‘Ireland’s Alcatraz’ named Europe’s best attraction
Ireland’s “Alcatraz”; Spike Island, has been named as Europe’s best tourist attraction at the 2017 World Travel Awards. In a move that has definitely raised a few eyebrows, Spike Island, commonly referred to as The Alcatraz of Ireland, won the best in category for Europoean Tourisrt Attraction, beating out competitors including the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Buckingham Palace in London, the Acropolis of Athens and the Colosseum of Rome.
The island measures around 42 hectares and was built around the 18th century star-shaped Fort Mitchell, which once served as a defensive output and later turned in to a prison. In the 1850s, there were over 2,300 inmates with many later to be transported to Australia.
Read more: The Telegraph
Nazi grandma jailed for denying Holocaust and Auschwitz gas chambers
Ursula Haverbeck, an 88 year old Holocaust denier, has been sentenced for six months in prison at a court in Berlin. Haverbeck said that the case against her was incomprehensible, although she has previously been charged with Holocaust denial for the content of several articles in the magazine Voice of the Reich. The Nazi grandmother also disputed the facts that 1.1 million people were killed at the concentration camps in Poland and stating that it was simply ‘not true’ that there were gas chambers at the Auschwitz death camp.
Holocaust denial in Germany carries a custodial sentence of us to five years and although she has been charged with this before, she has not previously served jail time because her cases are still undergoing the appeals process.
Read more: The Metro
Dark Tourism goes Viral because of LadBible?
Dark Tourism may have just seen a little spike in interest thanks to an unlikely source. This month, the multimedia and national outlet known well within the UK’s student population, Lad Bible, posted a video exploring “Skull Island“, otherwise known as Trunyan, a Balinese village in Indonesia. This video shows a group of travellers getting to the island which can only be reached by boat and provides a fascinating insight into the life and funeral traditions locally. It also gives a great story about how the island came to be and how it centres around a deliciously scented tree.
200 Lazio Fans a Year to Be Sent to Visit Auschwitz
SS Lazio, a football team based in Rome, have been discovered to be leaving racist and anti-semitic messages during their recent match with Cagliari Calcio. The supporters had already been forced to change stands due to racist chanting during the match. In a move hoping to tackle racism within the club, president of the club, Claudio Lotito said:
“Today I can officially announce that Lazio will partake in a new annual initiative, organising an annual trip to Auschwitz for 200 Lazio fans to educate and make sure we don’t forget certain episodes, so that these lads can know what it is we’re talking about,” said Lotito.
“There are no racist images in the Curva today, in the past there were banners and flags which left no room for interpretation.”
Well whether this will make any real impact is anyone’s guess, but at the very least the president of the club is recognising the issues and making a very public statement. Although the numbers are small, 200 fans a year is still better than none, although it’s doubtful that one visit to the former concentration camp will tear away all their ignorance and racist ideologies.
Read more: 90MIN & L’Espresso
Radioactive wild boar spark concerns in Sweden 31 years after Chernobyl
Sweden‘s concerns are growing after packs of radioactive wild boar have been sighted moving north across the country, with one animal being shot by hunters having been found to have more than 10 times the safe level of radiation. Even 31 years after the Chernobyl disaster, these high levels of radiation are still being found in the surrounding wildlife and has made hunters in the area afraid to kill and eat the animals.
Ulf Frykman, who works as an environmental consultant, issued an alert this month to local hunters in the country of Gävle, around 100 miles north of Stockholm, warning of “extremely high” radiation levels among local boar. After testing an animal in Tärnsjö with a radiation level of 16,000 becquerel per kilogram (Bq/kg). They then sampled 30 boar and only six were found to be below the safe limit of 1,500 Bg/kg. As the soil in the surrounding areas, and in particular Tärnsjö, are so highly contaminated, this problem is only thought to get worse before it gets any better.
Read more: The Telegraph
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