Ireland's political and cultural magazine
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“For good and bad Kelly killed the issue [of water charges], even if tens of thousands of diehards continue to protest the principle at occasional marches in Dublin” (Village, May 2015) Alan Kelly got it wrong. The mainstream media got it wrong. Village got it wrong. They were united in the rhetoric that water charges […]
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After almost seventy days wandering in the political wilderness the two largest parties have finally agreed a programme with a 30-month timelimit. As Village was going to print the programme was being supplemented with whatever concessions are necessary to attract at least eight independents into the Fine Gaelled minority administration in a ‘Programme for Partnership’. […]
For years vital Irish public services were consistently starved of funding at a time when taxes were being cut for electoral reasons. This is unfortunate but it has consequences which cannot be denied, whatever the ideology of the (non-)payer. Keeping water prices at an artificially low level leads to a vicious cycle of underfunded service-providers, […]
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‘Sharing in the recovery’ was the big theme in the work of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) in 2015. Our members and affiliates, the users of our services, and participants in our regional Discussion Forums and training events were all clear that this recovery had yet to be experienced by many people […]
I keep meaning to make a list of a certain category of politician: cataloguing those who wasted my time over the past 20 years, leading me on about seeking ways to extend fairness and justice to fathers, with dozens of whom I’ve sat over copious coffees while they took elaborate notes of the nature of […]
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A bicycle is a simple machine but for cycling culture to be built vision and determination is needed. And funding.
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Moya Doherty – together with her husband John McColgan – is best known for founding Riverdance, the show that put a modern twist on traditional Irish dance. What began as the interval act during the 1994 Eurovision song contest ended up making Doherty one of the richest women in Ireland. The Sunday Times Rich List […]
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Most right-thinking Irish people think the UN is progressive, scrupulous and transparent. They may think the Security Council is compromised by geopolitics but the intiatives emanating from the General Assembly are benign. All that worthy peace-keeping, progressive resolutions ending wars. Climate. Children. Education. We need then to take at look at the world’s largest corporate […]
Eoin Daly: Rights set undesirable limits on politics.
Michael Smith: Rights are desirable trumps on law and politics.
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There are human rights to food, water, healthcare, a minimum standard of living, and housing. Despite western opposition they found their way into the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966). They have wrongly been denied as rights in Ireland since O’Reilly v Limerick Corporation [1988]. This article is about the right to […]
The water campaign is only the start: we’ll fight the weak incoming government on housing, precarious working conditions, abortion rights, and more
With calls to review their policy that their TDs and senators should only take the average industrial wage (in Dublin because of higher living costs in the capital), Sinn Féin’s financing arrangements are again in the news. According to its press office, Sinn Féin staff have taken an average wage for as long as the […]
Interest rate changes following the end of quantitative easing, changing tax rules, overleveraged companies, global shocks and policy inertia pose big risks
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Money for Nothing? Lobbyist Frank Dunlop told the Planning Tribunal in Ireland that his phone would “walk off the desk” with calls from candidates seeking money as soon as a general election was called. There are analogies with Australia. For years the heavy reliance of both major Australian political parties on developer donations has been […]
The recent multitude of events commemorating the centenary of the 1916 rising has provided ample opportunity to reconsider and admire the original wording of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic. “The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness […]
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The UN’s global compact is compromised by corrupt members and dodgy directors
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Czech national temperament fluctuates between ancient national prejudices and slavish foreign imitation
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A quarrelsome group on the Left, Right and Centre in Britain takes on the pan-European establishment
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A joint of meat is more damaging to the climate than a long-haul flight
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Hansen believeswe are looking atmulti-metresea-level risesin the coming decades, not centuries.
