Profile for Pádraig Belton
Latest posts from Pádraig Belton (see all)
Pádraig Belton has posted 9 times (0 in the last month).
The Fight to Keep an Irish Cultural Centre II
I’m grateful there’s been a great deal of interest, after my letter in yesterday’s Irish Times and post here, in what the Irish Cultural Centre is about and what makes it distinctive. I’d wondered if I might provide a bit more detail, for those kind enough to be curious. There’s a website devoted to Saving the [...] more »
The fight to keep an Irish Cultural Centre
I just thought I might share a letter which the Irish Times ran this morning. (This seems a bit unhumble, because it’s by me, but I’ll ask all of your forgiveness.) Madam, – I was pleased to read of Culture Ireland’s “Year-long, €5 million, arts-driven charm offensive on the US” (LifeCulture, June 3rd). It is a [...] more »
Ireland and Libya Update
An Irish Aer Corps aircraft landed in Tripoli today at 4.50 pm to pick up Irish nationals, but was prevented from doing so by Libyan security. It remained on the ground four hours, and was afterwards obliged to return to Malta, according to an e-mail from Department of Foreign Affairs sources. They say efforts will [...] more »
Open thread: your questions for FG economics frontbenchers
Fine Gael this morning announces launch of their 2011 election campaign (for Dáil elections likely the last Friday of March) with a new website. I’ll be at the Dáil tomorrow to interview two of their economic team, Deputies Brian Hayes and Richard Bruton. I’ll after be talking to Professors John O’Hagan and Brian Lucey, [...] more »
Length Matters I
Length of the original Morning Ireland segment on which the Taoiseach is alleged to have appeared in a ‘tired and emotional’ state: 9 minutes, 25 seconds Length of the digitally altered Youtube segment in which his voice was slowed to appear more tired and more emotional (and according to the Google cache, until recently labelled [...] more »
Overheard this weekend…
I followed Ian Paisley’s directions to see the Whore of Babylon. Very disappointed – expected some Iraqi babe, instead some German bloke in a white dress was there. Should we report the “Rev” to the ASA? - Confused of Shankill Road. In other news, tomorrow morning Micheál Martin kicks off alongside Hillary Clinton (about whose [...] more »
Irish foreign policy grab bag
The first is drugs; the second and third are not sex and rock and roll. Maybe next week. With Colombian drug-trafficking networks increasingly eyeing Ireland’s south-west coast as attractive real estate to land cocaine for transshipment on to Britain and Northern Europe, the Gardaí and Irish Navy have become Europe’s frontline against narcotraffic. In this [...] more »
London Fundraiser for Trócaire in Pakistan
For those readers who might be in London, please do pop round the Hammersmith Irish Centre from half seven! We’ve a fundraiser on to assist Trócaire‘s aid to the flood-stricken zones of Pakistan. Pakistani Deputy High Commissioner Asif Durrani will be updating us on relief efforts, alongside Tony McCullagh from the Irish Embassy speaking on the [...] more »
Dublin Convention on cluster weapons comes into force
Yesterday, cluster bombs became illegal over much of the world; in no small part because of Ireland. The Convention on Cluster Munitions, in effect from 1st August, was adopted in Dublin on the 30th May 2008 at the Croke Park Conference Centre. Disarmament is something of a niche specialism for Irish diplomacy – it was [...] more »
Latest comments from Pádraig Belton (see all)
Pádraig Belton has commented 2 times (0 in the last month).
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Books
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Debating the Churches’ Role in the Peace in Northern Ireland
This morning’s Sunday Sequence featured a substantial debate (about 35 minutes into the recorded programme) on a new book,Religion, Civil Society and Peace in Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press 2011), written by sociologists John Brewer, Gareth Higgins and Francis Teeney. The debate was framed in an opening vignette by presenter William Crawley in uncompromising terms, [...] read our review » -
Stay out of Libya: counterinsurgency doesn’t work
A moment of some significance in journalism perhaps, as the New York Times reviews the current talked about book, The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, and the Way Out of Afghanistan by Bing West. The author is no bleeding heart but a former assistant Defense Secretary from the Reagan era who stomped his way round the Afghan [...] read our review »
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Spare us a phoney row about racism, we’ve got enough on
A silly media row about racism just had to figure in the riots’ post mortem. Was the Tudor history expert David Starkey racist on Newsnight when he said: The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion. And black and white, boy and girl, operate in [...] read our review »
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Comment on The Fight to Keep an Irish Cultural Centre II
on 11 June 2011 at 10:06 pm
(Damon – err, quite off this topic, but I did a small piece touching on Muslims in the North a few years back, http://www.vcn.bc.ca/outlook/current_issue/Nov-Dec%2007/Flying%20Different.pdf. I was just Googling for it now and actually found the entire piece had been posted – not by me, mind – on StormFront. I haven’t quite yet worked out why.)
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Comment on The Fight to Keep an Irish Cultural Centre II
on 11 June 2011 at 6:09 pm
Clearly I need to become a better Googler
Thanks Liam, point gratefully taken!
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