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By John Gibbons. While global pollution crises, from climate change to plastics in the oceans, are showing no signs of improvement, the worst effects, we in the ‘developed world’ are reassured to believe, are clustered in poorer countries and distant ecosystems. One of the many environmental paradoxes is that, while global ecological  indexes are in free-fall, the more prosperous parts of the world have never had it so good. The outsourcing of heavy industry from much of Europe and the US to the Far East over the last two decades has been a win-win for the West. The cost of manufactured goods plummeted thanks to the vast new pools of cheap labour, leading to the last decade and a half turning into the greatest shopping spree in human history, for us. While we shopped, they dropped. China today burns nearly half the world’s coal. Air pollution is now so severe that Chinese scientists have described its effects as being akin to a nuclear winter, with photosynthesis in plants being disrupted – potentially wreaking havoc on China’s food supply. A 2014 report from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences stated that that Beijing’s pollution levels made the city “almost uninhabitable for human beings”. While the climate-altering greenhouse gases spewing from thousands of new smokestacks across Asia are demonstrably as much a threat to Ireland as they are to China or India, it remains alarmingly easy for our politicians and policy-makers to deride the concentrations of an invisible, odourless gas like carbon dioxide (CO2) while instead tilting their serious antagonism, Don Quixote-style, at ‘unsightly’ windmills. And while the silent apocalypse being fomented by the unrestrained burning of fossil fuels draws near, we can at least console ourselves that it’s a problem for ‘other’ people (those divided from us either by geography or by time) to deal with. This narrow view was shattered by a recent report from the World Health Organisation (Europe) which took an in-depth look at the costs to Europe right now from air pollution. The word they used to summarise their own conclusions was “staggering”. It’s hardly an overstatement. The WHO study attributed some 600,000 deaths in Europe every year directly to air pollution; it calculated the annual cost of illness and death from air pollution at some $1.6tn (yes, trillion). This enormous sum is the equivalent of some 10% of the GDP of the entire European Union. “Curbing the health effects of air pollution pays dividends. The evidence we have provides decision-makers across the whole of government with a compelling reason to act”, according to Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe. “If different sectors come together on this, we not only save more lives but also achieve results that are worth astounding amounts of money”. The economic cost of deaths accounts for over US$1.4tn per annum. Another 10% is added to this to account for the cost of diseases caused by air pollution, resulting in the total of around US$1.6tn. The economic cost of deaths and diseases due to air pollution can, according to the WHO, be valued in terms of the amount societies are willing to pay to avoid these deaths and diseases with necessary interventions. In these calculations, “a value is attached to each death and disease, independent of the age of the person and which varies according to the national economic context”. More than nine in ten people living in the European Region are exposed to annual levels of outdoor fine-particulate matter that are in excess of the WHO’s air-quality guidelines. This translates into 482,000 premature deaths in 2012 from heart and respiratory diseases and strokes, as well as lung cancers. Indoor air pollution accounted for another 117,200 premature deaths, five times more in poorer than in higher-income European countries. A related WHO study tallied that one in four Europeans falls ill or dies prematurely from environmental pollution. So much for this simply being a far-away problem affecting people and places we know and care little about. The law of unintended consequences applies to attempts at curbing pollution. Many European governments, including the Fianna Fáil/Green coalition, moved to introduce reforms in motor taxation to favour vehicles that produced lower CO2 emissions. While this undoubtedly nudged car-makers into producing cleaner engines, the single biggest switch was from petrol to diesel combustion. The massive shift to diesel on Irish roads has happened rapidly. This seemingly ‘environmentally friendly’ move (diesel engines produce around 20% less CO2 per kilometre travelled than petrol equivalents) generates a nasty sting in the tailpipe. Diesel engines emit ten times the amount of fine particles and up to twice the amount of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) of petrol. These toxins have been linked to 7,000 deaths in the UK each year. A study in the medical journal the Lancet in 2011 implicated traffic exposure to particulates as the single most serious preventable trigger of heart-attack in the general public, and the principal cause of 7.4% of all attacks. Particulates are classed as carcinogens by the WHO. Fine particulates (those below 2.5 micrometers, or more than 30 times smaller than the width of a single strand of hair) are particularly dangerous. These microscopic particulates penetrate deep into the lungs, and into individual alveoli, passing through cell membranes and migrating into other organs. Established health effects include asthma, lung cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, premature delivery, birth defects and premature death. Infants and children are particularly at risk from the effects of particulates, and these in turn are most intense in urban areas in proximity to heavy traffic. In April 2015, its Supreme Court ruled that the British government must take urgent steps to tackle air pollution in cities. The UK is facing huge fines from the European Commission for failing to cut levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The Supreme court ordered the UK Department for the Environment to draw up new air-quality plans by the end of 2015, setting out how it plans to dramatically tackle air pollution. According to the WHO analysis,

Border Fox The Facebook site of ‘Dessie O’Hare Crafts’ fronted by ‘Dessie from Keady who attended St Patrick’s High School’ sells innocuous  republican memorabilia: glass Easter lilies and the like. But have no doubt it is the Border Fox gone retail. In October 1977, O’Hare and his IRA gang killed Margaret Ann Hearst, a female part-time member of the UDR, in front of her three-year-old daughter, in Armagh. In 1979 O’Hare was shot twice and arrested after a car chase through County Monaghan ended when O’Hare crashed his car through a herd of cattle into a farmer’s car, before coming to rest in a field. He broke both ankles in the crash but his companion in the car was not so lucky and died. In 1979 he led an Irish National Liberation Army offshoot gang which had intended to seize Austin Darragh, moneybags owner of the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, in Dublin but Darragh had moved out three years before and it was occupied by unfortunate dentist, John O’Grady, his son-in-law. O’Grady was kidnapped and initially held in a Dublin basement before being moved to Cork, where he was held in a cargo container. After ransom demands were not met O’Hare cut off the little finger from each of O’Grady’s hands with a hammer and chisel and sent them to Carlow Cathedral (as you did in the 1970s). In a telephone call to the Gardaí O’Hare stated: “It’s just cost John two of his fingers. Now I’m going to chop him into bits and pieces and send fresh lumps of him every fucking day if I don’t get my money fast”. O’Hare became the most wanted man in Ireland with the Gardaí offering a £100,000 reward for information on his whereabouts. He surfaced in County Louth, where he allegedly fired shots into a takeaway during an altercation with his wife. In late November O’Hare was arrested and shot eight times during a fire-fight, in which his companion was killed. An Irish Army soldier was wounded in the affray. He received a 40-year sentence but was finally released in 2006 and the PSNI has said it will not pursue him for the 30 cases of unsolved killings in which he was under suspicion. Through imprisonment he developed an identification with the plight of the disabled and participated in fund-raising events for them, though he says he has no regrets. Sure why would he? Borderline Dog A rat the size of a dog has been found swimming in a Tipperary Irish river – and now wants a good home. Three-foot long Rodney, a coypu American swamp rat native only to South America, is three times the size of the average Irish rodent though around half the size of the average local politician. He’s now being cared for at the Kildare Animal Foundation Wildlife Unit which told RTé Radio One’s ‘John Murray Show’: “He’s not just an ordinary Irish rat, there’s no fear there’ll be an epidemic”. The search is now on to find a home for the furry creature with a spokesman adding: “He doesn’t have any fear in him so we think he must have been a pet”. He’s not then related to another rat, 24-inch long and native, which came to the attention of Dubliner homeowner Grace Walters last year after she heard loud scratching sounds coming from over her ceiling.   Borderline Dogmeat McDonalds shares sagged after they recently announced a new Plan to replace the general tactic for the last decade of covering the plastic in stuff that looks like wood. But guess what: a leadership reorganisation won’t do it.  Investors (a surrogate for only slightly more interesting customers) believe it’s got too many items on its menu – 40 new ones, and it should use apps more. Sounds a bit like Village.     Straw man Iona-institutionalised Villager is 100% behind Gay Marriage. But jaysus has the media and political coverage been biased towards the Yes vote. Villager particularly recoiled from the piece by the Irish Times’ increasingly unreadable Jennifer O’Connell who joins us photogenically from San Francisco whence she sparks rueful envy in the gut of bemired middle Ireland. “Gay Marriage causes abortion? Now I’ve heard it all”, blasted her headline in what was essentially ‘straw man’ argumentation. Because if the views of the minority of loonies on the Yes side were subjected to analysis in this way liberals would be incandescent. Nobody’s making these arguments Villager murmured heterosexually to himself. Then his attention was drawn to the Iona Institute’s David Quinn who recently made just this connection. He told a room of supporters that “if we lose the [gay marriage referendum] badly, I think they will have an abortion referendum in 2017. If we keep this close, or we manage to win, it’ll frighten them off an abortion referendum for years to come. So I think, actually, this is connected to protecting the 8th amendment of the constitution which is a pro-life amendment”.     Riddle me this, Enda The Greens’ somewhat painful leader in Britain, New Zealander Natalie Bennett, highlights, by contrast, what effective communicators the leaders of Ireland’s Greens were during their last period in the sun. Most famous for having cascaded into a bundle of inarticulate sniffles on the airwaves earlier in the year, Bennett has recently said she is ‘open’ to considering polyamorous marriages. These used to be known as polygamous and were not regarded as progressive – though admittedly the model was patriarchal, and there is now a matriarchal variation. Speaking in a question-and-answer session with PinkNews, Ms Bennett was reacting to a reader who asked: “As someone living with his two boyfriends in a stable long-term relationship, I would like to know what your stance is on polyamory rights. Is there room for Green support on group civil partnerships or marriages?”. Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate Zoe O’Connell recently opened up about living in a polyamorous relationships with her partners. Natalie Bennett’s partner Jim Jepps came under scrutiny earlier

By Michael Smith. I interviewed Catherine Murphy, Independent TD for Kildare North, in a sunny Dáil coffee shop on May 5th. She was accompanied by her advisor Anne Marie McNally. They were both friendly, informed and irreverent. Though she was due on the Ray D’Arcy show Catherine Murphy appeared relaxed. She used the term “we” a lot, rarely “I”. I asked her how she would describe her political philosophy. “I’m in the centre, which has shifted, a social democratic. I believe in a more equal society, good public services. I’m passionate about good-quality institutions. We’ve never been good at institution-building. I’m an admirer of [Aneurin] Bevan [who spearheaded Britain’s post-war National Health  System]. He said: ‘the whole point of power is to give it away’. You’d be picking up bits of Chomsky”. So how important is equality and what does she mean by it? “It’s equality of outcome very definitely. Great levels of inequality preceded all the great crashes. I’m not saying things should be perfectly equal”. I push her as to how much inequality is acceptable and she says that’s a harder question than she can answer. “The idea of bankers not getting out of bed for half a million a year is on the Richter scale end of it. In Switzerland they’d a referendum to ban anyone earning thirteen times anyone else. I’d go lower”. She won’t say how much lower. “It can’t be in the begrudgery area if someone has spent  a lot of money and a long time and become expert. But the returns can’t be so great as to be offensive”. What’s the first thing she’d do if she were Taoiseach? “Who said I wanted to be Taoiseach? I so don’t. My political priorities are widespread. For example, on this island we’ve got to deepen democracy, put institutions in place based on subsidiarity. Regional government is a must”. But national development priorities can’t be scattergun or ‘one for everyone in the audience’. “We need three cities outside, and as a counterbalance to Dublin: Cork, Galway and to some extent Limerick – competing. They need to attain a critical mass for public services and transport etc”. She says she has strong ideas on planning, transport, transparency, institutional reform and technology. Why did she go into politics? “My motivation was to change things. I’d been moaning to the  editor etc. There’s no point moaning unless you’re willing to step up to the plate and do something. The first time I was elected was after the water charges campaign in the early 1980s. It can be both frustrating and rewarding, probably more frustrating.  I can be quite solitary. I like to do my own research before I open my mouth and that can be an asset – but it can also be bad: you can do 95% of the work and someone else gets 70% of the credit.  I’m at my best when I’m angry but containing it”. What does she think of the Labour Party and its performance in government? “I don’t notice them. I wish I did. It looks like a Fine Gael government. A huge disappointment. I was in them [Labour] but it wasn’t a happy experience”. How has she fared in the technical group (she’s its whip)? “We exploit it to the maximum – private members time, committees, speaking time. It critically opens up the diversity in the group. People may have expected more of a coalition but we’re too diverse for that ever to have been possible”. Is she interested in a new political party? “I don’t dismiss that though I value and am comfortable with my independence. I wouldn’t like to be controlled by a press office. The person you elect should be who you see in Parliament. Put it this way I am talking to people, though nothing conclusive. A number of things are happening. What’s happening with  the unions the other day [a Mayday gathering of 200 political, trade-union and community activists organised by the Communications Workers Union in Dublin] is particularly interesting. I was interested in the Podemos guy from Spain there. You have to look at where the people are, though you have to give some leadership within that and have an idea of what you want to achieve. I’ve always seen the positive. I think this is a great country, despite the political and administrative institutions!”. What was the alternative to austerity?  “I’m angry about the debt. Admittedly the tax base collapsed because of the  change in the  take from the building sector. We had to balance the books but we were sold out on the debt. I’m particularly angry about the promissory notes being turned into a sovereign debt and the amount of money thrown at unsecured bondholders. We’re spending the same servicing the national debt as on the education system. We need a debt conference. There are debt problems all over Europe not just in the programme countries. We need to see where we need physical expansion and in particular deal with climate change”. She doesn’t accept that most important reason for the increased debt and tax burden was the collapse in construction-driven taxes, rather than the banking implosions and bailout. “Some of the things we did were stupid. We had cuts instead of reform. We didn’t look at who was leaving the civil service”. She thinks benchmarking when comparisons are made with other countries is good especially with similar European countries but it’s more expensive to deliver services when you’ve a dispersed population. She’s sceptical about its value if the comparison is within Ireland. What are priorities in her constituency? “Housing. We need a rental model that’s attractive to people across the income divide and funds are available for this from the European Investment Bank. Planning. We’ve been quite good in Kildare because some of us have been a thorn in the side. I’m not against development if it can be linked to services and decent public transport, if it can provide local