This week, this blog quietly marked it’s first anniversary. The first post here appeared on 27 May last year, two hundred words on an item covering the wearing of the hijab, religious freedom and tolerance. I have no idea how many hits that post garnered, I didn’t bother tracking hits to the blog until a… Continue reading »
May
29
May
29
A Picture Is Worth…?
Local election candidate Emma Kiernan broke out of the local media to gain (perhaps fleeting) national fame this week, thanks to the interweb. Kiernan, a Fine Gael candidate running for a spot on Newbridge town council, is young, attractive, and like many of her friends, she has a facebook profile. Like everyone else on Facebook,… Continue reading »
May
27
Full Disclosure
The redress board worked upstairs, and I worked downstairs at the tribunal. Sometimes, I’d meet a survivor as I took a cigarette break. They’d tell me what was going on upstairs was unbelievable. I’d tell them that as much as I’d love to hear it, I was a journalist, and forbidden by law from talking… Continue reading »
May
26
May
25
Normal Service Will Resume…
… as soon as I can write without getting angry about the Ryan report.
May
21
What Dan Boyle really meant in Tralee
Dan Boyle went down to Tralee last week to say ‘something controversial’. Boyle must have been aware of poll findings, and told his Kerry audience it was time to review the programme for government. ‘Most of the Green Party elements of it have now been implemented,’ Boyle said. ‘It is a document that is in… Continue reading »
May
20
Does Dermot Ahern Read Blogs?
Does Dermot Ahern read this blog? On May Day, I wrote here that the justice minister’s proposal to create a criminal offence of blasphemous libel with a fine of up to €100000 was ‘a return to the brilliance that gave us revenue generating innovations like duty free shopping, DIRT tax, the airport departure tax.’ ‘We… Continue reading »
May
19
Cleaned Out
A circuit court judge slashed a littering fine against a widow who left tin cans in a bag at a recycling bank because it was already full to the brim. ‘I thought I was doing the right thing by recycling at this site,’ the woman told the Circuit Court in Portlaoise today. She said she… Continue reading »
May
18
Euorvoting
Declan Ganley must be wondering where it all went wrong. A year ago, Libertas seemed unstoppable. But it’s a party in name only, without grassroots membership, unable even to supply a copy of its constitution (I know, I asked). Libertas is in trouble. Caroline Simons is statistically invisible in Dublin, Ray O’Malley barely registers in… Continue reading »
May
15
Leading the Charge
If I was Enda Kenny, I’d be worried. He rescued his party from political oblivion in 2002, bringing them back from 31 to 51 seats in 2007. Thanks in part to Biffo’s cluelessness, he now finds himself at the head of a party with 38% support in the latest poll, about to deliver a historic… Continue reading »