tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56040382024-02-03T10:47:54.588+00:00The State We're InIrish and International PoliticsBallinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.comBlogger164125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-44402758381290139522016-03-25T16:11:00.003+00:002016-03-25T16:11:30.792+00:001916-2016: Does anyone actually know what this is?
The filamentous achenes of the dandelion puff ball
Ah, 'tis upon us. A terrible ugly thing is born. We don't even know what it is. It's just, well, it's a thing. I mean, we couldn't do nothing about it. We couldn't really make it about identity, because the nordies would have got uppity about it. We couldn't just make it about commemoration, because that's morbid and we don't do poppies.Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-14858754745378456522015-08-23T17:56:00.000+01:002015-08-23T17:56:12.002+01:00Michael Collins Revisionism
Frances Fitzgerald, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald today addressed the annual Beal na mBláth commemoration in West Cork, a celebration of the life of Michael Collins, at the place where he was killed during the Civil War. Instead of honouring the man, or making a statement of vision, or progress, Minister Fitzgerald chose instead a thinly Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-26557175743441810442015-08-13T22:27:00.000+01:002015-08-13T22:27:43.305+01:00The Tort of False Imprisonment
Tánaiste Joan Burton changes cars before being evacuatedfrom the protests in Dublin.
Several activists are reportedly about to be charged with false imprisonment for the protest in which Tánaiste Joan Burton was trapped in her car for over two hours, including TD Paul Murphy. Mr Murphy's objections are substantially that there was an element of 'political policing' in the process - Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-7068889897253262382015-08-08T09:25:00.003+01:002015-08-08T09:25:37.260+01:00Tools for a New Ireland
The challenges Ireland faces in the modern world are new and daunting. Technology and the Internet have created conditions within which Ireland is competing with Singapore, threatened by ISIS, and selling to China. Multi-national corporations that are based on technology and the Internet are both threats and opportunities, yet they operate at a level that is completely alien to the stateBallinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-84687296159469411862015-06-13T23:48:00.002+01:002015-06-13T23:48:50.469+01:00On Russia: A Response to Luke 'Ming' Flanagan
Not a joking matter.
MEP Luke Flanagan voted against the recent resolution in the European Parliament censuring Russia for its violations of Human Rights, breaches of International Law, and destabilisation of its neighbours. In speaking against the motion, he cited the Nice Treaty re-run as an example of the EU's disregard for National Sovereignty, as he saw it. The EU has no right, in his Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-88260583049911939312015-02-23T19:30:00.001+00:002015-02-23T19:30:50.452+00:00Nationalism in Ireland in 2015
A debate has begun in Ireland on how the country should celebrate Easter 2016, one hundred years after the Easter Rising. Thus far it has taken the shape of an external-relativist debate, particularly in relation to the UK; and a peace-violence debate, and whether violent uprising should be celebrated, especially given the question about what it actually Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-27585663732819002142014-12-09T16:56:00.000+00:002014-12-09T16:56:17.924+00:00Undue Control of Media in Ireland
Denis O'Brien (left) and Alex White: What are the Media Mergers Guidelines really all about?
Communications Minister Alex White has published the department's 'Media Mergers Guidelines' an initiated a consultation therein. Much public attention has shifted to Mr Denis O'Brien, whose empire has recently extended to include the top two non-RTE national radio stations as well as a Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-64406822158663238292014-10-16T10:32:00.001+01:002014-10-16T10:32:18.474+01:00Post-2016: A Dáil in Chaos?
Was it for this etc.?
Much recent commentary on the rise of independents has begun to extrapolate current trends into and beyond the next general election. Pat Rabbitte said he feared for the very future of politics. It does indeed seem as if we are in for a period of political turbulence.
Bookmaker Paddy Power has the projected state of the parties - albeit a long way out - at Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-80247277694565381172014-08-17T16:51:00.000+01:002014-08-17T16:51:15.795+01:00Rural Ireland Deserves Better
Rural Ireland: Not bad if you're a sheep. Because sheep don't need broadband, roads, services, healthcare...
The Irish Times are hosting a commendable section dedicated to rural Ireland and its concerns, and solicited comments from Labour's Ann Phelan, Minister for Rural Affairs. We'll stop this donut effect, she said, making sure large supermarkets don't locate outside town Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-2292279719899008762014-06-23T10:11:00.000+01:002014-06-23T10:11:30.992+01:00Stephen Donnelly: Ireland's Ralph Nader
Nader was vilified and heavily criticised at first, but his book transformed the car industry in America.
The first Chevy Corvair launched in 1960 was a roaring success. Jack Kennedy was President, Elvis Presley was on the radio, and America was fighting the Communists in the dark corners of Eastern European cities. It was a sleek designed power grunt of a machine, with swing-axle suspension.Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-84726378129445194012014-04-30T23:35:00.000+01:002014-04-30T23:35:04.940+01:00The Next Anglo-Scale Crisis Will be in Data Protection
Billy Hawkes has his work cut out for him
I've argued for some time that the problem in Ireland is not one of light-touch regulation, but of culture. The failure that led to such catastrophic circumstances was not down to Lehman Brothers, or the Global Meltdown, or Anglo, or the Financial Regulator, but culture. A culture that said 'go on sure you'll be grand,' a culture that basically said Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-16622073710082905602014-02-07T10:36:00.001+00:002014-02-07T10:36:34.951+00:00The Liberal Left and the New Religion
Narcissists? We've been heading in that direction for some time.
In an over-used and most likely incorrectly attributed quotation,
when asked what the influence of the French Revolution had been on Western Democracy,
the Chinese Foreign Minister replied that is was too soon to tell. Given the apocryphal nature of the story, and
the layers of invention that the Internet places on such Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-45932437017009739522014-01-26T18:37:00.001+00:002014-01-26T18:37:47.631+00:00Why Ireland Needs Drones
Drones come in all shapes and sizes, not just Predators with sidewinders attached.
Drones have got something of a bad press recently, what with all of the extra-judicial killings and what not, and Human Rights Watch, the United Nations Special Rapporteur, and all sort of other folks getting concerned about the automation of lethal force. Much of the focus is on the US, but it should be Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-88113145692597311192014-01-20T11:04:00.000+00:002014-01-20T11:04:06.943+00:00More Unbelievable Truths from the CRC?
Ham Goulding's attempt to clear the air in a series of interviews at the weekend, in an attempt to pour water on the raging fire of the Central Remedial Clinc scandal, appears to have failed. The Public Accounts Committee still wants them all in, and Mr McGuinness will have his show. Goulding claimed that the settlement was an attempt to save money, because keeping Kiely on as Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-56901334614636739202014-01-14T14:24:00.001+00:002014-01-14T14:24:41.401+00:00NAMA: Rebadging Failure as Success
Photo Credit: Google Images
Fintan O'Toole calls out the economic failure in Ireland in today's Irish Times (and, incidentally, in The New York Times also) and in particular those politicians who hold the country up as an example to others. The debt has soared, public services have been slashed, and quality of life has deteriorated for all but those who have emigrated in the last five years. Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-87853102378842605112014-01-14T13:07:00.003+00:002014-01-14T13:07:36.606+00:00A No-Vision Rest Home for No-Vision Politicians: The Conservative Reform Alliance
Didn't get the memo then?
In Susan Neiman's 2008 Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists, there is at least some part of the answer to why we are all so cynical these days. Neiman talks of things like reason and hope - not incompatible, it seems - and says of aspiration that so long as it is limited by the actual, no other idea has a chance. Good bedtime reading for Lucinda Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-41594240186729917312013-12-04T12:12:00.001+00:002013-12-04T12:12:35.766+00:00Ireland: Land of the Blind
Just when you think it really can't get any worse.
It's bad enough that we pushed the national debt towards €200m, or roughly four times what it costs to run the country every year. Furthermore, we've destroyed the construction industry, crippled the property market, and plunged anyone who bought a house in the last ten years into negative equity. We're cutting our way to growth, Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-22826893165555147622013-10-07T11:59:00.001+01:002013-10-07T11:59:53.150+01:00Seanad Result: An Irish Identity Crisis
There are those who would argue that the Seanad result is a vote against the government, a protest vote. Others say that it is a vote in favour of reform. I think it runs deeper than that, however. What we are seeing in this country is a pattern of negativity and absence in our politics that has become progressively worse over the last ten years.
The problem is that there is no vision, no Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-64011416451938977292013-10-01T12:24:00.000+01:002013-10-01T12:24:06.420+01:00Retaining the Seanad: Vote No!
I was unsure about this referendum. The Seanad has long been a bit of a wasted opportunity. A landing spot for failed Dáil candidates; Bertie's appointment of Eoghan Harris; the famous 'weekend Senators' who get appointed for a couple of days at the end of a term in order to get past-members' parking rights and all that other bullshit. Generally speaking it is a failed Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-63574117903332047332013-09-25T15:57:00.000+01:002013-10-17T18:33:54.021+01:00Dealing with the Data Protection Commissioner
My case went in an official 'file' in a 'filing cabinet' :)
So, I started getting these funky emails from a job coaching crowd called Jobcare. Unsolicited, unwanted. I told them to stop. They didn't. Then, they started sending me emails with all the other email recipients' email addresses - including mine - exposed. I told them to stop, then I copied everyone andBallinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-68569184851241335822013-07-24T12:00:00.000+01:002013-07-30T15:28:32.512+01:00Fine Gael and The Will To Power
Abolishing the Seanad is an intellectually lazy and
populist move that will compound our system's failure
I shared a plane journey to New York yesterday with a man working with NGOs, in the area of global co-ordination. We talked about how difficult it was to control egos where righteousness levels seem to know no limit. "People get into this," he said, "with the best of Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-52319058291877799032013-07-14T16:03:00.000+01:002013-07-14T16:03:27.079+01:00Jail Politicians who Drink before they Vote
Tom Barry: Drinking and Voting
Tom Barry has admitted that he had been drinking in the Dáil bar the night of the abortion debate, when, as the Guardian describes it, he 'grotesquely pull[ed] a woman colleague on to his lap.' Many were complaining that the Dáil was debating the issue until 5am, and still more complained that the bar had remained open. Now, some representatives - Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-71636774297571326262013-06-22T21:50:00.003+01:002013-06-22T21:51:38.781+01:00Wallabies vs Lions Player Ratings; Team for Second Test
One swallow doth not a summer make - North scored an
undeniably classy try, but the rest of his game left something
to be desired.
We've referenced rugby in this parish in times past, and notwithstanding the vociferous accusations of inconsistency that will inevitably emanate from this contribution, we here at TSWI feel compelled to offer a view on today's First Test from Brisbane, Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-81079308729365362552013-06-13T00:07:00.001+01:002013-06-13T00:07:38.967+01:00Irish Times Campaigning for Pro-Choice Again?
The Irish Times has a massively misleading headline on the website this evening, I'm disappointed in them. The headline reads "POLL SUGGESTS OVERWHELMING SUPPORT FOR PROPOSED ABORTION REFERENDUM." In the piece, it explains that: "Asked if they were for or against the heads of the Bill to legislate for the Supreme Court
X judgment of 1992 permitting abortion where a mother’s life is in
Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5604038.post-30342326448914703492013-06-12T14:59:00.000+01:002013-06-12T15:50:15.877+01:00The Real Question the NSA Needs to Answer
The tech companies are begging the NSA to let them say how many requests they've acceded to, and my bet is that they'll concede. It doesn't really matter what the number is, it will be tiny relative to the number of users, and it will seem insignificant to most law abiding, voting citizens. It seems to me that the plan is that at that stage it will all go away. However, they're Ballinteosig Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02843278035905601317noreply@blogger.com0