No one needs reminding that as we face into the New Year there is massive economic uncertainty. Layoffs are already widespread but by the springtime we could be looking at a minor tsunami in that respect, at least that’s the implication behind some of the commentaries. (more…)
Am I the only one who finds that TV ad on drink-driving both disturbing and possibly counter-productive? Naturally I wholeheartedly applaud anything that reduces the carnage on our roads, but is this the way to go about it? (more…)
Two very different perspectives on Conor Cruise O’Brien, who died last week. Niall Meehan provides a highly-critical analysis. Michael McDowell (not the former minister and PD leader) is much more sympathetic. (more…)
It’s difficult not to see the funny side of the incident where the “journalist” threw a shoe at President Bush in Baghdad ( see also previous blog on the subject) and I have to share this piece of badinage with you. It was sent to me unofficially by an apparatchik in our own current regime who was taking a break from, er, saving the country. (more…)
Just when it seemed things could hardly get any worse, it is revealed that the head of Anglo Irish Bank has been playing hide and seek with major loans he had taken out from his own institution. (more…)
If you read only one column this weekend, read Paul Krugman’s column about the lessons from the Bernard Madoff fraud in Friday’s New York Times. (Here’s the link)
Madoff was a bastion of the New York financial world. Krugman notes that he a “brilliant investor (or so almost everyone thought), philanthropist, pillar of the community”. (more…)
Conor Cruise O’Brien had a very fine mind. He wrote like an angel. He was courageous and uncompromising in argument. He was right about some things and wrong about others but his passing last night means a light has gone out all over the island.
Conor Cruise O’Brien (1917-2008)
There is a particularly distressing court report in today’s Irish Times. The case is harrowing but I want to confine my remarks to one aspect of it. I wish only to refer to a phrase used by defence counsel in the course of the proceedings. (more…)
News of the first face transplant is a tremendously exciting development in medical science. It gives hope to many people who have had to live with disfigurement due to injuries, severe birthmarks or whatever. Yet one cannot help wondering when it will be abused for vain cosmetic purposes: “I’m bored with my face, give me that Hollywood actress look.”
I have seen politicians dodging questions at press conferences but this is my first time to see one dodging shoes. Bush’s reflexes are quite impressive, it must be said. It would be equally interesting to see what is happening to the TV journo as he lies on the floor. Listen to the screams. I wouldn’t want to be in his “shoes” right now.
So we’re officially on the road to a second Lisbon referendum. It’s been the worst-kept secret in Irish politics since, well, the counting of the votes last June. The best chance this time around is that the recession will, let’s not shilly-shally here, frighten people into voting Yes. (more…)
For confirmation on the high success rate of my predictions, see past blogs passim (I jest!).
However, I feel that the referendum late next year will be passed but very narrowly, thanks to a very long sickly sincere I-feel-you-pain campaign conducted by the Yes side.
I also predict that the more Declan Ganley is knocked and mocked the more his legend will grow. He is NOT the de facto leader of the No campaign. But he will become just that, unless the media stop building him up.
Bless me for I have sinned. It’s been five weeks since my last public confession. My excuses. Holidays. My sins. Venial. A bit of laziness. Oh, and blogger’s block (if that condition did not exist before, it does now). (more…)
The country went to bed last night and woke up this morning, to a background of news reports that our rashers and sausages were a potential danger to health and well-being. Contaminated meal had been fed to pigs as long ago as September 1st and now we should be throwing out any pork and pork by-products as a precaution. (more…)
Giving a talk to a class of journalism students yesterday brought home to me the difficulties facing young people starting out on a career in the present economic climate. (more…)
The row between the teachers’ unions and Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe has overshadowed the issue of third-level college fees. These were removed by the Rainbow Coalition in 1996 when Labour’s Niamh Bhreathnach had that portfolio. (more…)
Who would want to be Taoiseach at this time?There have always been doubts as to whether Brian Cowen really wanted the job. Given the state of the economy, he must be having the occasional doubt himself. (more…)
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