Ireland's political and cultural magazine
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Flattery’s lawyers argued that NAMA had acted in bad faith by refusing to complete a deal for the sale of the lands to Flattery in an ‘off market’ deal earlier this year and that there was improper interference in the negotiation process
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Evening in America
Our crumbling infrastructure for equality is symbolised by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). There are other symbols, but this one still stands out. The Commission was a product of the economic crisis, the official turn against equality, and the disenchantment with public-sector bodies designated by a hostile media as ‘quangos’. It was created out of […]
There is much talk nowadays about the practical difficulties of multiculturalism (and of the rejection of tolerance by radicals promoting violence). With a shrinking world on our doorstep, integration of peoples of different cultures is preferable to ghettoisation and apartheid. Radicalisation is the byproduct of alienation which thrives where the legal system appears to be, […]
‘A state in denial’ by Margaret Urwin reveals the collusions of the British army and the paramilitar loyalist groups, during the trouble in Northern Ireland. Frank Connolly tells us why such a book is important. Frank Connolly is a journalist and Head of Communications for SIPTU.
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On Monday 19 September there was one city grabbing Irish headlines – Limerick. Unusually, it has remained in the news, as if in compensation for years of neglect. Ireland’s underdog has been thrown a €500 million bone in the form of the Limerick 2030 Plan. The fanfare for this much-needed recovery plan coincided with the […]
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Outline proposals for a modernised Irish copyright regime announced by Enterprise Minister Mary Mitchell-O’Connor at the beginning of August are now dead in the water, following the publication of draft directives by the European Commission in mid-September. The European plans, championed by Digital Economy Commissioner Günther Oettinger, lean heavily towards protectionism for traditional media, in […]
The 2016 Man Booker Prize, arguably the biggest literary prize of the English language, was awarded this year to American author, Paul Beatty. ‘The Sellout’ saw off a shortlist containing ‘Hot Milk’ by Deborah Levy, ‘His Bloody Project’ by Graeme Macrae Burnet, ‘Eilleen’ by Ottessa Moshfegh, ‘All That Man Is’ by David Szalay and ‘Do […]
The modern State is a hybrid, an extraordinarily complex machine. Beyond the well-established remit of setting laws, collecting taxes and managing international relations, the Irish State has been involved in incarcerating women and children, commemorating the past and exploring outer space. Often, the State is idealised as a sort of referee who sets and implements […]
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My election as Chairperson of the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) and that of a renewed Executive Board, comes at an exciting time, as the vibrant feminist movement in Ireland is experiencing a huge resurgence, particularly among younger women. As the representative national women’s organisation in Ireland, the NWCI is leading the work for […]
There are disturbing messages coming this autumn from the global rankings of universities. Ireland is sinking: only one Irish university retains a place in the top 100 universities of the world and that is Trinity College, Dublin, hanging on by its fingernails at 98th in the ‘QS’ rankings. In one respected index TCD was not […]
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One year on from the UN Summit to agree the Sustainable Development Goals, and approaching the first anniversary of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change there are worrying signs that the consensus to ‘leave no one behind’ was no more than a shallow aspiration. The industry in measurement of the goals has intensified. There is […]
The news that serial non-litigator Gerry Adams is to sue over allegations he sanctioned the murder of IRA informer Denis Donaldson, cannot surprise. Contrary to what has become the received wisdom, the former security force agent in the IRA did not tell BBC Northern Ireland’s ‘Spotlight’ programme on September 20th that Gerry Adams sanctioned the […]
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More or less pulsating since its quiet birth in 1994, the Dublin ‘Tiger’ Fringe Festival has an unusually well-defined theatrical remit, stated in its Memorandum of Association as: “the encouragement and promotion of the development of new theatre companies, younger actors and directors and to encourage more innovative theatre and performance”. While the Gate is […]
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At the INOU’s recent Annual Delegate Conference delegates called on the Government to “significantly increase Jobseeker payments – at a minimum to the rates in early 2009 – including reversing the cuts to younger jobseekers”. This call was made in recognition of the financial difficulties facing unemployed people. It reflected that the poverty rates experienced […]
We struggle in the consumerist war-free West with the other, with Strangers. When someone with a credit card and pale skin settles in another land we often hear them referred to as an ‘expat’. Others permanently abroad are deemed ‘migrants’, ‘illegals’ or ‘asylum-seekers’. Few of us have direct experience of the conflicts that devour post-colonial […]
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The current Public Accounts Committee hearings into the sale of Project Eagle by NAMA threaten the careers and reputation of its chairman and chief executive, the finance minister, Michael Noonan, the Comptroller and Auditor General and a number of politicians on both sides of the border. This explains why we are witnessing a war of […]
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It is nearly a year since Putin’s Russia entered the civil war in Syria to save the day for Bashar al-Assad.
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If CETA had been signed in the 1990s Governments would have been sued to prevent smoking bans or plastic bag taxes
