Britain
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 »
Queen’s Visit: Time to move on but not to forget…
‘I have signed my own death warrant’; so (allegedly) did Michael Collins spake after he had signed The Treaty in London in 1921. Collins’s support for the Anglo-Irish Treaty which both agreed to the partition of the country and required elected representatives in the new state to promise to be faithful to His Majesty King [...] more »
New tales of Empire from David Cameron
A small treat for students of British imperialism especially in Ireland where the agenda of withdrawal from Empire was set. Only the Daily Telegraph so far picks out a headline on these remarks by David Cameron who is keen to make a new start with Pakistan. Odd, coming from the leader of the historic party of Empire where the orthodoxy remains [...] more »
The Gray Lady is starting to charge for her services – is it the last straw for free access?
In the end, executives decided on a tiered plan, one that would allow visitors to read 20 articles a month at no charge before being asked to select one of three subscription models: $15 every four weeks for access to the Web site and a mobile phone app (or $195 for a full year); $20 [...] more »
US dithering over Libya suggests the moment of overstretch has arrived
Just to lift sights out of the island for a bit, a pre-Paddy’s Day reflection on America that has nothing to do with Ireland. This it will be noted, is in accord with Ireland’s new found modesty about its own importance across the pond. To Europeans, not to mention pro-democracy Arabs, Obama’s silence over Libya [...] more »
New thinking needed on emigration
Every speech, every outside TV News report on the death of the Celtic Tiger has evoked the memory of the coffin ships and Danny Boy. Emigration keening has been a strong element of the Irish identity. Professor Wickham of TCD gives it a more positive complexion. The time to think about emigration differently is long [...] more »
London 2012. Sports minister’s daft remarks on dissidents
If you’re badly in need of an adrenalin shot or a boost to the wrong people, this is the announcement for you – and just as the events schedule and ticket prices are unveiled. More blurted out than premeditated? more »
Jeremy, Plaid Cymru and how to do economic competence
I have to confess to being something of a fan of Jeremy Paxman but his smugness can occasionally require use of the TV brick or alternatively a viewing of this excerpt from Newsnight below. It is quite an old clip, having originally been posted by Dewi (Slugger’s Welsh + Rugby correspondent) around election time and [...] more »
New taxing powers for Scotland: a sensible step or a botched job?
A major but flawed step in developing devolution is being taken as the Commons debates the Scotland Bill today, giving the Scottish Parliament the right to levy up to 10% income tax and some lesser measures. Alan Trench powerfully critiques the Bill in his blog Devolution Matters. Already nervous NI opinion dipping their toes into [...] more »
UK splits over university fees and taxation
This is turning out to be quite a week for the fissiparous tendency in the British body politic. As students demonstrated against the prospect of 80% cuts in tuition funding throughout the nation, it was the Welsh Assembly government which stole the march on the others by promising to pay the difference between the present fees and [...] more »
Ireland can’t afford to bail out European banks
I think this point is worth highlighting more clearly. Below – Simon Johnson ex-CEO of the IMF – on who is owed money by the Irish banks German banks are owed $139 billion, which is 4.2 percent of German G.D.P. British banks are owed $131 billion, or about 5 percent of Britain’s G.D.P. French banks [...] more »
CT seems safe – and don’t forget the North and GB
Nerves will be stretched until the exact terms of the deal are known. Meanwhile government spin continues to minimise the extent of the damage. The bond markets at least seem satisfied for the moment but what about the Irish people, still much in the dark?. A huge sigh of relief will go up at the [...] more »
Clash looms with Westminster over welfare to work
This could be a very thorny issue for the Assembly and Executive. Nearly all the local parties will hate the coalition’s welfare to work policies. Politically they wouldn’t dare do otherwise. But this pushes them right up against their limitations. Alex Attwood the SDLP’s Social Development minister has branded as “Thatcherite” the coalition’s plans to cut [...] more »
Britain’s “Abu Ghraib.” Lessons of internment ignored
I’m not usually in favour of projecting the past onto the present but in this case the usual mantra,” lessons have been learned” has been totally ignored. First came the relatively mild strictures of the Compton Report We consider that the following actions constitute physical ill-treatment; posture on the wall, hooding, noise, deprivation of [...] more »
Don’t abandon the idea of a university
It’s a pity Simon Jenkins doesn’t run his own blog as ace controversialist as well as Chair of the National Trust. This champion of that oxymoron the civilising market is in fine form today, denouncing in a dozen ways in as many paragraphs not only the UK government’s proposed university settlement but the thinking behind [...] more »
Charge against the French over Falklands Exocets part of a pattern of Anglo-French myths
A rewriting of history over the role of the French in the Falklands conflict has gone unchallenged in the coverage of the Anglo-French treaty signed in London yesterday. I’ll come to that in a moment. That episode was part of the tissue of stereotyping, misunderstanding and rivalry that still lingers in the prickly relationship between [...] more »
Wrangles over spending cuts expose flaws in political relationships
Northern Ireland’s only regular press commentator on economics John Simpson is the latest to pour cold water on harmonising corporation tax with the Republic. ( though as usual John does it very gently). Any extra foreign direct investment (FDI) gained would fail to make up the consequent shortfall in block grant revenues of about £200m a year and [...] more »
Our deadly version of the pronunciation game
The British library and the Today programme were having a little innocent fun over new trends in pronunciation today. ’Haitch’ or ‘aitch’? How do you pronounce ‘H’? We remember with a shudder the local version. Like saacrifice, maass, AA B.C. – Your turn at compulsory Russian roulette… more »
“The events of 1641 transformed Irish history and, as a result, can be justly said to have transformed British and world history as well.”
The BBC notes the online publication of controversial historical accounts of the 1641 rebellion in Ireland. It’s the result of a three-year project, led by researchers at the Universities of University of Cambridge and The University of Aberdeen and Trinity College Dublin, in which 19,000 pages of the original depositions were transcribed. From the 1641 depositions website Traditionally the [...] more »
Does Andy Marr’s cap fit?
A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed, young men sitting in their mother’s basements and ranting. They are very angry people… Terrible things are said on line because they are anonymous. People say things on line that they wouldn’t dream of saying in person. – Andrew Marr [...] more »
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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 » -
A New Vision for the Catholic Church – Book Review
The oft-quoted verse from the book of Proverbs, ‘where there is no vision, the people perish,’ (chapter 29, verse 18) opens a new book by Gerry O’Hanlon, A New Vision for the Catholic Church: A View from Ireland (Columba Press, 2011). That verse could be considered an apt summary of the current state of the [...] 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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