Lisbon II
Lisbon Essay (22): Vote Yes to this unloved bastard son of the European Convention…
Another European view and another from the Yes perspective comes from Daniel Cohn-Bendit, renegade from 1968 and currently co-president of the European Greens–European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament… No one loves it, he says. Who could? It long, legalistic, and complicated. An ad man’s nightmare. But it is the shaken down product of [...] more »
Lisbon Essay (21): Europeans cannot opt out of globalisation and its problems…
Richard Gowan notes that with the changing of the guard at the US Whitehouse President Obama is not likely to constrain himself to old alliances to deal with the problems of a much larger and more complex (not to mention more dangerous) world than most of us knew growing up… Richard notes that already huge [...] more »
Lisbon Essay (20): After eight years of intense political negotiation it is time to move on…
Margot Wallström the current Vice-President of the European Commission lays out her case for Lisbon. In particular she notes the high level of distrust lingering in some circles with regard to the changes agreed (ie Ireland’s right to a commissioner, and the legal guarantees), but argues that these are political decisions the unbinding of which [...] more »
What comes after next week’s referendum for Lisbon?
Interesting line from the director of the European Strategy Forum, Peter Ludlow on what happens in next but one thing in the big treaty debate on the Euractiv site… For the moment, the position is that if [the second appeal] is referred to the Czech Constitutional Court on 29 September, Klaus has grounds for not [...] more »
Lisbon Essay (19): A No vote will stop the drift to ‘undemocracy’…
Jason Walsh argues that when you strip away the contralto hyperbole of some of the more extreme claims of No campaigners like Coir, there is more than a grain of truth to their case that Irish sovereignty is under attack, primarily because multilateral institutions do not take national sovereignty seriously any more. The default assumption [...] more »
Slugger’s Lisbon Essays spotted in the Seanad…
Printed copies of the Slugger Essays, covered in highlighter pen and sitting in front of Senator Terry Leyden in a Seanad Committee meeting this week… Good, it seems they’re being read by the very people they were intended for… Not quite Hansard, but one day maybe… more »
No posters out gunning the Yeses with young voters (and non voters)…
As one exhausted Yes campaigner might have said, “why does the devil have all the best tunes?” Certainly, the Yes campaign posters are all pretty bland and distant. There is no clear messaging, other than Yes, Yes, Yes… Of the Nos I’ve seen, this is my personal favourite… who could beat a strapline that goes [...] more »
Lisbon Essay (18): Giving the Celtic Tiger back its growl
Today Martin Schultz, leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament argues that a yes to Lisbon is essential to reviving Ireland’s fortunes (a view previously supported by LE11 but opposed in LE5 (and in this follow up from Stephen Kinsella). The question, he argues, is not apocalyptical. It about [...] more »
Lisbon (17): Without the treaty Ireland cedes its interests to bigger fish…
Senator Deirdre de Burca argues that for all the legitimate misgivings surrounding the beefing of a European foreign policy, not least round those concerns in LE4 and LE16, the mere act of the EU coming together in a single multilateral body to tackle issues like climate change, international terrorism or with wild hiccuping in global [...] more »
Lisbon campaign: “Our age group is more independent-minded and willing to question authority…”
This one’s been sitting in the jug since yesterday, when Mary Fitzgerald wrote about one of the most disaffected groups by age in last year’s Lisbon referendum, when: 55 per cent of those aged 18-24 voted No, and 45 per cent Yes. In the 25-34 year age group, the No vote was even more pronounced: [...] more »
“Choose Lisbon”
We’ve seen a possibly adulterated “Yes” campaign poster. At Irish Election Cian has an unadulterated “Yes” campaign poster. It’s Generation Yes’ clever clean riff on Trainspotting. Reproduced below the fold.GenYes Train Spotting Banner more »
LIsbon Essay (16): Building of a militaristic trojan horse…
Today Andy Storey of UCD takes a contrary view of Ireland’s neutrality status post Lisbon to that expressed in LE13, and argues that whatever other countries mean by ‘neutrality’ in Ireland for generations now it has meant, as outlined in Lisbon’s ‘legal guarantees’ “non-membership of a military defence alliance”. He also questions whether it really [...] more »
Slugger ‘got’ by partisan Euro ‘pollster’…
So what happened to Slugger’s great ‘scoop’ of last night? Well, first thing I tune into “What is says in the Papers” on Morning Ireland and… well, nothing… Then I go and look at the thread, and Dewi reports Mike Smithson at Political Betting (who’s parted with £100 on the strength of the same ‘tip [...] more »
Aiste Liospóin (15): Ag líonadh na bearnaí daonlathais…
Creideann Aonghus Ó hAlmhain go mbeidh torthaí fónta ar Chonradh Liospóin, torthaí a chuireann le gné daonláthach an Aontais agus, anuas ar sin, cuireann siad lena éifeacht. Maíonn sé nach mbeidh ról nua an Uachtaráin ar an gComhairle Eorpach nios mó ná ról chathaoirligh nó ról mholtóra. Dar leis go dtugann staitistic amháin léargas ar [...] more »
Sun poll calls a strong No sentiment against Lisbon…
Slugger has just had sight of some polling figures, done by Gael Poll for tomorrow’s Irish Sun that suggests that big soft ‘don’t know’ may not be as soft as the Irish Times polling has been suggesting. On a nation wide sample of 1500 and in answer to some pretty straightforward questions, the figures they [...] more »
“Little People!”
At Irish Election, Mark Coughlan has footage of a possibly adulterated “Yes” campaign poster.. more »
Lisbon Essays (14): Women of Ireland, what will it be?
Gerard O’Neill speculates on whether or not women will decide the Lisbon vote. They were the largest single group (numerically) to swing the last vote to a No. He observes that neither side have particularly targeted the female voter. This is largely correct, if the evidence my camera-phone in Dublin last week is anything to [...] more »
LIsbon Essay (13): Ireland cannot commit to anything beyond “the Chinese veto”…
Ben Tonra argues that the concerns around sovereignty and military interventionism (LE4) betray a timidity in Ireland’s sense of its own sovereign power, rather than an assertion of it. He argues that Ireland rather than retiring into the corner, should use the opportunity being opened by Lisbon and press forward and into spaces where its [...] more »
Lisbon Essay (12): Three decades of building Irish independence inside the EU…
Today Conall is the first of our Yes essayists to tackle the question of what has happened to Irish sovereignty through its thirty six year membership of what began as the European Economic Community, then became the European Community, and is now known as the European Union. He notes that in 1973, Ireland went in [...] more »
The Lisbon Essays in 3.17 minutes (nearly)…
Nicely balanced video assay of the social issues arising from the Lisbon Treaty… more »
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Books
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Learning from 1798?: Northern Ireland’s Upcoming Decade of Commemorations
Last year, the Lilliput Press released a new extended edition of Tom Dunne’s Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize winning book, Rebellions: Memoir, Memory and 1798. First published in 2004, Dunne’s book provoked considerable controversy with its critique of the ‘commemorationist’ history that Dunne believed dominated the 1998 commemorations of the 1798 Rebellion. The book blasted the involvement [...] read our review » -
Risk of going beyond either/or…
This is article was first published in Fortnight magazine back in February 2003. Chris Farrington is now a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences’ in the School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin. Although the circumstances it describes has changed radically and [...] read our review »
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The lost art of reading (or drowning in too much information)…
Here’s a great review of a fascinating book (H/T reader Rory) on how the Internet is destroying our capacity for intelligent, focused and critical thought. It opens thus: …here is the news that Ulin brings in this slim, meandering book: that reading is “an act of contemplation”; that such an act becomes more difficult in [...] read our review »
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