Liam Cosgrove continues his coverage in the Indo of the dispute involving Fórsa members in St Christopher's in Longford, who will commence a work to rule action from next Monday.

In the Irish Times election coverage John MacManus examines FG's u-turn on hospitality VAT, while Cormac McQuinn examines rival housing policies, while in the Examiner, Paul Hosford says its refreshing to hear General Election debates "about policies and not personalities." He's right of course, although I'd say there's plenty of time left for some of that, and let's not forget the mass character assassination that started the week.

Fórsa members will join their Siptu and INMO colleagues at University Hospital Galway for a lunchtime protest today. Sad news from Galway this morning is that renowned singer-songwriter Johnny Duhan died while swimming off the coast earlier this week. 

Zen

The renowned painter, architect and furniture designer Le Corbusier once declared A house is a machine for living in  (“Une maison est une machine-à-habiter”). Perhaps inspired by this way of viewing a home, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (architect, activist and resistance fighter)  designed the Frankfurt Kitchen – the prototype for the modern fitted kitchen, in 1926.

She became interested in the social issues of housing when studying architecture, the first woman to do so in Austria. In 1938 she moved to Istanbul and joined the Austrian Communist party to take part in the Nazi resistance, which led to her eventual arrest by the Gestapo in Vienna in 1941. She managed to evade a death sentence and remained imprisoned until May 1945. 

Have a great day.

Niall