Interesting that the Daily Mail is reporting a possible visit by the Queen by next year. Last week in Cavan at the BIPA, there were some whispers that in fact the Irish authorities were preparing for a visit as early as this June. The logic given being the same as that quoted in Mail article: Mary McAleese is keen to have her over before she finally leaves Áras an Uachtaráin next year. A source who accompanied Mrs McAleese on her …
The Catholic Church has announced it is to unilaterally review the provision of the post-primary Catholic Maintained Schools sector and, in the process, appears to be extending their previously identified ‘deadline’ of 2012 for ending [Catholic] academic selection. Recently Cardinal Sean Brady also defended “the right of children in our schools to be led and formed in authentic worship of God in the Catholic tradition”. DUP leader Peter Robinson is more exercised about the former than the latter. Meanwhile, those …
The Irish Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, has been speaking to RTÉ about the threat from still-violent republican groups. The Irish Times has some of the quotes. “There seems to be an effort in recent months to bring them closer together,” Mr Ahern said yesterday of the Real IRA and Continuity IRA. “There seems to be cross-fertilisation; it may be more to do with acquaintances or family membership than ideology. But nonetheless it is a more worrying trend because clearly …
In the Sunday Times Liam Fay takes issue with a recent speech by Emily O’Reilly, Ireland’s Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, when addressing journalism students at the University of Limerick. From the Sunday Times O’Reilly’s speech was simultaneously over-pessimistic about the future and over-sentimental about the past. Literally and figuratively, journalism has always been a race against time, so penning the profession’s obituary is premature in an age when the opportunities generated by technology change by the week. New media create …
I’d been looking for an excuse to link to Dara O’Briain’s Guardian Sports Blog. And this is as good an excuse as any. This week he’s cheering the Irish bobsleigh team’s kicking Antipodean arse at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver after the Australians’ bid for inclusion threatened the Irish duo’s place in the competition. Over to you, Dara. This isn’t the big story of these Games – Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn and what may be an incredible men’s hockey final …
I have a confession to make. As a class of people I like politicians, regardless of party. I had the pleasure of spending some time with Michael D Higgins at the BIPA. He’s at the senior end of his career, so has a certain rather useful perspective to share on life as a public representative. Today’s Irish Times covers his contribution in the Dail Committee on the Constitution debate: “Really bad programmes like The Frontline , presented by Pat Kenny, …
Now, here’s a thing. There’s an awful lot of hand wringing over the forced resignation of Willie O’Dea (I missed most of the blow by blow stuff since I was on mid term holidays some where in South Wales). NOw there is an interesting side question to all of this, and it relates to the way the media generally handle Sinn Fein in ways that are substantially different to they way they treat other parties. That is a fair point. …
Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea has resigned from his cabinet post as Irish Minister for Defence despite Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s declared support this afternoon. O’Dea had survived a vote of no confidence in the Dáil yesterday, but pressure continued to mount today. But it wasn’t his “stupid, silly” comments which caused the problem, it was his swearing an affidavitt that he hadn’t said them – as former Green party councillor Vincent Martin pointed out in the Irish Times. And the …
Hmmm there goes Deirdre… She was no fainting Violet, but now Senator de Burca is gone (from the Seanad as well as from the party whip) the Greens in the Republic’s government must be wondering what’s next? Veronica has a great review over at Irish Election on how it all went so badly wrong for the Greens and for their leader, John Gormley. Nothing describes it so succinctly as the problem of the Poolbeg incinerator. But the real killer has …
Hmmm… So George Lee, the brightest star in Fine Gael’s firmament last year has gone. In his trail some degree of disarray, although the party now say they are backing Enda for the foreseeable future after a marathon love in at Leinster House last night. While Lee’s getting it in the neck for being nothing so much as a flaky public sector journo, Enda’s the one with the serious long term problem. Miriam Lord in today’s Irish Times notes the …
The Sunday Times has a report detailing the background to the abandonment of George’s Dock as the preferred site for a new Abbey Theatre. Apparently conditions imposed by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) to the free site they offered proved too restrictive for the planned development. The report also states that “The Office of Public Works says the Department of Communications and An Post have now become involved in the process of assessing the GPO” on O’Connell Street as …
I don’t speak for anyone other than myself so this isn’t quite an exercise in kite-flying, but… Isn’t it time we had a new Ireland? Not ‘agreed Ireland’ as defined by boring peace processery but a real discussion about what we want the country to look like. There has never been a better time ֠after all, the institutions from the Church to the political parties and the bodies of the Belfast Agreement are all on their knees, staggering-on more out …
Both RTÉ and the BBC report the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the UK and Irish governments “which provides a framework for continuing co-operation on broadcasting issues on the island of Ireland.” Specifically, on what will happen after the digital switchover in 2012. The memorandum is available here [pdf file]. From the RTÉ report [Irish Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan] said: “At a time when there’s a lot of attention on North-South negotiations, it’s important for people to …
OK, so it’s single sourced and unattributed… but I know who the guy is and I never said forth was a newspaper anyway. New Irish political party seeks to make impact before 2012 Socially and economically liberal political group to launch before election hopes to avoid making the PDs’ errors all over again Here’s the interesting question, though: is there room for such a party? Clearly there are large sections of social and economic thought that are unserved in Ireland, …
We’re not at this point yet – not even close, truth be told- but shall we have a natter about the nuclear options?Previously unionists have been threatened with Joint Authority, effectively co-rule by London and Dublin. It’s extremely unlikely that Gordon Brown would pursue such a strategy so close to a general election. If it happened David “Call-me-prime-minister” Cameron would make a lot of Labour-destroyed-the-union hay and the SNP would, presumably, be cook-a-hoop. Still, it’s worth talking about, isn’t it? …
While Sluggerites are all waiting for my first proper contribution of the year (cough), here’s something else that may be of some interest: Is once-maligned Irish language the marker of a new Ireland elite? A new study finds the Irish language, once seen as the tongue of the poorer and less-educated even in Ireland, is a marker of an economic elite. Note: it’s a two-pager, which isn’t always immediately obvious. So, is this good news for Irish speakers? Presumably yes, …
Hat tip to a new blog (Ulster Times) which has a story from the Irish Times about Enniscorthy Town Council which has decided to permit a memorial to the Edentubber martyrs. The Edentubber martyrs were five IRA members who died when a bomb they were making exploded in a cottage on Edentubber mountain in Co. Louth during the IRA border campaign. The Enniscorthy and District Echo has a few more details regarding the council meeting which seemingly unanimously approved the …
A temporary shift of and respite from the local grimness of the last few days to another shocking experience in Haiti… I was struck by Lara Marlow’s testimony to an aftershock earthquake in her wooden constructed hotel on the heights looking over the destruction of Haiti… In the middle of the quake (6.1, as opposed to the original 7 on the Richter scale) which lasted not much more than thirty minutes: …I remembered a Haitian woman telling me that concrete …
In an online, but unembeddable, BBC clip Sinn Féin TD for Louth, Arthur Morgan, has repeated his assertion that “It transpires that Liam Adams did, in fact, chair the Comhairle Centair for two meetings, after which he resigned.” He also told the Irish News that “What I completely overlooked was that he had been chair of the [district executive] for two months.” When asked by BBC NI Dublin corrrespondent Shane Harrison, “But he was obviously a prominent member of Sinn …
On Tuesday the Irish News reported that “Prosecutors have asked police to pass on demands that Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and his niece stop talking to the media about the alleged abuse carried out by his brother.” The, not unreasonable, request was made by Liam Adams’ legal team. In his latest post on This Blog Gerry Adams goes over his version of events again. Including another declaration of ignorance about Liam Adams’ involvement in Louth Sinn Féin. “While I …
