Category Archives: Rockall

With vehicles and transport trucks zooming behind him, Manitoba Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler announced construction ofanew$2.5-million service road off the Perimeter Highway Tuesday,intendedto make a western section of thehighway safer for motorists.

TheManitoba government will work with the RM of Headingley to buildthe new road as part of the province's South Perimeter Safety Plan, developed in 2018to address safety issues at Perimeter Highway intersections that are controlled by stop signs.

"That vehicles would be pulling out cold, or turning right [offor onto] the Perimeter [the fact] we think that this is somehow even acceptable in today's age is surprising,"Schuler said at a news conference,noting the amount of traffic behind him, as well as thesize and speedof the vehicles.

"It is time that we make the Perimeter Highway safer."

The safety plan included closing two direct access roads from Caron Road, which is in the rural municipality of Headingley, to the Perimeter Highway.

One access point has already been closed. The other will close after Rockall Road the new service road has been built, the province said Tuesday.

The RM of Headingley will manage and deliver the project, and will own Rockall Road, from Roblin Boulevard to Wilkes Avenue, once it's built, a news release from the province said.

Rockall Road will give two access points to the South Perimeter via Wilkes and Roblin.

Headingley Mayor John Mausethspoke at Tuesday's announcement, sayingRockall Road will eventually lead to greater economic opportunities for his community once construction is complete.

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Province, RM of Headingley working together on new $2.5M Perimeter Highway service road - CBC.ca

It was a horrific and shocking tragedy in which 635 people died, yet it has been largely forgotten by history.

Now Western Isles Lottery is telling the story of the sinking of the SS Norge off Rockall with a new exhibition which will tour the Hebrides.

The disaster took place on June 28 1904. Nearly half of the 795 passengers who were aboard the ship when she left Norway for New York were young mothers with their children.

Many were travelling to join their husbands in America. But tragically, only 45 children and115 adults survived.

At the time, the sinking of the SS Norge was the worst civilian maritime disaster in the Atlantic Ocean.

Now it is the second worst, having been displaced by the Titanic disaster of 1912.

Lessons from the SS Norge tragedy were not learned ahead of the larger disaster. The Norge had 795 passengers on board with only lifeboats for a capacity of 251.

The sinking happened near the uninhabited Rockall, to which the nearest permanently inhabited place is North Uist, 230 miles to the east.

Tony Robson, chairman of Western Isles Lottery said: A detailed mobile exhibition has been prepared by the WI Lottery which will be firstly unveiled in An Lanntair, Stornoway between May 10-16 this year.

It is hoped that the exhibition can tour the Hebrides so that people in the islands can learn about this event, which happened on our door step.

At 7.45 on June 28 the ship hit Helens Reef close to Rockall. Five lifeboats drifted in the Atlantic for up to eight days before, very fortunately, being rescued by passing ships.

One lifeboat, with a one-year-old-girl aboard, had almost reached the Faroe Islands, more than 400 miles from Rockall.

Of the 160 survivors, more than 100 were rescued and treated at the old Lewis Hospital in Stornoway. Sadly eight of the children and one adult died and are buried at Lower Sandwick.

The Western Isles Lottery is also undertaking the restoration of the original grave stone.

The exhibition comprehensively tells the compelling story, from Russians fleeing Tsar Nicolas, to the amazing help and treatment by Stornoway people towards 105 of the Russian, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish survivors.

It has been researched and compiled by Tony Robson.

Janet Paterson, founder of Western Isles Lottery, said: Sincere gratitude is extended to Tony Robson and Per Kristian Sebak of the Bergen Maritime Museum for their research and efforts to bring this exhibition to the Islands.

The project has been funded by the Western Isles Lottery and the Western Isles Development Trust.

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Exhibition of ship tragedy comes to Hebrides - Press and Journal

Scientists from the Marine Institute, Maynooth University and the National University of Ireland Galway were recently aboard the RV Celtic Explorer, for a 14-day scientific survey studying the shelf and deep water off the west coast of Ireland. This Marine Institutes annual ocean climate survey has been running since 2006 and facilitates long-term physical and biogeochemical observations of the deepwater environment in the South Rockall Trough.

The Rockall Trough is an important region that provides a pathway for the transport of heat and salt from the North-East Atlantic to the Nordic Seas, where waters are subjected to phenomena such as deep convective mixing that creates cold dense water. Water exchange and interactions in the Rockall Trough play a fundamental part in the overall thermohaline circulation in the North-East Atlantic; as large volumes of warm water pass through the Rockall Channel, before flowing into the Nordic Seas with a return of cold dense bottom water outflow spilling into the region. Changes in the regions water properties, such as temperature and salinity, vary on inter-annual and decadal time scales.

Chief Scientist on the research survey, Dr Caroline Cusack of the Marine Institute said, Scientific data collected on this survey allows the assessment of interannual variability of physical and biogeochemical conditions that impact shelf and deep waters. This variability can have a range of impacts on ocean ecosystems, ocean circulation and weather patterns. The survey contributes to activities of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea and provides support to the Convention for the protection of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR Convention), the Marine Strategy Framework Directive focused on protecting ocean health, and climate change assessments.

This year, Maynooth University scientists from the A4 project (Aigin, Aerid, agus athr Atlantaigh = Oceans, Climate, and Atlantic Change) joined the survey to work with the Marine Institute oceanographic and climate services team. The A4 project, supported by Marine Institute funding, studies how changes in the Atlantic impact Ireland and northwestern Europe through changes in ocean circulation and sea level and is developing predictive capacity for these regions. Recent research by the A4 project found that the Gulf Stream System, also known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is at its weakest in over a millennium.

Scientists from the National University of Ireland, Galway were also on board the RV Celtic Explorer working with Marine Institute chemists to collect supporting chemistry information. The NUI Galway scientists are currently working on the Marine Institute funded VOCAB project (Ocean Acidification and Biogeochemistry: Variability and Vulnerability) to enhance knowledge on the vulnerability of selected marine ecosystems in Irish waters to ocean acidification. NUI Galway scientists also collected samples relevant to the JPI Climate and JPI Oceans CE2COAST project which aims to downscale global climate models to regional and local scales to provide information on the impacts of climate change tailored to local needs.

Mick Gillooly, Director of Ocean Climate and Information Services at the Marine Institute said, Collaborative oceanographic research is very important to help inform Irelands response to climate change and underlines the importance of researching marine impacts of climate change, which could have a significant societal impact on Ireland. The Marine Institutes annual climate survey, with scientific experts from collaborating research groups, enables us to generate a long-term time series of key oceanographic data to further increase our knowledge about our changing ocean climate.

This year, 51 stations were occupied with 301 depths sampled. At each station, scientists profile the full water column and collect measurements of temperature, salinity and oxygen. Water samples are collected at targeted depths and analysed on board to determine the salinity, dissolved oxygen, inorganic nutrients and carbon content (DIC/TA). The RV Celtic Explorers advanced underway data acquisition system gathers information on temperature, salinity, fluorescence, and pCO2 in surface waters. This year, the Marine Institute also had a laboratory on board equipped with state-of-the-art analysers, enabling near real-time reporting of nutrients, oxygen and salinity.

The annual ocean climate survey supports a number of Marine Institute ocean observation programmes. The Irish Marine Data Buoy Observation Network, managed by the Marine Institute in collaboration with Met ireann, is a network of five offshore weather observing marine buoys around Ireland. The M6 Data Buoy, located hundreds of kilometres to the west of Ireland in the South Rockall Trough, was a station sampled during this scientific survey.

A Marine Institute glider, an underwater autonomous vehicle, was also deployed near the M6 Data Buoy during this survey. The glider can reach depths of 1,000 metres and collects oceanographic data on conductivity, temperature, depth, fluorescence, turbidity and dissolved oxygen. Since its deployment, the glider has travelled more than 350 kilometres collecting additional oceanographic data for the scientists involved.

Scientists also deployed two Argo Floats, which measure temperature, salinity and depth with one Argo Float also taking measurements of the water oxygen content. Argo Floats are autonomous instruments that remain at sea for a period of three to five years which provide high-quality temperature and salinity depth profiles while ascending and descending to and from the surface from a depth of 2,000 metres, as it drifts through the ocean. There are currently about 4,000 Argo Floats in the world's oceans. As part of Irelands participation in the Euro-Argo ERIC Programme, the Marine Institute deploys three Argo Floats each year.

The track and data from current Irish Argo Floats can be viewed here

The annual ocean climate survey, the A4 project and VOCAB (Ocean Acidification and Biogeochemistry: variability, trends and vulnerability) are supported by the Marine Institute under the Marine Research Programme funded by the Irish Government.

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Health Check for the Atlantic on the Ocean Climate Survey - Afloat

Be it baggy jeans or the cargo vest, Tori Spelling helped put 90s fashion trends on the map (lookin at you Donna Martin!). And now that the old school styles have suddenly become cool again, the 47-year-old star admittedly loves seeing the iconic styles back in stores.

Ill go to Target with my oldest daughter and shell be like, Oh mom, I have to show you whats in, Spelling tells Us Weekly while promoting the second season of Bigger which premieres on BET+ on April 22.

Even though Spelling invented the current cool-girl clothing trends, she takes a calm and collected approach with her daughter, letting Stella Doreen McDermott show her whats hip and trendy these days. Im like, Oh, okay coll. Show me. How do you wear that? Oh, a crop top and mom jeans? I pretend I dont know.

While Stella takes the lead on shopping trips, Spelling says that she definitely gets some street cred when she shows her daughter old episodes of 90210.

I show her scenes and she says, Mom, how did you own that? That was so long ago. But styles always come back if theyre good styles, she says.

If you ask Us, Spelling can rock all the 90s trends she wore in years past, but the actress spills that her best friend and former costar Jennie Garth sometimes has to bring out her inner fashion police when she tries to bring back old styles.

I get this feeling that we created the styles, its back now and its all cool, Spelling says. But, my best friend, Jennie Garth, tells me all the time, You cant wear that.

Because even though Spelling is the OG that wore this, Garth likes to point out that her BFF is no longer 20-something and that she, cant wear that now.

While crop tops and low rise jeans might not be seeing the light of day any time soon, Spelling has learned how to embrace her body and wardrobe after having children Liam, 14, Stella, 12, Hattie, 9, Finn, 8, and Beau, 4.

Were human. We have feelings, we have insecurities, and you work hard in your journey on this path to get over that, but theres ebbs and flows, she tells Us about her postpartum body.

As someone who was notorious for being, you know, a female that very much wore sexy clothes Donna Martin always had a midriff top on. I was this big my whole life. Its a different embrace, she says, holding up her pinky finger.

Reporting by Sarah Hearon

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Tori Spelling Is Thrilled That 90s Fashion Is Back: From Mom Jeans to Crop Tops - Us Weekly

The Rock and Tiana (source: Instagram)The Rock has been trying to convince his two-year-old that hes Maui for the longest time

Toddlers are like adorable little dictators. Instead of ruling countries, they rule our homes, our lives, and our hearts. So imagine The Rock, all beefy and full of modern dudeness, coming up against a dictator in, say, any of The Fast And The Furious films. Hed make quick work of the dictator, right? And hed do it with his trademark charm.Now image The Rock, all beefy and full of the same modern dudeness against the adorable stubbornness of a toddler, namely his daughter Tiana. For months, The Rock tried to convince his sweet girl that hes the voice behind Maui from one of her fave Disney films Moana and finally, after almost a year, she gets it.

The Rock posted a loving birthday tribute to his little girl for her birthday on April 18, 2021. Happy Birthday to my sweetest lil Tia Giana Loving, kind, tenacious and tough (like your mama;) and my greatest joy is being your daddy. I always, got you, the caption reads.

Last April, Johnson posted a video of him singing Youre Welcome to his daughter (using the relatable hashtag #3000timesandcounting), and it was enough to make your ovaries explode in adorableness.

Ladies & gents, my baby Tia finally believes.. oh wait, the caption reads. Never mind. She still refuses to believe the urban legend that her daddy is actually, Maui. At this rate its even pure speculation that her daddy is also The Rock. Ill happily take these Ls and laugh as long as I get my daddy/daughter bond

Then in May, when it felt like the entire world froze as countries tried to get a better handle on the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson again tried to convince his daughter that hes Maui, that hes the same voice behind the tune she enjoys so much she makes her papa not only listen, but sing to her many, many times a day.

Back then, when The Rock asked little Tiana if she knows hes Maui, the sweetheart answers in a way that only a toddler can: in a matter-of-fact, no-nonsense, I-will-not-entertain-any-more-discussion-in-this-matter, no.

And for the 937th time today she wants daddy to sing along with Maui, The Rock wrote. She has no idea, were the same person. And I have no idea what day it is anymore, but I am sure its one that ends with Y. To all the mama and papa bears out there going thru it we understand. 24hr parenting. Get your sleep and cocktails when you can.

Now that shes finally starting to understand that daddy is Maui from Moana, The Rock wrote in his recent post. She has one very important question Daddy do you know AquaMan?'

But thats a different story.

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The Rocks Daughter Finally Knows Hes Maui And The Saga Is Complete - Scary Mommy

EU: Bocquet on realignment mechanisms in fishing waters

An Irish-registered vessel was spotted fishing between the six- and 12-mile mile limit at Rockall, according to the Scottish White Fish Producers' Association (SWFPA). While the UK claims the uninhabitable islet is part of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the Irish disagree.

Mike Park, chief executive of the SWFPA, said the action over the weekend constitutes a breach of international fishing regulations.

He claimed the presence of the Irish boat in the zone amounted to IUU (illegal, unregulated and unreported) fishing.

He stressed that Rockall is not included in the areas which foreign skippers are allowed to fish in under the post-Brexit arangement with the EU.

Mr Park told the Fishing Daily: "We are aware that there are Southern Irish vessels operating within the 12-mile limit at Rockall.

"Clearly this is in breach of the law as well, and they are basically conducting IUU operations in terms of fishing.

With the Brexit negotiations, there were certain areas where the EU vessels were allowed to fish between the six-and 12-mile limit, but Rockall is not one of them.

He said the fishing industry in Scotland does not want to see EU fishermen being fined for breaching law.

He said they should simply respect post-Brexit fishing rules and avoid breaching any parts of the UK-EU deal.

He added: "We dont want to see fishermen falling foul of the law. We dont want them being arrested and we dont want them being fined.

"We just want them to apply the law as it stands.

Mr Park's warning came after a group of Scottish fishing chiefs accused Danish fishermen of ignoring conservation rules and fishing illegally off the Shetland Islands.

It is alleged that up to Danish multi-rig trawlers are using quad-rigs which are banned by the Scottish Government in the Fladen prawn grounds near the isles.

FOR THE LATEST BREXIT NEWS, PLEASE SEE BELOW:

5.20am update: 'Complicated' Brexit passport rules for Europe travel - 'for goodness sake'

Simon Calder the travel expert appeared on ITV's This Morning today to give a grave warning about travel to Europe and passports after Brexit.

Travel after Brexit is about to get much more complicated once European holidays are back on the cards for Britains.This summer Europe is expected to open up for UK holidaymakers once more.

Simon Calder warned all those planning to travel to check their passports and, most importantly, when those passports expired.

Speaking to presenters Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, Simon said: "Since Brexit, since the transition period ended, it gets a lot more complicated going into Europe.

"The Government has an online passport checker system so if you are thinking of going abroad then for goodness sake don't fall at the first hurdle and find that you haven't got your passports in order."

4.21am update:UK orders EU to 'stop bickering' - end vaccine row NOW

EU leaders need to stop "bickering" with drug making companies, in particular Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca, over coronavirus jab supply according to the UK's vaccination guru.

The claim was made by Kate Bingham who headed the highly successful UK Vaccine Taskforce tasked with obtaining jabs for Britain.

The EU is demanding AstraZeneca increase vaccine supply to the bloc whilst some leaders, such as Frances Emmanuel Macron, have raised false doubts about its effectiveness.

Speaking to the Financial Times Ms Bingham said: The bickering just layers uncertainty in peoples minds, so it needs to stop.

3.48am update: Scottish fishermen raise alarm about EU vessels 'violating rules'

Scottish fishermen have attacked the EU after European fleets have violated conservation rules in UK waters.

A row has broken out between the UK and EU after Danish boats have been accused of ignoring environmental rules to plunder waters.

According to Scottish fishers in the Fladen prawn grounds around the Shetland Islands, Danish trawlers have been found to be plundering the waters despite being banned since 2007. Local fishermen have said the EU fleets have used multi-rig trawlers.

2.05am update:British expat with home in Spain feels 'screwed over' as retirement dreams dashed

A British expat with a home in Spain has said he and his partner have had their retirement dreams shattered and feel they have been "screwed over".

One of the conditions of the new terms for British citizens living in Spain is that to gain residency each individual must have an income of 21,000 a year, or have proof of work.This risks impacting thousands of UK pensioners living inSpain.

British expats living in Spain, who did not secure residency, were deemed illegal immigrants at the end of March 2021.

1.55am update:'On right side of history!' Brexit support leaps as 'disastrous' EU shows 'true colours'

Support for Brexit has increased amid the EU's shameful vaccine rollout, a new poll has shown, as a Leaver warned the bloc has put the "European project before the lives of citizens".

As Brussels continues to come under fire from voters and European leaders over the debacle, a new YouGov survey has shown a jump in hindsight for backing Brexit.

The UK's exit from the club of nations has been credited for its roaring success on the vaccine front.

12.11am update: Spain erupts at EU for punishing UK as lorry drivers suffer -'We're hostages'

Spanish lorry drivers are now suffering more under EU bureaucratic controls than their British counterparts, a haulier organisation has claimed.

The Valencian Federation of Road Haulers has hit out at the EU's rigorous controls, especially those imposed in France.

The federation said: "France wants to make emphasis on the fact that the UK has left the EU, and therefore things cannot continue the same."

The organisation stated that after three months of Brexit, lorry drivers from Spain are suffering more with European controls than British controls.

Melanie Kaidan takes over live reporting fromLaura O'Callaghan.

10.22pm update:UK stepped in and secretly shipped 700,000 AstraZeneca jabs to Australia after EU block

More than 7,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccines were secretly flown from Britain to Australia, according to reports, while not a single jab was exported Down Under from the EU.

The huge batches of the shots were despatched after the EU imposed new limits on exports of Covid vaccines produced on the continent.

The bloc continues to grapple with a chronic shortage of vaccines and blighted by slow inoculation programmes.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, 717,000 AstraZeneca jabs arrived in Australia after the operation was conducted under the radar.

9.02pm update:Brexit border chaos: Northern Ireland riots erupt as angry youths hurl petrol bomb into bus

Shocking footage shows a Northern Ireland bus engulfed in flames as youths were seen throwing petrol bombs into the vehicle in broad daylight.

Footage uploaded on social media showed a gang of hooded youths surrounding a bus as one of the protesters throws a petrol bomb through the window.

Police sirens are heard in the background as rioters continue to wreak havoc in Northern Ireland over unresolved border issues from Brexit and a lack of arrests at a large Republican funeral.

The bus was later seen on drone footage as completely engulfed in flames as emergency services cleared the streets.

8.28pm update:EU solidarity crumbles: Bavaria sidelines Merkel and Brussels to sign Russian vaccine deal

Angela Merkel's authority has been pushed aside by the leader of Bavaria who skirted around the German leader and the EU to sign a contract with the Russians for Covid vaccines.

Markus Sder, the state's minister-president, took decisive action as criticism of Brussels' handling of the vaccine rollout continues.

On Wednesday he signed a preliminary contract for the delivery of Sputnik V jabs, which will kick in once the Russian-made shot is approved by the European drug regulator.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is in the process of examining the application for approval of the Sputnik jab.

7.05pm update: Poll shows rise in suport for Brexit

Support for Brexit has risen amid the EU's vaccine crisis, new research has shown.

In a YouGov poll, 46 percent said Britain was right to leave the bloc, a rise of two points compared to a similar survey conducted recently.

The research was carried out from March 31 to April 1 and compared to data collected from March 25-26.

A total of 1,736 British adults took part.

6.36pm update:Angela Merkel crisis: 60,000 sign petition against Chancellor's 'paid politics' culture

More than 60,000 people have signed a petition calling for an end to "paid politics" in Germany, which campaigners say flourished during Angela Merkel's 16 years in office.

As the Chancellor prepares to pass the baton on later this year, her final months look to be some of her most challenging yet amid growing discontent among Germans.

The Youth Council of the Generations Foundation has hit out at Mrs Merkel for allowing a system of political lobbying completely lacking in transparency to fester.

5.43pm update: NI Protocol blasted as 'totally disproportionate'

Northern Ireland's First Minister has called for the current post-Brexit trading arrangements to be replaced with something "realistic and sustainable".

Arlene Foster said the Northern Ireland Protocol has led to a "completely disproportionate situation" where trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland has been "severely disrupted".

EU rules are applied at the region's ports as part of the deal which was negotiated to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland as the Republic remains within the bloc.

A number of legal challenges are being launched against the protocol.

Speaking at an In Conversation online event with Institute of Economic Affairs director general Mark Littlewood on Wednesday, Mrs Foster said the DUP warned about the impact of the protocol "right from its inception".

4.55pm update:'Change to 180!' British expat slams Spain as he demands change to post-Brexit stay rules

A British expat has slammed Spain's failure to extend residency to residents now faced with having to return to the UK amid a post-Brexit shake-up for visa requirements.

Changes tovisa rules inSpainafterBrexitmean thousands of British homeowners now face 90-day limit on their residency status.

Expats living unregistered in Spain may now have to return to the UK or risk falling foul of the new measures.

British pensioners have begun voicing their opposition to the 90-day maximum stay requirements which the Spanish Government has vowed to enforce.

One British national toldCGTN Europe: "Fifty percent where I live are having to stay for 30-days and then have to go home.

"Half of them ain't got nowhere to go, they have sold the house, they don't even have family back home to stay with.

"You know this 90-day thing is just crimping everybody, instead of making it 180 and 90 which is what everybody would agree with and think it would be brilliant to do."

3.35pm update:'Frexit fast!' EU blasted as French standard of living plummets from 5th to 26th in world

Frexit campaigner Florian Philippot shamed Brussels' devastating impact on France's rate for standard of living, as he called for the country to leave the bloc as soon as possible.

In a savage attack on the European Union project, the leader of Les Patriotes blamed Brussels forFrance's catastrophic decline for standard of living.

Mr Philippot argued it was because of France's membership to the bloc that the country has fallen from 5th place to 26th in just 46 years.

He blasted: "In 1975, France: 5th in the world for the standard of living per capita.Today: 26th row.

"But there are still ideologues to tell us that the EU and the euro are extraordinary successes!

"Frexit, independence, freedom, power, fast!"

2:30pm update:Von der Leyen to confront Charles Michel after bizarre chair snub at awkward Turkey summit

Ursula von der Leyen will seek to reaffirm her status as the EU's joint top official after she was left without a chair during a meeting in Turkey.

The European Commission President was left standing during a meeting between her Council counterpart Charles Michel and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The EUs executive will now open their talks with the blocs other top eurocrat to ensure she never falls victim to grandstanding again.

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Scottish fishing chief warns Ireland as boat found fishing 'illegally' in UK - Daily Express

IN OUR IMMEDIATE family, theres no fishermen coming up. And that would have been from a long line of fishermen. Its sad when you think of it.

Jerry Early, a part-time fisherman on Arranmore, is hoping to make fishing more attractive for the next generation by finding ways that small-scale island boats can prosper.

A lost generation of fishers was created on the Donegal island, according to Early. This happened when a perfect storm was created 15 years ago due to a ban of driftnetting for salmon in 2006 combined with the economic boom which attracted islanders to higher wages in Dublin, he explained.

That lag, of the generations not following through with fishing, has put all the islands at a disadvantage.

Its very important for the future of islands and coastal areas, to make it more attractive to get back into fishing, said Early. In order to do this, a group on the island are hoping to promote heritage fishing, where traditional methods are used.

This includes hand-hauling of nets and line-catching of fish. They are in the process of developing an app that will market their produce directly to the consumer.

Back in the day, when it was [all] rowboats or sailboats, fish were plentiful. We were fishing different species at different times which allowed for sustainability. Progress can be a dangerous thing, added Early, who said it has had a detrimental effect on island fishing.

Big was supposed to be better, but this has proven not to be the case in fishing, said Early. One boat can catch enough fish in one trip that can keep all the islands of Ireland going for a year.

The fisherman said that more emphasis needs to be put on small-scale and traditional methods, with poor policy making it really hard to be a fisherman on the island.

Arranmore fisherman and publican, Jerry Early, wants low impact fishing to receive more support. Source: Antti Viitala

Over the past number of months, Noteworthy has investigated the transparency in the management of Irish fishing. We delve into:

The rest of our series is out now. In part one, we revealed the impact that fishing is having on wildlife and yesterday, in part two, we explored the myriad of issues relating to the enforcement of fishery policy in Ireland.

***

Bigger is not always better

On Arranmore, the quota system is one of Earlys targets in his fight to restore their fisheries. He is chair of the recently recognised Irish Islands Marine Resource Organisation (IIMRO) Irelands newest fish producer organisation.

This will give the islands a seat at the table where quotas are discussed at a national level. One difficulty that smaller-scale fishers encounter with the current system is that those who catch more fish are given more quota, he explained.

There is a small quota for line-caught pollack and mackerel. Early said that it would be a step in the right direction if more quota was made allowable for those who want to practice heritage, inshore and traditional fishing.

At the other end of the country, Kerry native Alex Crowley is a full-time inshore fisherman who fishes mainly for shellfish close to his base at Cahersiveen.

Ten years ago would have been a different story, he explained. We used to have a much more diverse fishery with quota species such as whitefish (cod, whiting) and pelagic fish (herring, mackerel) but now the focus is on shellfish (lobster, crab and shrimp).

Crowley said the reason for this move away from quota species is that there isnt enough fish in inshore waters to be viable anymore. Split crews and non-stop intensive fishing at an industrial scale have become the norm in some of the larger fisheries, he added.

If you went back 20 years ago, if there was a spell of bad weather, the stocks got a break, but they dont get that break anymore.

Crowley, who is also the secretary general of the National Inshore Fishermens Association (NIFA) suggested that supporting smaller boats would lead to more employment and sustainable fisheries.

By allocating quota to the types of fishing that have less of an environmental impact and to vessels that dont have the physical capacity to overfish, Crowley felt this would go a long way in preventing future overfishing and sustaining coastal communities.

Environmental groups are also increasingly pushing for policy-makers to pay more attention to small, rather than industrial, fisheries.

Pdraic Fogarty of the Irish Wildlife Trust is in favour of giving more quota to fishers who use vessels and fishing methods that have a low impact on the ecosystem. He added that industrial fishing is not just damaging to the environment, but its a jobs killer.

Nets laid out for repair in Killybegs harbour. Source: Maria Delaney via Noteworthy

Our public resource

Quotas are the first thing that almost everyone with a connection to fishing talks about whenever fishing is discussed. They are the share of certain stocks of commercial fish that are allowed to be caught and were one of the points of contention of Brexit, with Ireland losing a large share of its valuable mackerel quota.

In the EU, each countrys quota is based on its historic track record. Once the country quota is allocated, Member States have a lot of freedom in how they are distributed.

In Ireland, quotas are a public resource owned by the State and are made available to fishing vessels based on a lottery for some quotas and on vessel size or other details for others. To calculate which boats and companies are allocated the Irish quota by the Government is extremely complex as the information is not publicly available.

A 2019 European Commission report compiled a database of the entire EU fleet register and found that most Irish vessels are owned by individual Irish fishers, with only about 3.5% of the fleet registered to a foreign owner or foreign registered company.

They also found that larger Irish companies are increasingly common as, due to the Irish first to catch the fish, gets the quota system, only those who can modernise are able to compete. This means smaller, less efficient vessel owners are left behind.

The study authors suggested that there is a need for greater transparency in Ireland about the ultimate beneficiaries of initial allocations of quotas.

So, who gets the largest share? The report authors calculated that the top eight quota owners share 28% of the quota between them, with the Atlantic Dawn Company topping the table, at over 7% of the entire national quota:

To view an interactive version of this graph, click here.

Industry dominance

Green Party MEP, Grace OSullivan, who is on the European Parliaments Committee on Fisheries (PECH), said there is a perception going back through the decades that the larger scale fishers have always got the lions share in Ireland.

She uses Dunmore East in Waterford as an example of a once vibrant fishing community which has lost ground because of a lack of investment. This is partly because there arent more diverse producer organisations in the country representing the small and large scale.

If everyones at the table at least you can argue for resources and try, at least, to aim for a fair distribution. In Ireland, theres a feeling that that hasnt been the case.

We have to recognise that there are inequalities in the system, they have been widening and we need to change this dynamic.

There were four producer organisations (POs) up until last February when the new island PO joined their ranks, bringing that number to five.

A report Who gets to Fish by British think-tank, the New Economics Foundation, stated that the original four POs had a combined membership of around 10% of Irish vessels but 71% of capacity. This is because their members constitute some of the highest capacity vessels, according to the report.

The vast majority of Irelands fleet consists of small vessels but the larger vessels catch most of the fish around our coasts. Figures from the Irish Fleet Register from last month show that almost 75% of the fleet are less than 10 metres in length and just over 10% are greater than 15 metres.

To view an interactive version of this graph, click here.

One advantage of being a member of a producer organisation is that a representative sits on the Quota Management Advisory Committee (QMAC) which meets on a monthly basis. Consultation with industry in respect of the management of Irelands fishing quotas is carried out via this committee that is according to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue in January.

The Committee has seven external representatives one from each of the POs as well as one from the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association, the National Inshore Fisheries Forum and the Co-Operative group.

POs are heavily over-represented in the QMAC, according to the New Economics Foundation report. It stated that the scale of fishing activities shouldnt determine the level of representation in decisions about access to a public resource. It also noted that scientific advisors and other stakeholders are not represented.

When asked if the Minister was open to allowing representatives of environmental NGOs to attend these meetings, a spokesperson said that issues relating to policy are not dealt with by the QMAC and, thus, it is not a forum for eNGOs to attend.

The New Economics Foundations report also suggested that the Committees advice and decision-making should be more transparent, with publication of minutes and the final advice for the Minister.

A spokesperson for the Department told Noteworthy that the Minister recently decided that the publishing of the minutes of the QMAC meetings will assist with transparency for stakeholders.

This is not a finding unique to Ireland. One of the key policy messages of the United Nations in relation to sustainable small-scale fisheries is that large industrial fleets dominate fisheries management efforts and political interest. It recommends that policies refocus to address the needs and challenges of small-scale fisheries.

Room for better balance

The Minister addressed the fact that many smaller vessels were not represented by existing producer organisations in response to aparliamentary question in January. He said that the National Inshore Fisheries Forum was established to provide a platform for engagement with those primarily involved in the inshore fisheries sector.

Alex Crowley said there needs to be room for everybody in the fishing sector. Source: Roland OShea

However, Crowley from the National Inshore Fishermens Association, who is also a past-chair of the Fisheries Forum, said that the Forum does its best to represent the small-scale operators but the people working in it do so voluntarily with no CEOs or paid professionals.

He added that a number of members of the Processors and Exporters Association, as well as directors that are part of the Co-Operative group, also either own or operate large boats.

In terms of who the Minister consults with and lobbying power, its very much leaning towards larger vessels.

Though he is not anti-big boats and said they are needed to fish species such as blue whiting and horse mackerel, Crowley felt theres room for a bit better balance, using the quota allocation as mackerel as an example.

Almost 90% of Irelands most valuable quota worth over 65 million for the peak mackerel season this year is allocated to 22 large refrigerated seawater vessels (RSW), with under 1% set aside for line-caught mackerel in a fishery of around 1,500 boats.

This policy represents a balance between all interests in the mackerel fishery and I have no plan at this time to review it, Minister McConalogue stated last November.

Patrick Murphy, chief executive of the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation (IS&WFPO) one of the original four POs, claimed toNoteworthythat he has done more for the inshore in his area than any man alive and will continue to fight for them, regardless of the position he is in.

There is nothing stopping a small boat joining a PO, he said. Every person who joins the PO has an equal right, no matter if you are a super trawler or a punt, you have the same voice as everybody else.

They bend over backwards to bring small boats into the POs, Murphy said, by charging them less than larger vessels. Small boats could take over the POs if they came in in large numbers, he added.

Sean ODonoghue, chief executive of the Killybegs Fishermens Organisation, one of Irelands most active POs when it comes to registering its lobbying efforts, said that it has small-scale fishers as part of the organisation and theyre quite entitled to join. He added that the idea that the POs are wielding power couldnt be further from the truth.

***

Arguing against advised limits

In addition to being consulted on the management of Irelands fishing quotas as part of their Committee work, most POs make a submission to the Government every year on fishing opportunities for the following year.

These opportunities equate to total allowable catches (TACs) for certain fish stocks the amount of a particular species in an area that EU fishers are allowed to catch. These are the basis of fishing quotas and are decided in a number of internal EU and third-party negotiations each year.

Each December, the EU Fisheries Council of Ministers meet behind closed doors to discuss EU stock allocations for the North East Atlantic. Historically, this was the most important negotiation for Ireland, but Brexit has complicated this as the UK are now a third-party. Now, most fish stocks of interest to Ireland are negotiated at consultations between the EU, Norway and the UK.

These negotiations are of high interest to environmental groups, and five of these also made submissions to the Government this year, which alongside the Killybegs Fishermens Organisation submission were published online.

In addition, Patrick Murphy emailed DAFM a statement entitled IS&WFPO Submission, pre-December Council, which Noteworthy obtained through FOI. This was sent a week after the closing date for submissions and was not included in the official documents online. However, the email was forwarded by a DAFM official to Cecil Beamish, the Assistant Secretary General for the Marine as well as others in the Department.

One of the main points that environmental groups made in their submissions to the Government is that the total allowable catch (TAC) for each stock should be set at a level recommended by scientists, in line with the 2020 legal deadline to end overfishing that the EU gave itself as part of the Common Fisheries Policy a target which has not yet been met.

Each year, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) advises the European Commission on the maximum amount of fish that should be caught. This is called the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and stocks fished above this level are classed as overfished which could result in their decline.

For eight (over 61%) of these stocks, bottom trawling was the most common fishing method used by Irish vessels. ICES recommended that no fish be caught for six of these stocks but an Irish quota of over 2,700 tonnes was assigned, worth over 4.8m.

The New Economics Foundation analysed overfishing in the Northeast Atlantic in 2020 and found Ireland exceeded scientific advice by 7,300 tonnes, 4% of our total quota. This placed us fourth on the overfishing league table behind Sweden, Denmark and France, according to the report. This was an improvement from the previous year when Ireland was third, with an excess quota of 22%.

That does not take into account, however, any potential unreported overfishing, such as that recently found by the European Commission. Following an audit and formal administrative inquiry it was revealed that Ireland overfished a combination of mackerel, horse mackerel (scad) and blue whiting by over 42,000 tonnes between 2012 and 2016. Read more about issues with enforcement of Irish fisheries in part two of this investigation.

To view an interactive version of this graph, click here.

In both the official submission on 2021 fishing opportunities by the Killybegs Fishermens Organisation (KFO) as well as the email to the Department from the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation (IS&WFPO), arguments are put forward against the scientific advice on total allowable catch.

KFO argued against proposed reductions due to inconsistent evidence for mackerel and stated the reductions were unwarranted in Rockall haddock, unjustified in monkfish, did not make sense in hake and impossible to reconcile in plaice due to the parameters on which the advice was based.

The submission stated that KFO continues to witness a lack of consistency in the advice in relation to these stocks and said there was a critical need for quality assurance across all assessments.

The POs chief executive ODonoghue told Noteworthy that it is absolutely critical that we have an independent body such as ICES giving advice, but added that he expects that advice to be quality controlled. He said that ICES didnt have a fit for purpose quality assurance system and though it isnt fully there, it has made huge strides over the past two years.

Sort of scientific based

A pushback against ICES advice by POs is inevitable as they are representing people who have an economic interest in fisheries, according to Dominic Rihan, Director of Economic and Strategic Services at seafood development agency, BIM.

However, he added that the way the Common Fisheries Policy has been developed, the ability for Member States and industries to influence the fishing opportunity discussions are much less. Rihan is involved in these discussions with the Irish Government and is also vice-chair of the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) which reports on the progress of the CFP to the European Commission.

He felt where stocks have maximum sustainable yield (MSY) advice, there isnt a lot of wriggle room and people maybe begrudgingly have accepted that. Conflict happens when there isnt a full stock assessment so ICES issues precautionary advice which has led to blanket cuts of minus 20% and is something that the industry finds very hard to accept.

Zero total allowable catch advice also creates a huge amount of frustration because setting a zero TAC means no fishing which has an impact on other stocks in mixed fisheries.

Rihan explained that the Commission has taken a bycatch quota approach which is sort of scientific based, but also a bit of put your finger in the air and [get] whatever number you think. That is where tensions and suspicions arise from both industry and NGOs because it is very subjective.

Both producer organisations were concerned about cod which had a zero catch advice for this year because of the impact this would have on other fisheries such as haddock which lives alongside cod. The IS&WFPO wrote this would be prohibitive and Killybegs Fishermens Organisation called for the continuation of bycatch TACs.

Cod and herring in the Celtic Sea are in a very bad state at the moment, according to Dr Ciaran Kelly, Director of Fisheries Ecosystems Advisory Services at the Marine Institute.

This is primarily because of sustained periods of poor recruitment, meaning a low amount of young fish are coming into the population. There is very little that scientists can do, other than giving a zero catch advice.

You cant put fish back into the sea. So you simply have to stop catching fish at a certain point and wait for the productivity of the fish stock to come back.

According to the latest 2020 Stock Book from the Marine Institute, there has been a downward trend in biomass indicators for Celtic Sea Cod since 2012, in spite of a year-on-year reduction in catches.

On top of the pressure that fishing puts on these stocks, scientists are discovering that other factors are at play. Kelly explained, as an example, that the wrong environmental cues can lead to fish not spawning at the right time, leading to fewer offspring. When poor productivity, poor survival and individuals being taken through fishing are combined, this can lead to the decline of a stock.

Jenni Grossmann, science and policy advisor at UK-based ClientEarth, said that fishing is one of the many pressures that impacts stocks and ecosystems, alongside climate change and other issues. However, she cited a2019 intergovernmental global assessment of biodiversitywhich found that in marine ecosystems, direct exploitation of organisms (mainly fishing) has had the largest relative impact on nature.

Grossmann said that NGOs dont want fishers to be tied up in ports and they recognise that setting the catch advice at zero would cause issues for fishers in the short-term.

However, she added that by continuing to ignore that advice it is perpetuating the issue and its not going to get better. This will also limit the ability of these fisheries to improve as the stocks are being kept down, she added. The NGO approach is to let these stocks recover and then they wont be limiting the other stocks.

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Closed Doors: Lack of transparency and the push to overfish in Ireland's fishing sector - TheJournal.ie

O

n 13September 1969, John Lennon the Beatle most quickly heading for the exit door played the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival under the name Plastic Ono Band. For the first time he appeared on stage with his wife of six months, Yoko Ono. She and Lennonhad been together since 1967, but within and without the Beatles industrial-cultural complex the Japanese artist remained, as dutifully inscribed rock lore has it, a divisive figure.

Yet performing that night in Canada, as she took her place alongside her husband,Ono was united as an artist with perhaps the greatest songwriter in the world.Was there, finally, a feeling of acceptance from Lennons fans?

I dont know about that. I still dont feel that Johns fans are accepting me, Ono, who is now 88, replied when I asked her that question 11 years ago. I dont know whos really Johns fans, and whos really John and Yoko fans. The Beatles fans, some of them really denounced John ina way. So I dont know whos who. So whenever I create something make an album or something I never think about whos gonna listen to it. Its a waste of time. You would never know.

Ono and I were talking in Reykjavik on 9October 2009, on what would have been her late husbands 69thbirthday, and which was also the 34thbirthday of their son Sean. We were in Iceland because, in her role as the keeper of Lennons flame, she was also the keeper of his light. Ono was unveiling the Imagine Peace Tower, a column of light shooting into the sky that shed first conceptualised as an artwork in 1967. It would stay lit for two months, until 8 December, the anniversary of the day on which Lennon was murdered in New York in 1980.

That autumn, Ono had also just released a new album, Between My Head and the Sky, produced by Sean and credited to Plastic Ono Band. The name had lain dormant since she and Lennon used it for 1975sShaved Fishcompilation. She explained to me how the Plastic Ono Band concept predated her meeting her future husband. Invited to perform a concert of some sort in Berlin, theavant gardeartist decided she would simulate the popular band thing well have four plastic artwork stands, and each stand would have a tape recorder inside. And that was my band.

John was very happy with Yoko'

(David Nutter)

Then when we got together I said: Oh John, I had this invitation to Berlin, she continued, recalling how she told the Beatle that her satirical take on a fab four-piece would also be holding plastic toothbrush-holders and plastic pillboxes. And he said: You should call it Plastic Ono Band. Just like that! He is so quick! marvelled Ono, still referring in the present tense, as she often did, to a man then dead for 29 years.

This month, Plastic Ono Band lives once again, in a blockbuster release of the 1970 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Bandalbum.The Ultimate Collection is a 50thanniversary super deluxe box set that promisesthe ultimatedeep listening experience of Lennons first solo album after the end of The Beatles in April that year.

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Over 11 hours and eight exhaustive discs (comprising demos, raw studio mixes, out-takes and so on), here is the primal howl of album opener Mother, sounding more traumatised still,and nevermore starkly than on the vocals-only Elements mix, which foregrounds the anguish of a child abandoned by both parents: Mother, you had me but I never had you Father, you left me but I never left you. Here, too, are the original 51 breath-stealing seconds of the climactic My Mummys Dead stretched to 75 seconds: a nursery-rhyme lament in which raw loss echoes, and echoes, down the decades as does Lennons strength in weakness.

If you think about it, how many other alpha-male rocknrollers would write a song called My Mummys Dead? wonders Richard DiLello, The Beatles press assistant at their company Apple Corps who, during that pivotal year of 1970, photographed Lennon and Ono on several occasions. And the choice of words is interesting. Its not the formal mother. Its mummy, the most intimate term you can use you with your mother.

This, though, was where Lennons head was at in the months following the end of The Beatles: searingly honest, self-lacerating, self-fulfilling.

On the one hand, says DiLello author ofthebrilliant Apple insiders account The Longest Cocktail Party(1972) and now, aged 75, living in Ohio John was in a very good place.

He was very happy with Yoko, and prior to this they were working non-stop on their peace campaign, starting with the Amsterdam bed-in in 1969, then getting married and going on their honeymoon. He was very productive; he never stopped doing stuff. I mean, all of the Beatles had enormous reserves of energy.

John Lennon and his wife of a week, Yoko Ono, in their bed in the Hilton Hotel, Amsterdam, in 1969

(Getty)

For Lennon, that found form in three solo singles, Give PeaceaChance, Cold Turkey and Instant Karma!, none of which would appear on Plastic Ono Band. DiLello recalls accompanying Lennon and Ono toTop of the Pops, where they recorded a performance of Instant Karma! on 11February 1970.

It was a powerful statement like youd expect from John Lennon. And it was so different coming after Give PeaceaChance, [this was] a hard-hitting statement, and the sonic landscape of that song was very different. It was very hard-edged. There was a buzzsaw, punk sound almost to it.

On the other hand, Lennon wanted toboldly explore new places. That almost-punk sound, notes the American, was emblematic of Lennons desire to plant a flag in a fresh musical direction, especially in the wake of their sessions with Arthur Janov and primal scream therapy. That opened up the door for a completely different period in his life, letting out all the demons.

The Californian psychotherapist treated Lennon and Yoko in London that spring, and then, over four months, in Bel Air in Los Angeles. Lennon was curious about a treatment where, as he put it, patients get to do this thing and then they scream and feel better OK, its something other than taking a tab of acid and feeling better. So I thought, lets try it In the therapy you really feel every painful moment of your life. Its excruciating. You are forced to realise that your pain, the kind that makes you wake up afraid with your heart pounding, is really yours and not the result of somebody up in the sky. Its the result of your parents and your environment.

That therapy gave John permission to talk about things that were important to him that he never was able to put into songs before, says DiLello, that didnt fit into the format of the band. This was all very personal stuff. He had a lot of demons that he had to address from this whole period of his life when hed been abandoned as a kid by his mother and father. Then he went from being a kid to being the most famous guy in the world. He had a lot to deal with in a very short period of time.

Musician and illustrator Klaus Voormann, a member of The Beatles inner-circle who performed in Toronto and played bass on Plastic Ono Band, had by then known Lennon for the best part of a decade, since the bands Hamburg days. He was aware from early on in their friendship how troubled Lennon was by first the absence, and then the death, when he was 17, of his mother Julia.

Klaus Voormann, a member of The Beatles inner-circle, pictured in 1965

(Getty)

In the very beginning he wasnt really talking much about it, he says, then he started talking about it. But I tell you this, its really true: until Yoko came on the picture, he was an unhappy person. Even having so much money and success, John was not happy.

The German remembers how, after the sessions with Janov, John and Yoko were both like little kids they were crying, then they were laughing, very open. They were like an open wound, he tells me over the phone from Bavaria. And John wanted to get rid of this feeling by writing those songs. Thats why, to me, this is such a strong record apart from the fact that Im playing on it! the 82-year-old laughs.

For Ono, this was part of a creative process that began as soon as she and Lennon met. Lennon recognised that a fellow artist, albeitonefromawildly differenttraditionanddiscipline, would revive and increase his musical potency.

Something was kicking in, Ono told me in December 2009. Two months after meeting in Iceland, we were in Tokyo for the annual Dream Power charity concert she hosted at the 12,000-capacity Budokan arena, location of The Beatles summer 1966 shows in the Japanese capital. But I didnt know anything about that really. It just felt that he was Well, you can say that I thought that he was curious about me. Lennondidnt need her to liberate himself, Ono insists; he was capable of that on his own. Its just that he needed somebody to lean on.

I asked how she responded to Lennons announcement to Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr on 20 September 1969, one week after the Plastic Ono Band Toronto show, that he was leaving The Beatles.

I said, OhJesus.Because I wanted some space for my own work.

So she didnt want him to end The Beatles?

No! What is he thinking? But he was kind of like threatening me: Now its you and me, OK? I think he sussed that maybe I might leave or something But I think he felt that what I was doing was more exciting. Only because they were doing it for how many years together.

When I suggested to her that, after The Beatles broke up, she might have thought, Great, a whole new adventure for John and me asartists,she shook her head and said firmly: No, I didnt.

It was very difficult for me because and I said this to John and he was very upset I was always a lone wolf. I did my things by myself. I had assistants, like my [former] husband [Tony Cox, whom she married in 1962 and divorced in 1969], she said with a smile. But I never had a situation where I had to do things with another person. And John was so used to it. John had a partnership with three people, and especially with Paul. So I was feeling not particularly excited about that. I felt like my power was halved.

And Lennon felt his power was doubled?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly! Ono beamed. Isnt that amazing?

I felt like my power was halved Yoko Ono with John Lennon in 1971

(Getty)

Free of The Beatles, Lennon leaned on his new wife intensely and protected her. In the summer of 1970 she suffered a second miscarriage, having already endured one in November 1968.

That was a big deal, says DiLello. They wanted to start a family and everything was working againstthem. They were still recovering from the police hounding them and busting them previously [on drugs charges in October 1968]. And also, Yoko was under this great blanket, this great blizzard of racism from the tabloid press. There was this free-floating feeling that she was an undesirable, and the public didnt approve of Yoko.

That fed into the albums secondsong, HoldOn, a mantra of encouragement and reassurance to Lennons partner and their partnership.

They had to be strong as a couple, says DiLello, they couldnt get derailed by all this negativity, which was coming at them left, right and centre.

Or, as Lennon put it, describing the songs message: Its now, this moment. Thats all right, this moment, and hold on, now. We might have a cup of tea or we might get a moments happiness any minute now. So thats what its all about, just moment by moment. Thats how were living cherishing each day and dreading it, too. It might be your last day you might get run over by a car, he added, a pointed reference to the manner of his mothers death.

Equally, this new freedom found form in the couples political activities, from the bed-ins to their support for the Black Power movement. In 1970 DiLello also photographed the couple alongside activist Michael X at a fundraising event in London at which they auctioned off their newly shorn hair and a pair of Muhammad Alis boxing shorts, covered in blood. Thats a perfect media event, the meeting of these two disparate worlds, bohemian artists and a very aggressive political figure in London at the time who was eventually hanged in Trinidadfor being involved in a murder [as part of] internecine warfare in the Black Power movement.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono with Black Power leader Michael X at his house in Holloway

(Getty)

On Plastic Ono Band, that personal-is-political bite manifested in Working Class Hero, although in a manner more nuanced, Lennon griped, than audiences often realised.

I was thinking about all the pain and torture that you go through on stage to get love from the audience who really despise you... in a subtle way. They demand something from you The thing about the song that nobody ever got right was that it was supposed to be sardonic. It had nothing to do with socialism, it had to do with: if you want to go through that trip, youll get up to where I am, and this is what youll be some guy whining on a record, alright?

Still, Voormann rememberswellhow fired up his friend was by the sociopolitical struggles that characterised the end of the Sixties, figuratively and literally.

To me it was surprising that he was getting so much into this. I witnessed calls when we were in the studio doing the ImagineLP [in 1971] and suddenly in the middle of a take, more or less, Yoko comes in: I just talked to Michael X, you have to call him back! That was a little disturbing, and was not really helpful for the session. And did not help us at all!

Theres another bold lyrical statement in God, the last full song before the short coda of My Mummys Dead. To a roll-call of deities, figureheads and concepts in which he has no faith, Lennon adds: I dont believe in Beatles. What do the men who were there around the recording of the album between late September and late October 1970 make of that totemic line?

Again, thats confessional, replies Richard DiLello. Hes saying: even though this was the most important part of my life at one time, it no longer is but you cant walk away from a legacy just like that. [He knows] thats with you forever. Maybe he didnt want it to be, but that was a fact of life.

He meant [he didnt believe in] everything, not just Beatles, offers Voormann. He just wanted to make sure everyone understood that: All I believe in is myself, andYoko. Just those two. It was incredible. Its a good statement. He didnt want to believe in Jesus or nothing like that. He just wanted to believe in himself. And that made him strong.

Released on 11December 1970, Plastic Ono Bandwas a hit, but a modest one compared to the Beatles albums, and even compared to George Harrisons solo debut, the triple-albumAll Things Must Pass, released the previous month. No matter: now its regarded as one of rocks all-time great albums. And, of paramount importance to John Lennon at the time, he had made the album he wanted needed to make. As best he could, the musician had taken a wrecking ball to the edifice of Beatlemania, to reveal the man, the orphaned boy, behind.

It was necessary for him to say: OK, this is the way it was in the past, and Im tired of being angry, thinks DeLillo. It was cathartic for him. None of us want to carry around a ball and chain from womb to tomb. He wanted to have a mentally healthier life, which he did achieve once he got to New York.

But before he and Yoko Ono could begin that life in New York, they had another trip to undertake. In Tokyo in January 1971, John Lennon met his new in-laws for the first time. When Ono and I were there 11 years ago, I asked whether he had made an effort for afternoon tea with her well-to-do family.

No, he didnt in the beginning. He just went to my parents place unshaven, and wearing an army surplus coat. Just the most hip outfit, very rocknroll! I mean, rocknroll can be a performance in a theatre, a beautiful, gorgeous thing. But he was just looking like a bum. This kind of here I am attitude.

Ono, though, wasnt embarrassed or disappointed. I thought it was a riot, she said with a smile.

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band The Ultimate Collectionis released on Capitol/UMC on 16 April

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What Yoko Ono really thought about John Lennon leaving The Beatles for Plastic Ono Band - The Independent

"I'm not in that space right now," Keri Hilson told Nicki Swiftregarding the status of new music."I've got multiple pieces of work. And I don't know, maybe when I die, I'll just leave it in my will for people to release it and people get it."

While Hilson had completed much of what was to become her third albumL.I.A.R. (an acronym for "Love Is A Religion"), two things happened which shelved the project: her acting work became more of a priority and her father died. "I must put my entire being into what I'm doing. And the time I felt like I was ready to do that with music, my father passed, and I kind of got knocked off of that idea," Hilson told us.

As it turned out, acting in films like 2021'sDon't Waste Your Pretty and the Lifetime Original MovieLust: A Seven Deadly Sins Story became a kind of therapy for Hilson. "When you're filming, you're in an alternate universe. You're in your own bubble, you're in your own world. Time stops for a moment. And your family, you have a new family, you have a new partner, you have a new way of thinking, you're completely there."

She continued, "It was welcoming for me while I was grieving ... and still grieving. So I think, when I feel that, I'll be able and capable and just naturally willing to give the 500% to music again. Because I know what that takes out of me."

Lust: A Seven Deadly Sins Story premieres April 10, 2021, at 8pm ET/PT on Lifetime.

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The Real Reason Keri Hilson Is Putting Her Music Career On Hold - Exclusive - Nicki Swift

INXS keyboardist and main composer Andrew Farriss recalled how the band burst its own bubble in the 90s by deciding to stop doing what the music industry expected of them.

In an upcoming episode of SiriusXMs Humans of Music program, he recalled how they felt trapped by the expectation of supporting other peoples incomes and discussed his creative partnership with latesinger Michael Hutchence.

INXS actually burst its own bubble because we got to that stadium level, as a band, around the world, he said. One of the more scary elements of that lifestyle is that you have this gravy train of people who all depend on you to keep doing it. If you dont keep doing it, then they dont have their jobs their own thing suddenly gets put in jeopardy. So, youre suddenly thinking, Why am I doing this exactly? Whos this for?

He said the band members hadstarted to talk about it quietly before they decided to "lets just play places we really like to play. If its festival, great. If its a stadium, fantastic. If its a pub, great so long as we like the venue.

The upshot was a tour of English pubs around 1993, even after wed just played stadiums.... Promoters couldnt understand it- they were like, What are you doing? Were doing what we want to do not what were supposed to do.... Everyones making money when youre doing more and more and more but are you any happier?

Farriss described Hutchence as a bohemian, social creature and recalled their unusual collaborative style, which often involved giving the singer a musical idea then waiting for him to visit late at night with melody and lyric ideas that would often give the keyboardist goose bumps.

We werent competitive, we had diametrically opposed skillsets," he noted. "He would talk in terms of, That should be a bit heavier, That needs to be a bit bluer. Id go, Okay and try to think of something. Lyrically, Id throw an idea in occasionally. He was very sure that he always wanted to lyrically say something. He was passionate about that, and I respected that.

Looking back on Hutchences suicide in 1997, Farriss said: One of the saddest things that comes along with a quick loss is that you dont get time to say goodbye to them.... I just miss the happy side of that guy and the talented side of that man. He had a cheeky side to him, too. It was funny, off camera, off mic its those sort of memories I hold in my mind, rather than going down the rabbit hole of tragedy.

The full interview airs on SiriusXM's Humans of Music on April 26 at 1PM ET andwill be repeated at various times throughout the week.

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The INXS Pub Tour That 'Burst Its Own Bubble' - Ultimate Classic Rock