Republic – Page 43 – Slugger O'Toole

“I have no intention of not being the party president.”

Pete Baker on August 7, 2009, 6:20 pm

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Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has confirmed the previously noted reports that the party is to hold a “significant activist meeting” on Monday 10th August to “review the current situation, assess our strategic, political and oranisational progress and then set out a programme of work for the coming months.” Although one item, in particular, would appear to be off the agenda. The veteran republican yesterday insisted he welcomed debate and suggestions on the direction of the party but said there …

PMS auditors to be investigated

Pete Baker on August 6, 2009, 7:18 pm

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The Accountancy & Actuarial Discipline Board (AADB) is to investigate the auditors of the illegally operating Presbyterian Mutual Society (PMS) – whose assets may well be affected by what happens with Nama. According to the BBC report, the accountancy firm Moore Stephens “has welcomed the inquiry and said they consider the move ‘routine’.” From the AADB statement The scope of the investigation is as follows: “The conduct of Members and a Member Firm in relation to the alleged failure by …

“a well-planned operation to shield the men from the media”

Pete Baker on August 6, 2009, 3:40 pm

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The Irish Times today recounts, with additional photos, how sitting Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris helped Pearse McAuley and Kevin Walsh, two of those convicted of killing Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, evade the attentions of the press on their release from prison yesterday. Photo: Julien Behal/PA. From the Irish Times report As their van left the prison it was followed off the campus by two armed detectives in an unmarked Garda car and a number of vehicles driven by journalists. …

“one of the probable defence arguments it considered was..”

Pete Baker on August 6, 2009, 1:21 am

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The Irish Times has photos of sitting Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris meeting Pearse McAuley and Kevin Walsh – two of the men convicted of killing Detective Garda Jerry McCabe in 1996 – as they were released from jail this morning. As an Associated Press report in 2005 noted – “The IRA unit shot McCabe three times at point-blank range with an assault rifle and badly wounded his colleague, detective Ben O’Sullivan, during a botched ambush on a cash-filled van. …

Ireland needs to combat its domestic demons to begin defending its national interest abroad…

Mick Fealty on August 5, 2009, 8:15 pm

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I’ve just submitted my annual review of the Irish blogosphere for Total Politics’ forthcoming Guide to the Blogosphere. In writing this year’s analysis it strikes me that one moment of transformation may come in October with the second referendum result on Lisbon, or more likely in its wake. From what I’ve seen of the official effort, the arguments don’t run much further or deeper than pointing to the fate Iceland outside the EU. No lessons seem to have been learned …

Temporary protection for developer’s €2bn group

Pete Baker on August 4, 2009, 11:33 pm

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RTÉ reports that the Irish Supreme Court has granted temporary protection against creditors to 6 companies in Liam Carroll’s Zoe Group ahead of a full hearing, next Tuesday, of the appeal against the recent High Court ruling. From the RTÉ report The companies were seeking the court’s protection after ACC Bank began proceedings to have them wound up because of €136m of unpaid debts. Today, Senior Counsel for Mr Carroll’s companies Michael Cush said the High Court judgment had not …

“Now if you’re not seeing this then you’re not with the programme..”

Pete Baker on August 4, 2009, 3:53 pm

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In the Irish Times, Fintan O’Toole gets to the heart of the issue with NAMA – regardless of whether it can withstand the collapse of developer’s €2bn group. Napoleon famously called the English a nation of shopkeepers. We are now to be a nation of property speculators. This is not a rhetorical exaggeration. The principal activity of this State, for this generation and probably the next, is to be the management of the biggest property company on the planet. Everything …

What good moral reason is there for withholding a right to ‘gay marriage’?

Mick Fealty on August 4, 2009, 3:22 am

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I’m afraid John Waters will hate this since his pronouncement that there is no right to a gay marriage is being carried far and wide across the blogosphere, from Manchester to Atlantic uber-blogger Andrew Sullivan… It falls to Norm to dish the dirt on Mr Waters‘ rather imprecise grasp of logic: Waters might like to consult Article 16 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is, of course, true that many people never get married, but this no …

“Mr Adams insists that the Sinn Fein project remains on track.”

Pete Baker on August 4, 2009, 2:35 am

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BBC NI political editor Mark Devenport’s Newsline report on Sinn Féin’s identity crisis in Ireland may, or may not, appear online at some point – and Chris collated some other links on the subject. In the meantime, ahead of a special meeting of the party’s Ard Chomhairle, Oireachtas members and Northern Ireland MLAs, and the party’s “middle tier of leadership” on August 10th, here’s Mark’s blogged account of what former Wexford Sinn Féin councillor John Dwyer told him. John lost …

Can Nama withstand collapse of developer’s €2bn group?

Pete Baker on August 3, 2009, 10:56 pm

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Ireland’s Supreme Court will decide tomorrow whether to hear the appeal against the High Court ruling denying court protection to 6 companies within Liam Carroll’s Zoe group. Meanwhile, after that busy weekend for Irish bankers, the Irish Times reports that THE POSSIBLE collapse of Liam Carroll’s €2.3 billion property empire will not derail the establishment of the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), according to the Department of Finance. However, banking sources said the opposite yesterday. They warn that any significant …

Pat McCabe on “probably one of the great missed opportunities in Ireland”…

Mick Fealty on August 3, 2009, 4:30 pm

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Keith Duggan with a great interview with Pat McCabe, author of The Butcher Boy , and founder of the Flat Lake Festival (check out the Radio Butty blog) and an exponent of Patrick Kavannagh’s ideas around the conjunction of the parochial with the universal. It’s worth reading it all, but this bit is worth quoting: …the thing I notice is that Clones is a real Protestant town,” he says. “It wasn’t the ascendancy, it was the middle-class merchant Protestantism I …

Busy holiday weekend for Irish bankers

Pete Baker on August 2, 2009, 12:19 am

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The Irish government has published the draft legislation to set up the National Assets Management Agency to deal with the banks’ toxic loans – they’re still working on the value of the assets involved. Ministerial statement here, and RTÉ has provided pdf versions of the draft legislation, and the explanatory memo. Meanwhile, as the BBC reports, with the Dutch-owned ACC Bank seeking repayment of €136 million debt, a High Court ruling denying court protection to 6 companies within Liam Carroll’s …

“Money is still dished out to absolutely hideously bad private operators…”

Mick Fealty on July 29, 2009, 8:38 pm

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-Tomaltach notes the decimation of Irish language journalism. Then launches a passionate broadside against cack handed (largely bureaucratic) attempts to stem life blood of the language: …money is still dished out to absolutely hideously bad private operators for unused online courses and the likes. But this exposes the insanity of the way the Irish language strategy has been piloted. All sorts of grants were available for Gaeltacht schemes – even thought about 70% of the Gaeltacht is now a fiction …

“Remember the passion, the self-confidence, the enthusiasm with which we hated the Prods”

Mick Fealty on July 29, 2009, 4:32 pm

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A return to something like his best satirical form Newton Emerson in the Irish Times takes a bite at those members of southern Sinn Fein now expressing their disillusionment over how things have turned out [file under humour]: In recent years I have become increasingly disillusioned with the direction of the party. The leadership promised a “peace strategy” to deliver a united Ireland through the exclusively political institutions of the Belfast Agreement. It is now painfully obvious that when they …

Cunningham agrees to confiscation order for €343,520

Pete Baker on July 28, 2009, 7:21 pm

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Ted Cunningham, who received a 10 year sentence for attempting to launder more than £3million from the Northern Bank robbery, has consented to a confiscation order for €343,520 which he is to pay to the Irish State. The Irish Times report notes “Cunningham, who had been granted free legal aid by Judge Murphy, is appealing both his conviction and his sentence to the Court of Criminal Appeal but it may be next year before the appeal is heard.” The report …

“are you serious?”

Pete Baker on July 27, 2009, 6:23 pm

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Apparently, it’s not just chickens that are being enlisted in the “political wars” over identity, it’s turkeys too.. From the, erm, rarefied air of Máirtín’s Balcony Apparently not though at Asda in Andersonstown they insist in selling scores of products with British flags emblazoned on them. I fancied a bit of turkey to go with a sandwich today but couldn’t find a pack of turkey without the aforementioned flag. A complaint to a counter assistant sparked the comment, “are you …

“Maybe we don’t know who we are or where we are going.”

Pete Baker on July 26, 2009, 10:54 pm

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Brian has already noted Liam Clarke’s thoughts on Gerry Adams’ role, and its impact on Sinn Féin’s fortunes in the Republic of Ireland. In the Sunday Tribune, however, the focus of the political correspondent Conor McMorrow, is on the resignations from the party there and on Toiréasa Ferris’ comments. Apparently there is to be a special meeting of the party’s Ard Chomhairle, Oireachtas members and Northern Ireland MLAs, and the party’s “middle tier of leadership” in August to “assess the …

“Is anyone clear on the logic..?”

Pete Baker on July 24, 2009, 2:40 am

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Over at Irish Election, P O’Neill picks up on an RTÉ report on NAMA’s intended administration of €22billion of “loans for properties based in the UK – the majority of which are within the M25 motorway around London”. And he asks Is anyone clear on the logic under which a huge overseas property portfolio should be managed by the state? As opposed to, for instance, immediate sale to other developers who would likewise be attracted by the 2012 Olympics? Well, …

Lithuania withdraws extradition request in Republic of Ireland

Pete Baker on July 24, 2009, 12:17 am

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Lithuanian authorities have confirmed their apparent preference for Northern Ireland courts by formally withdrawing the extradition request in the Republic of Ireland for Liam Campbell, one of the men held to be responsible for the Omagh bombing in a recent civil judgement, on weapons and terrorism charges. Campbell had been remanded on bail there with two others since his arrest in January – on a European Arrest Warrant issued in connection with an MI5 sting operation against republican groups which …

Is it time for Gerry Adams to retire?

Mick Fealty on July 23, 2009, 11:54 pm

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Over at Comment is Free I’ve argued that it may be time for Gerry Adams to take early retirement (or at the least make his post as party president contestable) to make room for newer voices, a refocusing of the party’s aims, and signal to its members and signal to the wider public the party’s determination to follow a path of genuine restructuring and renewal. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of …