Ireland
Why did the next Chinese leader spend three days in Ireland?
The news of a thousand new jobs in Dundalk from Paypal might just have enough people thinking that Ireland is on its way back. The general excitement is not dissimilar to the time when the Bank of Scotland blew into town taking advantage of light touch regulation, and throwing easy credit all over the place. [...] more »
Britain and Ireland: Innocence versus experience?
Fascinating couple of pieces on the major shift in British politics in the last decade, which would seem to be a shift in preference towards young and inexperienced leaders… First this paper from Phillip Cowley of Nottingham University on the rise and rise of career politicians… In a précis on his university’s school of politics [...] more »
“Scotland has been gearing itself up to follow the Irish example….”
Great quote from David Marquand in a powerful round up on Our Kingdom… Here’s his unkindest cut to the Unionist lobby: As Norman Davies shows in his extraordinary Vanished Kingdoms, states, like human beings, are mortal. Some die peacefully; some do so in a welter of blood. But, sooner or later, they all die. The [...] more »
Enforcing moral hazard the Icelandic way (though Ireland may have better longer term prospects)…
There’s a good piece in the San Fran Chronicle which compares Iceland’s handling of the debt crisis favourably with the US’s. It doesn’t say it, but you might also compare it unfavourably with the Eurozone’s mishandling of its crisis too. Iceland’s special prosecutor has said it may indict as many as 90 people, while more [...] more »
A Political History of the Two Irelands competition…
It’s not often we get free things to give away to our readers, but courtesy of Palgrave Macmillan we have a nice paperback copy of Brian M Walker’s excellent history of partition of the island and how identities shifted in both the north east and the south and west: as most of the territory that [...] more »
“Freedom of information it isn’t…”
In the Irish Times, Noel Whelan takes a look at the Irish presidential candidates’ declared expenditure. [So you don't have to? - Ed] Indeed. He starts by comparing that declared expenditure with what they said, during the campaign, they would spend. From the Irish Times article One of those mental notes was made during the [...] more »
Do journalists’ arrests mark the end of the British scandal sheet?
Phillip Stevens nails a few things in the FT. And it picks up some themes from Blair Jenkins point that the transparency principle applies not just to politicians, but journalists too: By the time the myriad investigations end quite a few journalists may have gone to jail. The process will raise justified concerns about press [...] more »
Does History Matter? BBC NI’s Festival of History & Broadcasting
I gave up history at the age of 14. Keeping on three sciences meant that it was a straight choice between geography and history. As a result, my knowledge of history is confined to the legend of Finn McCool, the Roundheads and the Cavaliers, and a link between the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in [...] more »
Euro crisis: “It might be something which would allow Greece also to at least, to some extent, get a new start.”
Have the Greek coalition partners in Government, led by the technocratic former Greek and European central banker, Lucas Papademos, done enough to meet the demands of Germany their eurozone partners? Maybe… and maybe not. As the Guardian’s live-blog noted today Jean-Claude Juncker, who is also prime minister of Luxembourg, says the Eurogroup was still missing information from [...] more »
Republic’s councils: Power without responsibilities?
Here’s one we missed from yesterday. It made the front page in Indo, and concerns the lowest tier of government in the Republic, which are now …relying on overdrafts and bank loans to meet day-to-day expenses, the Irish Independent has learned. This is despite the councils being ordered to reduce their costs and borrowings three [...] more »
Squirrels wanted, dead or alive?
Not an update on the Prehen story, but confirmation of just how cavalier that decision to cut into a red squirrel habitat may be: According to the mammal ecology group at NUI Galway, which is conducting the study, the distribution of grey squirrels has expanded in all directions except westwards, where the Shannon appears to [...] more »
Time for Ireland to align with London rather than Boston or Berlin?
It’s a brave taoiseach that would abandon years of coaxing investment from the US, to begin to cultivate a closer relationship with the British. You might say that one of the critical differences between Greece and Ireland is that Ireland’s export industries(seeded with US capital) have far outperformed its indigenous industries. Nonetheless, Paul Allen argues [...] more »
Case for unification: “I sense that republicans don’t actually know the answer themselves”
On the subject of polls, I’d blogged Owen Paterson’s thoughts before Alex Kane’s column came online: My own view is that this is the perfect time for a referendum. Bring it on, in fact! In 1973 we never got the chance to have a proper debate about the realities, consequences and ramifications of Irish unity. [...] more »
Euro Crisis: Cold morning after a hot night in Athens…
Twitter was burning with indignation last night (as it often is) that the MSM did not throw any attention on the crisis in Athens as the Greek Parliament acted upon the German ultimatum to impose an austerity package that may see the new government washed away in the upcoming general election in April. I suppose [...] more »
Irish least romantic about Valentines day…
Erm, it seems the Irish spend least on their, erm, breaks… Damn, you mean we have to take breaks now? Anyone else not hear about these new rules? Irish couples spend just €160 and UK couples only £145 (€175) compared with the Spanish figure of €261. The French (€250), Italians (€210) and Germans (€180) also [...] more »
Economic (Ireland’s or anyone else’s) sovereignty has not existed since Bretton Woods
Eamonn has a whole range if great writers guesting at his blog these days. Among them Maurice Hayes, who makes some fundamental points about Irish politics and the strange relationship that exists between the legislature and the sovereign voice (aka, those bloody referendums): It is not being less democratic than advocates for a referendum to [...] more »
Owen Paterson: No popular demand for a border poll…
Owen Paterson, it seems, is not exactly inundated with letters, phone calls and emails looking for a border poll of the type Martin McGuinness was musing on a few weeks back… Last year, 73 per cent of respondents to an opinion poll in Northern Ireland said they wanted the region to remain a part of [...] more »
Sinn Fein upgrading Southern economic policies?
According to the Sindo… The party spokesman on European affairs Padraig Mac Loughlainn told the Sunday Independent that it was important to speak to such people when formulating credible economic policies. He said that in conjunction with the party’s two in-house economic advisers — Joanne Spain and Eoin O Broin — the party had sought [...] more »
Boomers’ memories of the Great
Ian Jack has a fine nostalgia piece in the Guardian – no, better than that, a piece about the collective memory of passing generations – linking the not altogether compatible elements of the Dickens bicentenary to the monarchy. The link he made was not with Empire or English images of national virtue so often disputed [...] more »
Six Nations: Paris in the Spring – A day for heroes…or a cold night in hell?
Well, late winter really but that ain’t quite got it..from the Irish Times – it’s minus nine degrees: At least les bleus won’t be playing with the sun on their backs in springtime. Otherwise, this one doesn’t look too promising. Not only do France have a hex on Ireland like no one else, nowhere does [...] more »
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Books
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Ian O’Riordan’s Miles to Run: An invitation to madness?
Ireland is in the middle of a boom – a running boom. Chances are, even if you have never run a step yourself (apart from some painful P.E. classes many moons ago), someone you know has taken up running over the last little while. Road races in Northern Ireland and in the Republic have seen [...] read our review »
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The Written World
Here’s something to keep you occupied over the weekend. [Will there be a quiz? - Ed] Possibly… The BBC magazine has an short and interesting, but un-embeddable, audio slide-show of Melvyn Bragg’s Radio 4 five-parter, In Our Time: The Written World. The British Library has more online information about the texts and technology featured in each [...] read our review » -
Spare us a phoney row about racism, we’ve got enough on
A silly media row about racism just had to figure in the riots’ post mortem. Was the Tudor history expert David Starkey racist on Newsnight when he said: The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion. And black and white, boy and girl, operate in [...] read our review »
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