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 …
Sep
30
Brian Lenihan said the bank guarantee scheme was “a necessary first step” and “the cheapest bailout in the world so far” compared with bank rescues where “billions and billions of taxpayers’ money are being poured into financial institutions”. “It allows …
May
01
Discworld is a strange place, Lord of the Rings meets Monty Python. Even so, some things look familiar: “The press waited. It looked, now, like a great big beast. Soon he’d throw a lot of words into it. And in …
Mar
26
Gardai question artist under caution: The Irish Times. Police quiz man over naked images of Irish PM in national gallery: The Belfast Telegraph. Cowen artist ‘could be charged’: BBC News. Artist Conor Casby faces jail after Brian Cowen made unwitting …
Mar
25
‘The visit by a Garda detective today to the offices of Today FM radio station, demanding that staff from the Ray Darcy Show hand over information they might have had about the artist of these pieces was astounding,’ Labour party …
Mar
25
FG Justice Spokesperson Charlie Flanagan criticised the decision by Gardaí to demand emails relating to the artist who painted nude portraits of Brian Cowen hung in two Dublin galleries. ‘At a time when the majority of gangland murders remain unsolved, …
Mar
25
Yesterday, I wrote about RTÉ removing a film report on caricatures of Brian Cowen smuggled into two Dublin galleries. [Kudos at this point to Maman Poulet, who's blog tipped me off to the story.] Since them, things have grown more …
Mar
24
You can tell a lot about the powerful by how they react to satire. In Ireland, the powerful tend to react badly. Older politicians still smart at the memory of Hall’s Pictorial Weekly, and can barely bring themselves to smile …
Jun
04
I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t forget if I lodged £13,000 in cash sterling to my personal bank account, including the result of a successful bet on the gee-gees. It’s the kind of thing that would stick in …