In a tweet, French journalist Nicolas Delesalle cited Père Frédéric, writing: “Good news: all the works of art were saved. The treasure of the Cathedral is intact, the Crown of thorns, the Holy sacraments.”
The historic building’s spire and roof have already collapsed. No casualties have been reported as of yet.
The cause of the fire is not yet known, however, officials have indicated it could be linked to current renovation work.
The French President, Emmanuel Macron, has cancelled a planned public address and has arrived at the scene.
Credit: PA
Last year the Catholic Church launched an urgent appeal for funds to repair the building, which was showing serious signs of decay.
The construction of Notre Dame – which means ‘Our Lady’ – began in 1160 and was mostly completed a hundred years later in 1260. It has been modified on numerous occasions throughout the centuries since.
On Twitter, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, described the fire as ‘terrible’.
She said: “A terrible fire is underway at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. The @PompiersParis are trying to control the flames. We are mobilised on the spot in close connection with the @dioceseParis. I ask everyone to respect the security perimeter.”
FDNY HOLY NAME SOCIETY – 95TH ANNUAL COMMUNION MASS AND BREAKFAST
The Fire Department Holy Name Society, Manhattan, Bronx, and Staten Island, will hold its 95th Annual Communion Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Sunday, April 28, at 10:15 AM. The Mass will be followed with a procession to the NY Hilton on 6th Ave and 53rd Street, where a meal will be shared and the Honorees will be recognized. The breakfast will begin at approximately 11:30 AM. During the breakfast, the Holy Name Society will honor Retired Battalion Chief, Joseph Bryant, B-35 who served as President of the HNS for 38 years, and DC Jimmy Ginty from Rescue Operations who currently serves as President of the Fire Family Transport Foundation. This year, the Father Mychal Judge Humanitarian Award will be presented to the Nurses of the FDNY who represent both BHS and WTC Medical Monitoring. Donations are $65 per person. For ticket reservations, send a check to the Holy Name Society, Attention: Chris Ward, 1800 Pettit Avenue, North Merrick, NY 11566. Spouses and children are cordially invited. Please respond before April 20th. Members are requested to attend in dress uniform. Members shall assemble on 51st Street, East of 5th Avenue at 9:45 AM. Please visit http://www.fdnyholynamesociety.com for more information.
FR. MYCHAL JUDGE SCHOLARSHIP RAFFLE
During the HNS Annual Communion Mass on Sunday, April 28, there will also be 3 tickets drawn for the Fr. Mychal Judge Scholarship Raffle. The cost of the Raffle ticket is $100. Awards are: 1st Ticket: $5,000; 2nd Ticket: $3,000; and 3rd Ticket: $2,000. Winners need not be present at the Breakfast. All proceeds from the drawing will go to funding the Fr. Mychal Judge Scholarship Fund. Tickets and further information can be found at www.fdnyholynamesociety.com. They must be returned to the Holy Name Society by April 20, 2019. Return Raffle to: FDNY Holy Name Society, PO Box 604633, Bay Terrace, NY 11360.
HIGHER EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP DRAWING
The Holy Name Society, Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island, will hold a Higher Education Scholarship Drawing at the annual Communion Breakfast on April 28, 2019. The Higher Education Scholarships consist of two $1,500 awards, payable to any college or trade school of the winners’ choice. Applicants must be graduating from high school in June 2019. Members must be in good standing and be PRESENT at the Breakfast to have their children eligible for the drawing. Applications can be obtained from Scholarship Chairman, Bill Meade, P.O. Box 525, Maspeth, NY 11378, telephone 917-716-1074, or at http://www.fdnyholynamesociety.com/documents/HigherEducationScholarshipApplication.pdf. Completed applications must be returned by April 19, 2019, to be included in the drawing.
The DUP in north Belfast has won the competition for the most outrageous pre-election news story after it emerged that their candidates’ nomination papers have been signed by a convicted cocaine dealer, as well as another infamous loyalist convicted of driving at speed into a crowd of nationalists.
DUP north Belfast councillor Dale Pankhurst and former Stormont minister Nelson McCausland have been canvassing alongside Mark Officer, who was jailed in 2015 over a cocaine haul worth nearly £1m. The loyalist kingpin was handed a 40-month sentence for being involved in the supply of the Class A drug. His name is also listed among those who signed nomination papers for Gillian Simpson, a DUP candidate in north Belfast alongside Pankhurst.
Mr Pankhurst’s own nomination papers were signed by notorious Orangeman John Aughey. He was jailed for one year after violently mowing his car into nationalists at the Ardoyne shopfronts in July 2015 during a protest over the Orange Order’s bid to march past the sectarian flashpoint. One teenager became trapped under his vehicle, was run over and was dragged along, suffering life-changing injuries.
In a statement issued in the name of its local councillor Ryan Murphy, Sinn Féin said the DUP had displayed ‘staggering arrogance and hypocrisy’ in its approach to the election. They said: “The DUP likes to portray itself as the party of law and order yet, when it comes to election time, they clearly have no difficulty sharing platforms with the representatives of loyalist paramilitary organisations which are still actively involved in everything from drug dealing to extortion and murder.”
Other unionist candidates have made headlines for different reasons. The election posters of far-right loyalist Jolene Bunting have been reported to the PSNI as potential hate crimes. The independent councillor, who is seeking re-election next month, put up campaign posters with slogans including “Put veterans before immigrants” and “Local homes for local people”.
Sinn Féin councillor Ciaran Beattie described the posters as the “politics of hate”, while Alliance representative Micky Murray said they were “blatant, everyday racism”.
Another independent unionist councillor, Henry Reilly, formerly of UKIP, had his account closed by Twitter after he issued a sectarian screed on the social network. The Newry, Mourne and Down representative told Twitter users that “Ulster Protestants will fight hard” in any upcoming war in the north of Ireland.
Reilly declared: “IRA-types telling me the Prods are finished – I would remind the Provos that there is now no British Army or RUC here to protect them – Any war they start will be with Ulster Protestants alone and it will be a fight to the last and Ulster Protestants will fight hard”.
An analysis piece from the Enniscorthy Guardian looks at how Scotland’s approach to Brexit resonates in Ireland.
As the parliament in Westminster continues its descent into anarchy you could be forgiven for thinking that British politics has reached a state of such utter dysfunction that it may never recover.
Thank God then for Scotland which – in an increasingly lunatic world – looks like it will emerge from the morass of Brexit with its dignity intact.
There is no denying that those most aggressively seeking Scottish independence have seized on Brexit as a powerful propaganda weapon to advance their cause.
While that is certainly true, it does a disservice to Nicola Sturgeon and her administration to suggest that advancing Scottish independence is the only reason that they have so vigorously fought to stop Brexit.
Though a majority of Scots voted against independence in 2014, when it came to the Brexit vote in 2016 the vast majority of Scottish voters – 62 per cent – said they wanted to stay in the EU.
Now as the UK prepares to drive off a cliff, in the most demented act of political self harm witnessed in Europe for decades, our Scottish neighbours are pleading with Europe not to abandon them in their hour of need.
Debate in Westminster has become a tragic farce but in Europe sense, logic and responsibility have generally prevailed in the face of British irrationality.
A striking example of this came in the EU chamber last week when Scottish National Party MEP Alyn Smith made an emotional rallying call to the European Parliament.
In what he said could be his last ever speech to the European Parliament, Smyth insisted that Scotland remains a European nation and he begged the lawmakers in Strasbourg to leave the door open to Scotland’s return in the event that Nicola Sturgeon and her party can secure a vote for Scotland’s independence from the UK.
“We celebrate international solidarity, we celebrate freedom of movement. If the European Union did not exist we would need to invent something like it and Scotland would like to be part of it,” said Smyth to applause in the chamber.
“Chers collègues, I’m not asking you to solve our domestic discussions. I am asking you to leave a light on so we can find our way home,” he added.
It was a powerful, articulate contribution to a debate that, in Britain, has become more vicious and increasingly half-witted with every passing day.
If there were more politicians like Mr Smyth in Westminster then Europe might have been spared this abject mess.
The SNP’s fight for Scottish independence still has a long way to go but recent polls have shown that more and more Scots believe Brexit will make Scotland’s independence more likely.
Crucially 43 per cent of previously undecided Scots polled in the last week say that Brexit had made up their minds and that they now back independence.
Whatever about Westminster, there are interesting times ahead in Holyrood.
One of the pillars of the British establishment in Ireland, former Alliance Party leader John Alderdice, has joined growing criticism of British Direct Ruler Karen Bradley.
Speaking on the 21st anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, Alderdice, who now goes by the title ‘Baron Alderdice of Knock’, said Bradley did not have the “capacity” for the job.
He said she should not be in the post as she did not have a “real understanding of the problems Northern Ireland has” and “does not understand” her job.
Speaking in Westminster, Alderdice admitted the minister had “said some things that are completely extraordinary”.
Last week, Bradley told Irish citizens in the north of Ireland that they did not have a right to vote in referendums, and would not have the same rights as other EU citizens after Brexit.
Sinn Féin described the comments as “erroneous and dangerous”.
This week the British government sought to provide reassurance, but still fell short of providing clarity that Irish citizens will be allowed to participate in any future border poll on reunification.
A spokesperson said that voter eligibility rules for future referendums would be determined “on a poll-by-poll basis”. He said: “The rules surrounding any referendum are set in legislation specific to that poll, as happened in 2016 (for the Brexit referendum). Any decisions on a border poll would be made in line with the Belfast Agreement.”
The controversy comes after other highly inflammatory remarks by Bradley, including a shocking statement that all the killings carried out by British soldiers in the north of Ireland are “not crimes”.
Alderdice works closely with the British government’s political apparatus in Ireland and has previously been taken part in MI5-operated commissions to “monitor” the status of the Provisional IRA’s ceasefire. But he said Bradley was out of her depth.
“She is not a bad person but she should just not be in the job, because she does not understand it and she does not have the capacity to deal with it and it is allowing things to drift in a totally unsatisfactory way.”
Another statement by Bradley this week claimed that she is willing to hold a “short, focused set of five-party talks” in order to restore the Stormont Assembly in Belfast.
Sinn Féin Vice-President Michelle O’Neill said neither the British government nor the DUP had any genuine interest in restoring power-sharing.
“I am fully committed to Sinn Féin playing our full part in any serious and meaningful talks process which remove obstacles to proper power-sharing and which deliver a successful outcome and restore the Assembly,” she said. “We have yet to see Karen Bradley prioritise any such process, and I have told her it is time she did.”
She said the present reality is that Karen Bradley’s government is wholly reliant on the DUP at Westminster to stay in power.
“It therefore appears to us that neither the British government nor the DUP want an Assembly and Executive at this time which would impede their catastrophic Brexit.”
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said she was alarmed that “more than 20 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, that the British government and state insists that Irish people living in the north of Ireland are British.
“And I am concerned that [Bradley] would make such ill-judged and inaccurate comments around people’s right to vote in any potential unity referendum. That worries me and that does undermine public confidence in her.”
Asked if Ms Bradley should resign, Mrs McDonald said it “wouldn’t solve the problem”.
“The issue that we have here regards this government’s stewardship of the peace process is far deeper and goes much wider than Karen Bradley.”
