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RTÉ News
7 days ago
- Business
- RTÉ News
EBS and Haven cut some mortgage rates, extend cash back offer
AIB units EBS and Haven are cutting the interest rates on non-green mortgages by up to 0.50% for new and existing customers from tomorrow. The 0.50% reductions will impact the EBS 2-year fixed rate product and the Haven 3-year fixed rate product. Both Haven and EBS said they are also cutting all other non-green fixed rates by 0.20%. The reduced rates will be available to both new and existing customers. AIB said the latest reductions are in line with the falling interest rate environment and the bank's commitment to delivering value for customers, particularly those whose homes do not have a Building Energy Rating of B3 or higher. The reductions will also help customers coming to the end of their fixed term, as they roll off historically lower rates into an environment where rates are now higher, the bank added. Meanwhile customers who are switching their mortgage to EBS and Haven and meet the criteria will also benefit from the extension of the lenders' cashback and switcher offers to the end of December 2026. EBS said a monthly repayment on a new €300,000 two-year fixed rate mortgage, over a 25 year term will be €1,566.99. The previous monthly repayment would have been €1,650.52, representing a saving of €83.53 a month, €1,002.36 a year, or €3,506.85 over the 25 year term. Haven said a monthly repayment on a new €300,000 three year non-green fixed rate mortgage over a 25-year term will be €1,542.39. The previous monthly repayment would have been €1,625.21, representing a saving of €82.82 a month, €993.84 annually, or €5,187.78 over the 25-year term. Managing Director of EBS and Haven Director Paul Butler said that AIB Group, through AIB, EBS and Haven, believes it is critical the lenders offer a wide variety of choice, value and convenience for customers seeking to buy their home, or switch their mortgage. "The reductions of up to 0.50% will help customers save on their monthly will also be able to avail of our Cashback and Switcher offers," he added.
Irish Independent
23-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
EBS and Haven cut some mortgage rates and extend cash-back offers
EBS and Haven, the broker-focused units of AIB, are reducing mortgage rates by up to 0.50 percentage points on some products. It comes the day before European Central Bank (ECB) meeting, where wholesale lending rates are expected to be left on hold. The EBS and Haven cuts are for non-green mortgages and apply to new and existing customers coming off fixed rates or moving from a variable rate with the lenders. Broker Michael Dowling questioned why the EBS and Haven 'green rates' were not coming down. The 0.50 point reductions are for the EBS two-year fixed rate product and the Haven three-year fixed rate product. Both Haven and EBS are also reducing all other non-green fixed rates by 0.20 percentage points. The new rates are available to new and existing customers from this Thursday. The reductions are in line with the falling interest rate environment and AIB's commitment to delivering value for customers, particularly those whose homes don't have a Building Energy Rating of B3 or higher, AIB Group said. The reductions will also help customers coming to the end of their fixed term, as they roll off historically lower rates into an environment where rates are now higher, it said. Customers who are switching their mortgage to EBS and Haven and meet the criteria will also benefit from the extension of the 'Cashback' and 'Switcher' offers to the end of December 2026 on certain products. The EBS Back in Cash offers give 2pc of the value of a mortgage upfront, plus 1pc after five years. There is also an offer of €3,000 in cash back from EBS on its green mortgage. Haven has a €5,000 cashback offer for new borrowers, and a €3,000 cash offer for switchers. Managing director of EBS and Haven director Paul Butler said: 'AIB Group, through AIB, EBS and Haven, believes it's critical we offer a wide variety of choice, value and convenience for customers seeking to buy their home, or switch their mortgage.' Mr Butler said a monthly repayment on a new €300,000 EBS two-year fixed rate mortgage, over a 25 year term, will be €1,566.99. The previous monthly repayment would have been €1,650.52, representing a saving of €83.53 per month, or €1,002.36 a year. A monthly repayment on a new €300,000 Haven three-year non-green fixed rate mortgage over a 25-year term will be €1,542.39. The previous monthly repayment would have been €1,625.21, representing a saving of €82.82 per month, or €993.84 annually. Michael Dowling of Irish Mortgage Brokers said last October AIB announced significant rate reductions to its 'green rates' making them the cheapest in the market. However, these reductions did not apply to EBS or Haven mortgage customers, despite the fact that both banks are 100pc owned by AIB. He said the 0.50 percentage points reduction only applies to the two-year fixed option with EBS and the three-year fixed option with Haven. 'The other non-green rates for AIB, EBS and Haven remain expensive compared to what competitors are offering,' Mr Dowling said. 'Extraordinarily, nine months later, there are no rate reductions to the 'green' rates from EBS and Haven.' Mr Dowling questioned why AIB 'discriminates' in the rate offering from the three entities within the group.
Chicago Tribune
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Vintage Chicago Tribune: 6 activities people used to do in the city during the summer
There are activities we can't wait to experience here each summer — catching a concert in a park; watching Buckingham Fountain's majestic water display explode 150 feet into the air; taking a dip to cool off in Lake Michigan; swaying with thousands of others to the sounds of the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field; or just playing tourist in our hometown. Yet Chicagoans of another era had their own ways of celebrating warm weather that we just don't do today. Here's a look back at six of them. The first match in the sport of kings took place in Chicago, according to the U.S. Polo Association, at Lincoln Park in October 1879. 'For the benefit of the ignorant, polo may be described as shinney (pick-up game of hockey) on horseback, or, rather, ponyback,' the Tribune reported at the time. Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest, which fielded its first polo team in 1896, hosted an epic championship series that pitted the best players in the United States — one team from the East Coast and the other from the West — against each other in August 1933. The best-of-three tourney with spectator seating for 20,000 people was the brainchild of Chicago Blackhawks team founder and U.S. Polo Association executive committee member Maj. Frederic McLaughlin. West won the national championship 12-6. A smaller, faster form of the game called arena polo was played indoors for years at the Chicago Avenue Armory. Oak Brook Polo Club, which was founded by Paul Butler in 1922, and closed earlier this year, is considered one of the oldest of its kind in the U.S. It hosted the U.S. Open Polo Championship for 24 seasons. Prince (now King) Charles was part of a memorable match there on Sept. 5, 1986, when he and England's star player Andrew Seavill were both laid out on the ground after a collision. After a five-minute pause, both the player and the prince appeared to be OK. 'I liked the part when he fell, the best,' said Chicago-based political satirist Aaron Freeman. 'It's not often you see people who won the genetic lottery embarrassing themselves in public.' Before highways were plentiful and car ownership was common, Chicagoans headed to the city's docks to board steamships destined for Milwaukee; Mackinac Island, Michigan; or a variety of other lakeside communities. One such ship was the SS Eastland, which was chartered by Western Electric Co. on July 24, 1915, to transport about 2,500 employees and their families across Lake Michigan to a company picnic at 'the Coney Island of the Midwest' Michigan City, Indiana. Rare Eastland disaster photos discovered in Tribune basementAs people boarded the ship that morning at the Chicago River between LaSalle Drive and Clark Street, however, the Eastland began to list to its side. The ship overturned and within minutes 844 people — including 22 entire families and four members of the Eastland's crew — were dead. Chicago Bears owner George Halas was supposed to be aboard the ship. It was the deadliest day ever in Chicago and the greatest peacetime inland waterways disaster in American history. Several hundred performers — including Goliath the sea elephant — arrived in August 1931, to perform as part of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which became a fixture of summer in Soldier Field's parking lot for decades. Successive open-air 'floating hospitals' in Lincoln Park were built between the 1870s and the 1900s and offered excursions from the piers on Lake Michigan. In 1914, the Chicago Daily News offered to fund a more permanent sanitarium building. Opened in 1921, the impressive Prairie-style structure was one of several Lincoln Park buildings designed by Dwight H. Perkins of the firm Perkins, Fellows, and Hamilton. Perkins, an important Chicago social reformer and Prairie School architect, designed buildings including Café Brauer, the Lion House in the Lincoln Park Zoo and the North Pond Cafe. Vintage Chicago Tribune: Unexpected finds in Chicago parksThe impressive Chicago Daily News Fresh Air Sanitarium building was constructed in brick with a steel arched pavilion with 250 basket baby cribs, nurseries and rooms for older children. The breezes through the shelter were believed to cure babies suffering from tuberculosis and other diseases. Free health services, milk and lunches were provided to more than 30,000 children each summer until 1939, when the sanitarium closed. Major reconstruction of Lake Shore Drive led to the demolition of the building's front entrance. During World War II, the structure became an official recreation center for the United Service Organization. The Chicago Park District converted the building to Theatre on the Lake in the early 1950s. Today it's a lakefront restaurant and venue that hosts concerts and theater events. The rodeo originated in the Southwest as a way for ranchers to celebrate the annual cattle roundup. Promoters brought it to Chicago and other northern cites to capitalize on Americans' nostalgic fascination with the Wild West. From 1925 to 1929, Tex Austin presented rodeos first at Soldier Field and then indoors at Chicago Stadium — though rodeo competitions didn't end in Chicago after Austin's contest packed up and left for good. In 1927, Soldier Field hosted World Championship Rodeo. The sights and thrills of Austin's rodeos had a wide appeal. Women were half of the 35,000 spectators in Soldier Field on the opening day of the 1925 rodeo, the Tribune's society columnist reported. 'The shouts of approval that hit against the sides of the Field Museum and bounced back again were just as soprano as they were deep bass.' Rodeo competition also was open to women as well as Black people and Native Americans, when other professional sports were segregated or off-limits to them. Austin carried the rodeo far afield. He mounted shows in Madison Square Garden, Hollywood and London. His promotions went belly up in the Great Depression, and he opened a restaurant in Santa Fe. But going blind in 1938, he committed suicide. He left a note asking his wife's forgiveness and, on their coach, a stack of photographs of his rodeo days, a time when 'he appeared every inch at home.' Starting 75 years before Lollapalooza took up residence in Grant Park, the Chicagoland Music Festival claimed gaudy attendance numbers at the annual Soldier Field events, figures no longer possible in the renovated stadium. Like the College All-Star Game, Golden Gloves boxing, the Silver Skates Derby and numerous other events, including airplane and horse races, fashion and kite-flying shows, bowling tournaments and wrestling matches, the music festival was organized and sponsored by the Chicago Tribune. The newspaper wasn't shy about promoting its own events in its news pages — especially once longtime publisher Col. Robert McCormick took a liking to it. It's hard to say how much the Tribune's glowing coverage helped the festival thrive, but even accounting for some exaggeration and boosterism, and assuming the reporter was ordered to don his rose-colored glasses, that first Chicagoland Music Festival was a spectacle. Unlike most events, the Chicagoland Music Festival didn't start small and grow. It started big and became huge. About 150,000 — with thousands more unable to get in the stadium — watched the inaugural show Aug. 23, 1930. There were so many people, in fact, that spectators sitting on the sidelines impeded the drum corps' movements. The thrill — and the showmanship — started with the public address announcement: 'You are sitting now in the glow of 392,000 watts of light, and in order that you may have a standard of comparison, I will add that that is three times as large a volume of light as at any baseball game that ever was played at night. Friends, it is the greatest artificial illumination of a single arena in the world's history.' To which the Tribune reported: 'The people rapturously applaud these words. They are rising to the fact that they have come to a big show.' Before that first night was out, the crowd saw 21 marching bands and 16 drum corps, which entered the arena in one bombastic burst. They heard the festival band play the John Philip Sousa marches 'The Washington Post,' 'Stars and Stripes Forever' and 'U.S. Field Artillery.' Another highlight of the night was a 1,000-member African American choir singing the spiritual 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.' The climax of that first evening was the 'Hallelujah' chorus from Handel's 'Messiah,' performed by a combined 3,000-voice choir. While numerous famous singers and musicians played at the festival over the decades, including Louis Armstrong, Frankie Avalon and Mahalia Jackson, for many Chicagoans and their beaming parents, the highlight of the show was no doubt their own children. Thanks for reading!
The Sun
30-06-2025
- The Sun
Furious family of murdered university lecturer slam decision to move killer ex in ‘soft' jail with gym and pool tables
THE family of a university lecturer murdered by her estranged husband are furious he has been moved to a 'soft' jail. Paul Butler, 53, knifed Claire Chick, 48, at least 23 times in the street following a six-month stalking campaign. 3 3 Ex-bouncer Butler — jailed for a minimum of 27 years in April — has been transferred to Category C HMP Aylesbury. Lags spend over eight hours a day out of cells and have access to a gym and pool tables. The Ministry of Justice has not explained the move. Claire's family have set up an 18,000-signature petition demanding all murderers start sentences in Category A jails. Daughter Bethany said: 'We are a family completely shattered by this diabolical decision of our 'justice' system.' 'In our opinion, anyone convicted of murder should at least begin their sentence in a Category A prison. 'We feel our mother was let down by our local police force, and now we continue to lose faith in the justice system.' Claire's partner at the time of her death, Paul Maxwell, voiced his support when the petition launched, saying: 'These women deserve justice. 'It's them and those family members and people close to them that live the true life sentence, whilst the perpetrators don't.' Last week the University of Plymouth awarded Claire a posthumous PhD.
Daily Mail
17-06-2025
- Daily Mail
Daughters of murdered university lecturer urge prison service to move her killer ex-husband to Category A jail
The heartbroken family of murdered Claire Chick have been left horrified after finding out her estranged husband is locked up in a low-security prison - just two months after he was convicted of stabbing her outside her home. Paul Antony Butler, 53, killed the university lecturer, 48, in a frenzied attack in Plymouth in January this year following a six-month campaign of stalking when he refused to accept their relationship was over. The former doorman is now holed up at HMP Aylesbury - a Category C jail where lags can take podcasting lessons, attend book clubs and three quarters spend more than eight hours a day out of their cells. Now Ms Chick's eldest daughter Bethany Hancock-Baxter has condemned Butler's situation as an 'egregious oversight' as she shared her horror at the news. In a petition - which has now topped 17,000 signatures - she is now hoping to put pressure on the government to mandate all murder convicts be sent straight to Category A jails. She said: 'This is an egregious oversight, as placing proven dangerous murderers in less secure environments undermines the severity of their crimes and does not adequately account for public safety concerns. 'Category A prisons are high-security facilities designed to manage and monitor the most dangerous offenders, minimizing the risks to society and ensuring that justice is appropriately served. 'This change is necessary not only for public safety but also as a measure of justice for the victims and their families who have suffered unimaginable loss.' Plymouth Crown Court heard the mother-of-two's murder was the culmination of a months of harassment, stalking and violence at the hands of Butler. Ms Chick had reported him to police six times before her murder. Category C are the most lax jails with the exception of open prisons. They focus on training to help convicts develop skills to help them resettle following their release. HMP Aylesbury boasts that criminals in their cookery classes create 'restaurant quality' dishes and keep a photographic portfolio of their dinners. Pictures show polytunnels where lags do gardening, while a recent report said there are book clubs that promote 'reading for pleasure and study. 'By signing this petition, you are advocating for a safer society and a more just penal system that accurately reflects the heinous nature of murder.' Among the education facilities are bicycle repair, barbering and radio and podcasting workshops. Judge Robert Linford said the former nightclub doorman and taxi driver had carried out a 'deliberate and frenzied murderous attack'. He added: 'You did not just hurt and kill Claire you have caused untold misery to her friends and family 'The loss of Claire has left an irreplaceable void in the lives of people. You are responsible for all this suffering and you alone. 'If you are released, and I emphasise if you are released, you will be on licence for the rest of your life.' Butler, dressed in a blue and white zip-up top over a white t-shirt, wept in the dock at Plymouth Crown Court as statements were read out from her family and new partner Paul Maxwell. Addressing Butler directly, Claire's eldest daughter Ms Hancock-Baxter said: 'The anger I have for you is one I have never experienced in my life. 'Even with this anger and immense hate I have for you I couldn't bring myself to do that to anybody. 'All I can do is imagine her being petrified knowing you were going to kill her, the number 23 is all I can think. How can you do that to somebody you claim to love.' A statement from her father, Alan Butler, was also read to the court. In it he said: 'Claire was kind, caring, bubbly and larger than life. 'She'd asked for the police to help her several times. I thought wrongly that she was safe, it eats away at me that I couldn't protect her. 'She died in horrendous circumstances and I am tortured by the thought of what happened that night. 'You have murdered my daughter, taken our future, broken my heart and you will go straight to hell.' Lydia Peers, Claire's youngest daughter, said: 'Paul Butler did this to her and he has done this to our family, his selfish mind and cold-blooded hands caused all this pain we feel today and will continue to feel. 'You didn't love her in the slightest, stabbing her 23 times isn't love, that's murder. You, Paul, are a murderer. 'This is no accident, this is no mistake, you made sure she was gone and never coming back. 'How dare you do this to our family. I will miss her happiness, she was the light that lit up any room she ever went into. 'The pain I am feeling today is the worst kind of pain ever, it is an emptiness and a loss.' Mr Maxwell glared at Butler as he said: 'I loved Claire, she was beautiful, funny, kind and made the world smile whenever she was around. The loss of Claire has left an irreplicable void in my life. 'The terror from that night that somebody might harm me just as Butler harmed Claire that night is forever overwhelming in my mind. 'No punishment can undo what has been done but I urge the court to consider the devastating impact this had had on my life. 'The suffering you inflicted will not be forgotten and neither will the fight for justice, today the voice of the victim Claire Chick will not go unheard.' Taking to social media after the petition was launched, Mr Maxwell added: 'These women deserve justice. 'It's them and those family members and people close to them that live the true life sentence, whilst the perpetrators don't.' Claire met Butler when she moved in next door to him on Stangray Avenue, Plymouth, following the breakdown of her first marriage in 2021. The couple married in June 2024 but by August the relationship had already broken down and Claire told him she no longer wanted to live with him. The following month she first called the police to report his stalking. Jealous Butler continued to terrorise Claire including waiting outside her house, peering through her windows and placing a tracker in her car. On November 22 he was arrested for assaulting her by pushing her over, causing bruising. On December 31 he was arrested again for stalking her and given bail conditions not to approach her. He changed his Facebook name to 'Stangray Strangler', prompting Claire to tell her daughter: 'I wish he would just get on with it and put me out of my misery'. In a final witness statement to police, she wrote: 'I honestly feel like Butler will kill me if further action isn't taken immediately.' The court was shown CCTV and dashcam footage of the moment on January 22 when 6ft 5in Butler, wearing a camouflage coat with a hood up, grappled with Claire outside a flat she had rented to escape him before repeatedly driving a knife 10cm into her chest. Joanna Martin KC, prosecutor, told the court there was 'no chance of survivability' and Claire almost certainly died at the scene. Earlier in the day Butler had visited nursing lecturer Claire's office in breach of his bail conditions but was chased off by security. He later bought a set of kitchen knives from Sainsbury's in the city centre before walking to the Hoe area of Plymouth where Claire's flat was located. After murdering Claire, Butler dumped the jacket and knife nearby and fled, texting a friend 'I'm pretty sure I ended her. I loved her so much.' He was found the following evening by police having barricaded himself in a hotel room in Liskeard, Cornwall and taken an overdose of painkillers. In March Butler - who has previous sex assault convictions - pleaded guilty to murdering Claire and possession of a bladed article. The MOJ has been contacted for comment.
