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How the newspaper of reference dealt with correspondence challenging an important article it published about equality Brendan Ogle Of Unite submitted the following article to the Irish Times on 15 December 2020 Unite House Unite the Union 55/56 Middle Abbey Street                        Dublin 1 D01 X002 Republic of Ireland Republic of Ireland Head Office 15th December 2020 On 14 December 2020 Jerry Buttimer stood up in the Seanad and said that in terms of personal finances, Ireland was becoming a more equal place. ‘The reality is that income growth and inequality is falling in our country at this time’ he said, ‘and as Mr. Pat Leahy wrote recently in The Irish Times, people are getting richer and we are becoming more equal.’ Those seeking to help families and individuals suffering from shocking deprivation here this Christmas will be shocked at this news. And so they should be. Because it is false. It is not acceptable for Journalists to present as ‘facts’ things that are not facts and present them as seasonal gifts to ideologically driven Politicians practised in the policies of division, isolation, poverty and deprivation.  The article cited was published the previous week and contained the claim that rising incomes and falling inequality ‘is a neat trick, managed by very few.’ Both Buttimer and Leahy also criticised the naysayers and NGOs who argue otherwise in tones that remind me of Bertie Ahern’s infamous ‘pre-crash’ invite to those ‘talking down’ the economy to consider suicide. Leahy put himself out there as far as to say ‘the data is the data, the facts are the facts… we have been getting richer, and also more equal at the same time.’  Wow! So let’s talk about ‘facts’. Leahy highlights this quote from a 2020 report on inequality by TASC: “while inequality was on the rise elsewhere, it was falling here.” But the next sentence – literally the next sentence – says that ‘Another explanation for Ireland’s stability is that it is only apparent, and that inequality has actually been increasing. The data presented so far has ultimately been drawn from surveys, which have well-known limitations when it comes to the measure of income, and hence inequality.’ Leahy leaves this vital context out.  The survey in question is the CSO’s annual Survey on Income & Living Conditions (SILC). It supplies the information for calculation of the ‘Gini coefficient’, a formula used to calculate income inequality that Leahy presents as showing falling inequality. The SILC is a sample survey of just 4,183 households out of 1.7 million in the state (around 0.2 per cent of the total).  The survey is voluntary and only 40% of those sampled agreed to take part. Almost 2,000 households refused outright, while another 2,800 gave various reasons listed as ‘other’ by the CSO.[1]   So, while the CSO conducts a random selection of private households for the initial catchment, within that random selection there is a form of self-selection, there are households that will not share their income data, and it is only those that freely volunteer the information that end up in the survey.  But that’s not all. The CSO employs around 100 people to carry out this work, but often they call to a house and not everyone is at home. So they conduct interviews ‘by proxy’ –  information is provided by ‘another resident of the household due to unavailability of the person in question’. [2]   Up to 50 percent of all interviews for the income survey are by proxy, which gives rise to issues ‘with the quality of data for proxy responses for certain variables’. [3] This leads to acknowledged and well flagged ‘statistical bias’ that Leahy leaves out in his rush to declare what ‘facts’ are. He also fails to tell us that the report actually says ‘high incomes tend to be underreported when they do respond.’ It is no surprise then to hear that the data collected from household surveys has to be ‘cleaned up’ by the CSO before it ends up in the final survey. This requires the use of various statistical weights and assumptions to compensate for missing data and known bias.  However, even if the survey and its methodologies were absolutely flawless, there would still be issues with their underlying assumptions within an Irish context. The ‘Gini coefficient’ formula strives to capture income distribution after income tax and social welfare transfers, which it labels as ‘disposable income’. However, the Irish welfare system is different from others within the EU in that it is geared more towards monetary transfers and less towards the provision of services.  Put simply, in Ireland the formula does not take into account the cost of housing, rent, health, childcare, utility services, transport, or education. In other words ‘Gini’ only measures ‘income’ before Irish people pay their bills. So much for ‘facts’! It gets worse. The second source that Leahy draws upon is an article by UCC economist Seamus Coffey which is on RTÉ’s Brainstorm website. Coffey argues that Ireland is ‘one of the few developed countries that has had high income growth and falling inequality’. He says that while people may disagree on the way forward, they cannot disagree on that point. As with Leahy, he says that the facts speak for themselves. Coffey underpins his point with data taken from a paper that was published in the Journal of Income Distribution in 2018 entitled, ‘Rising Income Inequality and Living Standards in OECD Countries: how Does the Middle Fare?’.  Guess what he uses? Yes, you got it, the ‘Gini coefficient’. He even uses it to claim that Ireland ‘is the only country in the sample to achieve both high income growth and falling income inequality’.  However, the 2018 paper from which Coffey draws this information cites not one, but two, indicators of income inequality.  The first is ‘Gini’ which measures everything except what poor people need to live, and the second is the income share going to the top 1%. This shows income inequality rising. In fact it’s not only rising. Ireland actually had the third highest rise in income share going to the top

A recent EPA Report has highlighted how policy problems are interconnected, and need a whole-of-government response By Tadhg O’Mahony Transport and the environment are in the air. Recent weeks have brought debates on CETA and the evolving Climate Bill, and on radical moves by local authorities to facilitate pedestrians and cyclists. Far deeper EU targets have been set for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, 55% by 2030, and a new EU mobility strategy. The EPA produced a report, Ireland’s Environment: An Integrated Assessment 2020. Published every four years, the report is “not optimistic”, and shines a new light on the transport sector in Ireland. Transport is our second-highest carbon-emitter, and emissions continue to grow, despite the urgent need to rapidly reduce its footprint. Globally, transport is a major carbon emitter. It is associated with significantdeath, injury and disease, from air pollution and road traffic accidents, and imposes major costs on economies through traffic congestion. In Ireland, many of these problems are even more pronounced. Our carbon emissions, per capita, are the fourth highest in the EU, while our cities rank amongst the most congested in the world, according to data collected by INRIX and TomTom. Six years on from Ireland’s original Low-Carbon Development Act 2015, and after declaring a ‘climate emergency’ in 2019, Ireland still has no plan to reduce emissions to 2050, and transport is a chief area for concern. As the pressure for change builds, understanding how Ireland has developed these systemic problems is essential to moving forward. Our History in Transport, and how we Became ‘Locked-In’ The total number of vehicles on our national roads, squeezing into our towns and cities, is now heading towards three million, and the private car has come to dominate travel in Ireland. According to the latest survey from the CSO, almost 80 per cent of journeys are made by private motorised forms, even dominating the shorter journeys of up to two kilometres. “National energy and emissions modelling studies have consistently focused on changing vehicles, fuels and behaviour – reinforcing the dominance of the private car and road freight, pushing more beneficial systems change out of policy discussion” The Irish transport system was very different a century ago, at the time of Independence. Dominated by sustainable modes, an extensive rail network served communities throughout the country, from the Hills of Donegal to the Dingle peninsula. Much of our national rail network was dismantled over the course of the last century. This coincided with the rise of the private car, and glossy industry advertising promising ‘freedom’.The car was marketed as a potent status symbol, and signifier of ‘success’, and it was adopted in ever greater numbers as the expression of a prosperous lifestyle. Fast forward to the 1980s, and the vision of successive Irish governments to grow the economy, develop the regions and drawdown European funding, was for major investments in roads, and a new motorway network. Incomparison, public transport largely stagnated, rail freight became almost non-existent, and walking and cycling were reduced to more nicheactivities than sensible mobility options. We were diverging substantially from our European neighbours. At the same time, laissez faire spatialplanning allowed proliferation of one-off housing in the countryside, and low-density suburban and commuter developments. This ‘urban sprawl’renders alternatives to the private car far more difficult to implement. Our towns and cities were increasingly designed, car-first, human-second,with wide roads and narrow paths making our public realm more unsafe for vulnerable users and less comfortable for everyone. Our physical settlement and infrastructure were becoming deeply set. From the mid-1990s, policy, investment, market and lifestyle all dictated that we would funnel our growing economy and population into the private car. When all of these factors line-up it is called ‘lock-in’. Described by global sustainability expert Gregory Unruh, and later platformed by the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ‘carbon lock-in’ becomes both inevitable and difficult to escape, blocking off options for more beneficial outcomes. Successive spatial, transport and emissions policies came and went, and all failed. The focus, largely fromengineering and economics, was on improving technology, through efficiency, and implementing a carbon tax. This narrative, andthe measures it encouraged, were far too weak to overcome lock-in. Throughout the ‘boom years’ transport carbon emissions continuedtheir inexorable rise. The financial crisis and recession, in the late noughties, were a blip in the long-term trend of increasing vehiclenumbers and burgeoning emissions. An Appetite for Change, but Deep Structural Problems Block our Progress In recent years, the Citizens Assembly and an Oireachtas Committee have demonstrated that there is significant public and political appetiteto change course. The main policy response, the government’s 2019 Climate Action Plan, had the laudable goal to bring a new seriousness to tackling emissions, to pursue our 2030 targets, and “put the country on a trajectory to net zero by 2050”. Yet two critical flaws had already undermined the Plan’s approach to transport, and these were baked-in from its inception. The plan did not address the long-term, to at least 2050: a key precondition documented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the gold standard of scientific knowledge on the topic. Even more problematic, the most important decisions had already been taken, in the much heralded ‘Project Ireland 2040’. This establisheda settlement plan up to the year 2040, known as the ‘National Planning Framework’, and an infrastructure investment plan to 2030. It aimedfor 40 per cent of new housing development to be “within or close to built-up areas”, and for the addition of 500,000 active and public transportjourneys per day. The targets are at the lower-end of ambition – compromises that could evade political challenges, but insufficient to overcome lock-in and support transition. Project Ireland was not subject to analysis of the long-term emissions implications, of the kind that couldprovoke reflection on alternative paths. As the Climate Action Plan was developed, it became clear that Project Ireland would not help in achieving 2030’s emissions targets, let alone2050’s. In a sign of desperation, the Plan continually ramped up the number of electric

As Covid-19 and other diseases spawn resistance to over-used antibiotics, phages – viruses that naturally infect and kill bacteria – may be a long-term replacement By Shane Raymond Doctors Globally worry daily about fighting Covid-19. However, some doctors and medical experts now worry not just about the damage the virus can cause, but about the medical battles that will follow in its wake. Under guidelines produced in April  by  the  Health  Service Executive’s Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Team, antibiotics are to be given to Covid- 19 in-patients with symptoms of bronchitis or pneumonia, or who produce coloured sputum when they cough. The guidelines also stated that “frail elderly patients” are at greater risk of death from infections and, so may need to be prescribed with antibiotics far earlier than doctors might otherwise do with patients of that age. While often necessary to save lives, the long- term result of a growth in the already high use of antibiotics worries some healthcare professionals, including Dr Liam Burke, a bacteriology lecturer and researcher at the Centre for One Health at NUI Galway. “With Covid, the whole world is using tons of normally don’t cause any problems at all. But, when our immune system is down they can cause an infection. The more antibiotics we use, the more bacteria get resistant”, he considers. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has stated that antibiotic resistance is “one of the biggest threats” today, warning that a host of infections including pneumonia, tuberculosis, food poisoning and gonorrhoea are becoming harder to treat as antibiotics become less effective. Because of that, WHO says health professionals should only prescribe antibiotics when necessary and patients should make sure not to share or use leftover antibiotics. New treatments are needed, but they are hard to come by, Dr Burke says. Antibiotics take years to develop, cost billions, and are only taken for a few days by most patients and so are not lucrative. Drugs for chronic diseases such as diabetes are taken daily for years, and so are far more profitable. The incentive to develop new antibiotics is also reduced by bacterial resistance – since Big Pharma cannot sell a drug that no longer works. One of the most promising avenues, Dr Burke goes on, is the use of phages – viruses that naturally infect and kill bacteria. Colin Hill, Professor in the School of Microbiology at University College Cork, is a leading researcher in the field: “Phages are the most abundant biological entities on the planet”, he says. There’s about ten quintillion

A poem in the pandemic, by Kevin Higgins after Brian Patten  Now all the old gods have died or are on life support in the prison infirmary psychiatric wing we have a new name for the absolute: AstraZeneca. Even those who get  emotional at dinner parties about the state of the planet know there’s no talking back to AstraZeneca, the one who now decides who gets to go outside and who must remain in the cupboard. Old women, whose husbands haven’t come back out of  the bedside locker since this time last year, get down on their bony knees and ask AstraZeneca to please keep them in there for good. The Minister for Exams clasps her sad hands together and pleads that AstraZeneca intercede  before she’s pushed  through the streets by students in a shopping trolley  wearing a dunce’s hat. Diplomats, Popes, and  Patriarchs of Constantinople  issue joint communiqués begging AstraZeneca to save us  from the Russians. Like most gods, AstraZeneca  has a customer help-line  it never answers. But we dial it in any case, our nerve endings electric at the thought of what we’re at the mercy of. As the next war starts every side claims this new deity belongs to them, and the streets ring with the sound of AstraZeneca laughing.

Kildare Councillors flouted the public interest and perhaps the law in approving the sale of Council land without including its additional actual value to the purchaser as a “ransom strip” – following a valuation by a former Fine Gael Councillor By Fiona McLoughlin Healy. The role of Councillors in disposing of assets is an important one.  It is a power vested in them by Section 183 of The Local Government Act.  The Council’s Chief Executive has the power to acquire land but only the Councillors, ie the elected members of the Council acting collectively, can approve the sale of publicly owned land. Under Section 211 (2) of the 2000 Act, the disposal of publicly owned land must be for “the best price reasonable obtainable”, and if it is not, the Housing Minister’s consent is required for the sale.  The disposal of publicly owned land must be for “the best price reasonable obtainable”, and if it is not, the Housing Minister’s consent is required for the sale. Just five of 31 Councillors present (and a total membership of 40) voted against the sale. On Monday 30 November 2020, Kildare Councillors voted to dispose of 0.796 acres of publicly-owned land in Athgarvan to a private individual for the sum of €100,000. Just five of 31 Councillors present (and a total membership of 40) voted against the sale, and in substance in favour of my proposal that, as a result of concerns expressed, we adjourn the decision to dispose. Adjournment would have allowed for a second valuation to provide reassurance in relation to some of the issues I outline below.   The founder of Sherry Fitzgerald Reilly, the man who carried out the valuation is a former Fine Gael Councillor. The founder of Sherry Fitzgerald Reilly, the man who carried out the valuation, is Sean Reilly, a former Fine Gael Councillor. Here’s his signature on the valuation: Given the responsibility that rests with Councillors to obtain the best price reasonably obtainable, one would expect a certain level of due diligence in considering a disposal of state land. Having access to and being able to review the valuations that form the basis for the proposed sale price is, I would aver, a basic due diligence requirement.  Certainly as the schedule below shows a lot of money is spent annually by the Council on the services of estate agents and valuers.  But reviewing valuations  has not been the practice in Kildare. At the previous full Council meeting in October 2020 I had again raised my concerns that, despite repeated requests and reassurances given, the Council Management were still failing to circulate valuation documents with Section 183 notices.  As a result, my colleagues and I were provided with a copy of the full valuation carried out by an auctioneer for and on behalf of the Council for the proposed disposal of .796 acres at Athgarvan, at the November 2020 meeting. Two things struck me after reading the valuation document, the Council’s notice and the map circulated to Councillors in advance of the meeting.  First, although section 183 (v) requires that notices to elected members include “any covenant, conditions or agreements to have effect in connection with the disposal” ie for Councillors to be fully informed as to the piece of the jig-saw they are looking at, the explanation provided under that section left me unclear about why we were selling the land to the applicant. In fact I was more confused about why the land was being sold after reading the valuation and the Council’s notice.  The value of the piece of land being disposed of lay not in its intrinsic development value but in its value as the only access route to two developments that had been given planning permission a year earlier Second, here is the valuation document with map. It appeared to focus on the negatives as opposed to the benefits of the land and therefore read more like a valuation one might expect from a potential buyer, not from a seller. It highlighted for example that:  “The majority of the land would be extremely difficult to develop as it is undulating and at different levels”.  And without clarifying the relevance and significance of planning permissions 19/117 and 19/118 it further added that the: “Different levels etc of the land, planning ref 19/117 and 19/118, will make it very expensive to develop”. This is just not the way things operate with valuations. Quite why an opinion had been offered on how difficult it would be to develop the land was perplexing particularly as it was clarified under  “valuation assumptions, caveats and disclaimers” that “in undertaking the valuation we did not, unless otherwise stated; carry out a structural survey or test grounds for stability, bearing, capacity, presence of rock or other matters. Any comments in our report concerning the state of repair, structural condition, ground conditions etc are of a superficial nature only and may require to be verified by a building surveyor or structural engineer”.  Having read the document and the Council’s notice of disposal I proceeded to look up the two planning applications that had been referenced but whose relevance had certainly not been clearly articulated in either document.  It soon became apparent that the value of the piece of land being disposed of lay not in its intrinsic development value but in its value as the only access route to two developments that had been given planning permission a year earlier – one consisting of 90 units, the other of 14 units.  Neither development was shown on the map, issued to Councillors, that had accompanied the valuation. The full jigsaw had not been presented. The value of the adjoining developments not shown on the map, is crudely estimated to be anywhere in the range between €20 to €30 million. Thus, the piece of land being disposed of was a ‘Key Value’ site.  Extraordinarily, Kildare County Council had effectively asked the valuer to include the ransom-strip/key-site value but the valuer had not; and now Councillors were approving the deficient valuation. The relevant case law for valuing what is termed a ‘Key Value Site’ or  ‘Ransom Strip’ is Stokes vs Cambridge (1961) which determined that if a parcel of land was needed for access to develop adjacent property, its owner was entitled to up to one third of the resulting value of the developed property.  Based on a crude calculation, had the shoe been on the other foot and the Council required the piece of land in question to develop adjacent land, it would have had to fork out somewhere between €6 and €10 million to acquire the land in question. It’s difficult to be more

By Kevin Higgins Inspired by the apologies of British Labour Party leader Leader Keir Starmer for his party’s “anti-Semitism” and his recent appointment of a former Israeli intelligence officer as Labour’s head of social media. To any white South Africans hurt  by the anti-Apartheid movement. To any tobacco plantation owner’s son barred  by Emancipation from dragging his father’s  private property for a spot of fish-eyed non-consensual in a barn that has seen it all,  despite the absolute lack of light in there. To General Custer for any inconvenience  caused by the tribes who sent him home  by a road he did not know.  To any Frenchmen or women savages with Russian guns robbed  of their own personal slice of Algeria. To any Havana casino owners or pimps offended by the extent of Fidel Castro’s facial hair.  To the small part of Ian Paisley Junior that dies every time someone calls Judea and Samaria or Londonderry by its proper name.  To any cats hurt by mice who didn’t lie down and just  let themselves be eaten. KEVIN HIGGINS 

Drafters of the US Constitution foresaw violent demagogues, and Presidential Inaugurations have mostly befitted the momentous transfers of power By John Vivian Cooke. Exactly on the stroke of noon on 20 January, Donald Trump will be out of office. There will be no more lies, frauds, outrages, or broken laws from President Trump.    His presidency as a whole, and the violent death throes of its final days, have stretched democratic norms to their breaking point, but the inevitable messy end of his term proved the resilience of the US Constitution.    Some of the dangers they sought to guard against were instability, confusion and attempts by factions to mask violence under the Constitution The drafters of the Constitution foresaw exactly such a demagogue. They published extensive commentaries addressing concerns about the effective operation of republican forms of government. Their plan sought to resolve the paradox that without order there can be no freedom; to give sufficient powers to the government to allow it to fulfil its essential functions without diminishing the liberties of citizens. Some of the dangers they sought to guard against were:  ¨(T)he instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, (which) have, in  truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished”. (James Madison, Federalist Number 10)  They foresaw the danger posed by organised and violent malcontents, whom they knew as ¨factions¨, who would seek to subvert the operation of government.   ¨By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest,  adversed (sic) to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the  community”. (James Madison, Federalist Number 10)  Benefitting from thorough classical educations, they readily drew on analogies from antiquity.   ¨It is impossible to read the history of the petty republics of Greece and Italy without feeling sensations of horror and disgust at the distractions with which they were continually agitated,  and at the rapid succession of revolutions by which they were kept in a state of perpetual  vibration between the extremes of tyranny and anarchy”. (Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Number 9) Supporters of Publius Clodius Pulcher, Trump in a toga, sacked the Senate in 52 BC If they had witnessed Trump’s mob desecrating the Capitol Building, they would have recalled the career of the ancient Roman politician, Publius Clodius Pulcher, whose enraged supports attacked and destroyed the Senate building (Curia Hosta) in 52 BC.  Indeed, the parallels between Clodius and Trump are more than incidental. Clodius was a demagogue with a record of numerous public sex scandals; a wealthy aristocratic who surrender his status as a Patrician to further his anti-elites appeal to the poor; whose term as a Plebeian Tribune in 59 BC was marred by violence, intimidation, and the abuse of power in the vindictive settling of old scores. In short: Donald Trump in a toga.   Informed by historical precedent and wary of the risks of disorder, the Constitution was designed with such specific hazards in mind.   ¨If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which  enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote. It may clog the administration,  it may convulse the society; but it will be unable to execute and mask its violence under the  forms of the Constitution”. (James Madison, Federalist Number 10)   Donald Trump has repeatedly attempted to frustrate this safeguard.  His attempts to overturn the election results escalated into an act of domestic terrorism that was an attack on the personal, physical, and institutional manifestations of American democracy.  That those efforts failed when Congress completed the constitutional processes of certifying the election results vindicates James Madison`s opinion that:  ¨AMONG (sic) the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction.  The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice. He will not fail, therefore, to set a due value on any plan which, without violating the principles to which he is attached, provides a proper cure for it”. (James Madison, Federalist Number 10) The inauguration ceremony for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris will be a celebration of this transfer of power in accordance with the democratically expressed will of a sovereign people.   This ceremony has occurred with metronymic regularity since 1797, and each scheduled change of president (with the exception of Rutherford B Hayes` inauguration of 1877) has been celebrated in public.  Quadrennial public inaugurations of the president also serve the practical political function of legitimising the handover of power from one party to another and are the reason the bipartisan Congressional Joint Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies has chosen ¨Our Determined Democracy: Forging a More Perfect Union” and ¨America United¨ as this year`s themes.  The Presidential Inauguration Committee, which is responsible for organising broader celebrations, has been forced to abandon many longstanding traditions to comply with public health restrictions so, although the Pass in Review by members representing every branch of the armed services will still take place, this year there will be no Capitol luncheon, no inaugural parade and the series of inaugural balls have moved online.    What remains is the formal inaugural ceremony during which the incoming Vice President and then incoming President will swear their oaths of office, followed by the new President’s inaugural address. While all the pomp and ceremony are familiar, only the administration of the oath of office is constitutionally mandated. Article II, Section 1, Clause 8 states:  ¨Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:  – I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the  United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution  of the United States”.  Franklin Pierce is the only president to have affirmed rather than sworn the oath of office. Many witnesses to Herbert Hoover`s inauguration thought

Having failed to crush, flatten, or close our borders against it, as Winter begins to put its uncouth fingernails all over us there is talk of negotiations. King Virus comes to the table  wearing a crown of spikes that fans out to fill the whole room and can’t be removed except on the day of its state funeral, for which – item one on its agenda – we’re expected to pay. Its minions scuttle in all sporting slightly smaller but equally spiky headgear not to be hung on the hat-stand until its wearer has been scrubbed to death by soap and alcohol even a journalist wouldn’t drink. We are busy being impressed by the tall portraits of its ancestors which adorn the conference room walls when its chief negotiator cuts through gristle to bone: it wants all our old age pensioners and chronics.  In terms of the drag they are on the economy,  it’s doing us a favour taking them  to the processing plants it’s building here, here, and there on the map it keeps pointing at with its big long stick. Being realists – on financial matters at least – we have no alternative but to agree and, as is our custom on such occasions, offer it a little extra: everyone over the age of sixty. Its final condition, to which we’re delighted to nod statesmanlike agreement: the rest of the population will be known by this treaty, which will have full force of international law, as the ‘unoccupied zone’. Congratulating ourselves on another deal done, we bark our ribs up (or try to)  and sweat in unison  into the perfect white of the handkerchiefs  we brought to wave at the world’s media. KEVIN HIGGINS 

 Cloughjordan Ecovillage Two Decades On. By Caroline Hurley. Cloughjordan So Far In September 1999, at the Central Hotel Dublin, Gavin Harte and Gregg Allen launched Sustainable Projects Ireland Ltd. (SPI) trading as The Village, whose aim was to create Ireland’s first eco-village, with a stress on sustainability, community, and promoting mainstreaming environmentally-friendly ideas.  Rising property prices pushed site options farther from the capital than originally envisaged but after advertising in the Farmers Journal, specifying requirements for clay-rich soil to build, a south-facing orientation, and adjacency to an existing village (a serendipitous Council stipulation contrary to SPI’s green-field site preference), community leaders from Cloughjordan on the Tipperary-Offaly border made contact to urge purchase of land meeting these criteria, which were being sold by the Baker family.  Cloughjordan’s population then, about 400, was one-tenth of its pre-Famine size. As the transaction progressed, talks eventually allayed locals’ concerns about an influx of strangers with fringe beliefs and practices.  Cloughjordan’s population then, about 400, was one-tenth of its pre-Famine size. As the transaction progressed, talks eventually allayed locals’ concerns about an influx of strangers with fringe beliefs and practices.  North Tipperary County Council agreed to rezone the agricultural fields for sustainable development, and the application for outline planning permission for private houses, roads and community buildings was made after land purchase was finalised in 2003. Planning permissions sought and granted can be viewed on www.eplanning.ie using reference numbers 04511649 and 08510334. An archaeological survey conducted on the sixty-seven acres by Dennehy and Gowan revealed signs of occupation from the Bronze Age. Regrettably never signposted, findings included Fulachta Fiadh, ring forts and barrows, ditches, a moat, a fever hospital and starch house.  In 2007, a Village Finance Group published a comprehensive document entitled ‘Information About Site Prices’, explaining how 2004 site costs were calculated, why they had gone up so much by 2007, and steps being taken – such as bulk buying – to curb higher price impacts. The low-lying aspect of the field, formerly containing an old well, hugely upped infrastructure quotes.  The plan to complete building on all 130 sites by 2010 was frustrated by exorbitant boomtime bills putting almost half of the subscribers to flight.  Delays were compounded by the recession and logistical complications. The plan to complete building on all 130 sites by 2010 was frustrated by exorbitant boomtime bills putting almost half of the subscribers to flight.  Delays were compounded by the recession and logistical complications. Borrowings were in the millions, contrary to the original no-debt policy, resulting in unintended long-standing liabilities, and diluting autonomy.  The County Council absorbed more funds after rejecting developer proposals for a social-housing element provided for by Government housing-legislation guidance at the time. Those who paid deposits for initially oversubscribed plans were later asked to sign “statements of integrity” undertaking to build by a certain date, but many could not meet changing conditions as escalating site costs were re-calculated, and as properties they meant to sell to pay balances lost value. Marketing to find replacements for drop-outs had to be stepped up again as subscribers still-in forged ahead, though SPI’s weakening finances led to staff being let go. Researcher Campos (2013) noted, “the project hasn’t been able to get around the predatory price system of the formal economy”, and Nelson (2018) added, Cloughjordan “is the most market-oriented … and the least affordable” of several ecovillages analysed, placing it outside the price bracket of many desirable ecovillage candidates. Steps to address this barrier are now afoot. Already, the presence of ‘communities within the community’ has been observed.  By 2011, diverse nature-inspired buildings were going up on certain sites sold; mainly of passive timber frames with sundry insulations and finishes including Durisol blocks (blocks of chipped waste-wood bonded with eco-cement), sheep’s wool, and cellulose (shredded newspaper). Constructions with hemp-lime (traditional Irish finish of lime, strengthened by adding hemp) and cob (clay, sand and straw) also feature, as does a Canadian stick-frame house with double stud walls (with no cold bridging), and kit houses. Anyone with business ideas could opt for live-work units.  Natural slates, recycled plastic roof-tiles and ‘green roofs’ are on display. This distinctive colourful collection of low-carbon emission builds secured some of Ireland’s best Building Energy Ratings (BER). 28 bought sites not yet developed are levied charges, variably met, leaving 47 sites to sell as of 2021. Instead of using fossil fuels, the District Heating System (DHS) burns biomass: waste wood from a Galway sawmill.Although this cutting-edge renewable solution of the noughties has since drawn scrutiny due to forestry pressures and particulates affecting air quality, the system meets village-wide heating and hot-water requirements, emits no excess greenhouse gases, and has been estimated to save about 113.5 tonnes of carbon annually compared to conventional house heating. 2.5 kg of piping distributes hot water to all sites.  Manufacturer failures jinxed the ground solar array slated to support the DHS. About a fifth of residents have roof photovoltaic panels. In 2014, a survey carried out by Tipperary Energy Agency confirmed an ecological footprint of 2 global hectares, the lowest recorded for an Irish settlement. Rainwater harvesting is a common feature. The Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS) is designed to direct water runoff from houses, roads and hard surfaces to a stream leading offsite. Stormwater is managed as close to source as possible to mimic natural drainage and encourage efficient biological infiltration, attenuation and passive treatment. Water flows through conventional roof drainage pipes and road surface filter drains (stone filled trenches) to swales or basins to be stored during periods of heavy rainfall, before stream discharge.  As of 2021, fifty-five unique energy-efficient houses and a hostel are occupied by 135 residents, many of whom work from home. Most remain involved in the myriad businesses of ecovillage life and, even if bruised by experience, report satisfaction As of 2021, fifty-five unique energy-efficient houses and a hostel are occupied by 135 residents, many of whom work from home. Most remain involved in the myriad businesses of ecovillage life and, even if bruised by experience, report satisfaction.  This well-educated population of teachers, nurses,