Profile for Scáth Shéamais
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Scáth Shéamais has commented 162 times (18 in the last month).
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Books
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Hearing the Other Voice from the Grave: Why Should we Listen to David Ervine’s Stories?
Ed Moloney’s Voices from the Grave: Two Men’s War in Ireland has received considerable attention in the press and in the public realm since its publication earlier this year. Although the book relates the experiences of the Provisional IRA’s Brendan Hughes and the PUP/UVF’s David Ervine, much of the discussion has focused on Hughes’ stories [...] read our review » -
Help me with the West Wing: Essential viewing or Party Political Broadcast?
Having somehow managed to avoid watching a single episode of the widely praised West Wing TV series I was delighted to discover the entire Box set in my Christmas stocking – and with enough spare time over the holidays to give it a good lash. But with 10 episodes of the first series under my [...] read our review »
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Of the Old North and other Vanished Kingdoms..
I’m currently trawling through Norman Davies’s fabulous new tome – “Vanished Kingdoms” – Five stars in the (London) Telegraph’s review from Ben Wilson: All the nations that have ever lived have left their footsteps in the sand,” writes Norman Davies. “The traces fade with every tide, the echoes grow faint, the images are fractured, the human [...] read our review »
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Comment on Belfast Black Taxi Tour – political insight or Troubles tourism?
on 22 May 2012 at 8:23 am
Another view…
In 2012, Belfast’s tourism scene is more about Titanic than the Troubles, but the city would be wise not to forget the political and historical value of what was once dubbed “dark tourism”.
Those were the words of West Belfast MP Paul Maskey, who issued a challenge to local tourism chiefs, citing the huge interest that remains in the Irish conflict from a historical and educational perspective – an interest that still brings hordes of international visitors into the heart of his constituency on a daily basis.
http://belfastmediagroup.com/dark-tourism-could-be-a-shining-light-for-city/
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Comment on Sinn Fein’s split political personality north and south…
on 17 May 2012 at 10:41 am
Or indeed Connor Murphy who as a minister continues to resist double taxation thro water charges and insists on keeping the NI Water in the public domain… unlike his counterpart in Dublin
NI Water was created as a go-co with the intention that it would eventually be privatised. Murphy said he had no interest in privatisation but he kept NI Water around anyway, even after the crisis last winter. Hogan’s Irish Water is just like NI Water.
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Comment on Sinn Fein’s split political personality north and south…
on 17 May 2012 at 10:37 am
I don’t see how SF are being blamed for having to impose cuts in their departments.
SF voted through the pensions bill last week even though that doesn’t come under their departments.
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Comment on Unemployment in Ireland: a tale of two countries…
on 17 May 2012 at 10:35 am
People who want work are classified as economically inactive because they’re not considered to be ‘actively’ seeking work. Illness is sometimes given as one of the reasons for this, as an example.
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Comment on Unemployment in Ireland: a tale of two countries…
on 16 May 2012 at 11:49 am
Don’t quote me on that figure for the South, by the way, I found their stats difficult to parse.
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Comment on Unemployment in Ireland: a tale of two countries…
on 16 May 2012 at 11:46 am
One of the things I’ve been following since I saw it raised by Éirígí is that there are tens of thousands of people who want work but are classified as economically inactive rather than unemployed. In the latest report this figure is 51,000 – almost as much as the official unemployment figure of 57,000 – and if you add the number into the mix then the unemployment rate jumps to about 12%.
Similarly, the UK rate jumps from 8.2% to 14.5%.
The South’s system is of course different but from what I can gather their unemployment rate would rise to 15.1%.
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Comment on #EUREF: Fate of Greece will delineate Ireland’s means of remaining within the Eurozone
on 14 May 2012 at 4:24 pm
The fact they are losing that argument so comprehensively to FF probably more than to government will not be lost on the property owning middle class.
That might become an interesting battleground as it seems that SF are putting out some feelers in that direction.
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Comment on 2012 Irish Open: Executive swingers
on 14 May 2012 at 8:12 am
Every year the media claims the ‘International’ NW 200 attracts 100,000 spectators, it doesn’t and neither will this parochial event.
With events like these the tendency is to add up the numbers from each of the several days that they last and ignore that the same people will be going to many if not all of the days.
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Comment on Scotland – choose your narrative.
on 9 May 2012 at 9:57 am
And it’s worth mentioning that the SNP did see off the ‘red tide’ that Dewi mentioned in a previous post.
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Comment on Scotland – choose your narrative.
on 9 May 2012 at 9:55 am
Labour retains control of Glasgow – the SNP’s prime target. It would probably be more correct to call the outcome of the Scottish local elections a draw. Labour may have blunted the SNP’s momentum in Glasgow
It’s fair to say that the SNP haven’t got control of Glasgow council yet, but they did gain 5 seats while Labour lost 1. in the end Labour have 44 seats and SNP have 27. Compare that to 9 years ago when Labour had 71 seats and the SNP had all of 3.
Obviously the big losers of the day were the Lib Dems, but to call the result a draw between the SNP and Labour defies reality – the SNP overtook them as the largest party in the country and had more gains both in percentage terms and in actual seats.
And as grandimarkey’s map shows, the SNP are now ubiquitous throughout Scotland, a feat that no other party can claim.
(FFS)
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