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 …
What had previously been a personal opinion would now appear to be the ministerial view as the Northern Ireland Sports Minister, officially, “encourage[s] the GAA to carry out a full investigation into the activities of 16 August at Galbally and to make a full statement as soon as possible.” That would be the activities noted here and not necessarily the activities noted here.. ANYhoo.. [Adds BBC report]. The Irish Times report adds When contacted GAA headquarters referred the matter of …
The Irish Independent reports that the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has revealed the extent of Irish banks’ toxic loans for assets elsewhere which are “eligible for acquisition by NAMA”. Although the report notes that – “NAMA has yet to say how much Irish banks lent to fund developments on mainland Europe.” The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), which is seeking the valuers, still refuses to say what proportion of assets are development land, vacant properties, investments or hotels. But …
Niall O’Dowd doubles down on his ad hominem editorial response to Niall Stanage’s recent Irish Times article with an equally ad hominem follow-up article on his Irish Central website. Once again the US-Ireland Alliance seem to be his primary additional target, but he throws in Irish diplomat Sean Donlon and “the toffee nose crowd back at the Irish Times” for good measure. He may have missed Niall Stanage’s letter in the Irish Times following O’Dowd’s earlier right of reply. But …
As I noted about the problem of social spending in the poorer areas of Belfast, now is probably not the time to slash long-standing social budgets (in the way some department officials would clearly like)… But the Republic faces a bigger problem, as Michael Casey eloquently notes in the Irish Times today.. As Colm McCarthy’s report pointed out, expenditure on social welfare has reached €22 billion a year, or 38 per cent of total spending of €58 billion. It is …
I feel like a bit of a dolt picking up on this so late, but I’ve only just read the edited version in the media section of Village Magazine… It was written as a valedictory to Questions and Answers (Fergal’s not a fan of “the rehearsed, Carr Communications-tested verbiage that made up most of the program”). The most striking thing, for me, he picks out is the medium’s capacity to pick out one genuine moment when the ‘national conversation’ (ie, …
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 …
Gavin’s got all the original material that was first released to Ken Foxe at the Sunday Tribune… including the one about ‘the Indians’… Nice work Gav!!! We hear there is more coming… 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
The Irish Times’ Irishman’s Diary today has an edited account of the “self-perpetuating cycle of provocation and retaliation [which] has bedevilled the North for decades” – from August 18th 1880. Along with the original, longer, report in the IT’s digital archive [which has the detail of the riot mentioned] there are also reports of disturbances in Belfast and Portadown, and of the discovery of “two large barrels of gunpowder [] at the Blackpool end of the Great Southern and Western …
The Irish Times reports that the “Ulster Bank has moved to block any sale by property developer Liam Carroll of over half his 29.5 per cent stake in food group Greencore.” The Irish High Court had been told that Ulster Bank had adopted a “neutral” stance in relation to the second attempt by the Carroll-controlled Zoe Group, with debts of €1.2 billion, to seek court protection for its survival plan. From the IT report Solicitors Matheson Ormsby Prentice said in …
Speaking of forms of press populism.. The Guardian has an interesting report on the UK government’s response to the H1N1 swine flu pandemic. Below the fold I sketch out an apparent divergence in strategy here – and it’s worth noting Mack’s thoughts on swine flu there. Meanwhile, according to the Guardian’s report The government rejected advice from its expert advisers on swine flu, who said there was no need for the widespread use of Tamiflu and suggested that the public …
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 …
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 …
Green Party leader, and Irish Government Environment Minister, John Gormley has said that the party is “likely” to hold a special convention to discuss the setting up of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA). Meanwhile, as other banks prepare to seize Liam Carroll’s Zoe group’s assets following the recent court rulings against the companies involved, in the Irish Times economist Karl Whelan argues that “the Carroll case has been very positive for the public interest.” However, despite the reality that …
One of the big stories of the next few months should be the referendum campaign over the Lisbon Treaty. Double carpet at Political Betting includes it in his predictions for the Autumn. It’s to be a win for the Yes side: with Ireland’s economy collapsing and with concessions being made on touchstone issues to Irish voters, it looks as though Ireland will reverse 2008’s decision and vote “Yes”, opting for the perceived safety blanket of the EU in difficult times. …
The Sinn Féin “significant activist meeting” today has been presaged by a series of media interviews with the still party President Gerry Adams, MP, MLA – even the Sunday Tribune got a quote. Whilst denying a North/South split within the party elsewhere, in that interview Adams acknowleged his Northern [Ireland] problem. “I think there is an issue that I do not stand for election in the south and I have a constituency in another jurisdiction. That is why we have …
In the Irish News, Patrick Murphy offers “a special guided tour of Irish politics.” The capital of Ireland is Dublin. It has a population of a million people, all of whom will be shopping in Newry this afternoon. They travel to Newry because it is in the North, which is not part of Ireland. Under the Irish constitution, the North used to be but a successful 30-year campaign of violence for Irish unity ensured that it is now definitely in …
One of Fianna Fail’s Sligo/Leitrim Two, Jimmy Devins has an opinion piece in this weekend’s Irish Times. There are indications of just how deeply (or rather how shallow) the fissure with the party goes. For instance, his complains about the way the Dail functions is that government does not listen to it’s own backbenchers (as opposed to ‘listen’ in general). And his carp that “all members of the Dáil should be able to have an input, in a constructive way, …
When two Fianna Fail TDs resigned the party whip over the head of the decidedly local issue of hospital closures, you know it’s less a case of principle and more about crisis in which ‘the centre cannot hold’… They remain firmly in the ‘gene pool’ a beautifully Irish way of describing a TD who’s disaffected from the leadership of the party but will not be going anywhere else any time soon. Stephen Collins has good advice for Fine Gael and …
Niall Stanage kindly dropped by our comments zone last week [comment 14], and in today’s Irish Times he expands on what he had to say there about the delusions which encouraged our local media to follow the mis-direction over the US Secretary of State and the political envoy post. From the Irish Times. The flurry of speculation about Clinton’s possible new title was set off by an unsourced article on an expatriate website. It was then picked up and propagated …
