Frank Schnittger

Ireland’s Past and Future economic growth prospects The Irish exchequer recorded a record surplus of €12.8 Billion in 2024, helped in no small measure by a one off receipt of €11 Billion in tax arrears from Apple following a ruling of the European Court of Justice. Even without that bonanza, corporate taxes increased by 18% to €28.1 Billion, Income Tax rose by 6.6% to €35.1 Billion, VAT receipts increased by 7.3% to €21.8 Billion, Excise duties were up 11.8% to …

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Arnold Carton recently had an excellent OP up comparing Donald Trump to Julius Caesar and noting that  there is sometimes no turning back from Republican to dictatorial Imperial rule.  Another less talked about aspect of the fall of the Roman Empire was the ruinous cost of conducting so many military campaigns with succeeding Emperors (who often only lasted a few months before being killed by rivals or their own men)  simply issuing more currency to finance them. Eventually the Roman …

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Munster 7 Leinster 28. You couldn’t fault the effort on either side, but the skill levels seemed to be lacking. Henshaw threw a forward pass with the try-line beckoning even if the pass had gone two yards backward. Billy Burns kicked the ball dead and Rory Scannell missed a penalty to touch. The passing and handling lacked accuracy resulting in quite a few knock-ons and turnovers. Sam Prendergast managed to avoid the above malaise – his passing was always accurate …

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Having won the Six Nations, tied a series with the Springboks in South Africa, and won 3 out of four November internationals, Ireland stands ranked #2 in the world, which is some improvement on our quarterfinal exit at the hands of New Zealand in the World cup in October 2023. That ranking can be deceptive, however. Ireland’s performance against the All Blacks at the World Cup was much better than our performance against them last month, and our subsequent performance …

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In preparing for the Slugger end of year review I had a quick look back at the 74 OPs I published on Slugger during the year to refresh my memory of the key events of the year, or at least those that grabbed my attention. Half were on rugby where I concluded that Ireland had had a good year despite our provinces failing to win anything. Winning the 6 Nations, tying s series in South Africa, winning 3 out of …

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  Ireland have had a good year since the World Cup, retaining our 6 nations title, tying a series away to World Champions, South Africa, and winning three out of four in the November window. We end the year still ranked #2 in the world, which is not a bad place for a small rugby playing country to be in. However, we lost games against England, South Africa and New Zealand, so obviously some more improvement is needed. There were …

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Our esteemed founder and Editor, Mick Fealty, has an opinion piece up entitled If Election 2024 is anything to go by Fianna Fáil’s slow growth approach seems to be working just fine which is a tendentious reading of the election result, if not downright misleading. Fianna Fáil’s vote share actually continued its long term decline with a further 0.3% reduction in its first preference vote share, which was the second worst in its history, better only than its calamitous crash …

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The above graphic is an RTE snapshot of the state of the parties at the time this blog was published The results of the Irish general election are largely in, and the outlines of the result have become clear. With the number of seats increasing by 14 due to a rising population, you had to be increasing your seat numbers to avoid going backwards, and by this criterion Fine Gael, Sinn Féin and the Greens have been the primary losers …

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Far from causing instability as some detractors of proportional representation allege, Ireland’s politics have generally been a picture of stability over the past century. Governments have generally served their full term, or something close to it, and elections have resulted in an orderly transfer of power from one government to the next – even between the parties representing factions who had once been at war. For many years, the two civil war parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael dominated the …

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Gone are the days when Argentina were the poor relations of the Rugby Championship, always good for an upset win (mostly against Ireland) but generally not in contention to win the Rugby Championship or the World Cup. But Michael Cheika installed a new sense of professionalism into their organisation, and now Felipe Contepomi has brought them to another level, with victories against the All Blacks (away) and South Africa and blow-out wins against Australia and Italy. Argentina have always had …

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Andy Farrell has announced the Ireland team to take on New Zealand on Friday night. It contains five changes from the team which beat South Africa in our last test match last July. Hugo Keenan returns from Olympic sevens’ duty and Mack Hansen, Bundee Aki, and Jamison Gibson-Park return from injury. In a further injury enforced change, Finlay Bealham replaces Tadgh Furlong who is carrying what is said to be a minor knock from training. Furlong’s absence could cause Ireland …

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US Elections: Another Polling fail by the polling industry. As the results come flooding in it is clear there has been another massive collective polling error by the polling industry. Trump swept all the so called toss-up states and did approximately 5% better than the polls predicted in the country as a whole. Every poll has a margin of error of between 3 and 6% depending on the sample size, but when you are talking about the average of literally …

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Based on the most recent opinion polling, Trump will win the electoral college. The main lesson to be learned from the end of WWII and the Cold War is that fascism, totalitarianism, and authoritarianism tend to end in tears, often very bloody ones, but that lesson has been lost in the intervening years. The rise of Trump, the invasion of Ukraine, the Israeli genocide of Palestinians, Brexit, and the re-emergence of hard right parties throughout Europe all challenged the post …

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Andy Farrell has just named his 35 man squad for the November tests against New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji, and Australia plus five development players who will join them on a training camp in Portugal next week. Compared to the 37 players who toured South Africa, Henderson, Gibson Park, Hansen, and Keenan come back in, while Sheehan, Jager, and Jimmy O’Brien are excluded due to injury along with Blade, Doak, and Larmour. Most of the changes are due to players who …

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For a long time I have tried to understand politics in terms of marketing, policy and administrative competence. It’s about selling ideas, developing coherent policies, appealing to different demographics, and showing an ability to master the complex dynamics of managing change in huge bureaucracies. But sometimes you also have to admit you got it almost entirely wrong. By those measures Trump should be 20 percentage points behind in the US election campaign, and yet he has remained consistently 2.4 to …

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Hookers have become something of an endangered species in Ireland with all four of Leinster’s hookers, Dan Sheehan, Rónan Kelleher, John McKee, and Lee Barron currently injured and Ulster’s Rob Herring, Tom Stewart yet to male their debut this season. Diarmuid Barron has also been in the wars at Munster leaving only Niall Scannell and Dave Heffernan (Connacht) still standing amongst our front-line hooking fraternity. Leinster will probably have to start last year’s U.20 Captain and academy player, Gus McCarthy, …

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Leinster versus Munster Both Leinster and Munster have named strong teams for their hugely anticipated clash at a near sold out Croke Park, which looks like breaking the URC attendance record with a near 80,000 crowd. Munster have something of an injury crisis at prop, in particular, where they are forced to name an academy prop, Kevin Ryan, as their loosehead on the bench. However, they have the strength in depth to cover the other 22 positions with serious players …

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Scarlets 23 Connacht 24 Preview: Connacht go into this match with real momentum after an excellent performance in a narrow 33-35 defeat to Munster in Thomond Park and an amazing 36-30 comeback win against the Sharks, having been 7-27 down at half time. However, Connacht’s problem has always been their inconsistency and such heroics will count for little if they can’t back it up against an average side like the Scarlets. This is the sort of match which Connacht have …

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As historian Heather Cox Richardson has noted: In 2004 a senior advisor to President George W. Bush famously told journalist Ron Suskind that people like Suskind lived in “the reality-based community.” They believed people could find solutions to problems through careful study of discernible reality. But, the aide continued, Suskind’s worldview was obsolete. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” the aide said. “We are an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while …

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Edinburgh vs. Leinster Match Preview: Leo Cullen has picked three academy players to start their campaign in a tricky away fixture in Edinburgh. Charlie Tector was a good u.20 outhalf subsequently overshadowed by his successor, Sam Prendergast but is played slightly out of position at 12. Gus McCarthy and Conor O’Tighearnaigh were members of the Grand Slam winning u.20 team the season before last, but this is a big step up for them. I would be particularly worried about the …

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