Ireland's political and cultural magazine
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By Lorraine Courtney Political art is often charged with achieving the impossible: producing real, tangible change. Artists don’t pass laws or have a finger on the button, so what can they possibly do to influence governments or dislodge the structures of power? Will they ever save the world through ideas, objects and images alone? ‘Counter […]
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By Gerard Cunningham and Michael Smith. The agendas and non-agendas associated with Ireland’s most powerful media owner, Denis O’Brien, are so complex that Village decided to try to bring some loose science to bear from a survey of newspaper coverage and front pages. The latest round of the Siteserv story broke on 19 April when […]
By Michael Smith. I remember 25 years ago attending a lecture on ethics for barristers in the King’s Inns (motto Nolumus Mutari 1541 – ‘we don’t want to be changed 1541’). An eminent (though aren’t they all?) senior counsel and ‘bencher’ (don’t ask!) was batting for the Bar Council. A student asked why a second-level teacher […]
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Coming from a country where there are no plans for marriage equality and stances toward gay unions are stifling, the mobilisation of supporters for marriage equality in Ireland has been humbling.
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Ireland, Euro area Governance et l’art de mentir: Past, Present and Futur Jean-Claude Trichet Institute of International and European Affaires Dear Members of the Parliament Irlandais, It is for me an immense plaisir and a great honneur to be here, today, with what passes for the élite of your country, at this place where […]
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By Frank Armstrong. You know you are in trouble when the Minister for Health boasts about taking out health insurance although the Programme for Government stipulates a “universal, single-tiered health service, which guarantees access based on need, not income”. In his cheery way Leo Varadakar was effectively admitting that the provision of public health care […]
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By Gerard Cunningham. Newspapers have grown used to the idea that they face an existential threat from the digital world, even if they haven’t quite figured out what to do about it. But for a long time broadcasters, in particular radio, thought they could be different. The truth is that, behind the chipper periodic press […]
By Reuben Hambackachere. Background article by Niall Crowley follows below. On the 21st of April 2015 I officially submitted my resignation as the named individual representing the Core Group of asylum-seekers and Refugees on the Government Working Group established to examine improvements to the protection process and the Direct Provision system. The working group […]
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Denis is for once on the back-foot as concerns arise about the roles of IBRC, Cox, Davy and KPMG in the discounted sale of Siteserv to him D E N I S O ‘ B R I E N Dear Dermot, Fuming. So the non-story so far: Shareholders in Siteserv got a €5m […]
The recent Dáil debate on a private members bill to provide for terminations of pregnancy in fatal foetal abnormality has raised important human and legal concerns. The bill was opposed by Government on the basis of the Attorney General’s advice that its text was incompatible with the Constitution. However, at my request the Oireachtas Committee […]
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By Richard O’ Leary. Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin insisted that the Roman Catholic bishops’ opposition to same-sex marriage is “not about homosexuality or the gay lifestyle” last November and fired the opening shot in their campaign for a No vote in the marriage equality referendum. Last March, in an interview on Newstalk, he went […]
International Women’s Day (March 8th) provides us with an opportunity to reflect on issues relating to gender equality and to take stock on where progress has been made and the challenges that remain to be overcome. This is the first of two articles which assesses progress and challenges associated with women and the economy. Ireland […]
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By Aoife O’ Driscoll One in six adults in Ireland (521,550 people) finds reading and understanding everyday texts difficult, according to OECD research published by the CSO in 2012. This includes reading a leaflet, for example, or medicine instructions. In addition, a significant 40% of Irish people have limited health literacy according to the 2012 […]
The Report and Final Stage debates on the Gender Recognition Bill 2014 have now concluded in Seanad Eireann. The Bill will now proceed to the Dáil in March. The Minister responsible for this legislation, Labour’s Kevin Humphreys, only accepted two significant amendments in the Seanad. The first amendment is that the Bill will contain a […]
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Last year the prosecutions of Anglo Irish bank bosses fizzled out in community service for Pat Whelan and William McAteer, guilty of 10 counts of providing illegal loans to the group of investors known as the Maple 10 to prop up the Anglo share price. Sean FitzPatrick, the bank’s former chairman, was acquitted of engaging […]
By Lorna Gold. Academics, policymakers and NGOs met in early April at the Royal Irish Academy to examine how Ireland’s new foreign policy, ‘Global Island’, can be put into practice. The striking thing about this policy is an extraordinary clash between the two key sections: that on ‘Our Values’ which establishes a framework of values […]
By Domhnall Casey. Most people now see homosexuality as ‘normal’, a big improvement on the recent past when to be gay was a criminal offence. The Government’s proposal to hold a Constitutional referendum aimed at changing the law on equal marriage for the homosexual community has, apparently, been greeted so far with almost universal approval. […]
By Niall Crowley. Political and media outrage is strangely hard to direct and seemingly impossible to sustain. There was a lot of it about, though, when ‘Prime Time’ did its exposé of Aras Attracta in Mayo and the inhumane treatment of people with intellectual disabilities there. The Taoiseach led the way with: ‘This was frightening, […]
By Ken Phelan. Amal Alamuddin-Clooney: by night wife of heartthrob espresso addict George Clooney, by day eminent barrister specialising in international law and human rights, is finding that with the tinsel comes an edge. She has experienced several descents from the rarefied elevation of the international bar, as not just her wardrobe but her politics […]
