Latest news with #LiverpoolHopeUniversity
BBC News
22-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Liverpool Hope University staff threaten strike action over cuts
University staff are warning of potential strike action if plans to cut jobs goes University and College Union (UCU) said Liverpool Hope University had threatened to cut 39 jobs, affecting courses including sociology, education studies and health claimed the university had healthy cash reserves and the planned cuts were "shameful".A Liverpool Hope University representative said the institution appreciated it was a worrying time for staff and it was working with the union "to ensure we explore all options". UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: "Liverpool Hope has strong finances and plays a key role in providing access to the arts and humanities to young people across the North West, so it is shameful that management's knee-jerk response to a projected deficit is to attempt to slash vital jobs."Senior managers must think again, otherwise our members will fight to defend jobs and student provision by any means necessary."The university said the proposal of potential redundancies was "not one that has been taken lightly" and the institution was "working with UCU to ensure that we explore options"."The proposals are currently undergoing consultation and no plans have been confirmed thus far," it said."We are committed to working in partnership with UCU, and with colleagues to protect their wellbeing during this difficult period." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Meet the 'extravagant' Ribble Valley musician with cult Instagram following
A Ribble Valley musician with a sparkling social media following is inspiring a new generation of music lovers through both Instagram and in-person tuition. Dr Rebekah Okpoti, known online as The Girly Organist, has built a cult following on Instagram for her glamorous and engaging posts as a pipe organist, where she shares behind-the-scenes glimpses of her life performing in churches and cathedrals across the UK. With almost 7,000 followers, Rebekah has become a recognisable influencer in the classical music world, celebrated for her extravagant performance dresses and fresh, fun take on a traditionally reserved genre. Dr Rebekah Okpoti, known as The Girly Organist online (Image: Garry Cook) 'The Girly Organist is a platform to share behind-the-scenes of being a musician in Lancashire,' said Rebekah, who lives in Wilpshire. 'My dresses have created so much space for women in the male-dominated classical music world.' Now, through her Whalley-based Ribble Valley Music School, she hopes to develop the next generation of musical talent right here in Lancashire. READ MORE: Blackburn woman wants her cancer story to help others open up Ribble Valley Music School offers bespoke one-to-one instrumental tuition on piano, guitar, drums, violin and singing from its studios at The Sidings in Whalley. The school accepts students from the age of three upwards and prides itself on giving young children the opportunity to thrive through enjoying learning how to play a musical instrument. The family-friendly music school has a team of specialist tutors who are all fully DBS enhanced checked and have completed music education safeguard training. They offer 30-minute and 60-minute weekly music lessons in piano, guitar, singing, violin and drums. Okpoti is known for her extravagant dresses she wears during performances (Image: Garry Cook)Rebekah said: 'While we are popular with young people from three years old who want to learn music, we also have students of all ages, even into retirement age, who have come to us eager to learn how to play a new instrument or improve skills they have had for decades. 'The Ribble Valley is fortunate to have a great live music scene, but scratch the surface and most of the musicians are coming from outside the county. 'Our music school provides music learning opportunities for all ages, which I think is really important in setting a solid foundation of music making on a local level. We have a long-term commitment to producing musicians from Lancashire.' READ MORE: Teacher hoping to inspire generations with 'Super Nani and Captain Yaz' Rebekah lectures in musicology at Liverpool Hope University and until recently was director of music at Lancaster Priory. She is the editor-in-chief of The Organ Manual magazine, an international specialist online magazine. She has worked as an associate organist at Leeds Cathedral and has developed music projects for Blackburn Cathedral, Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, Lancaster Priory, Halifax Minster, Longridge Parish, and worked with Blackburn Music Service and Clitheroe Royal Grammar School. Okpoti runs the Ribble Valley Music School in Whalley (Image: Garry Cook) Rebekah added: 'We believe in the transformative power of music and that anyone can learn to play a musical instrument. We offer a welcoming and supportive training and learning environment for students of all ages and abilities. 'Every student has a unique focus when pursuing learning an instrument. Some aim to pass graded exams to enable themselves more opportunities in their lifelong music journey, some thrive being able to perform on stages, while some simply enjoy the relaxation music brings and others want to enhance their confidence or strengthen their musical skills in relation to other pursuits such as drama/dance/musical theatre. The practical skill of learning a musical instrument is of value at every level. 'We will work with you to create a bespoke program to help you make progress and achieve your goals."
RTÉ News
12-05-2025
- Politics
- RTÉ News
It's 1945 and Churchill and de Valera are taking to the airwaves...
Analysis: The prime minister and Taoiseach had a frank exchange of views on Irish neutrality 80 years ago as World War II came to a close By Bryce Evans, Liverpool Hope University It is 80 years since Winston Churchill used a victory address on the BBC World Service on May 13th 1945 to lambast Taoiseach Éamon de Valera and Ireland's neutrality policy during the Second World War. "Owing to the action of Mr de Valera, so much at variance with the temper and instinct of thousands of Southern Irishmen who hastened to the battlefront to prove their ancient valour, the approaches which the Southern Irish ports and airfields could so easily have guarded were closed by the hostile aircraft and U-boats." Listening to the speech, which was broadcast to a huge global audience, it is clear that Churchill deliberately emphasised the different syllables of de Valera's name to subliminally conflate the devil, evil, and Éire, mispronouncing Dev's name as "D'evil Éire", as historian Ryle Dwyer notes. "This was indeed a deadly moment in our life," the British prime minister continued "and if it had not been for the loyalty and friendship of Northern Ireland, we should have been forced to come to close quarters with Mr de Valera or perish forever from the earth." British prime minister Winston Churchill criticises Éamon de Valera and Irish neutrality in 1945 This was perhaps the most disingenuous passage of the speech. Churchill had regularly secretly disregarded Northern Ireland as a separate entity by offering a united Ireland in return for the abandonment of neutrality. This is documented in his letter to US president Franklin D Roosevelt of December 1940 7th and, following Pearl Harbor, his now-famous letter to de Valera, memorably quoting Thomas Davis in promising "a nation once again". But the threat of military intervention was a consistent feature of Churchill's thinking on Ireland and he'd pursued brutish trade intervention, in the form of a debilitating supply squeeze. In 1945, Churchill went on to name three Irishmen who had won the Victoria Cross. "I do not forget Lieutenant-Commander Esmonde, VC, DSO, Lance-Corporal Kenneally, VC, Captain Fegen, VC, and other Irish heroes that I could easily recite, and all bitterness by Britain for the Irish race dies in my heart." These men were a small component of the considerable number who fought for Britain in the conflict. From RTÉ Radio 1's History Show, UCD historian Conor Mulvagh on Éamon de Valera's reaction to Winston Churchill's verbal attack Although Churchill's speech was delivered in the aftermath of de Valera's maladroit decision to visit the German legation to express formal condolences on the death of Hitler, as Conor Mulvagh puts it, Churchill was nonetheless guilty of 'overstepping his vitriol'. As the research of Michael Kennedy and others has established, Ireland's tacit assistance to the Allies was considerable and the ports issue overstated. In claiming, in particularly gratuitous language, to have left de Valera's government to "frolic with the German and later with the Japanese representatives to their heart's content", Churchill knowingly omitted the considerable Anglo-Irish intelligence sharing that had gone on during the war. De Valera's measured reply - considered by many his finest speech - was broadcast live on Radio Éireann late on Sunday evening, May 16, 1945. He began by thanking God for sparing Ireland from the ravages of war, before turning to Churchill's words. From RTÉ Archives, Taoiseach Éamon de Valera replies to British prime minister Winston Churchill's criticism of Ireland's policy of neutrality throughout the Second World War "Mr Churchill makes it clear that, in certain circumstances, he would have violated our neutrality and that he would justify his action by Britain's necessity. It seems strange to me that Mr Churchill does not see that this, if accepted, would mean that Britain's necessity would become a moral code and that, when this necessity was sufficiently great, other people's rights were not to count. "It is quite true that other great powers believe in this same code — in their own regard — and have behaved in accordance with it. That is precisely why we have the disastrous successions of wars — World War Number One and World War Number Two — and shall there be World War Number Three?" De Valera's next reflection was perhaps his most effective line. "It is, indeed, hard for the strong to be just to the weak. But acting justly always has its rewards," he said. This was a successful countering of the Anglo-American tendency to roll out a long list of allies as part of the 'winning team', thereby implying that for states to maintain neutral was (and is) always morally unjustifiable. From RTÉ Radio 1's Today with Sarah McInerney in 2020, Prof Diarmaid Ferriter on the row between Churchill and de Valera In a neat example of damning with faint praise, de Valera went on "By resisting his temptation in this instance, Mr Churchill, instead of adding another horrid chapter to the already bloodstained record of relations between England and this country, has advanced the cause of international morality an important step." De Valera's speech, like neutrality policy as a whole, was resoundingly popular in Ireland. In a society marked by a pervasive mood and official culture of 'moral neutrality', the restrained and pious tone of the speech went down very well. For his part, Britain's top diplomat in Ireland, John Maffey, deemed that it was not Churchill's speech, but de Valera's retort which "bore the stamp of the elder statesman" and recorded how popular the Taoiseach's response had been with the Irish public. What is perhaps most extraordinary about Churchill's speech is how he went out of his way to mention Ireland, a bit player in the global conflagration which would define the twentieth century Assuming the moral high ground played out very well domestically for de Valera and his central point was, in large part, justified. Unlike other 'long haul' neutral states of World War II, Ireland did not gain materially or financially from its noncombatant status in the conflict. Nonetheless, there was no doubting which statesman's speech gained most international traction. Churchill's address was broadcast around the world, while de Valera's response was only broadcast on Radio Éireann. What is perhaps most extraordinary about Churchill's speech is the extent to which he went out of his way to mention Ireland, a bit player by any yardstick in the global conflagration which would define the twentieth century. Its poisonous effect would be felt for years afterwards, illustrated most vividly in the relative freezing out of Ireland from the immediate post-war order and in the mistaken charge – still popularly encountered to this day – that Ireland 'collaborated' with Nazi Germany.
Daily Mirror
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Pope Francis' acts of kindness - from coffee runs and minibus rides to historic gesture
Humility and humanity were the hallmarks of Pope Francis's 12-year reign, and his common touch quickly saw him dubbed the Pope Idol. Here, we take a look back at the religious figure's acts of kindness As a young man Pope Francis vocation was driven by a desire to help the poor and, as a Jesuit priest, Father Jorge Bergoglio led a humble life with his flock in the slums of Buenos Aires. But, when he ascended to the throne of St Peter in 2013, he stunned the Vatican old guard by opening up grand church buildings to the homeless and calling for 'a revolution of tenderness.' Choosing the name Francis – after Saint Francis of Assisi – was a clear sign of his commitment to the poor. But it was the sheer force of his warm, genial personality that made him Top of the Popes. Within days of his election, Francis set a new tone, calling for 'a culture of encounter' within the Church. He also showed the grand prelates how he expected them to behave. On his first Easter Thursday as Pope, Francis washed and kissed the feet of 12 young offenders in a juvenile detention centre. They included two women and a Muslim, although Catholic priests recreating Christ's Last Supper gesture to his disciples traditionally only washed the feet of men. It was the first of many public and private acts of humility and tenderness that changed the conversation between 1.2 billion Catholics and their Holy Father. As John Sullivan, Professor of Christian education at Liverpool Hope University, said at the time: 'Pope Francis has changed the climate of communication. 'He has made many gestures and said many wonderful things that indicate his desire for a different style of church, not changing its substance but changing its voice and its quality of listening.' The Pope certainly loved to listen to ordinary people, and became known for making cold calls to stunned recipients. He phoned an Italian engineer who'd written to him worrying about finding work, an Argentinian woman who'd been raped and the brother of a murder victim. In September 2014, he rang a 35-year-old pregnant divorcee who felt pressured to have an abortion. 'Hello Anna, this is Pope Francis,' he said simply, before comforting her and offering to baptise her baby. That New Year 's Eve he phoned to surprise an order of Carmelite sisters in Lucena, got their answer phone. 'What can the nuns be doing that stops them answering the phone?' he chuckled. ''This is Pope Francis and I wanted to give you New Year's greetings. I'll see if I can reach you later. God bless you.' On the day after his election, Francis turned down the use of the Papal Mercedes to travel to the Vatican in a minibus with the other cardinals who'd been participating in the conclave. On his first overseas visits, he waited in line with other passengers to board the plane and insisted on carrying his own luggage. Tellingly, that visit was to the Island of Lampedusa, where he sought to bring attention to the plight of migrants and refugees who made the Mediterranean Sea a 'vast cemetery.' He had never intended to travel much as Pope, but his conscience called on him to go among marginalised and suffering people around the world – be that celebrating mass on the US-Mexico border in 2016 or visiting slum dwellers in a favela in Rio, Brazil. He spoke out against the evils of capitalist greed and climate change. And, having once flown Muslim Syrian refugees to safety on his papal plane he told reporters on another flight that those who build walls to keep out immigrants are 'not Christian' a clear dig at President Donald Trump 's border policy. When welcoming VIPs like President Obama and the Queen to Rome he gave them tea in his rooms at the Domus Sanctae Marthae guest house, rather than the Vatican Palace. And he jotted down his daily engagements himself in pencil in an old fashioned diary - another first which shocked aides. The Pope wrote to a friend in Argentina soon after taking office. 'I'm visible to people and I lead a normal life,' he explained. 'I eat in the refectory with everyone else. 'All this is good for me and prevents me from being isolated. I'm trying to stay the same and to act as I did in Buenos Aires because if you change at my age you just look ridiculous.' But the things he couldn't change, he embraced - like the large public masses that gave him a chance to drive round St Peter's Square in his Popemobile - with bulletproof glass removed - so he could reach out to the faithful. He gave a teenage boy with Down syndrome the ride of his life by inviting him up into the vehicle and spinning him around on the seat. On another occasion, he spotted an old pal from Argentina in the crowd and signalled him to jump aboard too. He wept with joy when a Brazilian schoolboy broke through barriers and jumped up on the Popemobile to tell him he wanted to be a priest and could barely contain his excitement at being handed a San Lorenza football favourite Buenos Aires team. In November 2014, he was pictured hugging Vinicio Riva, 52, an Italian man horribly disfigured by huge tumours. Afterwards, Vinicio revealed: 'The thing that struck me most is he did not even think about whether or not to hug me. 'I'm not contagious, but he did not know. He just did it: he caressed me all over my face, and as he did, I felt only love.' Two weeks later, the Pope stopped to talk with Oreste Tornani, 60, who was shot in the face at the age of 30. 'He asked me how I was, how things were going, if I had any problems and where I was living,' said unemployed Mr Tornani. Pictures of the Pope's everyday acts of kindness soon made him a Twitter hit—with 18.2 million followers. In 2015, we released a hit record called Wake Up! It features speeches set to a prog rock backing track. In 2018, he opened up like no other Pontiff had ever done in a documentary film called Pope Francis: A Man of his Word. The Pope never ceased to surprise the watching world – whether it was larking about in a fireman's helmet so the fire crew could get souvenir photos, or opening a homeless shelter in a church with camp beds set up under priceless Renaissance frescoes. He also shocked his brother Cardinals by telling mums waiting for their babies to be baptised in the Sistine Chapel that it was fine to breastfeed. Francis remained firmly opposed to gay marriage, and defended the Church's position that homosexual acts are sinful but homosexual orientation is not. But when asked about gay priests within the Vatican, he replied: 'Who am I to judge a gay person of goodwill who seeks the Lord? You can't marginalise these people.' It was the first time a Pope had even used the word 'gay' in public. His communication skills were matched by meaningful reform, too – cleaning up the scandal-hit Vatican bank and changing rules which had protected paedophile priests. He ruffled the feathers of his persoanl Swiss Guard too - forcing bosses to take better care of the men who wear those famous multi-coloured Renaissance uniforms. One morning, as Francis left his modest apartment, he said a cheery 'Good morning' to the soldier posted outside his door. But then the Pontiff stopped in his tracks and peered in alarm at the young man's pale face. He realised it was the same guard who had saluted him when he went to bed the evening before and that he had been standing outside his door all night. 'Sit down at once!' said the Pope, ushering him towards a chair. 'I can't, it's against orders,' replied the guardsman. 'I give the orders around here,' replied Francis, before fetching a cappuccino to revive the exhausted guardsman. And he proved it by sacking the Colonel in charge of his all-night sentry for being over-strict and 'unbrotherly". As experts now argue over his theological legacy, Francis will be remembered as an ordinary, plain-speaking Pope who never lost his human touch or desire to help the poor. On his visit to Dublin in 2018, he addressed a gathering of newly married and engaged couples, regaling them with stories from his humble childhood. He told them how a poor man once knocked on the family's door when his mum was cooking delicious steaks for tea. Francis suggested giving the man their scraps, but his Mum said, 'No, if you give to the poor, you truly give of yourself,' and made him hand over their whole dinner. He gave the newlyweds some marriage guidance too, saying 'it is important to keep your patience – even with your mother-in-laws.' He added, 'When you quarrel, be sure to apologise and say sorry before going to bed. If arguments tempt you to sleep in another room, alone and apart, just knock on the door and say 'Please - can I come in?' 'All it takes is a look, a kiss, a soft word....'
