Irish court finds homeless, drug-crazed, bi-polar man guilty of airport rampage - VIDEO

A homeless Corkman who hijacked a police traffic vehicle before embarking on a crazed rampage around the city centre and airport has been convicted on 12 counts at a Cork Court, despite an expert witness' claim that he was psychotic and on medication at the time.

Edmond Stapleton (38) hijacked a Garda Traffic Corps' vehicle in Cork City center after threatening to kill the patrolling officer at knife-point.

He then drove the vehicle to Cork Airport, several miles from the city center, where he broached the perimeter fence, and engaged in a dramatic high-speed chase with law enforcement officers around the airport's ramp area, before being finally being arrested.

Stapleton attempted to ram police and airport security vehicles several times during the frantic game of cat and mouse, and missed an aircraft full of passengers boarding for a charter flight by mere inches.

The dramatic footage was captured on camera by a bystander waiting to board a flight, and went viral on YouTube several hours after being posted.

Despite a four and a half hour deliberation at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, Stapleton was found guilty on all 12 counts he was tried for by prosecutors.

His defense lawyers had tried to argue that Stapleton was legally insane at the time of the incident, but the argument didn't hold sway with the jury.

Dr Paul O'Connell of the Mater Central Hospital, Dublin, said that Stapleton's actions were consistent with behavior seen during the manic phase of bi-polar disorder, a serious mental health problem which causes sufferers to oscillate wildly between manic highs and depressive abysses.

However Irish insanity legislation does not allow for the defense to be pleaded if the insanity was induced through alcohol or (recreational) drugs; Stapleton's legal team were unable to convince the jury that this wasn't the probably explanation for his actions after he tested positive for an almost unheard of cocktail of drugs after being tested by police (specifically: cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, and benzodiazepines!).

Sentencing was adjourned until next Wednesday.

Dutch academic claims almost half of Irish families would be 'better off' on social welfare than at work

A controversial Dutch academic once member of a prestigious Dublin think-tank has made headlines by airing the claim that 44% of Irish families would be better off drawing the Dole (collecting social welfare) than working.

Richard Tol, a somewhat eccentric looking Dutch economist well-known for his bizarre hair-dos, contributions to theirisheconomy.ie, and for once working at the ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute), said that he will likely publish the working paper under the auspices of the University of Sussex, where he now works, rather than through the ESRI, from which he has since resigned.

The report, findings from which were published by the weekend's newspapers, was hastily removed from the think-tank's website, an eyebrow-raising move described as 'unprecedented' and dramatic enough to force Minister for Social Protection Joan Bruton to deny having had any involvement in its hasty deletion of the working paper.

The think tank's director Frances Ruane, has said that the public could have been misled by the grim indictment Tol offered of Ireland's bountiful social welfare system, though denied that the organization had come under any external pressure to have it removed or retracted.

And although Prime Minister Enda Kenny added that while he would have been disappointed by any direct contact or interference between Government and the think tank, generally viewed as Ireland's most influential and prestigious, the concerted and uniform attempt by Government ministers to deny any involvement in the paper's mysterious silencing although strikes many as suspicious.

Tol has said that although he intends to revise the first draft of the working paper, which emerged in late May, he stands by its findings that a substantial amount of the population would be better off on social welfare than holding down a job.

44% of those with families would be better off not in employment, while 15% of single workers would. The report, compiled largely from Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, found that 30% of an average monthly wage can be spent on childcare.

Despite its removal from the ERSI's pages, an extant copy of the report, 'Working Paper No. 436', remains posted on TheJournal.ie here.

A polarizing figure within Irish academia, Tol's premature departure from the Dublin think-tank earlier this year was also the stuff of media reporting and sensationalism.

An outspoken dissident of the ESRI's independence, Tol (along with famous his hairstyle) didn't fit into the usual straight-laced think-tank mold; his dissident comment on not just the ESRI but many other political actors in Irish society as well as his hasty exodus from the body drew accusations that he had been 'silenced' or pressured into doing so.

A blog at the time of his departure by Dr Stephen Kinsella of the University of Limerick (UL), himself a prominent young Irish economist and often-time media commentator, opined that Irish public life would be poorer as a result of his resignation from the Institute.

Just as we are for the strange retraction of his working paper.

Chinese restaurant looking for "interns". Lucky candidate will gain valuable experience in physical activities like "walking"

The Irish Government's flagship internship-finding programme, Jobbridge.ie, has posted an internship listing for a waiter at a Chinese restaurant, prompting amusement and disbelief from summertime jobseekers around the country.

Amazingly, despite a feature-length newspaper article and a gone-viral Facebook status, the job description - at least at the time of writing - remains posted on the website.

The job prospectus says that the lucky intern will gain valuable real-world training in: "serving customers in restaurants and receiving clients or guests," as well as at  "Performing physical activities such as balancing, walking, lifting and handling of materials."

Whoever's crazy enough to take the job (give that after 44 days' listed the position remains unfilled this may be noone) will get a handsome salary of €50 ($62) a week in addition to retaining their social welfare benefits.

Those who feel up to the challenge are advised that they need to have attributes like steely "self control", "dependability" and (of course) "integrity" to land the vacancy.

The hapless "intern" will work a standard employee's 40 hour work week, while the listing adds, in the education section, that a Junior Certificate (rough equivalent: SAT Junior) is required to take the job.

This is a hilarious example of where the internship system falls flat on its face, but is unfortunately one of many less than life-changing internships I'm aware of that were listed on the JobBridge system.

The 'National Internship Scheme' as it's officially known, was launched by the Irish government last summer in response to a skills and training crisis within Irish society.

Employers weren't (still aren't) hiring, making it more difficult than ever before for young graduates to gain professional experience without having to leave the country.

Getting that first foothold on the career ladder is becoming only harder and harder for more graduates fresh out of college.

The government's solution to this was to conceive a kind of social-welfare supported national internship programme: all listings through JobBridge are guaranteed social welfare support (in the form of payment of the 'Dole', or Jobseekers' Allowance), while often also paying a nominal salary to those who undertake the internships.

There have been recent calls to include physiotherapists in the list of approved sectors for the programme, a call for the government to adopt  a similar programme for part-time jobs, and a policy being pushed by Fianna Fáil that would see 5,000 more places on the scheme made available to those under 25.

Unfortunately, the scheme has also been implicated in widespread abuse, such as the above example of a Chinese restaurant, as well as other internship offers that have gained the arrangement the moniker of the 'modern day slave trade' from some commentators.

'JobBridge To Nowhere' is a Tumblr blog whose express purpose is to collect - and expose - a series of other such internships of dubious value and legitimacy.

The blog has been keeping an eye on the programme almost since its inception last year, and has unearthed a series of startling listings from prominent Irish companies - among them household names, semi-States, and other public sector employees.

Ireland's national electricity provider apparently took (last winter) to masquerading all its currently available positions as 'internships', while one of the country's fastest-growing news websites, Broadsheet.ie, ran a screenshot of a 'packer' job ("the intern will gain practical experience in the area of household and office moving..") under the headline 'Getting Old Now'.

A Facebook page for disaffected young Irish 'interns' vowing to boycott JobBridge was also set up.

Another series of irreputable internships were highlighted by the far-right Socialist Party, in a transparent headline claiming, flatly, "Jobbridge is a scam". (The same question was asked by a more centrist blogger in an opinion piece for the Huffington Post).

Jobbridge looks to me like a good idea that has gone very badly wrong, or a Government-endorsed racket that no longer cares whether the 'opportunities' it offers young people really amount to anything worthwhile at all. The seeming total lack of moderation or vetting of internship opportunities posted doesn't send a positive message across.

I know, personally, of at least three interns who were unhappy with the kind of work they landed through the programme; judging by 'Jobbridge to Nowhere' and the Facebok page, there are undoubtedly countless more.

Ireland needs job creation and compelling alternatives to emigration for its college graduates, but a system of Government-endorsed slavery will only make a bad system worse.

While many internships can be valuable, career-edifying, and worthwhile experiences (my own internship at IrishCentral  two years ago was fantastic), the system is by its nature open to abuse, dominance of big business over desperate jobseekers, and unscrupulous employers who can package any kind of manual work as 'internships' in the name of taking on free labour.

Unfortunately JobBridge is beginning to seem like particularly obvious example of the latter; even if it was created by the Government.

Irish TV boss in hot water over notorious RTÉ documentary "Mission to Prey"

The chairman of Irish State broadcaster RTÉ, Tom Savage, is facing a tabloid grilling in Ireland over his role as head of Dublin-based the Communication Clinic and that company's involvement in the broadcaster's ill-fated 'Mission to Prey' documentary.

The TV boss is now also facing increased pressure to explain how his leadership of the TV station does not pose a direct conflict of interest with his directorship at The Communication Clinic - a public relations outfit that has gained a reputation as the go-to PR firm for Irish politicians and political parties since its foundation in 2004.

The firm, which also specializes in political speechwriting and 'spin' control is owned by Savage and his wife, Terry Prone.

Prone is something of a celebrity in her own right: an outspoken Irish media commentator and television critic seldom off Irish airwaves, while the couple's son is a DJ for TodayFM.

At least one public representative, Independent TV Mattie McGrath, has called for Savage's resignation, calling his position within RTÉ 'untenable' in the wake of both the scandal and his role at the PR boutique.

A second appearance before the all-party Oireachtas Communications Committee brought another push for his ouster. A third showing for Savage is already on the cards.

More startling still, it has emerged that The Communication Clinic was engaged by The Irish Missionary Union (IMU) - a group representing Irish clergy - in the wake of the damning 'Mission to Prey' documentary in which RTÉ famously defamed priest Fr. Kevin Reynolds.

Savage has yet to respond.

Interestingly, it has emerged that a total of two training sessions, over the course of two days, were held with the spindoctors on the correct presumption that there would be a public backlash to the incriminating documentary.

Another director at the firm has alleged that client confidentiality would have meant that Savage would have known nothing of the training while the fracas at RTÉ was breaking out, but few seem convinced that this was the case.

A timeline by popular news website Broadsheet.ie sets out why it thinks that Savage would have known about the training at the Communications Clinic before the RTÉ show was even put on air - in essence, knowingly profiteering from RTÉ's defamation.

A letter published in the Irish Examiner by a former Senator, John Whelan, then echoed this belief.

The National Union of Journalists' (NUJ) Irish secretary, Séanmus Dooley, has described the close-knit relationship between the clerical body and the Communication Clinic as "deeply disturbing", adding that Savage needs to deal with the issue as a 'matter of urgency'.

However Savage - who oddly is himself a former priest - has remained adamant that no conflict of interest has occurred in the two and a half years which he has held the directorship of the RTÉ Board.

RTÉ was forced to pay out over €1m in damages last year after the Irish High Court ruled that it had groundlessly defamed Fr. Reynolds in its 'Mission to Prey' documentary. The station was also subsequently forced to broadcast an on-air apology.

The documentary reported that Reynolds had raped a girl while working as a missionary in Kenya and subsequently fathered an illegitimate child.

The scandal saw the programme's report, Aoife Kavanagh, fired from her job, while several other high-profile journalists within RTÉ were either moved to other departments or laid off.

While the whole episode does seem something like a media circus which will surely, in time, roll off, the calls for a system of mandatory registering of interests for key players within the Irish media industry could perhaps see the light of a day.

In an industry as self-regulated as the press, and in a country like Ireland, that could be a good thing.