christian Zionist leaders. The task force was joined by mainly conservative and Christian organizations, rather than Jewish organizations. In a pitch deck that Heritage used to entice donors for the task force, George Soros — a Jewish billionaire and the bogeyman at the center of countless antisemitic conspiracy theories — is listed at the top of 'masterminds' behind what it calls an antisemitism 'ecosystem,' as Forward reported in 2024. That deck also singles out Jewish Voice for Peace — a progressive Jewish organization known for its organization of protests that criticize Israeli policy — at the top of its list of 'organizers' contributing to the antisemitism ecosystem. In its statement of purpose, the task force identified anti-Zionism as 'hatred against Jewish people,' even though there has long been a tradition of anti-Zionism across the international Jewish community and it isn't inherently antisemitic to criticize the ideology of Zionism. In other words, this antisemitism task force was giving heavy Christian Zionist vibes. Christian Zionists view their unconditional support of Israeli policy and Israeli expansionism as a spiritual duty. John Hagee, a pastor and chair of Christians United for Israel, has espoused repugnant antisemitic beliefs, and other Christian Zionists often weaponize a nominal concern about antisemitism — even while trafficking in antisemitic tropes and beliefs. As Emily Tamkin wrote for MSNBC in her assessment of Hagee's appearance at a rally to support Israel in 2023, 'One can support Israel and also spread antisemitism.' The Times reports that the Heritage antisemitism task force's policy recommendations served as the basis for Project Esther, which is an astonishingly radical and paranoid document — and not without some problematic statements about the Jewish community of its own. In a document that sounds plainly McCarthyist, Project Esther posits that the pro-Palestinian movement in America is 'part of a global Hamas Support Network (HSN)' and that this network is 'supported by activists and funders dedicated to the destruction of capitalism and democracy.' It continues: [T]he HSN benefits from the support and training of America's overseas enemies and seeks to achieve its goals by taking advantage of our open society, corrupting our education system, leveraging the American media, coopting the federal government, and relying on the American Jewish community's complacency." That last line is an astounding example of Project Esther's condescension to American Jews — who the authors seem to think aren't up for the challenge of identifying antisemitism. But this perspective also holds that activists in America objecting to U.S. support for Israel, as it commits what many human rights organizations and genocide scholars have described as genocide, are actually part of some nihilistic, shadowy international terrorist organization that wants to covertly take over and destroy America. The assessment doesn't just preposterously conflate criticizing aid to Israel with supporting Hamas; it suggests that criticizing Israel is tantamount to a siege against the state in America. Based on its hyper-reactionary assessment of the pro-Palestinian movement, the Esther Project promotes a variety of policies that appear designed to circumvent First Amendment-protected speech and identify and suppress pro-Palestinian speech as support for terrorism. Many of its proposals, like a focus on deportations, have already been enacted. But some others, such as purging social media and expanding the idea of 'material support for terrorism,' haven't emerged in full force — and hopefully won't. There has been a surge in antisemitism in America in recent years across the political spectrum, which is a deeply distressing social problem worthy of serious engagement. Notably, Project Esther has nothing to say about antisemitism on the political right, which, according to a recent study, is more common than it is on the left. But the proposals of the Esther Project aren't good-faith efforts, nor are the Trump policies they've seemingly helped inspire. They instead exploit the reality of antisemitism to advance an antidemocratic project of unconditional support of Israel. This article was originally published on
