Broadband to net a million
MEDIA giant Virgin is set to pass a million customers over the next two years.
The broadband provider announced it has passed 900,000 homes and businesses on its network and is set to keep climbing.
Communications Minister Denis Naughten said: “Broadband is an essential service for our society and economic growth and Virgin Media has been at the forefront of fibre broadband investments in Ireland. “ Protesters gather at Dublin’s Ha’penny Bridge yesterday IRISH artists and activists have launched a campaign to boycott next year’s Eurovision in Israel.
Organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the campaign kicked off at Dublin’s Ha’penny Bridge.
Protester Robert Ballagh, who is an artist and Riverdance set designer, said: “I’m very concerned the Israeli state will use the possibility of staging Eurovision in Jerusalem as a propaganda exercise and I become uneasy when any state begin to employ culture as a propaganda tool.
“We’ve seen the dangers of that in past history. I want to urge RTE not to send an Irish song to the contest.”
Senator David Norris warned it was “inappropriate” to hold an entertainment contest in Israel.
He said: “Dum-dum bullets, which expand in the wound and create appalling injuries, are being used against children in Gaza.
“I think it’s very inappropriate to have an entertainment [contest] there when all this is going on a couple of miles away.
“I think people will pay attention if Ireland pull out because it has such a history in the song contest.
“It’s loved all over the world but a lot of people would be sensitive to this.
“It’s nothing against the woman who won the contest but it is against having it in that country which is behaving in an appalling way.” Also backing the call are the Musicians’ Union of Ireland, the trade union for musicians, singers and music professionals, and Irish Equity, the trade union for actors, dancers, directors, and stage and set builders and designers.
A petition has been signed by almost 3,500 people.