Ireland's political and cultural magazine
By Miriam Cotton. “I’m not a pure capitalist”. “if Brian Lenihan lets the guarantee lapse after two years, which it is legally supposed to, then it has worked completely” I recently spoke to David McWilliams in his Volvo Estate in a church car-park in Dalkey. In case that seems intriguing, the purpose of our meeting […]
Micheál Martin is a non-ideological constitutional republican who derides equality of outcome and believes in equality of opportunity How would you describe your political philosophy? I’m a constitutional republican and believe strongly that economic growth and social progress are closely linked. I believe the old left/right ideological divide has no real relevance for the 21st […]
“None of us know what to do” Fintan O’Toole has a brilliant agenda but doesn’t know how to implement it Michael Smith interviews Fintan O’Toole First of all, Fintan O’Toole is very charming. He’s one of those people, like one of his Nemeses, Bertie Ahern, you think you know even if you’ve never met him. […]
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Fr Chesney defamed Contrary to lazy reports, the NI Ombudsman’s report on the 1972 ‘bloody Monday’ bombings in Claudy did not damn local priest, Fr James Chesney by Anton McCabe “Media confusion seems to have begun because the press statement from the Ombudsman’s office had a significantly different emphasis to the report” Media coverage of […]
Despite Angela Kerins’ claims, targets have not been achieved. Michael Smith Public-sector cutbacks and unprecedented levels of unemployment are reversing hard-won gains on the path to equality for whole swathes of society. In July 2009, the Equality Authority launched its Annual Report 2009. It is telling that Angela Kerins, chairperson of the Authority, chose to […]
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Some Unions will mobilise on 23 October against 19% UK block-grant reduction.b by Anton McCabe A Comprehensive Spending Review for the North is due for delivery on 20 October. This will announce major cuts, probably of Southern levels. This will have social implications, but also have political ramifications. So far this year, reductions of almost […]
Sinn Féin is now, by a short head, the North’s largest party with 25.5% of the vote. The reduction in its total vote from 174,530 to 171,942 since the 2005 General election can be attributed to its withdrawing from South Belfast, where it had taken 2,882 five years ago. Since then, the Sinn Féin leadership […]