Search Results for “future ireland” – Page 194 – Slugger O'Toole

Lisbon: not all facts are subject to individual belief (or €1.84, and all that)…

Mick Fealty on September 1, 2009, 3:12 pm | Readers

I was on the road yesterday, but spent some of the journey listening to the Pat Kenny Show (you hear it here for the next week). The first substantial item was a discussion between Pat, Peter Murphy from Cóir and Fianna Fail’s spokesman, Dick Roche… A large chunk of the debate centred on that organisation’s new poster campaign… Given it came within 24 hours of the campaign launch, a tiny campaign group effectively set the agenda for the first big …

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The ‘Gaelic Irish’ versus the ‘Ulster Scots’ is a dangerous illusion…

Mick Fealty on September 1, 2009, 2:13 pm | Readers 765

The following is a guest post from freelance journalist Jason Walsh. In part it comes off the back a review of Robert Ramsey’s Ringside Seats: An Insider’s View of the Crisis in Northern Ireland. It also contains a quote from an email correspondence I had with him on the same book. Of which, more from me in a later post… With all of the recent ink spilled about 1969 and the eruption of the conflict, including the excellent current issue …

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BBC under fresh assault

Brian Walker on August 31, 2009, 3:27 pm | Readers 4

It’s becoming more and more clear that the BBC will have to come up with something more to stem the tide of media and political criticism that makes it the victim of its own success. That success by the way, was founded on going on line early while the newspapers and all other UK mainstream media were asleep. Ex Guardian editor Peter Preston, whose paper has aims to become no less than the centre left’s website of choice for the …

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“as open and transparent as possible”

Pete Baker on August 28, 2009, 8:59 pm | Readers 4

Northern Ireland’s First and deputy First Ministers have welcomed the “publication of the fo(u)rth Northern Ireland annual report on Freedom of Information (FOI)”. Their link doesn’t seem to work but the report is available as a pdf file here. And, apparently, “Freedom of Information, openness and transparency are central to the democratic process.” [Who knew?! – Ed] It’ll be news to one MLA, certainly. The statistics reveal that, contrary to the view of a previous First Minister, the vast majority …

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Less Irish unity, more Irish cooperation, please

Andy Pollak on August 26, 2009, 12:35 pm | Readers 6

[This is taken from A Note from the Next Door Neighbours, the monthly e-bulletin of Andy Pollak, Director of the Centre for Cross Border Studies in Armagh and Dublin] I think it would be fair to say that something like 90% of people in the Republic of Ireland never think about Northern Ireland these days, other than, very occasionally, as a place to go to do some cut-price shopping. The North doesn’t even enter their consciousness. A striking example of …

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GAA and inclusion: “Let them come in on our terms and if they don’t let them stay out”

Mick Fealty on August 25, 2009, 12:36 pm | Readers 12

Whatever you make of last week’s Sinn Fein sponsored rally at Galbally GAC, it leaves the GAA in a sticky position. Despite trenchant denials that there was any breach of rule 7a, the incident will have set back the image of association in Northern Ireland. Our Friend in the North lays out the problem, with some precision: It will no doubt survive the hiccup triggered by the actions of a few halfwits in Galbally. Yet for all its achievements it …

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Éirígí! or should that be ‘Rise-igí Up’

Ciarán Dunbar on August 24, 2009, 5:13 pm | Readers 24

Éirígí, the new kids on the republican block have been in the mouths of the people, or at least in the mouths of political nerds for a few weeks now. I know that in Belfast that they have attracted a fair scattering of younger Irish speakers but I wonder what impact they will have on the wider organisation? Section 3.5. of Éirígí’s constitution, also available in Irish on their website states .. To promote the revival of widespread, everyday usage …

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On the complexity of making clinical decisions…

Mick Fealty on August 24, 2009, 1:18 pm | Readers 4

Stephen Nolan has featured the Gareth Anderson situation again this morning for most of the show. As he notes, the Health Minister is now on his own as far as the other parties are concerned. The DUP wants a review. The SDLP, Sinn Fein and now this morning, the Alliance Party have all called for a similar review. He’s also just responded to Liam Clarke’s article in yesterday’s Sunday Times and has confessed he doesn’t have an organ donor card: …

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Eames Bradley next phase

Turgon on August 23, 2009, 5:14 pm | Readers 5

A couple of weeks ago Denis Bradley tried to defend and maybe even re introduce the £12,000 payment for the relatives of victims which had provoked so much anger when the Eames Bradley report was launched. Mick has already noted Malachi O’Doherty’s blog where Malachi explains that Bradley claimed at the John Hewitt summer school that the payment idea came from the victims commission. The last discussion on slugger focused on whether or not Bradley’s version of events was correct. …

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“Perhaps, therein also lays the reason why our opponents seek to demonize us..”

Pete Baker on August 22, 2009, 7:35 pm | Readers 8

The Irish Central website makes room for an interesting right of reply from Breandán Mac Cionnaith, general secretary of éirígí, in response to a previous article by Niall O’Dowd. In the response, Breandán Mac Cionnaith confirms the party’s intention to contest future elections and he states Let me make clear, in terms which I and other senior members of éirígí have been publicly consistent and unequivocal – éirígí is not aligned to or supportive of any armed groups, Irish or …

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“He also called a local solicitor and the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness MP MLA..”

Pete Baker on August 20, 2009, 10:10 pm | Readers 30

So the Northern Ireland Executive semi-detached polit-bureau are ready for the responsibility of devolved policing and justice powers, are they? [new link] Máirtín has what he describes as a “disturbing statement” from the lobby group Relatives for Justice. And I agree. It is a disturbing statement. But not necessarily for the reasons Máirtín thinks. From the RFJ statement Mr. Mallon, concerned for the welfare of Mr. Sherry, locked the car and remained inside with Mr. Sherry making a number of …

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Cold gazpacho with that Spoofer’s guide to Lisbon Mark 2?

Mick Fealty on August 20, 2009, 7:50 pm | Readers 2

I like this. Not a lot, but I do like it. It stands out like a sore thumb amongst the utterly banal marketing and talking down of the rest of pro Lisbon noise… And Jason is unapologetically pro Lisbon. Yet it doesn’t talk to the reader as if they hadn’t got a thought of their own. This bit below the fold is the bit I like the best. It’s the bit where it says what is likely to happen if …

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44 days to Lisbon: but politicians cut their campaign from 4 to 2 weeks…

Mick Fealty on August 19, 2009, 12:43 am | Readers 3

You know what? The smart money has to be on a Yes to the Lisbon treaty. Libertas has left the field having had most of its most effective TPMs punctured by the slightly scatological fix that is the so-called legal guarantees. The climate this year is way colder than last, and there’s that tapping finger to remind voters of the one letter difference between Ireland and Iceland, with the implication that the real difference between solvency and bankruptcy is membership …

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An Post to mark the plantation of Ulster…

Mick Fealty on August 17, 2009, 1:43 pm | Readers 27

There’s been a bit of a storm in a teacup over An Post’s decision to commemorate the plantation of Ulster. John Waters registered his displeasure with a letter to his own paper the Irish Times. It was riposted by Ewan Kelly in the letters pages a few days later, who noted: If we, as a society, ever want to have a mature relationship with our own culture, our history and even, God forbid, our neighbours, we need to give up …

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Developer’s €2b Zoe Group tries again for court protection

Pete Baker on August 16, 2009, 11:59 pm | Readers 4

With liquidators appointed to two holding companies and having had their attempt to secure court protection from ACC Bank’s pursuit of a €136million debt rejected by the Irish Supreme Court, 6 7 companies in the Liam Carroll controlled Zoe Group, which owe €1.2 billion, are bidding again for court protection.. From the Irish Times report Mr Cush told Mr Justice de Valera that the companies were providing two pieces of evidence in support of the application. This included letters of …

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Recession easing, with good news and bad news.

Brian Walker on August 14, 2009, 3:56 pm | Readers 1

A modest return to growth next year. after faint signs of recovery so far, says Richard Ramsay in the Ulster Bank’s quarterly review. These signs were noted at the InterTradeIreland conference in Dublin in June, as different strategies begin to bite on the economies south and north. In some ways NI with its dominant public sector has fared better than the GB average. But recovery is likely to slower in the region than in GB. Extracts from Ramsay’s crisp and …

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Eight OFMDFM SPADs paid at least £458,400

Pete Baker on August 14, 2009, 3:22 pm | Readers 44

The Belfast Telegraph’s David Gordon has been asking some “stupid” questions, with the help of a “lazy” Freedom of Information request, of OFMDFM the semi-detached polit-bureau – “OFMDFM said its special advisers are ‘paid within the pay band £57,300-£79,740’.” It’s an industrial wage.. of sorts.. From the Belfast Telegraph report Special Ministerial advisers are classed as temporary civil servants and are party political appointments. First Minister Peter Robinson and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness have three apiece, while OFMDFM junior …

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Eurozone pulling out of recession?

Mack on August 13, 2009, 3:01 pm | Readers 0

Bloomberg report that The euro region’s economy barely contracted in the second quarter as Germany and France unexpectedly returned to growth, suggesting Europe’s worst recession since World War II is coming to an end. … “There is a more-than-decent chance that euro-zone economic activity has now hit a bottom and will expand again in the third quarter, as many other economies follow Germany and France out of recession,” said Martin van Vliet, senior economist at ING Bank in Amsterdam. “However, …

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“That’s both a shame and a waste.”

Pete Baker on August 12, 2009, 5:41 pm | Readers 0

Victims Commission acting chairman Mike Nesbitt’s criticism of the timing of the consultation on proposals for a new Victims and Survivors Service could be seen as an attempt to lobby for future funding for the service to distribute. But he also criticises the distribution of the existing £36 million that OFMDFM had made available. From the Belfast Telegraph report “The Executive ring-fenced £36m for victims and survivors over the current three-year spending cycle (the Comprehensive Spending Review),” Mr Nesbitt said. …

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Supreme Court dismisses Carroll appeal

Pete Baker on August 12, 2009, 12:35 am | Readers 2

The Irish Supreme Court has rejected an appeal to have an examiner appointed to several companies in the Liam Carroll-controlled Zoe building group. Temporary protection had been granted to the companies when the appeal was allowed against the recent High Court ruling after the Dutch-owned ACC Bank sought repayment of a €136 million debt. As the Irish Times report notes, the ruling “[leaves Carroll] exposed to insolvency proceedings from banks owed €1.2 billion by the group.” The Supreme Court found …

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