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TÁNAISTE AND FOREIGN Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore has announced a new “recognition” awards system for members of the diaspora who are considered to have served Ireland or Irish communities abroad.
In his opening address to the Global Irish Economic Forum at Dublin Castle this morning, Gilmore applauded the “influence of the global Irish” which he said spread further in the world than any other small country. He described the Irish diaspora as hard-working and creative and that Ireland should take pride in their achievements. He said:
I am, therefore, pleased to announce that the Government will shortly introduce a new system of recognition for sustained and distinguished service to Ireland or Irish communities abroad by individual members of the diaspora.
He insisted that the system would NOT be an honours system but “rather will involve the formal recognition every year of individuals from a range of sectors at a ceremony in Ireland”.
The Tánaiste said that more detailed proposals would be brought before the Government shortly. The Irish Constitution does not support an honours system or nobility classification such as that conferred by the English monarchy.
The Government awarded its first Certificate of Irish Heritage two weeks ago to Bridget Hunter, the mother of a New York firefighter who died on 9/11. Joseph Hunter died while attending the site of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in 2001. People have been able to apply for the certificates since last Friday – but unlike that honorary first one, they will have to pay €40 plus delivery costs for them.
He also announced that an online network for Irish people “and those who think Irish”, WorldIrish.com, was being launched at the forum by John McColgan.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s opening speech recalled that in the same hall where the main forum was taking place, the Government and the President had welcomed Queen Elizabeth II last May – “a sight, an even, we thought we might never see”.
He said that he felt that the event was part of Ireland’s bid to get its “message of regeneration and resurgence” out to the rest of the world. He paid tribute to the late co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, who died on Wednesday night at his Californian home, saying that his example of creativity and leadership set the bar for the next generation.
It is that same spirit, that same creativity, that same love of Ireland, belief in Ireland, that brings us here to Dublin Castle today.
Clearly intent on reminding us of the State visits earlier this year, the Taoiseach referred to US President Barack Obama’s words of encouragement to Ireland on the steps of College Green, saying that our best days are ahead of us. As with Eamon Gilmore in a later response to Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams at the forum, he focused on some positives in the Irish economic situation in recent months, including:
He said: “My vision is to make Ireland the best small country in the world in which to do business by 2016.”
Dont think there customers are around long enough to get 3 strickes !
Strikes *
* don’t
* their
three strikes and YOU’RE…..
Going to UPC
Isn’t it amazing that we actually NEED a Data Protection Commissioner anymore? Especially after the Property Tax fiasco, when the Government of Ireland ignored its own data laws? And people got in a tizzy about the US spying on people? Is it any different?
I think the headline should read ‘Three Downloads and We’re Going on Strike’. Eircom employees are finding it hard work keeping up with user activity these days
their broadband speed is so s**t that everyones switching to upc the speed is great ,now what film will i download and watch tonight :)
Would love them to give me a strike ,you just sue them for liable .In order to prove their case, they would have to break the data protection laws.simple .Remember they are accusing people of breaking the law .
Supreme Court disagrees with you
Er, have you read even the headline of the article? It’s a ruling of the Supreme Court so you are talking nonsense.
no it doesn’t ,a pub can refuse you service but” wearing white socks” and being accused of a crime is the difference .
Small print in your broadband contract disagrees with you.
Small print can not remove anyone’s right’s ,So does it say” we can accuse you of a crime and you have no right of redress ” if it did thats a criminal act!
You have a point, snooping on us, ehh?
@Jeff: They would be in breach of DP laws if they shared the info with the record companies. The DP laws and breaches of privacy do not apply when disclosing evidence in court.
First music hub and now this…….shite day to be an eircom customer.
Thankfully I’m not.
I implemented my own one-strike policy on crappy ISPs. As soon as my Eircom contract allowed it, I closed my account and moved to UPC
They should really worry more about appeasing their customer, than record labels
Hidemyass.com!
I left eircom years ago, with UPC now And can’t fault them, imagine WiMAX issue warnings and then throttle service, end result is Customers leaving in their droves, good luck eircom, your going to need it
Wimax is just awful. Never ever ever touch them with barge pole.
Upc seem by far to be the best but where I live I have to use 3 broadband. Still 100 times better tgen Wimax
Check out the ratemyisp website, you can see what most people are saying about imagine, horrendous company
Agreed, would never ever use wimax again. Terrible speeds (dependent on where you are but we had line of sight with the mast, and still got an average 0.5mbps on a 7mbps line), terrible customer service. Convinced they lied about us going over their cap. Sent threatening letters for their box weeks after I’d returned it!
Was with Wimax for a while – racked up over 140 phone calls to them over their disgusting service.
Eircom coming tomorrow to replace them.
Good riddance to Wimax.
This is what I did with imagine, I told them if they went ahead with their throttling of my service I would Leave them first chance I got, customer service more or less laughed at me telling me I couldn’t leave as I was under 12 month contract, I said ok, then 18mths later when UPC became available on my street I got it, I rang in imagine to cancel WiMAX, they apologised for their treatment of me, offered me free service for a period of time to keep me, TO LATE, I told them to switch me off, then within 12 hours they wanted to take back their external box on my house, I arranged to give them access on a date and time I knew I wouldn’t be home, van came out, they called me to say they couldn’t get access and asked if i was I home, I told them sorry I’m working, I was called into work short notice, I rescheduled access 6 more times before they got the box back, one day for every day they throttled my service, van had to come to my home 7 times before they got the box back, so in the end it cost them More than me to throttle me, I’ve since convinced several neighbours to not sign up for WiMAX, they didn’t, so ultimately it was very costly to treat me badly, I advise anyone to do the same
illegal to download music
but can still access childp0rn ,
talk about arse about face
You can?? That’s naughty tut tut
You’d be mad to stick with eircom for broadband services, the last time i used eircom for internet was about 10 years ago dialing up to 1892 150 150 to connect, they robbed people back then and they still rob customers now!
Eircom now offer 6months free to customers, i wouldnt even be tempted knowing they block websites and monitor what you download… ive heard UPC was also forced by the courts to start blocks tpb
Blocking domains like thepiratebay.se isnt going to make any difference, people will just use a proxy list such as piratebayproxylist.com, if all them domains dont work, others will change DNS settings away from eircoms.
Its a cat and mouse game, Service providers should never interfere and block access to websites.
UPC were ordered but have yet to comply.
After reaching a negotiated settlement with ISP Eircom to deal with illicit file-sharing, the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) took ISP UPC to court after it refused to implement a similar scheme. IRMA wanted UPC to disconnect persistent pirates, UPC insisted there was no legal basis for doing so… it will be intresting to see if UPC keep fightin or will they give in and comply.
Byyys you are out of sync. UPC and all other ISPs involved in that case will block Piratebay in a few days after the music industry won their court case. The block will be largely inconsequential for most users, but the music industry is a little challenged by anything Internet-related so they seem to dim to realise.
And I’ve been busy downloading the wire, breaking bad and game of thrones until they do!
@Joerg I think Byyys might be referring to IRMA’s request for UPC to implement the three strike policy and not the recent request to block TPB. I believe UPC have 30 days (which must be soon enough).
I got 1 strike for downloading one direction album for daughter eircom said it would be on file for 12 months i asked could they change it to porn the shame of it.
hahahaha
Sounds like a great way of getting out of a contract with them without having to pay the cancellation fee :D
I would sincerely love to change providers, but unfortunately Eircom is all I have. Rural connection. Meh !!
If you are stuck, I’ve heard BTguard is a great service.
http://lifehacker.com/5863380/how-to-completely-anonymize-your-bittorrent-traffic-with-btguard
I’ve had eircom for the last 3 years or so.. . And I have to say I’ve not had one problem with it. I constantly download. . . Have a few gadgets x box sky demand and two laptops on it. I have pretty good speeds on it too. . I know there is people out there who don’t like it. . But I’d rather have no t’Internet then have imagine or upc
It still won’t mean that musicians get paid the royalties they’ve been due and promised for five or ten years or more. Record companies will drink any benefits if any at lunch. It won’t force downloaders to buy music either. The figures record companies bandy about as lost profits are based on illegal downloads, where it’s taken as fact that people would have had to buy them. Total fantasy. As for Eircom and their policy, anyone who knows how to do it without them knowing will still do it. Just a wee bit of research will tell you how to get Crystal Swing’s latest album without getting caught.
ireland is quite leniant on downloading compared to Germany for example….we got an 800 euro fine for dowloading one film and then had to hire a solicitor for 300 to respond to it…one strike here and you’re broke! luckily have figured out alternatives to downloading :)
And Eircom wonder why its going down the tube…whats the point in having the Net if i cant Download what i want…the internet Was created as a free and open space to share…then the lazy corporations came and couldnt innovate their budiness models….Eircom in luiquidation in the next 5 years
This is ridiculous next they will be monitoring or calls and text if this is not already being done where are the privacy laws I’m not downloading illegal content but the thought that my usage is watched is alarming this justice system needs to stop bowing to big firms just to please them. If this is the way its going why not put cameras in every household to watch for illegal activity. Joke……
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