Sep 19
An individual is allowed to make a donation of up to €6348.69 to a political party in any given year, according to the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO). In addition, the individual may donate up to €2539.48 to an individual member of the party; a TD or senator or councillor, or someone who is …
Sep 18
Nine months ago, I wrote a story about Sinn Féin and the average wage. In brief, Sinn Féin say their TDs and senators are paid only the average wage, and hand over the rest to the party. Which is fine, except for a few things. One, there are legal limits on how much can be …
Jun 27
“Politics with Hidden Bases” looked at Irish TDs, and found Fianna Fáil TDs are more likely than average to have Gaelic surnames, while Fine Gael have an above-average number of Old English surnames. The explanation offered is that in patriarchal households, so you vote like your Da, not your Ma, and the Gaels are rebels. …
Nov 19
About a week ago, comedian Morgan C Jones tweeted his intention to stand outside Leinster House next Thursday at midday. He didn’t care if it ended up as a one man, silent protest, he just felt the need to do something. He invited others to come along if they shared his feelings. It was one …
Nov 12
I’ve been thinking for the last couple of days about whether I should blog on the PWC email controversy. Or rather, about media coverage of the story, in particular the decision by some Irish newspapers and websites to publish the photographs of the women concerned. I considered a trawl through Facebook and LinkedIn, to find …
Oct 08
The Irish Independent today carries the story of the 10.10.10 virus. “Fears that a computer virus could be unleased (sic!) on October 10 – 10.10.10 – are circulating on the internet, with experts warning users to be careful”, the newspaper reports with breathless urgency. (10.10.10 has a particular significance to many in geekdom, since in …
Sep 15
Fianna Fáil is in a spin about twitter. Nothing wrong with that, all political parties spin. You might as well criticise a dog for barking. The Fianna Fáil spin is that the criticism of the taoiseach’s performance on Morning Ireland is a storm in a pint glass, all the fault of Simon Coveney and Fine …
Sep 11
There was a time when book burning mattered. Once upon a time, religions enforced dictates by burning books containing the wrong opinions. To be orthodox was, literally, to hold the right opinion. And just in case that didn’t work, heretics were burned at the stake for good measure. At the end of the medieval era, …
May 09
Linux is hard. I know this is true, because I’ve been told it so many times. Never mind that I’ve been using it quite happily for the past few years, it’s hard. Sometimes, I even have to type something using the dreaded Command Line interface. Never mind that all the programmes I need are stored …
Apr 18
Sometimes, the internet intrudes on the “real world”. And sometimes, the real world intrudes on cyberspace. The Crystal Swing phenomenon began when they came to the attention of ‘pantibliss’, the blog account of Pantibar, a Dublin gay bar. [Pantibliss in turn gives the credit to Robert Popper]. From there, word spread across twitter, and the …