Senator Zappone's Seanad article source linked

Senator Katherine Zappone wrote this article for the SBP giving examples of contributions that Seantors made to law whether they were officially amendments passed by them or not. I have tried to find source links for every example Senator Zappone gives, and put them in spreadsheet and inserted them in a copy of the article below.

.@LFSR2 All amendments accepted for Personal Insolvency Bill were Government amendments. #seanref #voteyes

— Fine Gael Official (@FineGaelToday) September 9, 2013

All Personal Insolvency Bill Seanad amendments were Govt. Not even one by any Senator #Seanad

— Charlie Flanagan (@CharlieFlanagan) September 9, 2013

etc.

It should bother you that among this talk of Dail Reform that politicians are discounting Senators contributions to bills, think, they could say the same thing about the Dail TD's contribution, if all amendments to bills were 'government amendments' we can get rid of all opposition TDs, most TDs, no need for them.

This seemed to be the attitude of Fine Gael deputy referendum director Regina Doherty on Tonight with Vincent Browne this week when he challenged his guests about the strictness of the whip harming democracy and making the government unaccountable, she said that government TDs vote for laws drafted by government and as they had majority of TDs their votes always passed and the opposition always lost she didn't see a problem with this. So Regina what are opposition TDs for? Why are they in the Dail at all?

One presumes she excepts that if an opposition TD makes a good point or amendment that if the government agrees with politically it will be incorporated into the bill, by adoption of the amendments by government or through the whips allowing the majority to vote for the opposition amendment, this happens very rarely. But is this as far as it goes? Doherty pretended not to get that there needs to be an element of democracy within the Dail itself to hold the government to account, and that the backbench TDs shouldn't simply be lobby fodder.

Argue for Seanad abolition as hard as you want, it is archaic and elitist but by repeating this idea that Senators make no contribution to laws that the government passed, by discounting them completely you are also diminishing the contribution of TDs in the Dail, the house we'll be left with, and I presume you want their contributions to be acknowledged and be increased.

Sunday Business Post Opinion: Democracy’s the victim if Seanad is abolished

The Seanad is an important part of the law making process and a counterweight to the government.

In light of recent polls, optimism is rising that the unwarranted referendum on the abolition of the Seanad will fail next October.

I welcome this development. I strongly argue that the Seanad is in need of reform, but it is most definitely not in need of abolition. To abolish the institution without setting out how its functions are to be replaced is beyond folly -- it is simply dangerous to democracy in this state.

The costs argument presented by Minister for Enterprise Richard Bruton is an indefensible red herring. The real issue is about how power is exercised.

Checks and balances

Nearly 50 years ago, the Report of the Committee on the Constitution of 1967 [link?] stressed the importance of the Seanad in the context of the principle of checks and balances by saying how vital it is to "have a safeguard against ill-considered or hasty action on the part of the first house [the Dáil]" that can give "more comprehensive treatment" to "important technical matters" regarding legislation.

In the absence of meaningful reform of either the Dáil or local government, the necessity of upholding this principle is now more urgent in Ireland than it ever was.

One key function of the Seanad is to scrutinise independently-proposed legislation and bring the government of the day to account.

The strengthening of the party whip mechanism in recent years translates to a Dáil that does not so much represent constituents, but rather rubber stamps policy handed down from upon high by the Cabinet. As a result it is a Dáil where nuanced debate on key legislation and policy is stifled: it's either compliant or acrimonious and not much in-between.

In contrast, members of the Seanad have tabled 529 amendments to 14 Bills that have been passed over the past two years. Being credited for their particular amendments is generally not a priority of senators -- their focus is on strengthening the reach of the particular legislation. As a result, data that maps Seanad inputs that have been subsumed in legislation is lacking.

I know, for example, that the exemption from local property tax that children and youth organisations enjoy came about because of Senator Jillian van Turnhout's recommendations.[ Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) Bill 2013, Noonan adopts amendment, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan credits Senator van Turnhout with the amendment even though all amendments were government amendments ] As a result of exchanges I had in the Seanad, three Finance Acts were amended (regarding equivalence in taxation law between spouses and civil partners).[ Finance bills 1, 2, 3 ] Likewise, as a direct result of the expert knowledge in the Seanad, the Education and Training Boards Bill 2012 ensures the inclusion of learner organisations' representatives on Education and Training Boards. [ Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn acknowledging Senators on focus on learner organisations ] I facilitated the access of civil society organisations to influence the Personal Insolvency Bill 2012 that resulted in the inclusion of minimum income guidelines for debtors in the legislation. [ Alan Shatter credits a number of government amendments to Senators ] [ The InsolvencyJournal.ie credits Senators with improvements to the PIB].

These, and many equivalent legislative inputs, are categorised as government amendments, thereby 'disappearing' the role of Seanad members. Ordinarily, this is not important, but now in the context of Seanad abolition on the rationale of its purported 'irrelevance' it is useful to help voters get a deeper sense of what business is actually done there.

Democratic deliberation

Besides scrutinising proposed legislation, another vital function of the Seanad is to initiate and explore issues of public interest and concern.

The Independent group of Taoiseach's nominees, to which I belong, put forward two motions on the issue of the future of prostitution legislation,[ 1, 2 ] as a result of which the issue was brought to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality.

A huge public consultation took place and a report was issued, with radical recommendations for changes in legislation, which are being laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas.

Senator Mary Ann O'Brien tabled a motion on the need to establish a Charities Regulator that was debated in the Seanad. [Charities Regulation: Motion] In mid-July of this year, the Minister for Justice and Equality [Alan Shatter] announced this would be created soon. Again, this is one of many examples of how deliberation on issues of policy and law is integral to the Seanad's work.

Generating ideas for law and policy

The Seanad has long been a site where new ideas for law and policy have been generated. There are many such examples: Senator Feargal Quinn's Construction Contracts Bill has now passed into law, and Senator Ivana Bacik introduced the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act [ a private members bill in 2011 that the Minister recognised led to the Civil Registration (Amendment) Bill 2012 that was enacted] that allows humanists to officiate at marriages, while Senator Kelly's Wind Turbines Bill 2012 passed to Committee stage last year.

My own Legal Recognition of Gender Bill 2013 that offers a simple legal pathway to gender recognition can justifiably be seen to have triggered the unexpected publication of the long-awaited Heads of Bill on the same issue. The Minister for Justice will be seeking the opinion of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission regarding section 37 of the Equal Status Act, triggered by a Bill sponsored by Senator Power.

Exercising power

I think we need to have the capacity to ensure there are constraints on a sitting government in the form of checks and balances.

Should the government's abolition bid fail at the referendum, let that be a mandate for reform. The government has already accepted a bill for radical Seanad reform proposed by Senator Feargal Quinn and myself.

As an electorate, we can reject spurious argument and insist on expansion of our democratic capacity rather than endangering it.

In my opinion, on this particular issue, we need to exercise our power, and vote no on October 4.

Dr Katherine Zappone is an Independent Senator

What does the Irish President spend their time doing. Work in progress

Updated with Tableau Public dashboard below for years 2010/11.
I did get some help from coders, via scraperwiki although the poor formatting on president.ie frustrated the ability to scrape past engagements,.. need a mass geocoder.
https://scraperwiki.com/scrapers/irish_president_engagements/
https://scraperwiki.com/scrapers/ie_pres_events_details/
Rough presidential engagements data google spreadsheets data garbled after spreadsheet failed
Functions of the President of Ireland - Citizen Information Board of Ireland.

The President is the Irish Head of State, although he or she plays a mainly ceremonial role in the running of the State. The current President of Ireland is Mary McAleese, who commenced serving her second term as President on 11th November, 2004, and which ends in November 2011 with an election campaign beginning in Autumn 2011.
The Government must approve all Presidential communications, messages or addresses, both to the Oireachtas (Irish houses of Parliament) and to the public.
Many of the powers of the President can only be exercised on the advice of the Government. This means that if the President wishes to exercise a power, he or she must first obtain the advice and agreement of the Government.
The President also possesses some powers that he or she cannot exercise without first consulting with the Council of State.
The President's powers include
Appointing members of the Government, judges and other officials
Summoning and dissolving the Dáil
Convening the Oireachtas
Representing the people
Signing Bills and referring Bills to the Supreme Court
Acting as Supreme Commander of the Defence Forces.

Áras an Uachtaráin Wikipedia Commoms
Generally the Presidents role is split into three parts, upholding the constitution, representing Ireland internationally and meeting and speaking to communities, charities, services and industry.
There is a lot of skepticism in Ireland as to why a politician or professional who would have made great effect in the previous political life would agree to be so restricted to not be able to make further great change in the role of President separate to the policy of the government of the day. while hoping to show how genuinely busy the President with many many engagements each and week, it also seems strange to have someone so highly qualified and experienced spending so much time meeting people and opening buildings rather then spending their time publicly debating and drafting laws and legislation as opposed as to much more discretely as President in reviewing laws passed by the government in power. New candidates for the President are making pronouncements are how they will carry out the role while there's still little much awareness, scrutiny or critique of the details of the President's work. I think the President role is to shake the hands of other foreign heads of state, presidents and kings on deals made by their governments, the weight of the decisions is on the President, similarly with the domestic laws. So I thought I would visualise the President's official diary to see how much time they spend on each role and sub-categorize their acts and engagements.
The President is one of the few Irish politicians who with regularity publishes their diary in public ahead of time on publically accessible web site rather then only directed towards the press. I think the impression of the Presidents would be improved if there were more ways to find out and keep track of their work. The diary should be put in well formatted and reusable format (such as .ics calendar file) and the license that could be spread around to be reused in whole or in part to keep people informed.
Scraperwiki
I have tried to code a scraper puts its such a steep learning curve with so much presumed knowledge, I've previously failed to grasp the looping and syntax needed and there are few examples that you can apply generally. So I put in a request to scraperwiki for some help, a user finddb wrote a ruby scraper which scraped the 2011 engagements. This gave me a csv file I could download and import into a google spreadsheet Although grateful for somebody to write the code for me, I need to split up the time_place variable to possibly geocode the address via Scraperwiki and figure out how scrape all past and future dates and to output and receive the information as it updates daily and weekly, and find the ideal way to share and display the stream of data.






Two coders attempted to scrape the badly formatted engagements data from the president website, but it was too onerous a task and is incomplete. They are about 6,000 records.
Matt's irish_president_engagements scrapper.
Owl's ie_pres_events_details scrapper.



Engagements
I have categorised the engagements as date, year, time, destination, region (destf), day, address, latlng, arasnotaras, details, place, act, issue, constitutional, month. This need further review, further accuracy in geocoding and further judgement on the types of engagement and category which should be applied, I could probably categories more of the foreign affairs as economics trips. I've tried to isolate the active verb, the location, the place, the parties met in each engagement and a more general category of the issue associated with the event. I have categories whether this was constitutional act in regard to reviewing laws, appointing members of government after elections, receiving and appointing ambassador and carrying out state visits or more general public engagements.

Entity Extraction

Entity extraction still isn't easy or perfect, web services come and go, I have used Alchemy API, using the importxml formula in my google spreadsheet. Have to find someway of using all these API's on my spreadsheets beyond the google import limit of 50.

Tagclouds

Word clouds have a bad reputation as anything in chart junk, particularly with word length exaggerating or undermining the importance of a word, but the more I look at the above the more I think it might a useful way to see straight away the keywords of the engagements, school, community centre, Ambassador from Brazil, signed Justice act etc without having to drill down or match colours with issues. I have been looking at the following examples, making it in R or Prefuse seems be the best bet for it, if I can find anyone who done similar.

superbowl twitter geo cloud animation
text analysis election08 stump speeches Tableau word clouds example

geography of presidential campaign rhetoric

Maple – a Web Map Service for Verbal Visualisation Using Tag Clouds Generated from Map Feature Frequencies

timecloud by stef
carto junk
mapping londons surnames
tagmaps discontinued - yahoo
Building a better word cloud Vidi tagmap
tag map using engagement data ugh.


Exhibit
As I have used many, times, before again I used MIT's Simile Exhibit, the faceted browsing dashboard which allows you to map, list and timeline and drill down through data and which is relative easy to make. I used the calendar extension for the first time, make sure you get all the files it needs. Exhibit receives data in JSON form which you can output from a google spreadsheet so that you can edit it by hand.
Irish Presidential Engagements Exhibit. Unfortunately this doesn't work anymore I went over the formula limit in the spreadsheet and now can't revert the document. Google spreadsheets is both great and crap.

You can click on any of the word clouds or select any facet from the sidebar to focus on the engagements on the map or the timeline. Click on the calendar tab or the details tables for further info.
I know there too much info on the screen but I use these exhibit as working visualizations to sort through the information and add categories to chop up the data, and figure out how it works, I'm using the in-google spreadsheet geocoding which is restricted to 50 addresses geocoded at a time, I still need to review each address again.
TimeFlow
TimeFlow by Flowingmedia is desktop program for viewing large amounts of information, it was bought by google and its public development stopped but you can download and use an alpha release by importing csv files.

Tableau Public
Used the freemium visualization dashboard Tableau Public to show map and timeflow style overview of engagements with some interactivity.

Other visualization options Timemap D3 linear heatmap calendar Choosel GWT Visualisation Tableau Public President of Ireland President Engagements bitly bundle of relevant links Irish president engagement details

Dail Constituency Boundaries for Election 2011

Anyone coming to my blog looking for Dail constituencies, I don't have em.

The official Constituency Commission has images and detailed reports on the boundaries and changes.

Go here for the 2012 boundaries in google-kml http://www.tallyroom.com.au/maps (free if credited to Ben Raue ) or here for more detailed ones with Electoral (sub) Divisions http://icampaigned.com/blog/dail-constituency-maps/ (not free) or go Ordnance Survey Ireland for commercial use files.

Shapefiles from the CSO

Irish Dail TDs, members of Ireland's parliament information exhibited, mapped, charted, listed and editable.

This screen shot shows how I have used Simile Exhibit Widget to display Ireland's 166 Dáil TD's, members of Ireland's parliament, information exhibited, mapped, charted, listed and editable.Using information I gathered on this google spreadsheet and having geo-coded their constituency_offices_address' and used that constituency spreadsheet as basis to show information about them on a map of Ireland on top of polygons of Dáil constituencies.

Made with Exhibit from MIT which...

Exhibit enables you to create html pages with dynamic exhibits of data collections without resorting to complex database and server-side technologies. The collections can be searched and browsed using faceted browsing. Assorted views are provided including Timelines, tiles, maps, and more.

I have been very impressed with MIT exhibit, there is a whole suite of systems for displaying large amounts of data simply and lightly. Though its a fair few years old and isn't being updated any more I wasn't sure whether it was worth pursuing and using to create my Irish Politics displays but I haven't seem anything as impressive and easy to adapt for a copy and paste coder like me. Looking around for visualisations, faceted search (which is usually associated with semantic web) and mapping systems, I haven't seen any better. The original creator of Exhibit David Huynh has gone on to work on freebase which hopes to automatically gather and similarly display data,(mainly from wikipedia). Try Dipty for timelines by themselves also. It helps to be able to run it off MIT servers, running it all of your system takes a little bit of changing of calls within the scripts.

Still to do
I need to reduce the heaviness of the page, by removing script from the main html page and putting it in includes, and seeing how to reduce calls by putting the whole system on my host rather then calling to the MIT.

Corrections, for instance do you know where in the town the constituency office is?, go to maps.google.com centre over it then take the latitude and longitude from the link, double check by pasting those coorindates back into the google maps search and then change in the TD spreadsheet and leave a comment on the cell too.

Im looking for medium detail file of polygon data of Dáil Constituencies. In KML or geojson format. I have just gotten an Irish counties KML and traced the maps available with the difference between the counties and constituencies. The .json files is only 1.5mb with each of the 42 constituencies polygon being around a 1000 coordinates, but this is too much and causes a slow script warning in IE.

You can use exhibit with in a semantic mediawiki install, or simpler table wibbit version. You can embed exhibit and timelines in wordpress using Datapress or Drupal once you converted some data to static json file. .json file example with Babel.

The best part of Exhibit is using faceted sidebar menus to display lots of categories of data and combinations of data. And being able to call that from google spreadsheets which you can leave open for editing and correction.

You can pick out any element or facet of the info from the list on the left, click on map or sliders, deselect it by un-checking on the sidebar list or use your browser's back button. You click on any icon to get an info bubble on that TD. You can zoom into the map by clicking on the constituencies map on the right or turn off the constituency polygons below, you can click any of the panels at the top to show, charts and voting maps, look at list of information on the TDs or see all the data on them.

I have made panels showing

Irish TDs • Dublin • Percent Vote • Expenses vs. Votes • Parties • FF TDs • FG TDs • Labour TDs • GP TDs • SF TDs • Ind TDs • Constituencies • Votes • expenses • Donations • Donors • Elections • Travel Details • TD Details • Contact • Position • All Data
which you can combine with the sliders
Terms - Age - Distance from Dail - Percent Vote - Gender

can you think of any more ways to display the data?

Exhibit
MIT Exhibit
I modified the Presidents Births and Death example of which you can see it's simple JSON file. You can use MIT's Babel to convert your data to JSON or XML (create live XML with editgrid.com) or any exhibit friendly form.

I rearranged my information into this google doc file with {labels} so that the Exhibit script can read it as JSON. How to make an exhibit from data fed directly from a Google Spreadsheet You copy code from the examples and Exhibit wiki and add panels that are coded like this

 ex:role="exhibit-view"   id="map1"  ex:collectionID="bothcollection2"  
   ex:viewClass="Exhibit.MapView"
   ex:label="Irish TDs"
   ex:eventlabel=".td"
   ex:size="large"
   ex:zoom="7"
   ex:mapHeight="600"
   ex:center="53.45,-8.0"
   ex:overviewControl="true"
   ex:showSummary="true"
   ex:latlng=".latlng"
   ex:polygon=".constpoly"
   ex:pin="false"
   ex:borderOpacity="1.0"
   ex:borderWidth="1"
   ex:borderColor="purple"
   ex:opacity="0.0"
   ex:showToolbox="false"
   ex:icon=".imageURL"
    
   

...calling the named columns from the google spreadsheets.

Description of how I made the government travel exhibit.

I have used more of the Exhibit extensions, with more maps, bar charts, scatter plots, polygons, and more sliders, gradients and icons,.. copying these example exhibits

and after a lot of searching through the simile mailing list.

Information
I have geo-coded the constituency_offices_address' of the 166 TDs and used that as basis to show information about them on map of Ireland with polygons of constituencies.

Polygons
Adding polygons was major extension from my previous exhibit you can use this version exhibit babel to help you convert kml and other formats to geojson. I adapted the creator David Huynh's election 2008 example and polylines example.
The coder behind werelate.org has created some extensions exhibit pedi maps to make connection icons on the map.

Timelines
I've created a time line of when the currents TDs were first elected. The time line extension is part of its own Simile timeline system which can get more info on how to use on its wiki. Although its not easy to show the times TDs didn't get elected and then returned a following election. (to stop and start the timeline on the same line with the same person). So for the moment it does not show that and goes straight first election to most recent.

Collections and Types
I had to change to having multiple collections in this exhibit to call the types and collections 166 TDS in one spreadsheet and 42 constituency polygons and associated info in another spreadsheet. Thankfully David Huynh provided the code to call from one the other or both collections in the mailing list. I'm not sure if can write code to add a third one (partys).

The Data
Google doc JSON TD editable spreadsheet.
Google doc JSON Constituency editable spreadsheet.
Google doc JSON Party editable spreadsheet.

Sources Constituency Profiles
TDs info from Oireachtas.ie
Wikipedia
electionsireland
Oireacthas.ie 2007 Results
SIPO
The Story

20 TDs example of information

Information categories most of which you can select in any combination.

json category	explanation
{label}	don't edit
{td}	don't edit
{person}	person
{type}	type
{constituencyofficeaddress}	constituency office address
{street}	street
{city}	city
{county}	county
{co}	county code
{party}	party
{tdconstituency}	td constituency
{donations}	donations
{seat}	seat
{electorate}	electorate
{validvote}	validvote
{firstprefvotes}	firstprefvotes
{percentcalcvote}	percentcalcvote
{percentvote}	percentvote
{partyvote}	partyvote
{expenses}	expenses
{party}	party
{donorlatlng}	donorlatlng
{labourlatlng}	if you replace latlng replace this
{fflatlng}	if you replace latlng replace this
{fglatlng}	if you replace latlng replace this
{gplatlng}	if you replace latlng replace this
{sflatlng}	if you replace latlng replace this
{indlatlng}	if you replace latlng replace this
{distance}	distance
{lat}	if you replace latlng replace this
{lng}	if you replace latlng replace this
{latlng}	constituency office coorindate approx
{LHlatlng}	Leinster House latlng
{distanceC}	distance from leinster house
{constlatlng}	center of constituency
{zoom}	zoom to constituency
{nicestartdate}	nicestartdate first elected
{start}	start first elected
{election}	year election
{latestStart}	latestStart
{earliestEnd}	earliestEnd
{now}	now
{terms}	terms
{yearsofservice}	yearsofservice
{event}	event
{constphone}	constphone
{end}	end
{imageURL}	imageURL
{partywebsite}	party website
{email}	email
{website}	personal website
{electiontype}	election type
{istd}	istd
{wikiurl}	wikiurl
{age}	age
{gender}	gender
{gov}	gov
{position}	position
{spokepersonissue}	spokepers on issue
{committee}	committee

Constituencies

json category	explanation
{id}	don't edit
{label}	don't edit
{type}	don't edit
{seats}	seats
{population2006}	population2006
{electorate}	electorate
{validvote}	validvote
{partyvote}	partyvote
{opac}	opac
{labour-vote}	labour-vote
{ff-vote}	ff-vote
{fg-vote}	fg-vote
{sf-vote}	sf-vote
{gp-vote}	gp-vote
{pd-vote}	pd-vote
{ind-vote}	ind-vote
{tdsofc}	tds of consituency
{constlat}	constlat
{constlng}	constlng
{constlatlng}	constlatlng
{area}	area
{ctagrade}	ctagrade
{ctaaallowance}	ctaaallowance
{zoom}	zoom
{election}	election
{wikiURL}	wikiURL
{lastelectiontype}	lastelectiontype
{constituency2}	constituency2
{constituencyprofile}	constituencyprofile
{vote-for}	vote-for
{vote-forts}	vote-forts

Parties
Number of TDs
Vote percentage by party
party vote
party
swing
logoURL
tds of party
party url
partywikiURL

To do Make a CSS highlighting image map
Automatically geocode the donors for each TD
Search doesn't work
make it easier to edit, ie. add wiki backend

Lisbon referendum results 3d map

Trying to see if its worth putting this in 3d and how best to visualize the votes. At the moment it hard to see the difference in yes and no. ETA June 13th. I've gotten the results for Lisbon treaty and added them to many eyes that I described in my previous post. Lisbon Treaty 2008 Visualisations

With the help of sgrillo's GE-Graph

The google earth in browser API is quite heavy so lets try another new thing from google, static maps. With the help of Peel me a grape coder blog

Nahh that work either starting map as ordinary sat view with earth browser option.

Updated with Lisbon 2008 referendum results: NO % constituency.

If you don't see any 3d maps you need a quick download and read of requirements of the google earth in browser plug-inDirect download

Updated with Lisbon 2008 referendum results: Yes % by constituency.

Results from Referendum Commission.
electionsireland.org

Compare with displays of results by rte.ie
ireland.com.

What I like about google maps is that you can it use to produce 2d maps of good quality and variation too. No need to redo in flash.

Microsoft live Mapcruncher and birdseye view let down by aerial maps

Mircrosoft has added a birdseye view to micrsoft maps for parts of Ireland,they are amazing but its strange how their aerial/sat maps are _awful_, they seem to have skipped a process and gone for the four angled birdseye views, but you might not think to look at the excellent quality birdseye view for central Dublin after seeing the quality of their aerial maps...

I use flashearth to compare or just go to googlemaps or Live maps

Here are the brilliant birdseye view of Dublin which you can turn to see from four different angles(only two angles further out from city centres).(Click images to open maps).

Liberty Hall and customs house in Googlemaps.

This is how far in I can view Dublin city center! in MS maps.live.com

The problem is it makes it quite difficult to add overlay with mapcruncher(as I explain below).

Microsoft Mapcruncher
Microsoft Live version of Googleearth and Googlemaps/mymaps, its been around for a while but is still in beta and of limited use with low resolution images for maps.live.com for Ireland.

You have to download a small program and then find the area of interest on the map then load the overlay image and match points in the two images so Microsoft knows where to overlay it and account for curvature of the earth and terrain etc.(This with Ireland's low resolution images which disappear if you try to zoom in too far).

You click render, it then splits the top image into tiles to overlay on the server maps (which seems unnecessary on small maps?). You need a web space where you can upload multiple folders and files optimally your own web domain.

Here I overlayed the current image of Dublin airport with what it will look like when the second runway is built.(Source)

See the map; Live maps: New runway for Dublin Airport Mapcrunch

Googlemaps Mapplets
Google have added photos and videos as direct options to overlay on googlemaps, so you can just view and area and see corresponding photos from flickr,panoramio etc, so you view photos like

or perhaps zoom into Croke park

and see videos taken by somebody (badly on their mobile phone) of some past-it rock band or even GAA if that's your sort of thing.

PS. A Canal Bank Walk by kregori

Corrib Gas Rossport Google Map

I started this map a year ago or more but the area on googleearth wasn't high res enough and was too distorted to overlays maps, more of the area is covered now but not all of it, but I used other sources of maps to mark things. I consider it just a draft now but needed to get it up.

Corrib Gas Embed Map more up-to-date.

I want everything relevant to the issue on the map so please correct and add things. by emailing me or using googlemaps to make new placemarks.

For a primer on the Corrib Gas Project and protests go to wikipedia article on the issue

Need an overlay of the terminal and it place in the former Coillte lands.

Google Earth or Googlemap version - Refined and updated version April 08

Sources

http://www.shelltosea.com
http://www.mayogsinfo.com
http://www.publicinquiry.ie/pdf/Fiosru_2_HI_RES_Final.pdf
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/83016
http://www.archaeology.ie
http://www.npws.ie
http://www.corribgas.com
http://www.corribgaspipeline.com/
http://www.mayococo.ie/en/News/GasTerminal/
http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/corrib/
http://struggle.ws/rsc/
Shell in Ireland - Corrib Natural Gas http://bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=22299
Ireland Gov Marine Notices

Irish GeoRSS News feed: YahooPipes vs GoogleMaps

Testing to see if I can embed a geoannotated news rss feed into my blog, and testing the difference between Yahoopipes version and Googlemaps version on an Irish breaking news feed.

Feck yahoo pipes doesnt offer embedding for free yet, I'll should just try georss and yahoo map api, hmm need a server access for that, sure everybody outputs the result to google maps anyway. Here's what a Yahoo pipes map looks like Irish Examiner breaking geonews Yahoo pipe

Back to google maps thanks to nearby.org.uk and lots of detailed but basic how-tos at Mike at Blackpool Community Church Javascript Team!?.

okay so got that working its pretty simple but making it usable for an Irish website its what I want to do, so I can put it in the corner and a small list of the stories below from the same rss feed and be able to click those links with a # tag and have a small icon where you can zoom down to street level which would make it useful for local blogs.I figure out how to put a link in the infowindow directly to the story. So it doesn't work very well, but there are different versions and if you go to georss homepage you can add the locations as they come up so you can improve its hit rate yourself. There are also javascript api that allow for infowindow to display outside the map so you don't have to scroll to read it etc.

Here's a few attempts at refinement A GeoRSSS plus clickable sidebar list

Tara: Rath Lugh tunnel built ,what you do when they won't admit they're wrong.

Watch this great video of the creative defenders of Tara, the stupid aggressive contractors and the clueless colluding police.

This worker doesn't get paid to try and run people over so what is he doing?

Gardai turn their heads and walk away every time contractors get rough with the protestors

What are is digger doing, marking its territory?

Tunnel

Between CPO lines till legal injunction is heard, diversity of tactics in action

Love the bit where the police women says go to the boundary and immediately regrets it because there is chorus of people asking, where is the boundary? shows us the boundary!, they won't show the maps, the lines have been changed so many times, shows us the line and we might get behind it.

Situation update About 8.30am two men arrived and served a trespass notice on the Rath Lugh camp asking them to vacate immediately. Coillte responded saying that the land had been CPO'd and that it was now the property of MCC/NRA. However, campaigners who had visited the Land Registry Office at Navan discovered that the NRA were trying to extend the original CPO line but that the extra land was still in the name of the Coilte and that the CPO transfer had not yet taken place.

I can't believe ACS Ltd surveyed the motorway based on maps they knew and the department knew may be inaccurate, they never double checked, and they sent that to the EIS report, a report that the Minister of Transport Dempsey keeps pointing too, Well the survey is full of errors which they now admit, reason enough to be considered a material change in circumstances, we keep telling them and keep ignoring it,so how do you make somebody listen,(build a tunnel?) and the spin it by saying preservation which really means facilitation of the motorway. See Rath Lugh finally on a map

http://www.heritagedata.ie/en/NationalMonuments/

Note that because of errors in the locational information for sites in the Record of Monuments and Places we are withdrawing this information from this website

Here admits they got a monument position wrong http://groups.yahoo.com/group/savetara/message/2954

I have been asked by Mr. John Gormley, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to refer further to your recent correspondence in relation to Rath Lugh.

I should point out that the location of the monument at Rath Lugh is shown incorrectly on the Record of Monuments and Places (RMP) map. The location is, in fact, closer to the M3 than shown. Earlier this year, following discussions with the Department and the National Museum of Ireland, the NRA and Meath County Council commissioned a detailed topographic survey in order to confirm its precise location in relation the M3. The survey confirmed that the monument is approximately 20m east of the motorway fence line. Special measures are being put in place to ensure that the monument is not under-mined or endangered in any way during construction or when the road comes into operation.

In light of the above, the previous temporary fence line on the Lands Made Available boundary has been removed and a new temporary fence line has been erected approximately 10m inside the Lands Made Available boundary and surrounding the esker base. The monument, then, will be over 30m from the motorway carriageway.

Yours sincerely,

___________ Eddie Kiernan, Private Secretary

A reprint of mail I wrote showing the arrogant attitude of archaeologist both for and against the road to the general public.

Virtual reconstruction of the upstanding structures of Lismullin Henge being withheld from the public.

I don't know when these files were put up but I only read them now I amazed to discover that a image of what Lismullin would have looked like when used has been created but witheld from the public. http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/Heritage/NationalMonuments/

Minutes of 11 October 2007 (doc, 84 kb) http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/Heritage/NationalMonuments/FileDownLoad,16345,en.doc

Virtual imaging RS circulated images of what the upstanding enclosure might have looked like.

The chairman was concerned that the computer generated images looked so realistic that they could be mistaken for photographs of actual upstanding features. Because we're stupid or what???? It was agreed that there was a need to show what is actually there alongside what might have been there in the past. GC suggested that the actual photos be shown together with the reconstruction images and that the captions should be very clear as to the nature of the images.

CN pointed out that such reconstructions were a valid archaeological tool but suggested that the colours be changed to make the reconstruction obvious. He also asked that the spoil heaps be taken out and that, if possible, the reconstruction images should show the funnel entrance and passageway from the outer to the inner enclosure.

RS said that he would amend the images and circulate to the committee again before making them publicly available.

Minutes of 18 September 2007 (doc, 92 kb)

http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/Heritage/NationalMonuments/FileDownLoad,16346,en.doc

Virtual imaging Further images will be circulated to group. Virtual images will not be made publicly available for the moment as the high quality of the computer generated images may lead to misconceptions as to what actually exists at Lismullin.

We know what remains are just shadows of wooden post and ditches and some small artefacts, we'd still like to see what it looks like, I thought this road archaeology was for Ireland's educational benefit and Gormely promised to be transparent but constantly with Lismullin etc they have held back information until its too late. They continue to suggest that Conor Newman recommended destroying Lismullin when they simply ignored his expert advice not to route the motorway through the value which would has avoided the need to dig it up. We know that Lismullim is just one example of why the road shoudn't have been routed through here. Its not the be and all of the campaign. Maybe they won't release the images because they know how effective it would be to show the activity of the Tara area.

Its a pity that there isn't anyone who could review these docs and make presentation on them. The archaeologist both against and for the motorway route don't seem to be very willing to explains things to the public.

Other info. from earlier meetings

Lismullin Advisory Committee Meeting – 5 September 2007 http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/Heritage/NationalMonuments/FileDownLoad,16347,en.doc

Dr. Wallace and Mr. Newman re-stated their views that the souterrain was a national monument because of its location and its associative value with Tara (see updated minutes of previous meeting) but that it could not be preserved in-situ given the constraints of the current route.

The autocad set of the technical drawings used by the engineers for the briefing are to be sent to the chairman as soon as possible for circulation to the committee. Mr Newman wishes to consider further the curvature of the road in the area. It was agreed that there is still time to consider these issues, as there will be no engineering works in this area for quite a while.

The issue of using virtual images to show what might have existed at Lismullin in the past was discussed. The chairman asked to see the existing virtual images (prepared by NRA) and Mr. Swan agreed to circulate them to the members of the committee. The potential use of virtual images will be considered further at the next meeting.

Mr. Cooney and Mr. Newman raised the wider issue of the way in which national monuments are designated as such under existing legislation. Mr. Duffy outlined the present position which is, essentially, that statutory protection as national monuments only extends to national monuments – as defined under the Acts – which are in the ownership or guardianship of the Minister or a Local Authority or in respect of which a preservation order is in force. The committee agreed that the issue of designation as a national monument and proper professional assessment of what is a national monument needs to be addressed in the proposed review of policy and practice in relation to archaeological protection generally.

Great letter handed to Gormely

To Minister John Gormley, via Cllr. Michael Regan.

For your Urgent Consideration.

Dear Minister

We received with great welcome the news that you intend to put a Permanent Protection Order on Rath Lugh in the Tara/Skryne Valley. We are writing now in regard to the present situation there.

The area has been endangered by recent activity by Siac Ferrovial whereby heavy machinery is regularly encroaching upon the esker, as recently as today.

The NRA have publicly admitted that their Ordnance Survey maps and co-ordinates are wrong. Due to the presence of heavy machinery, concerns are increasing that irreversible damage will incur should it be allowed to continue.

Siac Ferrovial are trying to proceed and make claim to the land that has been proven to be incorrectly defined. There will be no point to a Permanent Protection Order if there is nothing left to protect.

We now appeal to you to come and see for yourself first hand what is actually happening at Rath Lugh.

Without a complete independent archeological report and independent survey of the Rath Lugh complex, the integrity of Rath Lugh will be destroyed beyond repair. The PPO needs to be implemented without delay.

In the meantime, the Temporary Protecion Order is being challenged at best, flouted at worst. A complete stoppage of all works there must be implemented until the survey can be completed and correct boundary lines established.

Please do not hesitate at this critical time. We beseech you to use your power to ensure that the order is respected. Not just the area covered by the TPO, but the ENTIRE Monument needs to be preserved without delay.

Save Tara vs M3 protest update

The scene of ???struction at Soldiers Hill Meath.

I haven't been following the issue at Tara/M3 very much lately it just seems doomed (M3 route likely to open ahead of 2010 deadline), although when people reference the nature reserve in California that had roads and lamp posts installed yet was saved from development it does hearten me, as does the video of people still disrupting the work of the construction sites.

See in this video how to handle constructions workers who misdirect their aggression.(Skip to 13 mins).

Ardsallagh Toestown Blockade

You get paid either way so why are you trying to run me down, huh?

More videos

The protest haven't been getting very much coverage even by the tabloids in alarmist way. You wouldn't know it but they have been people standing in front of bulldozer every other day for weeks, disrupting work for hours until the police come take their names and they leave voluntarily, today people locked on to a bulldozer and had to be cut out they were arrested. You can follow updates from the direct actioners and campers at their blog at http://www.tarapixie.net

What was left of the Lismullin Henge has been destroyed and covered over.

Here's more photos of Tara/M3 sites on 27th to January 08 and 28th jan via MNiB

There seems to be some people and environemtal NGO groups lobbying to get UNESCO conservation for Tara but it just doesn't suit the government to submit it, they are the only body that can. (Irish Times: State fails to use heritage site register). Email them.

Excellent letter to the Indo debunking the myths about "best archaeological practice".

Debunking Tara debate myths

Wednesday January 23 2008

It seems times haven't changed since former minister Michael Smith bravely faced, with "no practical evidence", a decision to act on allegations of planning corruption and untoward pressure being put on councillors on re-zoning.

All communication with the government on the M3 planning tribunal explaining the errors made during the process has also been met with anger and denials based on the following incorrect facts.

1. The decision was made with the best archaeological advice -- incorrect. both the Discovery Project and Conor Newman objected at the tribunal

2. It is further from Tara than the old N3 and therefore better-- incorrect. The intrusive 52-acre Blundelstown Interchange is the same distance from Tara. The Lismullen monument is just over a mile from the Hill. The motorway is a mere 20 metres from Rath Lugh. Does this sound better?

3. It is good to excavate. Let me quote from the Time Team in 2003 when they revisited Athelney, in Somerset, after 10 years. Looking at the new geophysical survey, they extolled the advances in the technology since their first visit in 1993. They remarked: "In a few years we won't need to dig".

Sadly this is now looking too late for Tara. There is still time for our politicians to take a stand, based on their own personal consciences, and bestow the greatest gift they can to their grandchildren, a remodelled Lismullen national monument interpretive site and an pristine, intact valley.

PAULINE BLEACH
SALTHILL, CO GALWAY

Yahoo Pipes GeoNews Ireland

testing to see if I can embed a geoannotated news rss feed into my blog Irish Examiner breakingnews Yahoo Geopipe feck yahoo pipes doesnt offer embedding(although I could put it in an frame), I'll should just try georss and yahoo map api, hmm need a server access for that, sure everybody outputs the result to googlem maps anyway.

Back to google maps thanks to nearby.org.uk

okay so got that working its pretty simple but making it usable for an Irish website its what I want to do, so I can put it in the corner and a small list of ths stories below from the same rss feed and be able to click those links with a # tag and have a small icon where you can some down to street level which would make it useful for local blogs.Anyone know how to do that?

John O'Shea, supposed humanitarian again calls for military intervention first.

John O'Shea goes off on another solo run and rather then call for political action, calls for military intervention. Ahern dismisses calls for EU intervention in Kenya.

There no statement on the goal website about advocating this so again it was during one of his ill-considered rants on the radio. that he asks where are the EU Battlegroups, NATO, or the UN peace-keepers?

ETA: I see he got a letter into the Irish Times too saying the same, it almost automatic at this stage the same letters are published from him every other week.

Why is the violence and deaths in Kenya the problem and fault of the EU? Is it not for stablishment there to try to calm first. All the international countries, AU, EU, US, are urging a political solution and sending political envoys meanwhile John O'Shea calls for troops! Even if he just trying to make some sort of rhetorical point, its still idiotic and dangerous talk.

Goal was organising for its workers and their families to leave Kenya. While Trocaire and Concern workers are staying put for the moment."(The Concern rep. on RTE Radio describes a calmer situation.) An Irish missionary criticised the pull out as 'imprudent and shameful' and as a betrayal to the displaced Kenyans.

I'm sure the ethic violence in the slums and the burning of houses in the country, as well as the number of deaths in the church etc was very alarming but I can't find anyone else calling for military intervention in one of Africa's most relatively lengthy and stable democracies.

Both sides have accused each other of genocide. It was anti-government people who burnt the church and caused the largest number of deaths, and burned government aligned Kikuyu houses outside the town the deaths in the slums involved police shooting at poor youth and armed gangs taking an opportunity to revolt. It may be tribal, class, political and ethnic violence but no one is trying to wipe out a whole people as in genocide...O'Shea is at least right in saying there are no goodies in this. What would happens if troops went there next week and kept the sides apart, it may spare a number of deaths but it would also solidify the governments position, a government who has been accused of stealing an election.

Although he may well have barely won the election, most of Kibaki's cabinet were not re-elected and he lost a lot of support when a major constitutional referendum in 2005 wasn't passed, he has continued with a split and corrupt government ever since but it doesn't seem that the opposition has overwhelming support either with only a few thousands youths coming out to protest for Odinga's own million man march, even with the fierce repression in Nairobi and live TV cut off you would expect more. I just don't know who's safety he is most concerned for. Although tribal preferences may split loyalties in the police and army, they are trying now to protect those who homes were burned and are clearing the roads to get food moving. I'm not claiming to be an expert on Kenya but I'm just trying to read and write a few things to get a very basic handle on the situation and figure out John O'Shea bizarre behaviour.

Well after watching him on Late Late a while back I tried to figure the guy out. Rogue charity maniac.

Here's a article on Kenya in todays SBP, giving more background on Kenya's corruption, even though he is cited as journalist who has worked for Goal he suggests potential 'empty tourist hotels' are the best leverage the west has, he warns against loose language and he calls military intervention highly unlikely. Maybe he should talk to his boss, but he seems to be just an echo chamber for J'OS, most of articles just quote him and he also seems to be a bit of a bland military fetishist too writing for the International Security Network.

The Eureferendum blog also comments on John O'Shea optimism on the speed of international action.

I had a thought last week until I checked that the Orange Democratic movement opposition was trying to ape the western funded orange revolutionary movements in Georgia in Ukraine especially when I heard Odinga described as a business man, but it actually to do with the symbols used to denote the yes and no sides of the referendum in 2005 for the illiterates in Kenya. It seems Kibaki is still Washington's man.

BTW and PS: Poor Judge of character

John O'Shea shows his lack of judgment again by associating Goal with the most vapid person he could find. After the truly unfortunate death of young Katy French he was among those to praise her beyond her worth.

After she went to see the poverty in Calcutta she claimed to have changed her world view, but clearly had not if we look at her continued flaunting of vulgar wealth and indulgences in alcohol and other substances.

Ms French had also recently visited Calcutta at the request of the Irish charity GOAL, and had left an "indelible impression", according to its chief executive, John O'Shea.

Leaving the Irish Catholic Church, its easier then you think!

2013. The formal defection process has been changed and is seemingly no longer allowed via canon law, but you can still write to the Bishop of the area you were baptised in and ask for the register of baptism in the Church to be amended to note your wish to leave the Catholic Church using the rules that comply with Section 6 of the Data Protection Acts, 1988 and 2003. As recommended by the Data Protection Commissioner. See this example.

Recent Examples


De facto defection from the catholic church, best you can get in Ireland for the time being


2013/2014
Two people who had some sucess when the church applied Canon 751 and also Canon 1364, Membership of AI enough to get baptismal record annotated.

New Count me Out Automates the form filling process, count yourself out of the church.
New. Leaflet Version. Spread the Good News
UPDATE: But it seems they will still claim you. See Below

I'm cribbing this info from two or three other sources, but I'm just trying to spread the good word you know.

From Little Saint on the GCN boards.

Its quite simple, It’s referred to as a "Defection by Formal Act", and once you mention that in your letter, he'll know exactly what you mean.you mail the archbishop of Dublin, address below, and tell him under Vatican II, you wish to exercise your right to defect.

You must commit a formal act of defection. This act must include three parts: A) an internal act of will; B) an external manifestation of that act; and C) communication of the fact in writing to your local Bishop

Reverend Dr Diarmuid Martin
Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland,
Archbishop's House,
Drumcondra,
Dublin 9.

You’ll need to provide some additional information like where you were baptised, your parents names, godparents names, and of course the date you were baptised (and if you don't have this, your date of birth will do)

You’ll get a letter back with some reasons why you shouldn’t do this unspeakable thing, such as not being able to get married in a church, yadda yadda. Within a few days, my amended baptism certificate was sent to me with “defection” written all over it, and that was that:- no longer a Catholic. I now have it hanging on my wall, it’s a smashing conversation piece.

So I happened to come across the link to GCN via postdarwin, posted it to atheist.ie and someone who does not suffer from procrastination like me immediately wrote to their bishop for the form letter for Defection and received back these.

the text of the defection by formal act reads...

DECLARATION OF DEFECTION FROM THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
I___________________, do hereby give formal
notice of my defection from the Roman Catholic Church. I want it to be known that I no longer wish to be regarded as a member of the Roman Catholic Church.

I further declare that I am aware of the consequences of this act regarding the reception of the sacraments of the Church, including the sacraments of the Eucharist, marriage and the sick and also with regard to burial.

I undertake to make this decision known to my next of kin and to ensure that they are aware of these circumstances in the case of my being incapacitated.

I acknowledge that I make this declaration under solemn oath, being of sound mind and body, and in the presence of a witness who can testify as to the validity of this document.

Signed:_________ Address:_________
Witness:________ Address:_________
Date:___________

The cover letter reads

I enclose a Declaration of Defection from the Roman Catholic Church which I would ask you to sign and witness and returned to this office. I will then ensure that an annotation of this declaration is made in the baptismal register the relevant parish and diocese.

You will note the term annotation, it seems the church will not remove your name entirely from their records but will it be noted in the baptismal register with the words defectio ab Ecclesia catholica actu formali, or “defection from the Catholic Church by a formal act

”See this very interesting case study Catholic Church baptismal records deletion request not upheld. from the website of the data protection office for an explanation.

...it is my understanding that the data could not be deleted from the Register as it is essential for the administration of Church affairs to maintain a register of all the people who have been baptised. Indeed it is of course a factual record of an event that happened. However the proposed noting of the register would more than comply with Section 6 of the Data Protection Acts, 1988 and 2003.

Although you also have a Right of rectification or erasure and blocking.

So to summarise you should be able to print out, sign and send that defection form letter straight to the bishop of the diocese you were baptised in with at least
your name,
date of baptism,
parish church of baptism,
your date of birth,
your parents names,
and the local baptism records will be changed and you will be officially not catholic anymore (as if you ever really were).

The example received a confirmation of her defection.

Sorry old webpages dying, see defection responses here countmeout.ie website via the Internet Archive.

There seems to be no release.

From AB ECCLESIA CATHOLICA on the vatican website.
ACTUS FORMALIS DEFECTIONIS

Extract
7. It remains clear, in any event, that the sacramental bond of belonging to the Body of Christ that is the Church, conferred by the baptismal character, is an ontological and permanent bond which is not lost by reason of any act or fact of defection.

With this news article confirming the actual view of a bishop on the issue.

Father Kloch explained, “It is necessary to emphasize that an apostate does not cease to be Christian.

A list of the 26 diocese of Ireland and their Bishops addresses.

Also read the discussion at the National Secular Societies UK website about whether you can stop being a Christian once you've been baptised and confirmed.

Check out atheist.ie for more discussion on this and similar topics.