#Chakravarthi Newspaper

[tripathi-vlog]

TCS sacks employees after Rs 100 crore bribe-for-jobs scandal

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s #1 IT software company, has been embroiled in a scandal involving the exchange of bribes for job placements.

In FY 2023, TCS made a net addition of 22,600 employees globally, taking the total employee base to 614,795, representing 150 nationalities.

Several high-ranking executives responsible for hiring crucial personnel were found to be accepting bribes from staffing firms in exchange for securing positions for their candidates.

A whistleblower reached out to the CEO and COO of the company, accusing ES Chakravarthy, the global head of TCS’s resource management group (RMG), of accepting commissions from staffing firms over a prolonged period of time, according to media reports.

Upon receiving the complaint, TCS promptly formed a team of three executives, including Ajit Menon, chief information security officer, to conduct an investigation. As a result of the investigation, TCS placed the head of recruitment on leave, terminated the employment of four executives from RMG, and blacklisted three staffing firms involved in the scandal.

ES Chakravarthy, who holds the position of vice president, has been prohibited from entering the office; however, his email account remains active. Additionally, Arun GK, another official in the RMG division, has been dismissed from the company.

“While occasional complaints regarding code of conduct violations may arise, our company has robust processes in place to thoroughly investigate and resolve such matters,” a TCS spokesperson told LiveMint newspaper.

TCS, a part of the Tata Group, has yet to determine the full extent of the irregularities. It is estimated that those involved in the fraudulent scheme may have accumulated commissions totaling at least Rs 100 crore.

This job scandal marks the first of its kind to impact the technology giant since K Krithivasan assumed the role of chief executive on June 1st.

Experts have expressed concerns about the impact of the reported bribe-for-jobs scandal involving TCS. They believe that the repercussions of the scandal will extend beyond TCS, affecting the entire Indian IT industry, and emphasize the need for necessary actions to address the situation, IANS reports.

The scandal raises doubts not only among TCS clients but also among clients of other major Indian IT companies about the competence and quality of personnel working on various projects, according to experts. Furthermore, the blacklisting of staffing companies involved in the scandal by TCS is expected to contribute to the improvement of the human resource recruitment system, as these companies are significant suppliers to other major Indian IT firms.

In simple terms, certain TCS employees accepted bribes from staffing companies in exchange for hiring personnel �� an alarming practice commonly referred to as “bribes for jobs.” Reports suggest that this illicit scheme has been ongoing for a considerable period.

Aditya Narayan Mishra, Managing Director and CEO of CIEL HR Services, explains that for a $1 billion turnover IT company, about 60 percent of the revenue is allocated to manpower costs, amounting to $600 million. Additionally, contract employees constitute around 15 percent of the workforce, with an annual cost of approximately $90 million. Even a 1 percent bribe on these amounts would be significant.

TCS in a regulatory filing said that it initiated a review to investigate the allegations. TCS clarified that the issue did not involve any fraud against the company itself and would have no financial impact. TCS acknowledged that certain employees and vendors providing contractors had breached the company’s Code of Conduct. TCS did not provide specific details about the actions taken against the employees and vendors involved.

TCS has blacklisted some of its human resource vendors and terminated the employment of certain employees. Experts suggest that other major Indian IT companies should review their hiring processes as these vendors also supply personnel to them.

The Indian Staffing Federation (ISF), comprising over 120 members, released a statement in response to the TCS job scandal, asserting that they have a robust due diligence process in place for accepting staffing companies as members. They urge all stakeholders, including corporates and the government, to engage with staffing companies that prioritize ethical employment practices and regulatory compliance.

While the TCS job scandal is significant, it is worth noting that inducements to HR officials by private educational institutions have been prevalent for some time. Certain lower-tier educational institutions entice HR officials of corporations to send their teams for campus placements.

Nevertheless, TCS must address the reputational damage caused by the bribe-for-job scandal. A reputation consultant highlights the value of the bribe, indicating that if true, it raises significant concerns about corporate governance, which must be addressed to restore the company’s brand reputation, say experts.

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[tejaswarooparukoti]

Tamil Nadu is great place for temples. We thought to cover few of them. Initially, we named our trip as “Rameshwaram trip”, but soon, we have removed Rameshwaram from our trip as we want to cover Rameshwaram in coming months.

Our plan was abstract. In this 4D/5N trip, we have fixed Madurai and Kanyakumari as fixed places. remaining were “on-the-go” plans.

Day-0 [Hyderabad to Bengaluru][28th Dec 2018 – Friday] :-

We were three friends [Vamshi, Rohith and myself]. We have booked  the train tickets[17652 / KCG CGL EXP -Rs.410 per head]. Vamshi is coming to Kacheguda station directly from home. Myself and Rohith booked a cab from our room to station. The train starts at 4.30PM from station. Our cab was late and at 4.15PM we got stuck in traffic. I was in doubt..whether we can reach the station or not. But, fortunately, with some other route, we have reached the station on time and could catch the train. Train started on time [4.30PM].

Now, we are discussing about our destination for Day-1. Chennai or Changalpattu? Whether to roam in Chennai or Changalpattu or Kanchipuram?

We met the cartoon artist of famous newspaper “The Hindu” – Surendra.  We took suggestions from him too.  Vamshi was calling to his friends, Rohith was calling to his friends. I was just seeing all expressions..

Finally, we have decided to get down at Chennai Egmore station and travel to Kanchipuram by bus.

Rohith and Vamshi called their friends to come to Chennai Egmore.

Day – 1 [29th Dec 2018 – Saturday] [Chennai-Kanchipuram-Chengalpattu]:-

We got down from Egmore railway station and just outside, we was Chennai Metro station and got surprise.. it just so nearby. Mr. Surendra helped us in Metro station as we are new to it. to add to the surprise, The chennai metro is underground.. We took tickets[Rs.40/person] till CMBT bus stop.  Wow, this metro is awesome… It travels from Underground to Top of the road… when we reach the CMBT.

When we came out of CMBT metro station, I found A2B and suggested to have breakfast here. We ordered Pongal, Vada, Tea… meanwhile, Rohith and Vamshi friends also came to A2B. All of us had breakfast.

  [Our trip first photo in Metro]

Rohith friend was Rama Krishna, and Vamshi friend was Mani. Rama Krishna is native of Chennai. so he was guide for us for whole Day-1. Rama helped us in the whole day narrating different stories here. We took water bottles and got into bus from CMBT to Kanchipuram[Rs.70/person].

We hired one auto for whole kanchipuram trip[Total-Rs.700]. We took bath in one small guest house room as suggested by Auto-wala quickly. We first reached Ekambareswarar temple . We had darshan quickly and went to see mango tree which 2500 years old.

[First group photo near temple]

After first temple, we went to our next temple

Kanchi Kamakshi Amman temple

All temples in Tamil Nadu will close at 12.00 or before 12.30PM. and will repoen at 4.30PM. We have reached Meenakshi temple after 12.30 this day. Luckily, the temple is open due to some poojas going on this day. Soon, we completed darshan and we left for lunch.

We had meals.. with tamil nadu dishes.. Sambhar, Poriyal etc. We had idiyappam too.

then, we did shopping. Kanchipuram is famous for it’s Pattu sarees. All of us bought sarees for our mother’s.

Then, we visited two more temples.

Varadharaja Perumal temple[DivyaDesam] :- Here, the temple is famously called Vishnu Kanchi. Here, we have touched “Golden Lizard” inside the temple.

Ulagalantha Perumal Temple[DivyaDesam] :- Here, we could Vamana Avtar and Bali chakravarthy.

As we are running out of time, we went to Kanchipuram bus stop in auto.. to take bus to Changalpattu.  Rama and Mani, went to CMBT to their homes.

We three of them took parcel for dinner in Changalpattu and got into train to Nagercoil. [16723/Anantapuri Express-Rs.1030 per person-3rd AC]. We completed dinner and slept.

Day – 2 [30th Dec 2018 – Sunday][Chengalpattu-Nagercoil-Kanyakumari-Nagercoil]:-

We got down in Nagercoil railway station in the morning. Immediately, we got a bus to Kanyakumari [Rs.22/person – around 20Km-25Km].

We couldn’t get any room here to take as it is season time. and thought to go Vivekanand memorial, but there too very big queue is present. So, we have enjoyed the scenary from coast point only.

We next visited Arulmigu Bhagavathy Amman Temple. After darshan, we completed lunch and took 2-3 hours rest at the coast and watching the sea and taking photos.

Then we visited the Our Lady of Ransom church .

After Church, we visited “Swami Vivekanda memorial” where all life history of Vivkananda with pictures is written.

  Next, we visited Gandhi Memorial, where life story of Mahatma Gandhi, we can see.

Gandhi Memorial –

Inside Gandhi memorial, the View points are so awesome that..we can feel whole kanyakumari at one time[ you can see in below pic, which is shot from Gandhi’s memorial]

Thiruvalluvar :-

Sun set view –

Then, we saw sun set from View point. we stayed for 1 hour and left to Nagercoil. We reached around 7PM. and our train[56701 – Madurai Passenger-Rs.115 per person-Sleeper] is at 10.35PM. We had lot of time, and we began searching for our dinner. we walked for around 1-1.5KM with our lot of luggage and found one small but decent hotel. We completed our dinner for Rs.70 for all three persons with below dishes.

Appams, Wada and Chapathi with sambar and chutney. Next, we returned walking and slept in the platform of railway station…as still we have lot of time… to our surprise… train is delayed by another 90mins.. as it is passenger train. Train came around near 12 or 12.15AM. We got into train and concluded that it is passenger train and definitely will reach late in the morning to Madurai. We have to reach Madurai by 6.45AM. But again, to our surprise.. we have reach at around 6.14AM. that is big shock to all of us.

Day – 3 [31st Dec 2018 – Monday][Nagercoil-Madurai]:-

We have got down from train and took one room. This is the first and last time we took room in our whole trip. We took bath and went to Madurai Meenakshi temple.

Madurai Meenakshi temple –

Wow… This temple is so amazon with it’s architecture. you can observe lot of sculptures.  We took Rs.50/person fast darshan ticket and had darshan quickly in an hour.

then quickly, we went to Koodal Azhagar temple which is walkable. But  the temple is closed as it is already 12.00PM. then, we completed lunch and had Jigarthanda which is Madurai special.

This is a sweet dish… kind of Payasam.. may be made of rice ingredients. then, we took Auto to Pazhamudircholai temple(which is around 32Km from Madurai).

Pazhamudircholai temple –  Here, we had to take govt. bus to reach hill top. We had darshan of Murugan Lord. Soon, we have to walk around 1km again yet another stretch to take bath from water which is continously coming from rocks there.  We returned from hill-top in same govt. bus and went to temple nearby there.

Alagar_Koyil temple[Divya Desam] –

Again, The temple is so large..which large sculputres.. I got shocked from lot of carvings. Simply amazing.  We completed darshan here and then took bus to Periyar bus stand to reach another Murugan temple.

Thirupparamkunram Murugan temple –

This is second Murugan temple in Madurai city. We completed darshan immediately and then moved to Madurai, where we couldn’t go in the morning.

Koodal_Azhagar_temple[Divya Desam] –

After completing darshan of this temple, again we went to Madurai Meenakshi temple for 2nd time in same day at around 9pm.. where temple is about to be closed. But, as we are inside the temple, we can get darshan of amman. at 10PM, we came out of temple and started searching for dinner. At this point, our fun started, even though we are tired sooo much..we thought to eat “Guntha Ponganalu”. We went to 5-6 hotels..but we could’t find anywhere. Some people gave wierd expressions..as they are not able to understand “Guntha Ponganalu”. We showed them photos too. Atlast, after 30mins.. one person showed us the way..where we can get. Finally, we got the person..where two-three persons with small stoved on road side.. they are cooking instantly. we took parcel and went to room and had our food satisfactorily. Finally. we have learned that.. We should call “Paniyaaram” in tamil for “Guntha Ponganalu”.

Our train is at 12.30AM in midnight. and it is 31st night. Where, everyone is busy in celebrating the new year..we are struggling to come to ground from second floor in lift of our hotel. The hotel is so old and lift is not working smoothly..and we got inside lift and 12.59..we wished ourselfves “Happy new year” inside the lift.

We got into train to Changalpattu [ again, yes. There was no plan for 4th day. We booked tatkal on 31st Dec itself and decided to go Mahabalipuram].

[12651 – Sampark Kranti – 3AC – 1154 /person – Madurai to Changalpa

Day – 4 [1st Jan 2019 – Tuesday][Madurai-Changalpattu-Mahabalipuram-Chennai Central]:-

We reached Changalpattu in the morning and had breakfast in same hotel where we got parcel 1 day back. got into bus towards Mahabalipuram[Rs.25/person]

Next we have visited following temple –

Sthalasayana temple[DivyaDesam] –  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sthalasayana_Perumal_Temple,_Tirusirupuliyur

Then we have visited monuments in Mahabalipuram.

Shore temple – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shore_Temple

Mahabalipuram beach – https://www.tripadvisor.in/Attraction_Review-g1162480-d12377399-Reviews-Mahabalipuram_Beach-Mahabalipuram_Kanchipuram_District_Tamil_Nadu.html

Pancha Rathas – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancha_Rathas

Krishna’s butter ball – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna%27s_Butterball

Descent of Ganges – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_of_the_Ganges_(Mahabalipuram)

  Finally. we have ended our trip with Mahabalipuram beach and here is our last photo of the trip

Then, at 3pm, we took bus to chennai central and got into train to Hyderabad.[12759-Charminar express-Rs.425/person].

We reached safely home and trip ended with lot of memories for whole life.

                            Tamil Nadu trip Tamil Nadu is great place for temples. We thought to cover few of them. Initially, we named our trip as "Rameshwaram trip", but soon, we have removed Rameshwaram from our trip as we want to cover Rameshwaram in coming months.

[injectionmoldchina]

New Post has been published on http://www.injectionmouldchina.com/the-aftermath-of-bloody-sunday-a-diffusion-of-anger/

The aftermath of Bloody Sunday - a diffusion of anger

Check out these mould manufacturing factory images:

The aftermath of Bloody Sunday – a diffusion of anger

Image by Tiocfaidh ár lá 1916 A description of how the Bloody Sunday killings set off an unprecedented wave of protests in the 26 Counties – and prompted words but no action from Jack Lynch’s government. By Jack Madden.

When news of Bloody Sunday spread throughout Ireland the initial anger grew into a massive groundswell of public resentment against British rule which was dissipated only by the false promise of drastic action by the Fianna Fail government in a spate of all too familiar cynical verbalising.

Within hours of the Derry murders, a 50-strong picket had been placed on the British Embassy in Merrion Square and Sinn Fein called for the immediate release of republican prisoners held in jails in the 26 Counties.

Realising the potential impact of the atrocity, FF premier Jack Lynch issued a statement:

“Even if they (the marchers) were in technical breach of the recently imposed ban on demonstrations, this act by British troops was unbelievably and savagely inhuman.’’

It was a sentiment echoed by Fine Gael leader Liam Cosgrave, who demanded “a political solution that will get the British Army out of this country for ever’’.

Labour Party leader Brendan Corish condemned “the brutal and barbarous killings by the British army’’, adding that his foreign affairs spokesperson, Conor Cruise O’Brien, would be going to London “to meet Harold Wilson to seek his support for an international inquiry’’.

ticipating the anger which Bloody Sunday would arouse, the Irish Times editorial on Monday 31 January 1972, attacked the Heath government in Britain for demonstrating “all the talent for arrogance, blindness and malevolence that an imperial power in decline manifests when faced with a small but determined people’’.

It continued: “The revulsion which has been felt at some of the earlier British misdeeds will be as nothing compared to the tidal wave of feeling that Derry’s 13 dead will set in motion. It will not be confined to Ireland. England’s name must spell shame around the world today and with it Mr Heath’s.’’.

Later that day, a crowd of 5,000 protestors converged on the British Embassy in Dublin in a spontaneous demonstration of anger. Petrol-bombs, bricks and stones were used to smash most of the embassy’s windows, but the well-protected building could not be set alight – yet.

Such spontaneity was reflected elsewhere in the country, particularly in Dundalk, Limerick, Galway, Carrickmacross and Cork. Tens of thousands of workers downed tools and held parades through these and other towns, parades which, although unplanned and uncoordinated, signified the rising tide of anger and emotion.

The Cork protest began early on Monday morning when 400 dockers left work. Their action quickly snowballed and thousands more poured out from the Pfitzer, Ford, and Roofchrome factories and from building sites and CIE garages, all converging on Cork city centre. According to one news report: “So many marches were taking place that at times columns of protesting workers passed each other in the streets going in opposite directions.’’

University students joined, and sometimes led, these demonstrations. In Galway they closed the college and then led a parade through the city to a public meeting in Eyre Square before occupying the local offices of United Dominion Trust for two hours.

A meeting of staff and students in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth called for the total withdrawal of British troops from Ireland. Interestingly, they also made a point of regretting the college’s “own inactivity and the apathy of the government and people’’ of the twenty-six counties “which has contributed to the continuation of injustice and oppression’’.

GAA president Pat Fanning summarised the rising tide of unity:

“Bloody Sunday has drawn the Irish people together. The point of no return has been reached and passed. That is the victory of those who were so cruelly and callously done to death on the streets of Derry.’’

Waterford’s Mayor Tim Galvin announced a day of mourning in the city, Leitrim county councillors and staff held a vigil outside Carrick-on-Shannon Courthouse, while other councils in Kerry, Kildare, Laois, Westmeath, Kilkenny, Clare and Monaghan joined the chorus of condemnation.

At a meeting of Carrickmacross Urban District Council that night, Francie O’Donoghue, later a Workers Party councillor and a virulent opponent of the hunger-strikers and the Republican Movement, laid a revolver on the council table and announced that “the only way to talk to the British Army is through the barrel of a gun’’.

The call for the release of republican prisoners was repeated at this and other council meetings, while in Mountjoy Jail, 16 POWs began a 24-hour hunger-strike demanding their release “so that we can go to the aid of our fellow countrymen in the Six Counties’’.

RECRUIT

Faced with a situation which was getting out of control, Jack Lynch was forced to act. Besides the almost comical announcement that 100 FCA men were being sent to the border, and that the army had plans to recruit 2,500 men, the government at no time considered sending troops across the border.

Following an emergency meeting of the Fianna Fail Cabinet and another meeting between the three party leaders, a series of diplomatic moves were announced. Foreign Affairs Minister Patrick Hillery was despatched to the United Nations to try and win backing for the government against Britain, while the Irish ambassador to London, Donal O’Sullivan, was recalled to Dublin.

Lynch released a five-point programme which, he said, would have to be agreed to by the British before full diplomatic relations would be resumed. This programme involved:

1. The immediate withdrawal of British troops from Derry and from other areas in the North where there is a high concentration of Catholics;

2. The cessation of the harassment of the minority in the North;

3. The end of internment without trial;

4. A declaration of Britain’s intention to achieve a final settlement of the Irish question;

5. The convocation of a conference for this purpose.

Later that Monday evening, in an interview with BBC’s Panorama programme, Lynch retreated from his earlier tough talk, admitting that the recall of the ambassador did not mean that diplomatic relations were being broken off.

Worried at the prospect of an upsurge of support for the IRA, Lynch, Cosgrave and Corish discussed the establishment of an all-party Northern committee, while later, in a televised `address to the nation’, Lynch announced that finance would be given to nationalist organisations such as the SDLP and Civil Rights Association “who are working peacefully to achieve freedom from unionism’’.

He continued: “Our policies and our reactions must be taken calmly and with determination. The Irish people can rely on Dail Eireann and the government in this regard.’’

This claim was noted by one media commentator, who said:

“When the Dail last met to solemnly debate the North, newspapers found it necessary to point out that quorum bells had to ring to summon a sufficiency of deputies to the chamber.’’

SOLIDARITY

Genuine moves of solidarity came, however, particularly from the trade unions, many of which asked their members to stop work on Wednesday 2 February to coincide with the funerals of Derry’s victims. The ITGWU described Bloody Sunday as “one more in the long list of savage and inhuman acts perpetrated on the people of Ireland by the forces and agents of the British crown’’.

In Dublin, where Conradh na Gaeilge called for a boycott of British goods – a call which led to the withdrawal of British manufactured foodstuffs from shops and supermarkets – most activity centred on the British Embassy.

Throughout Monday crowds of workers, students, socialists, republicans and people of no particular political affiliation, gathered in Merrion Square, listening to speeches from, amongst others, Paul Tansey, a student leader.

Urging his audience to take stronger action than marches to force the government to “demand the total withdrawal of British troops’’ and to “break off diplomatic relations with the UK if the British government is unwilling to co-operate in this policy’’, his speech was typical of the general reaction.

Indeed, Cork’s Lord Mayor TJ O’Sullivan, in a personal statement to workers who handed him protest notes, went even further, saying: “If they want murder, they’ll have murder – one of theirs will go for each of ours!’’

PROTEST

Tuesday began as Monday ended, with ever-increasing protests. British newspapers were left lying at Dublin Airport, where workers refused to handle them, and, following the example of Galway dockers who refused to handle a British ship, dockers in Rosslare insisted that the Union Jack be removed from the British Rail ferry.

Sympathy notices appeared in the newspapers lined with heavy black borders. In later days, such notices were to fill up to three pages in the Irish Times, as did notices announcing the cancellation of concerts and plays as a mark of respect for Derry’s dead.

Bombing incidents against both the British Embassy and British-owned premises in Dun Laoghaire, Waterford and, at a later stage, Mayo, became a feature of the protest action from Tuesday onwards, a phenomenon which no establishment politician commented on until after Wednesday’s funeral, when they used such attacks to justify an increasingly conciliatory line with the British.

Political activity by these politicians centred on the continued `diplomacy’ of Hillery, who arrived in New York for a meeting with UN Under Secretary General Chakravarthi Narasimhma. Far from the constraints of party discipline, he felt free to make statements which actually got to the root of Ireland’s British problem.

He said his mission in going to the UN was “to end the reign of terror which Britain is perpetrating on our people… What has been done in Ireland by the British is an affront to justice in the world. If they get away with it this time, we can have little hope for justice.’’

Asked about his attitude to the IRA, he replied: “The IRA are not for me to explain. They are a response to Britain’s policy.’’

Already, by Tuesday evening, the first diplomatic initiative of an Irish party leader collapsed, when Conor Cruise O’Brien failed to secure an international inquiry, the British deciding to appoint Lord Widgery to lead a whitewash on the Derry massacre.

MOURNING

Wednesday was a day of unprecedented national mourning with shops, factories, schools and offices closing as a mark of respect while Derry buried its dead. Thousands attended marches, rallies and religious services while the politicians converged on Derry to deprive ordinary people of their rightful place at the funeral service.

In the South, attention again focused on the British Embassy. From early morning, crowds arrived in Merrion Square. A huge demonstration arrived from Parnell Square. Led by marchers carrying 13 coffins and a muffled drum, they carried hundreds of placards demonstrating their opposition to British rule in the North.

As the marchers, who were joined by thousands more along the route, reached the embassy, they watched as a Union Jack and the effigy of a pig were burnt. A short while afterwards, the steel shutters protecting the building were smashed and a few well-aimed petrol bombs set it alight and the ensuing flames gutted the embassy.

Faced with so great a crowd, the gardai made only a half-hearted attempt to intervene. Even the British ambassador, John Peck, was unperturbed, expressing amazement that it hadn’t been burnt sooner. Later that evening, during another march to the embassy, an attempt to petrol-bomb the British Passport Office led to repeated baton-charges by the gardai.

ACTION

Throughout the twenty-six counties, protests, if less dramatic than that at the British Embassy, were nevertheless further proof that the Irish people wanted firmer action from the Dublin government. But, as the editorial in the Irish Times commented, the purpose of the day’s protests “was, calculatedly, an opportunity for people to let off steam’’.

Although Conor Cruise O’Brien continued his meetings with British politicians, including Home Secretary Reginald Maudling, to whom he confided that he no longer believed that the retention of British troops in the North was acceptable, and although Hillery continued his mission “to win friends and influence governments’’, Wednesday, the day of the funerals, marked the last day of even token government opposition to the British.

By Thursday morning, a full apology for the embassy burning had been handed to the British authorities through the Department of Foreign Affairs, and compensation for the damage was promised. Jack Lynch met British ambassador John Peck in what were described as “friendly and cordial discussions’’ before he delivered a speech in Leinster House analysing the protests.

He commented: “A small minority, men, who, under the cloak of patriotism sought to overthrow the institutions of the state, infiltrated what was a peaceful demonstration … and fomented violence.

“In the days immediately ahead, there is no doubt that [they] will seek to play on the sympathies and emotions of ordinary decent people to secure support for their own actions and objectives… Those who seek to usurp the functions of government will meet with no toleration.’’

As if to emphasise that republicans could expect no change in the hostility of the authorities, seven republicans appeared in a Monaghan Court charged with possession of weapons in County Louth a week earlier.

ATTENTION

Instead of concentrating on steps to be taken against the British for Bloody Sunday, the Leinster House leaders suddenly shifted attention towards the next big Civil Rights march in Newry the following Sunday, at once raising the expectancy that another tragedy would occur and at the same time taking the public mind off the events in Derry.

Despite denials from Patrick Hillery that his approaches to the UN and the Canadian and French governments were rebuffed, it was quite clear that Lynch’s much-vaunted `diplomatic pressures’ had ended as a damp squib with no international outcry against the British.

Nor was the `five-point programme’ pursued, and, as the days passed without any British response, the government again crawled back in the hope that talks might be arranged at an unspecific date in the future.

Newry passed without incident and with it the momentum which had built over the previous week. There was no release of republican prisoners, no march across the border to challenge British rule in part of Ireland, and no change from the few limited protests which the Dublin government had felt it politic to make.

By making these protests, Lynch, Corish and Cosgrave had effectively created the illusion that progress was imminent and this, no doubt, satiated many of those who, as they saw it, believed that something was being done and that the government could pressurise the British.

FERVOUR

But what of the hundreds of thousands who demanded more drastic action and marched through the streets of Ireland? No doubt the three-days of mass protests was an effective means of reducing the emotional fervour of the people. Such intense emotion could not be sustained and, because the Republican Movement was unprepared to garner and mould this emotion into positive political action, the opportunity which had tragically presented itself was lost. It must be remembered, however, that the efforts of republicans, who had a short time before been forced to rebuild the Movement after the desertion of erstwhile comrades, were mainly concentrated on the war effort in the occupied Six Counties.

But there can be no doubt that the national consciousness raised by Bloody Sunday was cynically defused by the Dublin government.

Tudor Grange House – off Blossomfield Road, Solihull

Image by ell brown I’ve been meaning to get photos of this house for a while. As it was where Alfred Bird of Bird’s Custard lived.

It is Tudor Grange House and it is off a side road off Blossomfield Road in Solihull

It is Grade II* listed.

I wonder if there is anywhere else that you can take it from? Not sure if you can see it from Tudor Grange Park or not.

Tudor Grange House and Stable Block – Heritage Gateway

A large suburban house with attached stable block. It was designed and built in 1887 in a loosely Jacobean style by Thomas Henry Mansell of Birmingham for the industrialist Alfred Lovekin with panelling by Plunketts of Smith Street, Warwick. The house is of red stretcher bond brick with ashlar dressings and a tiled roof and has two storeys with attics and basement. The stable block is T-shaped in plan and attached to the west side of the house.

EXTERIOR: The northern entrance front has a near-symmetrical centrepiece which is recessed at first floor level and above but which has a projecting three-bay porch to the ground floor with door to the right. At either side are projecting, gabled wings and these and the central bay all have shaped outlines to their gables. The windows to the ground and first floors are mullioned and transomed, and there are projecting bay windows to the ground floor at either side. There are panels of carved stonework, particularly around the porch, featuring strapwork and grotesque masks. A further bay to the east then joins to the low wall screening a service court and this in turn joins to the stable block. Extending to the west is a single-storey range of two bays added by Sir Alfred Bird with a square bay window and small, elaborately-carved oriel capped by a battlemented parapet. The garden front is composed with deliberate asymmetry, having five bays with shaped gables to the left of centre and far right and a canted and square bay, each of two storeys, as well as a single-storey bay to the far right. At the west end is a low screen wall which connects to the stable block. To the far east is a portion of walling, the southern side of which was formerly inside the conservatory. Attached to this are concrete containers attached to the wall which are moulded in immitation of rock. The skyline on both principal fronts has a very full array of clustered octagonal chimneys with moulded caps. The balustrade at the top of the wall has moulded balusters and the balustrade piers are surmounted by statues personifying a variety of figures including Hercules, Brutus and William the Conqueror some of which were carved by White’s, according to George Noszlopy, who has identified the overall scheme as based on late C16 and early-C17 English engravings of heroes from Greek mythology, Roman Emperors and characters from English legend, some of which were added by Sir Alfred Bird who employed Robert Bridgeman.

HISTORY The opening of the Birmingham-Oxford Railway in 1852 caused the initial expansion of Solihull’s urban area and throughout the later C19 and much of the C20, the borough has expanded to become an affluent commuter suburb of Birmingham. Tudor Grange was built for Alfred Lovekin of Adie & Lovekin, jewellers and silversmiths in 1887. The company manufactured a wide range of silver fancy goods at the end of the C19 and had a factory in Regent Street, Hockley. In 1894 they commissioned Mansell & Mansell to design a new factory for them at 23, Frederick Street, Birmingham which became known as `Trafalgar Works’ (Grade II). Lovekin’s wife died in 1900 and in 1901 the house was sold to Alfred Bird, son of the founder of Bird’s Custard Company. He enlarged the house, adding the library and a sizeable conservatory to the east, and had Blossomfield Road moved northwards, away from the entrance front, and built a new entrance lodge at the end of the re-configured drive. He also employed Robert Bridgeman to ornament the house with statuary and furnished it with an extensive art collection which included paintings and also with panels of C16 and C17 Flemish stained glass, which survive in situ. Alfred Bird became M.P. for Wolverhampton West in 1910. In 1920 he was knighted and in 1922, the year of his death, he was made a baronet. His widow lived on at Tudor Grange until her death in 1943 and the house is believed to have been used as a Red Cross auxiliary hospital during and after the Second World War. In 1946 the house was bought by Warwickshire County Council and became a school for children with special needs until 1976 when it became part of Solihull Technical College.

NYC – MoMA: Philip Johnson Architecture and Design Galleries – Slinky and LEGO Building Blocks

Image by wallyg Slinky, 1945 Steel, compressed: 2 3/8 x diam. 2 7/8" (6 x 7.3 cm). Manufactured by James Spring & Wire Company; later James Industries; now a brand of Poof Toys, USA. Betty James (American, born 1918) and Richard James (1914-1975)

In 1943, Richard James, his assistant Coleman Barber, a US marine engineer stationed at the Cramp shipyards in Philadelphia, and half brother Dylan Gedig, a Canadian engineer, observed a torsion spring fall off a table and roll around on the deck (a torsion spring has no compression or tension). He told his wife: "I think there could be a toy in this." With a 0 loan, the three men ran tests, experimented with materials, and produced four hundred units of the toy. Betty James did some dictionary searching and came up with the name "Slinky". In November 1945, Richard and Betty James, through an arrangement with Gimbels in Philadelphia, were granted permission to set up an inclined plane in the toy department and demonstrate the spring’s battery-less "walking" abilities. In 1948 they built a factory for James Industries’ twenty employees in suburban Philadelphia, and a decade later, headquarters were set up in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, where the factory remained for thirty years.

LEGO Building Bricks, 1954-58 ABS plastic, Manufactured by LEGO Group, Billund, Denmark. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen. (Danish, 1920-1995)

Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, began creating wooden toys in his workshop in 1932 and began calling his company "Lego" (from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means "play well") two years later. The company expanded to producing plastic toys in 1940. In 1949, Lego began producing the now-famous interlocking bricks, based mlargely on the design of Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks, which were released in the UK in 1947, and calling them "Automatic Binding Bricks."

Since 1963, Lego pieces have been manufactured from a strong, resilient plastic known as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, or ABS. Precision-machined, small-capacity molds are used, and human inspectors check the output of the molds, to eliminate significant variations in color or thickness. Despite tremendous variation in the design and purpose of individual pieces over the years, each remains compatible in some way with existing pieces. Lego bricks from 1963 still interlock with those made in 2008.

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The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) was founded in 1929 and is often recognized as the most influential museum of modern art in the world. Over the course of the next ten years, the Museum moved three times into progressively larger temporary quarters, and in 1939 finally opened the doors of its midtown home, located on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in midtown.

MoMA’s holdings include more than 150,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, architectural models and drawings, and design objects. Highlights of the collection inlcude Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory, Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiseels d’Avignon and Three Musicians, Claude Monet’s Water Lilies, Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie, Paul Gauguin’s The Seed of the Areoi, Henri Matisse’s Dance, Marc Chagall’s I and the Village, Paul Cezanne’s The Bather, Jackson Pollack’s Number 31, 1950, and Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans. MoMA also owns approximately 22,000 films and four million film stills, and MoMA’s Library and Archives, the premier research facilities of their kind in the world, hold over 300,000 books, artist books, and periodicals, and extensive individual files on more than 70,000 artists.