Irish banks will pay the full costs of an Army escort for cash deliveries, under a deal secured by Irish Defence Minister Willie O’Dea last night expected to save taxpayers at least €3 million (the Irish Times, subs req, gets it right that there is no ceiling on the savings). What seems remarkable about this story are two things – that under the previous regime, the Republic’s highly profitable banks were getting a security subsidy of 58 percent of the …
Breaking News reports that “The gap between the rich and the poor in Irish society is continuing to increase, according to the Conference of Religious in Ireland.” More than 900,000 people are currently living in poverty.Poverty gap increasing, says CORI The Cori Website has a link to the text (pdf file) of a paper presented in Belfast by Brigid Reynolds of the CORI Justice Commission in April, ” Mind the Gap between Rich and Poor“. Ambrose Uprichard
The Irish Independendent reports (free reg req) that 23 pc of respondents to an EU-sponsored survey of Protestants in the Republic Southern border counties* said they had suffered mainly verbal abuse at work or school. More than half of those surveyed (57 pc) said they felt that Southern political institutions did not adequately represent them. However, the report says that while the Protestant community up until recently felt marginalised and isolated, there is a sense that this is changing with …
Professor John Murphy has a look at the electoral behaviour of our politicians in the Sunday Independent, Keep the lunacy out, and concludes “It would be lunacy to consider incorporating the bitterly polarised and hatred-riven society we saw yesterday into our body politic.” Elsewhere in the same paper, Rash of gangland hits set to make it bloodiest year yet, Jim Cusack points out that “Seven gangland hits, the latest in broad daylight on Thursday, have taken place since March”, all …
The Irish Republic’s Education Minister, Mary Hanafin, has defended the state practise of giving Protestant fee-paying schools (which make up over a third of such schools) twice as much funding as their Catholic counterparts. The decades-long policy has come into the news after it emerged that one of Ireland’s most prestigious schools, St. Andrews in Dunlaoghaire, home of some of the wealthiest children in the country, was given 100% funding for an extension while down the road, CBC Monkstown, which …
Well, not necessarily. But UTV has a story drawn from a poll in today’s Sunday Tribune. Whilst 80% of people in the Republic agreed with the statement: “It’s good that children in Ireland today are growing up in a multicultural society”, eight out of ten want restrictions. And: “30 per cent of those surveyed say they would not want their son or daughter to marry a non-national while almost half said they would reconsider buying a house in an area …
It’s certainly no laughing matter but you have to hear this description on yesterday’s News at One on RTE Radio One by a lorry driver of Donegal Deputy and former Minister, Dr. Jim McDaid’s driving on Tuesday night on his way back from the Punchestown races. It’s prompted much talk about how Ireland lacks a culture of resignation with discgraced public representatives clinging to office in a most un-British fashion! Your thoughts? Naoise Nunn
Spotted in Gerry O’Sullivan’s penny jar, Sinn Féin’s communications spokesman, Seán Crowe, wants An Post to remove, or block up, over 1000 pre-1922 post boxes still in use in the Republic of Ireland because they retain “the insignia of another country”. A spokesman for An Post responds in this Sunday Life report – “They are part of our history. They were bequeathed to us as part of the postal services, and are part of our culture and heritage, and we …
As if to show the breadth of its political purview, Magill not only named the controversial Minister of Justice Michael McDowell as ‘Politician of the Year’, it also named Sinn Fein’s European hopeful, Pearse Doherty as ‘One to watch’. Morning Ireland picked up a fair bit of after show banter (sound file). 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 …
An extraordinary story, if it turns out to hold water. Young Irelander has a snippet from last night’s Evening Herald that alleges that “Gardai were forced to close down one of Dublin’s main garda stations after IRA threats”. Officers had arrested the main suspect for a particularly clinical murder in an inner city pub. 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 …
Today’s Sunday Times reports, Penalty points for cross-border speeding abuses, that Martin Cullen ( Minister for transport) and the Irish Attorney General will be using European legislation to close a loop-hole which allows Irish drivers to escape getting penalty points on their licenses if caught speeding in the United Kingdom.I would hope, although some Unionists might not be enthusiastic, that the UK will follow suit in respect of drivers caught speeding in Ireland. Apparently there is a particular problem in …
Richard Delevan was not impressed with last week’s Daily Ireland column from Damien Kiberd, whom he accuses of adopting different vocabulary from his normal fare on Dennis O’Brien’s Newstalk, or Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday Times. 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
Interesting argument in Daily Ireland on the weekend’s Progressive Democrat conference. It picks up on a line: “Time and again, the pair stressed their attachment not to the Irish nation or its citizens, but to the ‘state’”.Butit also believes it has detected a whiff of McCarthyism in the Justice Minister’s speech: In a disturbing escalation which may herald a 1950s-style political witch-hunt, McDowell warned of ‘well placed sleepers and collaborators, some of them pillars of society’. It may be, of …
Interesting report from Daily Ireland on broadband access north and south of the border. Northern Ireland has only recently hit the 100% mark whilst the Republic lags at 60%. It also reports that the small town of Carrigtwohill, which is little more than 10 miles from the centre of Cork City is still without broadband access. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and …
There’ve been calls for the Republic’s Equality Authority to investigate the adverse affects the border has had on Protestant communities south of the border 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
Probably the most remarkable thing about the elections to Udaras na Gaeltachta was the election of Gráinne Mhic Géidigh of Sinn Fein to the board. 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
Interesting piece from Maura McHugh who’s measured the speed and quality of the responses from the Dail’s parliamentarians, Awards to Labour and Fine Gael. The Greens asked her to ask someone else in the party (which she thought about and forgot to do) and Fianna Fail sent her a big fat Word file containing “no substantive opinion”. She doesn’t mention Sinn Fein. Looks like the Republic’s politicians still have some way to go before they officially get the Internet. Via …
Dodgy segueway coming up. The Green Party have a private members bill going through the Dail tonight which proposes a ban on all fur farming in the Republic. Meanwhile, the philosophically conservative blog Right Reason, has a piece on Animal Pain and Human Pleasure. 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 …
THERE’S been a major robbery in Dublin, with tactics similar to the Northern Bank heist reported by RTE. Copycat or cause for concern?RTE reported: Gardaí are searching for a gang of armed and masked men who kidnapped a Dublin family, held them overnight and robbed more than €2 million from a security van. Reacting to the robbery, the Taoiseach said that while he had no evidence, he believed the robbery could only have been carried out by one of a …
Ireland’s new anti-terror laws, signed into law last week, carry a “significant risk” of breaching individual human rights, according to the Human Rights Commission, which also says the Terrorist Offences Act may be contrary to the European Convention of Human Rights.Under the law, terrorist activity is defined as: Seriously intimidating a population, Unduly compelling a government or international organisation to perform or abstain from performing an act. Seriously destabilising or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of …
