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A PARTIAL ECLIPSE of the Sun will be visible across Ireland this morning and astronomers are urging people to be careful not to injure their eyesight if trying to view it.
Astronomy Ireland is running an Eclipse Watch at its headquarters in Blanchardstown, west Dublin, this morning for the last eclipse of the Sun visible from Ireland until 2024.
Telescopes with special filters fitted to the front of them will allow a safe and close-up view of the eclipse from 10.06am until 11.40am.
The experts said that the maximum eclipse is at 10.52am. Solar eclipses occur whenever the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, which casts its shadow down on the planet.
“If you cannot make it to the Astronomy Ireland Eclipse Watch you can still witness the eclipse from anywhere in Ireland by using simple techniques like the pin hole method I describe in this month’s Astronomy Ireland magazine,” said David Moore, Editor of Astronomy Ireland Magazine and Founder of the society.
“However, you should not look at the Sun at any stage of the eclipse with the naked eye, and certainly not with binoculars or telescopes as you can permanently damage your eyesight in a fraction of a second.
“We want everyone to have a safe view of this eclipse and there are details of how to do this in Astronomy Ireland magazine and on our website astronomy.ie.”
Moore said partial eclipses of the Sun are rarely visible from Ireland occurring roughly every couple of years.
He added: “Total eclipses of the Sun are even rarer and much more spectacular as day turns to night for a few minutes and stars can be seen in the daytime sky. The last total solar eclipse visible from Irish soil was in 1724 and the next won’t be until 2090.”
Get any pictures of the eclipse? We’d love to see them. Please send them on to pictures@thejournal.ie.
Another proud record for our dear leaders
@Shaun Gallagher: it will be 20,000 by Christmas
@Shaun Gallagher: i thought we turned a corner.
@Lee Casey: we turned 4 corners and are back where we started.
This FF/FG led government should be ditched, they have failed miserably.
@Leo Martin: Indeed they have. Unfortunately the odds of the current Opposition doing any better are close to zero.
@Tony Murphy: “….the odds………..”
Did you fact check that with Ladbrokes?
@Tony Murphy: so better the devil you know or…?
@Tony Murphy: well they can only try!
@Tony Murphy: Your post perfectly sums up what’s wrong with Ireland!
@Steve: So you think I’m wrong then?
@Tony Murphy: We can only judge the government on their record and the facts that currently exist. Speculating on how much better or worse their replacement will be is totally futile.
@Tony Murphy: “So you think I’m wrong then?”
I wouldn’t bet on you being right.
@Tony Murphy: But still its better to vote for Sinn Fein and give them the chance. If they don’t deliver their always can be voted out again. FG/FF don’t deliver any how exept more hardship overall for lower incomes.
@Hans Vos: I’m ok with that and will probably vote SF if only to get the current mob out. But I’m not hopeful…..
@Steve: No @LeoMartin maybe!
This is only the start, evictions will surpass at least 10,000 this year.
“it is outrageous that I haven’t been given a free newly built house to house me and my 3 children” The attitude in this country of laziness and blame everyone else is sickening. We are just enabling people to do nothing, how anyone could be unemployed in the current climate is beyond me. No government could keep up with the sheer numbers of people looking for handouts.
The only people who are getting free houses these days are landlords. Social housing tenants pay 15% of their wages to rent. We’re at full employment. And if you think workers are not becoming homeless then I’m afraid you’re out of touch with the reality where even us who went to university can’t afford or attain the bare necessity that is a home.
@IronMan2020: What if you are living on your own and the apartment you are currently renting is been sold? There are no apartments on the market to rent that would be affordable for someone on a single income. Moving to the middle of nowhere is no option, either when the job depends on reliable internet connection and even with a permanent contract and above average salary as a single one doesn’t get a mortgage. So buying is also out of the question.
@IronMan2020: Why rant? People are as ever seeking affordable accommodation. Are you equally prejudiced against people with housing or apartments for sale? Do you rant against anyone who pays minimum wages? Because unlike in your day, a basic wage just isn’t enough anymore. People can’t save because they’re paying high rents. The cost of housing has at least trebled and you’re here doing zip to help anyone struggling.
@IronMan2020: What about people with disabilities, do they not deserve any support, no?
@Inno Items: The circumstances you have referred to are completely different to the point I’m making. But anyway… what does this single income person deserve? The perfect apartment in the most desirable location but to pay less and be funded by the government? Where as the couple next door with two incomes, same apartment in the same location pay more all for being a couple? Also there is Internet outside the pale.
@IronMan2020: hate to burst your bubble, but not everyone looking for “free housing” as you call it is unemployed, many are hard working and would love to buy their own home however with the price of private rentals very little left over at the end of the mth to save for own house. Always the same in this country, blame each other on why the situation is this bad. And just so u know, not everyone who wants the “free house”
@9QRixo8H: Landlords ? They have bought the house and are the owner ? 15% is a savage deal to be getting. Are we really at full employment ? A lot of letters being posted on a Monday morning in my local town so… I agree that if you are in employment you should be able to afford a mortgage and home to call your own… it is ridiculous that you could be paying more in rent than you’d be allowed pay back on a mortgage and doing it for a number of years.
@IronMan2020: Its not under any circumstances unemployed people, there’s lots of families with both parents working their asses off + teachers nurses childcare minders junior doctors ECT ECT ECT that either can no longer pay the ridiculously high rents & mortgages!
@IronMan2020:” Are we really at full employment ?”- This is the thing people don’t get- Milton Freidman (the neoliberal economist) calculated the “natural rate” of unemployment at about about 5%. By that he meant that if unemployment starts to go below 5%, wages in low earning groups will start to go up, creating a wage-price inflationary spiral. People didn’t like the term “natural rate”, so now they use the more confusing term Nairu- “non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment”. If unemployment starts to go below about 4.8%, the banks raise their interest rates to create unemployment and avoid wages going up. That’s the way it works, that is the prescription for high employment and they will never allow for full employment in this country as long as neoliberal ideology is dictating economic policy. Having a set amount of people on the dole and alive is functional to neoliberal economics as it ensures the market competitivity of low earners in a global market place. Its the same reason that neoliberal ideology is perfectly fine with the state subsidising workers’ wages with welfare payments- because it keeps wages artificially low thus ensuring the sacred “competitivity”.
Look at the CSO and you’ll see that 25% of 2 parent working families with 1-3 children take home less than 30,000. Rent in my town will be about 15,600 a year. That would leave a 2 parent family with 2 children with 60 Euro each per person per week after rent. If they didn’t have access to welfare, they would all be going homeless. About a third of families in that group take home 40,000 or less.
Who else is getting the Daft.ie advertisements for multi million dream mansions whenever there is an article in relation to the housing crisis or homelessness? Not exactly sensitive of The Journal. Borderline bad taste.
Profit and Greed won’t build Homes for the Homeless,Government council schemes Do ,so stop listening to VESTED interest and Get a Bloody move on;You are letting down a whole Generation ..
@Larry Rawson: I am guessing you are expecting those who are working hard to pay for the roofs over their own heads to pay for these new homes you want built?
@Sun Rise: it was done in the fifty’s when there wasn’t a shilling in the country.
@Sun Rise: I think it’s only fair to have enough affordable housing that anyone on minimum wage can afford somewhere to live and eat and travel to work or study. Otherwise people emigrate and contribute to another country because they are worn down renting substandard accommodation here. What about all those building standards waived by Fianna Fail that left home owners trapped in damp crumbling homes? What about the people who paid all their lives – taxes, pensions, and are now facing homelessness? Did you not read that our government already Has the money to invest in public housing and isn’t using it?
@Sun Rise: We have already paid for them in our Taxes ,19 billion surplus
@Sun Rise: Nope, just for the chance to buy or rent a house that is possible in respect of their income.
@Larry Rawson: no house no hope.better off dead
A disgraceful figure
When the country was broke and foreigners didnt want come here and only actuall legimate refugees made the journy here we had no homelessness and here now one of the richest country’s in the world government bragging of massive cash surplus and we have such high amounts of homelessness!
It’s a disgrace and sickening how our politicians and government behave…
@William slevin: We did have homelessness
@David Burns: So you’re suggesting that half a million or so foreigners don’t have an impact on the housing shortage? Genuine question.
@Tony Murphy: I would say the tax paid into our economy by foriegners far outweighs the negative impact of them being here. But this blaming of foriegners is a red herring to get the eye off the government who are making an mess of things.
@William slevin: When the country was broke people saved up and sent their kids abroad to find work. That’s why homelessness wasn’t a big thing.
@David Burns: It’s not a matter of “blaming” foreigners. Simple maths tell us that if you dramatically increase the number of people in a country you’ll put pressure on housing availability (and schools, healthcare, transport etc.)
@Tony Murphy: simple maths would point out many of the foreigners built additional housing and enriched our economy to get us here. You seem to want them to go away and that is exactly how the UK wanted to treat the Irish when we were poor and they used our labour and skills. If you don’t have shame for your views it appears you have no empathy or knowledge of our history.
Increasing the population while allowing the services to stagnate is indeed a peculiar policy.
Can’t house our own but can build houses for refugees…. Crazy! (this comment will be removed)
@Stoic Savage: mine has been removed also but for a different reason.
@Stoic Savage: why remove an honest comment though…oops did i just say that!
@Stoic Savage: “our own’ fml
Recently an asylum seeker won a case in court that being homeless in Dublin meant the govt was in breach of his rights
No Irish homeless person has ever taken such a case
The lesson from this is that Irish citizens matter less than asylum seekers
With apologies for being racist by pointing this out
Shocking, and that’s probably not counting the people staying with family as they’re considered homed. What i dont understand is these modular homes for Ukrainian refugees soon to be ready, why irish homeless families aren’t being given these to live in. Yo could then put the Ukrainian refugee in the hotel, hostel, hub or what ever the irish family left. After all these refugees will be going home to Ukraine eventually……
Surprise surprise, who could have anticipated allowing hundreds of thousands into your country could cause a massive housing crisis. The worst part is the fake concern by the government.
Is that including the 2000 that is now being housed in Airways industrial estate by the airport? Coach loads being dropped off… this is beyond ridiculous now, as a country we should be ashamed of ourselves at this stage, we have sat down and allowed it
Continuing to fail the Irish! This government have nothing to be proud of these days
@Joanne Stokes:
continuing to fail the Irish? Who do you think provides emergency accommodation?
@Alan Dempsey: Non Irish
Maybe people in emer should make a choice not to have so many kids?
@Paul: What exactly do you suggest they do with an underage dependent child? Hand them into care and cope miserably by sleeping under a hedge in the rain? These children are future voters. Everyone except high earners is paying tax at every turn. The government has a surplus and hasn’t built adequate public housing in years. Why should children suffer for this?
@Paul: im sure when these children were born, the family had what they thought was a secure home in which to raise them, but times have changed beyond all recognition. Some wages barely cover the day to day living, who ever thought that €2000 a mth to rent house/apartment would be the norm
Someone somewhere is making a lot of money from this hardship.
@Kevin O’Malley: Absolutely. The CEO’s and high paid advocates of the myriad of charities that make up the homeless industry.
While our Minister for Homelessness fiddles while Rome burns! Him and our elected after five counts Taoiseach and a Tanaiste who got in after six counts.
Odd that, sure it was national headlines it went down by 12 people last month.
Let’s see the good side
First batch of 200 modular homes for Ukrainian refugees to be ready next month
THE FIRST BATCH of modular homes to house Ukrainians will be ready at the end of May, Government sources have said.
It is understood that around 800 Ukrainian refugees will be housed in the modular units from early June.
As of the latest CSO figures from February, there were just under 75,000 Ukrainian refugees in Ireland.
@ibrahim Sudane: so that’s another 92.75 batches of house to be built for the Ukrainians who by definition don’t meet the criteria to be even call refugees according to the UN 1951 refugees convention…
All before the irish are even looked at…
@ibrahim Sudane: Wonderful! So we’ve just built a whole load of Soviet-style concrete monstrosities costing nearly €100 million on hitherto green amenity land for people who for the most part shouldn’t be here.
@Tony Murphy: Who exactly, shouldn’t be here and why?
@Emmet Murphy: NOBODY coming to Ireland is a genuine refugee for the simple reason that they would of necessity have to have passed through at least one safe country on the way. Regarding Ukrainians, the war zone is confined to small proportion of the country so I wonder how many coming here are genuine refugees.
@William slevin: It seems to be the same everywhere in the EU. Refrugees getting prioritised – worse in Berlin: up to 35 bus connections between Berlin and Kiev daily for only 44.98 € and four direct train connections daily for 60 €. Social Welfare is 502 € per month and for every child 348 € (6 to 13 years old) or 420 € (14 to 17 years old). Housing, utilities etc. paid for by the council. Healthcare is free. Lots of them travel to Germany to visit the Dentist or have surgery and medical treatments done, mostly hip and knee replacements, three weeks rehab inclusive. It’s currently very difficult to get an appointment. Elderly people had to vacate their nursing homes on a very short notice, because refrugees wanted to move in. The situation seems to be similar to here.
I was talking to a woman yesterday, a landlord, and she told me her tenant, who’s moving on, took every bulb out of the house with him, when challenged he said “sure they’re only cost a few euro each”!
@Pat Barry: Or probably not… I just replaced all my bulbs with LED and changed light fittings that could not take LED. It’s not too bad, but it adds up. For the one bed apartment I am living in it cost me about 50 €. The landlord should deduct this from the deposit. This is theft.
Gave all the houses away to foreign nationals who have come here in droves for social housing and left our own with nothing . Sorry to upset the snowflake, but that’s what happened
I am surprised that we only have 12000 homeless in the country when one considers the open door policy this country has when it comes to asylum seekers etc. The 12000 figure only makes the news because it’s the one thing the opposition party have to beat the government with and it doesn’t matter who is ruling the country things won’t change while the open door policy is in place.
@’crafty badger:”@William slevin: When the country was broke people saved up and sent their kids abroad to find work. That’s why homelessness wasn’t a big thing”
That’s one reason very true…but also don’t forget that those that couldn’t afford to buy houses could rent council houses off the state…landlords were non existent…People renting off the state weren’t prey to exorbitant prices of today rising out of control…
My point is we were better off with state providing homes to rent for most that couldn’t afford to buy but the option was their for those to buy that wanted…it was a much better system…and the housing market in this country was for homes not investments…like it is now…
Theirs a reason why it worked then and not now…because of state provided homes that took rent for the cost of the up keep and care of the house…not for profit…
@William slevin: well that isn’t true. There was and always has been private landlords in the country. The reliance on them providing social housing for the government was changed. The social housing you seem to magically appear was created to get people out of private rentals that were falling down. This allowed the older properties to be renovated and many remained in private landlords hands. Very few grand Georgian houses on the North side of the city were lived in by one group and broken into flats. To believe you people would have to be blind and not around in the times they claim.
What s government!.Applause all round for 2 of the most abysmal leaders ever to grace politics. Varadkar and Martin, hang your heads in shame. I forgot..you have no shame. Pigs.
Cherishing all children equally
Even the 3472
Homeless ones…
God help us…
From understanding of these homeless numbers they do not reflect everyone that is homeless, only those that qualify for homeless services. If you do not qualify to be put on the council social housing list, you cannot access homeless services , and therefore you will not be included in these homeless figures. 11,988 people are waiting to be housed by the government,, for the rest of us, the working , above social housing income limits,, we have to figure a way out ourselves without government help and are not recorded in these numbers. We move back home to our parents, move abroad or those who are really stuck,, have moved into our cars. What is the point of these figures, they do not reflect the true housing crisis???
Now I know why I haven’t been on here for quite a while…if ya don’t support the landed gentry it’s good luck to you.
What happened to the 10000+ extra homeless people that were going to be added to the list according to the shinners and the rest of the opposition???
Any day you set a new record is a good day.
A victim of our secess , population now too big due to influx .
No infastucture in place to cater for everyone in some ways i wish we had a recession and leveling off.
This country is now to expensive and changing too fast
Didn’t realise it was the landlords responsibility to house people
Yet the government are building the houses for the refugees ,, absolutely shocking
Why can’t they use the LDA, or Irish Water as a housing authority and let them build and rent Social housing. Take it from Local authorities a dedicated housing Authority set up like the ESB or IW etc. and let them take care of it.
Hmm… I wonder why that is happening? Its almost as if there’s no profit to be made in the Irish homeless
@craic_a_tower:”@William slevin: well that isn’t true. There was and always has been private landlords in the country. The reliance on them providing social housing for the government was changed. The social housing you seem to magically appear was created to get people out of private rentals that were falling down. This allowed the older properties to be renovated and many remained in private landlords hands. Very few grand Georgian houses on the North side of the city were lived in by one group and broken into flats. To believe you people would have to be blind and not around in the times they claim.”
What time period are you talking about…so I said their was private land Lords just that their wasn’t alot of them….
You go back to the 80′s most people either lived in houses they owned or council houses/flats…
So what I said wasn’t false and you simply focus of the tenements…their was alot more in this country than the tenements ya know the rest of the country…
Emigrate you lazy lot
Nomandnomandnom
Not to worry….Labour promise 1million accommodation shall be built….
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