I admit that my posting regime over the past few weeks has been about as consistent as Bertie Ahern’s explanations about his personal finances. The reason for my most recent radio silence can be attributed to a short holiday en famille on the wind-blasted Clare coast, where I managed to spend an entire week without […]
The differing approaches to major stories taken by RTE and the next largest media organisation in the state, Independent Newspapers, are highlighted in their respective coverage of yesterday’s tragedy, in which a couple in their eighties and their 40-year-old son were found dead in their farmhouse in county Wicklow.RTE seems to expect its audience to […]
It is challenge to the powers of empathy to squeeze out a tear over the fate of Baron Black of Crossharbour. Still, from an Irish judicial perspective, you might wonder whether the prospect of several decades in the clink for ripping off institutional investors and fellow plutocrats is a bit harsh. You would be hard […]
“I like it when they beat up students,” he confessed with a smile. I didn’t go so far but I agreed that in America, France and West Germany they had it too good and it wouldn’t do them any harm to get a bit of a kick up the hole. Who could this charming humanitarian […]
Monica Leech, a PR consultant to a government minister, has unexpectedly lost her libel case against the Irish Independent. The Indo had published a story about what had happened the previous day on RTE radio: a caller introducing himself as “Norman” had stated that Leech was winning public contracts in exchange for performing sexual favours […]
I’m feeling slightly lightheaded. This week I read a column by Kevin “Colonel” Myers that I largely agree with (although his use of the compound noun “Flynn-woman” threatens to undermine his argument with its whiff of blustering misogyny).From the Indo: “For law is not unconditionally binding to the Fianna Fail mind; it is accepted, but […]
Marcin Świetlicki’s second novel, Trzynaście (Thirteen), is a follow up to his first novel, Dwanaście (Twelve), which was a “magical, cult” novel, the blurb tells me. I read Twelve so I suppose that makes me a “follower with exaggerated zeal” of Świetlicki. Or maybe Świetlicki was yanking his publisher’s chain when he wrote the blurb: […]
It’s usually a sign that a subject has reached its sell-by-date when RTE’s current affairs department, as agile as a supertanker executing a U-turn, manages to consider it. In this case, it’s “peak oil” that is the subject of “Future Shock: End of the Oil Age,” presented by the station’s resident scold-in-chief, George Lee. As […]
Some time ago a genius discovered that Republicans don’t watch Michael Moore films and Democrats don’t watch Hannity and Colmes. Lefty talks to lefty, nutcase to nutcase and no one crosses the party lines. There is no real debate. I myself regularly check out Hannity and Colmes, Michelle Malkin, Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter – […]
This weekend’s Gazeta Wyborcza is headlined “You Will Earn More.” The euphoria continues, unblemished by debate, assessment, macroeconomic statistics or rationality in the body of the story. “Składka na ubezpieczenie rentowe” will drop from 6.5% of your gross wage to 3.5%. That’s a fall of nearly a half! The exclamation mark was used by the […]
