Ireland has a serious Russia problem.

does anyone have a breakdown on where else the plant ships to and what percentage of their product goes to each country/customer
the other thing about blocking shipments to russia , is other countries will increase their purchase of product from plant and ship it to russia , sky news has done pieces on this with regard uk goods .one example was cars to i think it was Kazakhstan not sure ,sky identified a major increase in imports ,after russia was sanctioned and couldn't import the cars themselves
 
I see the MV mathew the ship seized by irish customs in 2023 with a massive cocaine haul was sold to a bulgarian firm i think for $1. It is being towed to the black sea port of Varna for refurbishment. It will be used in the black sea grain trade. I hope they have ensured that this ship will not be used to transport russian grain or worse the grain they have stolen from the occupied ukrainian territories.
 
joe sod said:
I hope they have ensured that this ship will not be used to transport russian grain or worse the grain they have stolen from the occupied ukrainian territories.
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At the rate Ukraine have been hitting dark fleet vessels, it's unlikely to last long if they do.
 
I'm all for shutting down Aughinish Alumina - regardless of whether it's ownership is Russian or Swiss, regardless of a link to the Russian war machine or of all its product becoming innocuous can stock aluminium.

The reasons for this are in the public domain for nearly 30 years: gross pollution of local land and watercourses and real statistical evidence via health records of higher incidences of cancer and other serious diseases in the fallout area of AA's chimneys. The fallout area could be considered an ellipse with the plant at one focus, its major axis of 40 miles aligned roughly to the North East and its minor axis being about 25 miles square to this.

Irish media have hidden in the toilet every time they've been asked to seriously investigate AA pollution and the ensuing public health issues. I recall at the millennium talking to the guy in RTÉ who had dedicated an hour-long episode Prime Time to "new findings" on the 1969-70 Arms Trial. Of course, those "new findings" in the end weren't new at all. And the imputation aimed - though not stated openly - at Jack Lynch was long known as everyone over 35 then had understood the whole Arms Trial business grâce à Vincent Browne's Magill articles in 1979 and 1989. That Prime Time presenter would offer no greater defence for his disinterest in AA situation than seeing nothing "new" in this "story".

It was also clear that the Irish government of the time had its officials four square behind the protection of AA - in every sense of the phrase. Local papers in Limerick were literally afraid to say anything on AA that hadn't been already said in other papers and even then it was only stated as "allegations" by other parties and "rebuttals" by AA: no evaluation or independent opinion or comment was presented.

Of course if the AA plant is closed the 700 odd direct and contracted workforce have to be compensated appropriately. If the government, who has steadfastly defended this plant from the beginning to the present, has no imposed financial provisions for redundancy packages, environmental remediation and public health risk then it should be compelled to carry these costs itself.

Back in the early 2000s, AA was granted a licence to build a combined heat & power generating station on Aughinish Island - this at a time when the company was barely viable, let alone capable of the $200 m cost of constructing the station. No doubt the government licence to not only generate for the company's own needs but also sell maybe as much electric power again (plus steam to large nearby factories) provided adequate assurance to the banks lending funds to AA. So there should be enough cash in the kitty for remediation and recompense on closure.

Though the rationale presented for stopping AA alumina exports is a plausible one in itself - and I compliment the people in the media today for their imaginative approach to this - my sole concern regarding AA has been and remains one of stopping the AA killing machine in West Limerick.
 
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trajan said:
Irish media have hidden in the toilet every time they've been asked to seriously investigate AA pollution and the ensuing public health issues.
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This is raised in the film. From 18mins to 24mins, its pretty damning of Irish media if accurate.

Politicians and media don't "there's lots of fear among TD's here in Limerick....there could be a reaction from the Kremlin."
 
JoeRoberts said:
So let some other country suffer the environmental issues. We keep a good name. But still use the end products.

We are very good at this.
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Joe, I personally don't think the world should have similar bauxite refineries in Jamaica, Australia, Guinea, China, Brazil or anywhere else if the basic Bayer process is used, as it is in the Aughinish plant. With all the money being made from the aluminium industry you'd think all the companies in that industry as a whole would be compelled to pitch in to a long-term project to develop in-process separation the usable constituents of red mud, i.e. Fe2O3 (haematite), silica, alumina lime, soda, titania and oxides of various trace metals.

But right now we have to look after ourselves first and shut this bloody thing down.
 
Sister Sara said:
This is raised in the film. From 18mins to 24mins, its pretty damning of Irish media if accurate.
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Just saw it through.

The story isn't exactly Sunday Times Insight grade. He fondled a sample of alumina as if merely having it ensured vindication of his assertions of exported Aughinish product being made into missile components used in the Ukraine. There was no chemical analysis, no scientific rationale to conclusively link his obtained sample to say the composition of spent missile fins collected in the Ukraine battlefield. Likewise he presented no export documentation like shipping destination, consumer company, customer companies of the consumer company, ultimate manufacturing company for ordinance applications, etc.

After presenting more than enough justification to shut the plant on environmental grounds, he describes the EU Commission's vote on exports to Russia as a first step towards the EU taking over AA and providing the ideal solution as it would save the jobs there . . .

All told, as a TV production it's very jejune for a guy of 30. It shows no proper journalism training and limited critical reasoning.

But for all that it's quite interesting in as much as it shows how social media has obviated many of the truth suppression traps inherent in the traditional media of print, radio and TV. And how social media can impel lazy EU pols to do something coherent with the spirit of their pompous platitudes.
 
trajan said:
There was no chemical analysis, no scientific rationale to conclusively link his obtained sample to say the composition of spent missile fins collected in the Ukraine battlefield. Likewise he presented no export documentation like shipping destination, consumer company, customer companies of the consumer company, ultimate manufacturing company for ordinance applications, etc.
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That's what struck me forcibly having watched the film for 2nd time - no scientific or documentary evidence linking the end-product from Aughinish Alumina with anything at all.

The environmental and human disasters of the Aughinish Alumina operations and its detritus are staring us and the population of west Limerick in the face every single day. Where are local and national government and their agencies in this? Where are our human and animal health guardians? What about the wild-life impact?

trajan said:
The story isn't exactly Sunday Times Insight grade.
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Think low-grade red-top rather than blue ribband in both style and quality - all mouth, no trousers as the old saying goes.
 
trajan said:
The story isn't exactly Sunday Times Insight grade
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No of course not. Caolan Robertson appears to be an independent freelance journalist.
The Sunday Times is part of a Murdoch media empire with undoubtedly vastly greater resourcing and networks.

When you compare Roberstons reporting on Aughinish with The Sunday Times reporting on it, the point about media silence becomes more apparent.
 
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Sister Sara said:
Caolan Robertson appears to be an independent freelance journalist.
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He doesn't appear to be anything of the kind, other than to himself. He hasn't any journalistic or communications training or qualification that I can find other than perhaps the time he spent associated with and promoting the views of the international far right movement, amongst them the British far-right activist, organiser, online influencer, anti-Islam leader and convicted criminal, Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, aka Stephen Christopher Yaxley, aka Tommy Robinson, who also, interestingly or ominously, describes himself as a journalist.
 
"Journalist" isn't a protected title. Most Journalists don't have a specific journalistic qualification. The bold Fontan O'Toole has an Arts degree, as did Vincent Browne. Both are excellent Journalists.
 
Purple said:
"Journalist" isn't a protected title.
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Yes, apparently. But to describe oneself as a journalist, implying that it's one's primary income source, would require one to have either an NUJ card or a significant back catalogue of actual published articles.

NUJ's invitation extends to a broad church of people involved in media - it goes beyond mere article-writing into areas like reporting, photography, editing, videography, design, PR, etc.

Purple said:
Most Journalists don't have a specific journalistic qualification. The bold Fintan O'Toole has an Arts degree, as did Vincent Browne.
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Typically, most have BAs - occasionally BScs in stuff like nat sciences or economics/social sciences. But they then train as journalists with a paper or magazine. O'Toole did his training in In Dublin. Browne apparently got trained (well, we'll call it that) in RTÉ.

In recent decades, the old College of Commerce in Rathmines had a journalism course and other colleges have similar or modernised version of this. So there's a good few journalists in the Irish media without the independent perspective provided by a previous college degree in arts or whatever.

But the point mathepac and myself were making was the sort of paper panties approach to facts and their linkage in Robertson's video. That sort of inclination would normally be beaten out of him during journo training, if his own (self-)education and maturation hadn't already done so. I suppose the days of learning shorthand by young scribes are numbered. But the legal implications of broadcasting falsities or misleading facts are very serious indeed. It's not just Mrs Burgess who worries about losing the house to stuff published online.
Purple said:
Both are excellent Journalists.
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Now and then they were. But O'Toole's BA in English and philosophy drags him into hair-splitting too often. Browne self-righteous pursuit of Garrett over application of "public monies" took off well but ran out of road in those cynical days. His TV3 slot was good for a while before it descended into a cranky farce. But he was good for the quick impression of Garrett doing babysitting when Browne called. Then the rejoinder to Mansergh's debating tactics: "Martin doesn't answer the question - he just increases the volume !"
 
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