Ireland's political and cultural magazine
[October 2011] In the current economic climate, the Commission’s progress report needed to deliver good news to avoid ‘enlargement fatigue’, writes Garret Tankosić-Kelly On the 12th of October the European Commission flashed a green light at two of the possible six Balkan candidate countries hoping to become our newest EU neighbours. It may have passed […]
Competitiveness, fiscal austerity, skilled labour, capital investment, resilience: all myths. The key, under-recognised factor is private debt Irish elites, to the right, left and centre of the political spectrum, are completely dependant on the kindness of foreigners. Approval of ‘our European partners’, ‘foreign analysts’ or ‘leading international academics’ and editorial praise from foreign publications are […]
The Fianna Fáil veteran tells John Gormley why his old party should merge with the enemy I’ve known Ben Briscoe (77), former dynastic Fianna Fáil TD and Lord Mayor of Dublin, for over twenty years. He has remained a keen observer of politics since he retired as a Fianna Fáil deputy in 2002. I visited […]
Seán Gallagher has become the highest-profile victim of a new type of anti-Fianna-Fáil (FF) McCarthyism. Pressed repeatedly by Miriam O’ Callaghan to condemn his erstwhile colleagues in the Soldiers of Destiny, Gallagher hesitated and tried to dodge. It’s perhaps understandable that Seán Gallagher would have some residual loyalty to his old friends, but his equivocation […]
This is a difficult time to be involved in organisations that seek a more equal, environmentally sustainable and participative society. Poverty, unemployment and emigration are increasing. Key public services and welfare provisions are being diminished. Funding for ‘civil society’ is being cut with organisations closing or reducing their work. The political system is increasingly unresponsive […]
Miriam Cotton surveys the political web forums causing a stir Bondwatch Ireland / The Chattering Magpie 14 Editor: Diarmuid O’Flynn Describe your website/what made you decide to set it up? Thechatteringmagpie14 is a blog of short articles explaining/updating our protest in Ballyhea. BondwatchIreland is about the next 12 bonds due for payment, the ‘Dirty Dozen’ […]
A vibrant network of websites is publishing information and debating issues that Ireland’s mainstream media should have but did not, writes Miriam Cotton The citadel of mainstream Irish journalism has been disturbed by the arrival of interactive, internet-based news and discussion forums that anyone can participate in. A vibrant network of websites has appeared and […]
An appeal from Friends of the Irish Turf Cutters not to take the fall for Government inaction and incompetence and go jail because successive elected officials and civil servants have undermined their way of life. Why should they punish themselves by going to jail when it is the Ministers of the time and the civil servants – many of them still there – who should be suffering for the lose of their traditional rights? False hope was what they have been given – and up the garden path they have been led.
The minister for Justice, Equality and Defence – Alan Shatter – has announced a working group to advise him on the merging of the Equality Authority and the Irish Human Rights Commission. There is no evidence that this merger reflects any commitment to the necessary renewal of the equality and human rights infrastructure. It seems […]
href=”https://villagemagazine.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/3gurdgiev-oct-11.jpg”>
Humans don’t care about the planet and the future of their race. By John Gibbons Doomsday cults are as old as human civilisation. The Bible is a rich sourcebook for ‘End Times’ enthusiasts, who pore over Iron Age manuscripts purporting to pinpoint a particular day that heralds the Apocalypse. Another such date passed on May […]
The Irish Red Cross fired me for detailing its delinquencies. By Noel Wardick In July 2005 I came home after seven months in Darfur and seven years working in Africa. I accepted a job with the Irish Red Cross (IRC) as Head of its International Department, based in Dublin. Perhaps I should have listened to […]
By Niall Crowley Theatre and the arts have choices to make in a time of crises. While they have been effective in organising for survival and the National Campaign for the Arts has been certainly impressive, the messages from the campaign raise disturbing questions as to the choices being made by theatre and the arts. […]
Democracy poses a threat to Israeli governments. By Kevin Barrington The theocratic nature of Israel has for too long been concealed behind the empty slogan ‘the Middle East’s only democracy’. The idea of a Jewish state is tolerated and defended by the same ‘progressives’ who shiver at the mention of an Islamic one. And while […]
Posted in:
On Enda Kenny rests that most daunting of responsibilities in this battered society: the fulfilment of Hope In our last edition just before the general election we expressed, without confidence, the hope that having been the victims of some of the most notoriously bad governance on the planet, we would have learnt that our political […]
Fuel aid is 31% of value of Irish fish landings. By Dara McHugh On May 12, the European Parliament voted 369 to 203 in favour of the ceiling for de minimis aid to individual fishing companies being doubled. De minimis aid is aid which can be granted by national governments without breaching the general proscription […]
