Gerard Cunningham writes 200 Words at a time. Sometimes serious, sometimes whimsical, whatever is going on around the place.
Jan 21
The average industrial wage is a moveable feast. Last year David Cullinane told me he took home €530 a week. Pearse Doherty takes home €540 a week at present. That’s the thing with averages. They change over time. How Sinn Féin managed a wage increase when incomes are falling is a question for another day. …
Jan 20
Sitting in my inbox for a while now has been a letter from SIPO, along with various records of politicians’ expenses, all revolving around the issue of Sinn Fein and the “average industrial wage”. On Friday, Pearse Doherty published a set of accounts on the Donegal Daily website, which makes it time to revisit the …
Jan 17
Fine Gael senator Catherine Noone writes about a phone poll of local councillors attitudes: “Two-thirds of Councillors from the two Government parties would support changes to the Croke Park Agreement, according to this survey carried out by my office. A total of 529 City and County Councillors responded to the phone poll, with 56% of …
Jan 08
Last week, the Sunday Independent front page carried a Ryanair story. Michael O’Leary addressed a conference on innovation, the newspaper reported, where he outlined how the European Commission invited him to Brussels, but refused to pay for his flight because it was booked through Ryanair. And he said he was told “there is a ban …
Dec 07
Kieran Allen. Michael Clifford. Karl Deeter. John Drennan. Diarmuid Ferriter. Fergus Finlay. Maureen Gaffney. Constantin Gurgdiev. Eoghan Harris. Eddie Hobbs. Gemma Hussey. Pat Leahy. Tina Leonard. Diarmaid McDermott. Sean McDonagh. Michael McDowell. Harry McGee. Tom McGurk. Joseph O’Connor. Mary-Louise O’Donnell. Niall O’Dowd. Emer O’Kelly. Olivia O’Leary. Michael O’Regan. Mary O’Rourke. Fintan O’Toole. Jim Power. Terry …
Dec 04
Hang around the courts for a while, as many journalists do, and you begin to notice some odd patterns. Consider these snippets from a google search of reports on drugs convictions, for example: “16.43 grammes of cocaine valued at €1150″ “a kilogram of cocaine worth € 70000″ “962 grammes of cocaine worth €67340″ “932 grammes …
Nov 27
At a crucial point in V for Vendetta, as the populace, wearing now-iconic Guy masks, march on Parliament, a stand-off develops between citizens and soldiers. It is resolved when the soldiers refuse to fire. It’s not the first time I’ve seen the meme. It also occurs in the pre-911 film The Siege, where crazed general …
Nov 15
The director general of the statutory body charged with funding basic science research has expressed his concern at proposals to abolish funding for postgraduate students. Dr Graham Love was speaking at the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Summit in Athlone, an annual event bringing together researchers funded by the body to carry out basic scientific research …
Nov 12
Spoof accounts are nothing new on twitter. From @OsamaBinLaden and @Jesus to the cast of Spooks, the spoof account is a part of the experience. Ireland is no exception, as accounts like @CardinalBrady or @Madam_Editor show. Less common than the “spoof” is the “fake”. While the spoof is clearly a take-off, fakes look and feel …
Nov 02
Imagine a politician released research proving their arguments on a point of public controversy. Imagine every journalist in Ireland knew the research was faulty. Let’s go further. Imagine the paper looked like a work of fiction, and it appeared the academics who carried out the research did not exist. There’s be uproar, right? Pat Kenny …