Arthur Morgan, Sinn Fein TD for Louth, got a few square blows (and one rabbit punch at the end) in for his party’s election campaign, when he went head to head this morning on Morning Ireland with Harry Nash of Transport Components Ltd over the rights of migrant South African workers putting safety belts on Bus Eireann buses. The workers appear to getting way below (about €2.50 per hour) the minimum wage (€7.65 per hour), although Nash argued that a …
Gonzo has already picked up on the statements by the UPRG representatives, and others, as they emerged, through the front door, from the meeting with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern at Castle Buildings yesterday, but there are a couple of points to be made about what was reported and what was being said elsewhere that are worth looking at in relation to the putative Plan B.When I noted the meeting yesterday the BBC report carried the comments …
RTÉ were in trouble with the Vatican back in May this year when a camera crew breached Italian law by filming an Italian actress dressed as a cleric in “a religiously sensitive area”. Now, as reported by IOL News, and here at the Irish Times[subs req], they’ve fallen foul of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission in Ireland who, following a complaint by a Fr. Desmond – that it was a “tasteless and vulgar display, a mockery of the Blessed Eucharist, the …
It’s being reported that what had been billed as a meeting between Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the UPRG will also include the leadership of the UDA – or, rather, up to four of them. It follows the report of last weekend’s secret discussion between the NIO and a go-between for the North Belfast UDA whose erstwhile leader will, presumably, not be attending today’s meeting.. being otherwise engaged.. btw how are those charges of membership of the UDA against Ihab Shoukri …
Following on from the PIRA statement, quickly released in reponse to the Police Ombudsmans report on Jean McConville, as well as the subsequent analysis by Mick here on Slugger and elsewhere, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams held a press briefing today where he announced that there had been meetings over the past 10 months between PIRA members and the forensic expert appointed by the British government to investigate potential sites where the missing bodies of those adbucted and murdered by …
Interesting row and ruction over the potential introduction of evoting machines in the Republic and the latest report from the Independent Commission on Electronic Voting. Broadly speaking the report gave the machines a pass and the software a fail, with significant concerns about the security of moving from polling to counting centres. New software will need to be found and trialled, at an extra cost of several millions of Euro. Liam Reid picks up tension within the ruling coalition, with …
Having listened to last night’s Dail private member’s debate (of no confidence) in the current government’s record, this ‘guy’ has a point a lacklustre opposition (barring Olwyn Enright). However, Adam over at Irish Election, (in response to an earlier post) has a point too that the junior parties to the opposition (ie those outside the Mullingar Accord electoral pact), may be good on branding but are short on policy development. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written …
They say good law is rarely made on the hoof, something the recent panic over the striking down of the law supporting statutary rape demonstrated well. However Michael McDowell finally revealed his long awaiting proposed legislation to liberalise the Republic’s draconian libel laws, establishing a new defence of “fair and reasonable publication on a matter of public importance”. It should also streamline and quicken redress from the media in terms of corrections in lieu of damages. The Bill allows for …
Interesting line from Harvard-based Dr Jody Heymann, who argues that globalisation comes with a price to families and settled societal structures. Essentially she believes the need for companies to become more competitive in a global market place, is drawing adults away from families with potentially disasterous future results: “In every region of the world the number of households in which all adults are working is dramatically rising. Worldwide there are one billion children living in homes where all the adults …
It is extraordinary how one poll with a barely perceptable change in the fortunes of Fianna Fail can lead so quickly to talk of a crisis in government. Yesterday’s Sunday Business Post returned the slightest of changes for Fianna Fail, the Greens and Sinn Fein: with a larger (2%) slip for Labour.According to Irish language election site Guth an Phobail’s own tracking poll with correctives added, he the likely outcome would spill out like this: Fianna Fáil 58 (32.79%) Fine …
George picked up on a survey last week that made Ireland the third proudest nation in the world, after the United States and a Chavez led Venezuela. But it seems Ruth Dudley Edwards has some of the .some of the detail the first report lacked. For those of you struggling with the Sindo’s registration system, it’s worth replicating in full below. In essence, she contrasts this year’s readings with those of five years ago and reckons that growing uncertainty is …
In the past the commemoration of the Somme has been an all Unionist affair in Ireland. Bertie Ahern is determined to follow up the full on commemoration of the Rising with a rather more sobre recognition of the Irishmen who died in the same battle alongside the 36th (Ulster) Division, featured in this Irish stamp and which was launched on Monday. An Post had been lobbied by the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. …
Gerry Adams keeps the flame lit under his party’s long term campaign to have Northern Irish representatives sitting in the Republic’s legislature. As Adams points out, it has effectively been kicked into the long grass by Bertie Ahern in the face of opposition from all other party leaders, bar Sinn Fein. Opposition to full Northern Irish representation has been consistent and residual within the Dail since the Seventh Progress Report of the All Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution. It …
In the Republic the PD’s are under fire, not least from a supposedly unpublic bust up between Mary Harney and the party’s Justice Minister Michael McDowell. Harney’s been engrossed in what is argueably the toughest job in the cabinet, health. It can’t help that in a consumer survey of European health services, the Republic comes 26 out of 26 (PDF). Though I have seen the trollys at the Ulster Hospital, the expansion and modernisation of the Republic’s infrastructure are of …
The Irish Independent has disturbing findings on the state of the Irish language in the Republic. The report was compiled back in 2002, before the latest curriculum reforms, by the now defunct Linguistics Institute of Ireland (ITE)., but has not been previously released. It notes for instance that the “percentage of pupils attaining mastery of ‘general comprehension of speech’ in Gaeltacht schools has dropped from 96.3pc in 1985 to 73.3pc in 2002”.It’s not noted in the article, but the rise …
We’ve a couple of Irish language stories on the go today. First we have a this note received from a fully immigrant teacher from the UK, who is struggling to understand why he has to pass a language qualification that he won’t otherwise need in the teaching of this subject. As he points out, if he doesn’t gain the SCG within five years, he will no longer be considered qualified as a teacher. The SCG is the Scrúdú le haghaidh …
At the weekend Gerry Moriarty did an interview with Drew Nelson (subs needed), grand secretary of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland (although Nelson is not in the least bit scary, the photographer clearly had ‘Hammer House of Horror’ in mind when he set up the shoot). Not unusually for an Orangeman, it turns out he has relations in West Cork. In terms of history, it is redolent with memories of the War of Independence. But one series of incidents …
Eammon Fitzgerald, finds the only way he can to bid farewell to the paradoxical character that was Charlie Haughey. Who better to turn to than Joyce: His last lie on the earth in his box. When you think of them all it does seem a waste of wood. All gnawed through. They could invent a handsome bier with a kind of panel sliding let it down that way. Ay but they might object to be buried out of another fellow’s. …
From the 100 anniversary, the Economist wonders if Bloomsday is not a better experience than reading the book itself. Though as Kevin Cullen notes Charlie Haughey’s funeral may be a case of life imitating art.He talks to Senator David Norris: ‘‘At the end of the day, Charlie was a great Joycean,’’ Norris said in a telephone interview from Dublin, where he is a senator and lecturer at Trinity College. ‘‘I am quite confident that Charlie would never have dreamed of …
Hearts and Minds is on at 9pm on BBC2 tonight, because of the football (England 2 Trinidad and Tobago 0, btw). Charlie Haughey will provide the nationalist interest, whilst Gordon Brown renewal of British patriotism and flag waving should provide Unionists with a rare glimpse of a UK national issue. Though the programme will no doubt, “remind him of a few of the risks involved when you seek to encourage national fervour”. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He …
