Republic – Page 30 – Slugger O'Toole

“There is no quick fix nationalist route to a ‘New Ireland’.”

Pete Baker on April 6, 2010, 8:29 pm

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While the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, made his speech praising “the peoples army” in Belfast on Sunday, his former comrade-in-arms associate, Marian Price, made her speech in Londonderry on Monday. From the Irish Times report The main speaker at the rally, Marian Price, criticised Sinn Féin’s involvement in the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly by saying that “lions cannot be led by donkeys no more than republicans can be led by quislings”. Ms Price said revisionists were working hard …

“campaign against me is not really about me at all…”

Pete Baker on April 6, 2010, 4:50 am

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What’s evident from Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams’ speech at the weekend – along with his attempt to equate criticism of his personal toxic denials of involvement in the Provisional IRA with a campaign of “black propaganda, the lies and smears and disinformation and the efforts to criminalise our struggle” – is his effort to assuage self-declared members of the Provisional IRA. From Adams’ speech This is bigger than me. This is about us as a republican community, especially in …

“We do not want foreigners in here.”

Pete Baker on April 4, 2010, 2:07 am

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The Irish Times’ Miriam Lord spotted this outburst by Fianna Fáil TD for Cork East, Edward ‘Ned’ O’Keeffe, during the Dáil debate on the banking system on Tuesday – the same day that the Irish Financial Regulator, Chief Exexcutive Matthew Elderfield, took High Court action against Quinn Insurance. From the Dáil record Deputy Edward O’Keeffe: Why should AIB be told to sell its assets in the next 30 days? It should be given space to sell its assets and they …

“The group has a history of falling foul of the regulatory authorities…”

Pete Baker on April 2, 2010, 10:00 pm

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In October 2008, after the Irish Financial Regulator imposed record fines [€3.25million] on Quinn Insurance Ltd, and on Seán Quinn personally [€200,000], Seán Quinn resigned as chairman and as a director of that company, but not from the Quinn Group. The key issue, at the time, was a loan of €288million, extended from the insurance company to another related company, which was used to part finance the Quinn family’s purchase of shares in Anglo Irish Bank. It later emerged that …

Nama: “Fit for purpose? The banks or Biffo’s Government?”

Mick Fealty on March 31, 2010, 1:40 pm

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More on the Nama situation later, but for now MIriam Lord caught the atmosphere in the Dail yesterday with a cracking opening to her Parliamentary sketch. Enter the principals: Then we had to endure The Head with Two Brians – not for the faint hearted. The sight of Cowen and Lenihan reassuring a nervous public that they will lead them on the path to financial salvation is not a good one. “We need an Irish banking system fit for purpose …

“It is still the director’s view that this court deal with the matter”

Pete Baker on March 27, 2010, 2:24 am

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In October 2008, the “culmination of intensive investigations by the Criminal Assets Bureau and the UK’s Serious and Organised Crime Agency” saw more than €625,000 in cash and cheques confiscated in Ireland as the proceeds of crime, while £445,000 (573,000 euro) and nine properties in the north-west of England were recovered by UK authorities. There were also reported tax settlements with the Criminal Assets Bureau “for a figure understood to be over €1m” by Patrick and Frank Murphy, brothers of …

Fianna Fail still bringing in the lion’s share of donations…

Mick Fealty on March 26, 2010, 5:37 pm

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If people in and around Fianna Fail are sanguine about their party’s future, there may be good reason… Despite the many troubles besetting the Cowen regime, the money is still flowing into the party’s coffers in good measure… The bad news is that, according to Aine Kerr, it may not help when they go to the polls: According to the Standards in Public Office Commission, Fianna Fail topped the league for disclosed donations, taking in €94,983, compared to Fine Gael’s …

United Ireland? Maybe. But first put the horse before the cart.

Mick Fealty on March 26, 2010, 4:40 pm

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Eric Waugh critiques the ‘separate but equal’ ethic, and argues that given the challenges/blocks (economics being chiefest at the moment) to a united Ireland: Cuts, cuts and more cuts lie ahead. Nationalist politicians north of the border refuse to face the implications of these figures. Economists in the Republic can be more forthright. They admit that, in a ‘united’ Ireland, Great Britain would have to continue its subsidy to the former Northern Ireland for many years. The characteristically pithy answer …

“the reference … would not appear to be based on sound historical fact.”

Pete Baker on March 25, 2010, 8:46 pm

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Irish President, Mary McAleese, is on an official state visit to Turkey this week. But, as the Irish Times notes, at a dinner in the capital, Ankara, she’s been perpetuating a myth. Mrs McAleese told VIP guests Turkey had helped Ireland during the Famine. She said: “During that famine, Turkey’s then leader Sultan Abdul Majid sent three ships loaded with food to Ireland. The cargo was unloaded in a port called Drogheda and since then, at the insistence of the …

Hundreds switching from Irish to British passports

Mick Fealty on March 25, 2010, 4:36 pm

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Now would not be a good time to apply for an Irish passport. There 50,000 people waiting for their passports to be processed, as the CPSU strike goes into its fourth day. As a direct result it seems hundreds of Irish people are discovering their eligibility for a UK passport in order to ‘jump’ a lengthening queue that shows no sign of abating… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet …

“He did the bare minimum, with all the imagination and flair of a goldfish.”

Pete Baker on March 24, 2010, 4:59 pm

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I get the impression that Miriam Lord was less than impressed by Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s reshuffle “nervous nudging of chairs around the Cabinet table”. From the Irish Times sketch The upshot? Three middle-aged men in navy suits replacing three middle-aged men in navy suits and an extra half car for the Greens. Nobody axed and just three hopefuls plucked from the back benches and given a start in the junior ranks. Biffo’s night of the rubber knives won’t go down …

Cowen shuffles his increasingly limited cabinet…

Mick Fealty on March 23, 2010, 9:52 pm

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Brian Cowen has announced his cabinet reshuffle. Big news is that the Tainiste Mary Coughlan leaves Enterprise as expected, but moves to Education. Eamonn O’Cuiv finally, after many years, gets to leave the Gaeltacht. And the two Green Ministers stay as they were… More on RTE News… Brian Cowen – Taoiseach Mary Coughlan – Tánaiste, Minister for Education and Science (Previously Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment) Brian Lenihan – Minister for Finance Tony Killeen – Minister for Defence – …

The problem with online product placement…

Mick Fealty on March 22, 2010, 6:53 pm

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We’ve not quite got to this place yet, but occasional Slugger blogger Gerard O’Neill has this great capture from yesterday’s Sunday Indo… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

“an example of the wrong way to protect free speech”

Pete Baker on March 22, 2010, 4:56 pm

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Blogging senior lecturer in law at Trinity College Dublin, Eoin O’Dell, follows up on his Irish Times article today with a link-tastic post at Cearta.ie arguing that Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern’s “promised referendum to remove the reference to blasphemy from the Constitution should go further, and entirely revamp the very limited guarantee of freedom of expression”. Deleting one objectionable word, rather than thoroughly revising the whole gruesome clause, would be equivalent to repairing a single broken slate on the …

“As for imposing codes of silence…”

Pete Baker on March 22, 2010, 1:23 am

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In the Sunday Times Liam Clarke identifies some of the hypocrisy of those in glasshouses calling on Cardinal Seán Brady to consider his position. From the Sunday Times Think of Liam Adams, the brother of the Sinn Fein president. Liam has not been tried and is entitled to the presumption of innocence in the sex-abuse charges against him, but consider how the allegations were handled. He was moved about the country and for a time lived in America without those …

“must surely be regarded as the country’s greatest contribution to European sculpture”

Pete Baker on March 21, 2010, 4:23 am

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The BBC notes the recommendations of a Conservation Study [9Mb pdf file] for the early medieval ecclesiastical site of Monasterboice, County Louth, commissioned by the Irish government’s Office of Public Works and Louth County Council. In particular, proposals to remove and replace with replicas the likely late 9th to 10th centuries, exceptionally significant, Monasterboice high crosses. From the BBC report The study notes that there will be opposition to moving the crosses. “Some local residents strongly oppose any option that …

“We never before had to deal with a manuscript recovered from a bog”

Pete Baker on March 20, 2010, 8:42 pm

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The Irish Times reports that conservation work on the 1,200-year-old “Faddan More Psalter”, discovered in 2006 by a workman operating a mechanical digger, is almost complete. The National Museum of Ireland plans to put the eighth century religious manuscript “of staggering importance” on public display next year. From the Irish Times report Yesterday, the museum’s director, Dr Pat Wallace said the psalter was so rare and important it now ranks among the top 10 of the tens of thousands of …

“Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Church in Ireland…”

Pete Baker on March 20, 2010, 5:38 pm

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Will Crawley provides some background on the “relationship between the Vatican and the international sex abuse crisis.” Meanwhile, Damian Thompson, who thinks Seán Brady should resign, has the text of Benedict’s pastoral letter to the Catholic Church in Ireland. [Adds See also Brian’s post below] From the pastoral letter 14. I now wish to propose to you some concrete initiatives to address the situation. At the conclusion of my meeting with the Irish bishops, I asked that Lent this year …

And the conspiracy to murder?

Pete Baker on March 20, 2010, 3:15 am

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Of the seven people originally arrested in Ireland in connection with an international investigation into a conspiracy to murder Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, only two have been charged – one man with an immigration offence, another with making a menacing phone call to another Muslim man in the US. RTÉ reports their appearance in court today. Abdul-Salam Mansour Al-Jehani, who was arrested on 15 March in Waterford, pleaded guilty this morning. Detective Sergeant Donal Donohue told the court he had …

Archbishop Martin: Catholic Church must tell truth…

Mick Fealty on March 19, 2010, 6:36 pm

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As Brian notes of the church abuse cases, the state has as many questions as the church to answer about the ‘strangeness’ of their behaviours towards the church. What’s disturbing about the piecemeal way in which the story has been emerging all week is it’s implications for what’s been going on in Archdioceses outside Dublin. Regardless of where this ends up, the Archbishop of Dublin looks like a moral colossus – not simply for his brave words, but for what …