Media – Page 13 – Slugger O'Toole

Sinn Féin’s little local difficulty in East Cork rumbles on… [And on…]

Pete Baker on June 24, 2015, 7:48 pm

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In the aftermath of the Sinn Féin party hierarchy’s expelling of Cllr Kieran McCarthy from the party, and suspending Cllr Melissa Mullane, there’s been reports of more “uncomradely behaviour” in East Cork. The Irish Times reports The members of a Sinn Féin cumann in Fermoy, Co Cork have resigned from the party after one of its local councillors was expelled from the party. Up to 15 members met on Tuesday night and put forward their resignations. In a statement, the cumann said …

Sinn Féin expels Cork councillor, suspends another… – Updated

Pete Baker on June 22, 2015, 6:40 pm

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…but won’t say why… As RTÉ reports Sinn Féin has confirmed that it has expelled one of its Cork councillors and suspended another. A spokesman said Cllr Kieran McCarthy has been expelled while Cllr Melissa Mullane has been suspended for 12 months. The spokesman said the action followed a recommendation of an internal party review. No reason has been given for the action. Cllr McCarthy represented the Cobh electoral area, while Cllr Mullane represents the Mallow-Kanturk electoral area. The two councillors were informed of the …

“Glory be the day, Mr Yeats!”

Pete Baker on June 16, 2015, 11:52 am

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As the man said… It’s tradition! Those of a sensitive disposition are duly warned, again, that James Joyce enjoys the language in all its fecund nuttiness. Enjoy! The Guardian looks at how fans around the world will be celebrating James Joyce’s Ulysses. Auckland, New Zealand Usually, says Dean Parker, he helps stage a musical show in Auckland’s red light district: a three-hour musical cabaret of dramatised episodes from Ulysses. Last year was a “stunning, jam-packed success”, with Lucy Lawless, aka Xena …

IMF to Tsipras: “You’ve got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?”

Pete Baker on June 11, 2015, 9:12 pm

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After more of the familiar lies and misdirection yesterday, there were some optimistic noises from Brussels last night as the leaders of Germany, France and Greece met on the side-lines of the EU-Latin America summit. They were short-lived. Having tried to play the International Monetary Fund, and its managing director, Christine Lagarde, last week, the game theory academics in the Syriza-led Greek Government are being treated to a practical lesson in hard-ball negotiations by the IMF. As the Guardian’s Larry Elliott …

Fly Over Dwarf Planet Ceres

Pete Baker on June 8, 2015, 11:04 pm

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In March Nasa’s Dawn spacecraft became the first man-made object to go into orbit around a dwarf planet – Ceres, at 950km across, the largest object in the main asteroid belt. As I mentioned at the time… [Image credit: Nasa/JPL] Using images taken during Dawn’s first mapping orbit at Ceres, Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have produced this stunning, and eerie, animation of flyover views of the heavily cratered world. A new video animation of dwarf planet Ceres, based on images taken …

“Greece is joining a fairly exclusive club…”

Pete Baker on June 4, 2015, 9:11 pm

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Which ‘club’, exactly, remains to be seen… If you’ve been having trouble following the twists and turns and lies and misdirection of the on-going Greek financial crisis [Join the club! – Ed] *ahem* Perhaps some notes on Greece’s Syriza-led Government’s latest reverse-ferret decision to delay Friday’s €300m (£216m) debt repayment to the International Monetary Fund, and bundle all four of its June payments together in one easy €1.5billion payment by 30 June might help. 30 June, according to the BBC report, is the …

Panorama on collusion: Does Trevor Ringland support coverup?

Brian Walker on May 30, 2015, 8:06 pm

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Trevor Ringland’s criticism of Darragh MacIntyre’s Panorama on collusion for rewriting history with a political slant is misguided. The documentary gave examples of a spectrum of collusion ranging from loose handling of informers to covering up agents who were multiple repeat killers, sometimes with the foreknowledge of their handlers. Much of the material is in the de Silva report, the published Stevens reports and elsewhere in the public domain. As he hinted in the programme, Denis Bradley was given brief privileged access to …

Panorama’s exposure of greater collusion was a fine effort but it will make no difference

Brian Walker on May 29, 2015, 12:00 pm

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The BBC are to be commended for visiting “ boring old Northern Ireland “ in a Panorama special on the legacy issues of collusion, Britain’s Secret Deals, reported by Darragh McIntyre. To those who follow the detail there was little that was entirely new, although there was graphic fresh evidence and it was high time it was presented to the wider audience. The bizarre detail that the rifle used in the murderous attack on Sean Graham’s bookies ended up in …

Not all the zombies are politicians. This is also civil society’s failure

Brian Walker on May 26, 2015, 11:49 am

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Not so long ago, Northern Ireland politics were conducted in a seething cauldron. Today they’re in zombieland. Nobody seems to know what sort of situation is facing Northern Ireland in the forthcoming days, weeks and months. Your starter for 10. Is it bailout, surrender or just staggering on? At home, nobody can be bothered even to do an informed analysis of the costs of continuing denial. Malachi, like myself no economist, is no better informed but is properly uneasy . In …

Gerry Kelly: “The letter with the figures said it all because it dealt with anti-sectarianism and that’s the way I am…”

Pete Baker on May 16, 2015, 7:10 pm

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Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly is still squirming on the sectarian hook the party hoisted him on during his failed campaign in North Belfast during the UK parliamentary election. [Petard? – Ed] Pardon you… After his party colleague, Carál Ní Chuilín, MLA, [Good heavens, you’re the Culture Minister?! – Ed], tried, and failed, to blame the Electoral Commission for Sinn Féin’s use of the 2011 census’ breakdown of the constituency by religion, or religion brought up in, to support the party’s claim that Gerry …

Slugger O’Toole – New Horizons in the Republic

Johnny Fallon on May 13, 2015, 1:48 pm

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I am delighted to take up the role of Southern Editor here at Slugger O’Toole. It is the perfect time for ‘Slugger’ to expand. Over the next year we want to bring that unique approach to the Irish political scene. In the past I was deeply involved in grass root politics. Ireland has a great tradition of this across all parties and none. There are many people who possess a deep understanding of the political game and how it works. …

Carál Ní Chuilín: “What is clear to me is that there has been an anti-GAA element throughout…”

Pete Baker on May 7, 2015, 8:17 pm

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Having had to apologise for “an error” in claiming that the “Electoral commission vetoed using last election figures” in defence of Sinn Féin’s sectarian leaflet campaign in North Belfast, the Northern Ireland Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure, Sinn Féin’s Carál Ní Chuilín, might have been better advised to be more cautious in her public utterances in future… Despite having reportedly announced, last Thursday, a full review of the new Casement Park Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) ground redevelopment plan, on Tuesday, …

“To interfere with the definition of marriage is not a simple or a trivial matter” – Archbishop Martin

Pete Baker on May 2, 2015, 11:57 pm

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Whilst some political parties are being pilloried in Northern Ireland, the chief super-naturalist head of the Catholic Church in Ireland [That’s North and South? – Ed], Archbishop Eamon Martin, has issued a statement [pdf file] of the church’s opposition to a proposed change to the Irish Constitution on same-sex marriage. From the RTÉ report [Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin] said: “Until now, Ireland has accepted that it is in the best interests of children and of society to promote …

Carál Ní Chuilín: “Electoral commission vetoed using last election figures…” – Update

Pete Baker on May 2, 2015, 7:40 pm

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David may not want to go there, although ‘idealistic’ wasn’t the first word that sprang to mind. [Was it another word beginning with ‘i’? – Ed] You might very well think that… ANYhoo… Gerry Kelly’s Sinn Féin colleague in north Belfast, and the Northern Ireland Culture Minister, Carál Ní Chuilín, MLA, should, perhaps, have other things on her mind. But, on Thursday, the Minister was on Twitter defending Sinn Féin’s use of the 2011 census’ breakdown of the constituency by religion in support of the party’s …

Progress 59: “The spacecraft is 160 miles high and travelling at more than 16,000mph…”

Pete Baker on April 29, 2015, 4:53 pm

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…and out of control… The BBC reports on the Russian unmanned cargo ship delivering supplies to the International Space Station that mission control has lost contact with and is now in a uncontrolled spin. Or, as RTÉ says, it’s ‘plunging back to Earth’. Here’s the view from a camera on-board the spacecraft. From the BBC report The Russian news agency Tass reports that Progress M-27M is now orbiting in an uncontrolled spin. Scientists may try again to control it, but it …

Raise a glass to Hubble! – Redux

Pete Baker on April 24, 2015, 8:03 pm

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The Hubble Space Telescope celebrates its 25th Anniversary in space today, 24th April, with the release of this wondrous image of the giant star-cluster, Westerlund 2, in the stellar nursery, Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina. [Image credit: Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), and the Westerlund 2 Science Team] From the accompanying text to the image. To capture this image, Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 pierced through the dusty veil shrouding …

“Today, I hold fast to all tenets of mistrust…”

Pete Baker on April 19, 2015, 9:37 pm

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The novelist Howard Jacobson on the virtues of art and literature over politics and politicians… It doesn’t follow from what I say that we should hand over the reins of political power to artists. They wouldn’t make a better job of it. But we would all make a better job of thinking about politics – indeed of thinking about anything – if we refused that daisy-chain of affiliation which the ideological hang around our necks, with the promise that we’ll …

NI Tourism Minister: “I recently had discussions with the chief executive of Tourism Ireland and expressed my disappointment about how the promotion of the Wild Atlantic Way stops at the border.”

Pete Baker on April 15, 2015, 7:08 pm

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Without wishing to undermine historian Hiram Morgan’s call for Irish Government action to preserve the cultural heritage in the seas off the Wild Atlantic Way, it’s worth noting the stated objective of that tourism initiative… The overall aim of the project is to develop a route that will achieve greater visibility for the west coast of Ireland in overseas tourist markets. Also worth pointing out that one of the armada wrecks he mentioned, La Girona, isn’t on the Wild Atlantic Way, having …

Kit Harington on Belfast: “It’s wonderful for two or three days…”

Pete Baker on April 8, 2015, 12:58 pm

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As I said of similar comments by HBO’s Michael Lombardo last year, With so much of some Northern Ireland Executive ministers‘ time and effort [and other people’s money! – Ed] focused on exploiting the international success of HBO’s Game of Thrones to promote Northern Ireland overseas, it’s perhaps unfortunate, but refreshing, that HBO’s director of programming, Michael Lombardo, has given an honest answer to a straight question… This time, it’s one of the leading actors from HBO’s Game of Thrones, Kit Harington, telling …

Northern Ireland Water charges to rise…

Pete Baker on April 1, 2015, 12:44 am

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As the BBC reported on 27 March Northern Ireland Water is putting up charges to its 80,000 non-domestic customers from April – the first price rise in three years. The company said the increase would average out at 2.4%. The main factor “dictating this increase” is a £14m rise, or doubling, of its rates bill, following a revaluation carried out of all local businesses last year. In the previous two financial years, Northern Ireland Water cut its tariffs. Businesses and …