DCTV programme on the seminal Irish feminist journal, Banshee, which was produced by Irish Women United in the 1970s.
Contributions from Anne Speed, who was a member of Irish Women United, and from Clare Butler and Angela Coraccio of RAG (Revolutionary Anarchafeminist Group). I give some historical background. The programme was recorded in February of [...]

Despite the popular perception of Ireland as a closed, backward economy until the arrival of Whittaker and his economic program, the State had always had a relatively open economy. Even in the 1950s, the value of its imports and exports was between between 66 and 70 per cent of GDP. The problem was the nature [...]

This is an article I’ve just come across as part of the chapter on industry and natural resources. I think it’s a good companion piece to the Dublin Shell To Sea campaign’s Someday Independent.
The article’s below the fold as it’s a bit long. It dates from 6 February 1974. The more things change, the more [...]

A small follow on from Michael Taft’s post, about the well-known exports tax scam known as the “Double-Irish”.
The story of the tax scam has gone around the world and some at this stage, but I’ve yet to see or hear of it on Irish TV or radio, or in the print media.
Following on from my [...]

Much of the damage to the economy, and the consequential dramatic rise in unemployment was avoidable. If fiscal policy had been used to reduce demand rather than to exacerbate the inflationary pressures it could have defused the property bubble well before it became dangerous. This would have required budgetary policy to have targeted in increasing [...]

Irish housing statistics are notoriously vague. There is no accounting system for new housing units - rather, the CSO has to rely on figures from the ESB with regard to new connections, and from that it extrapolates the amount of new units.
The CSO’s figures for the amount of mortgages sold is also somewhat oblique, as [...]

I gave up on Irish journalism about 18 months ago, just after the 2008 bank guarantee scheme and the December budget of that year. And while this has done my blood pressure no end of good - it’s not the news that drives me mad, it’s the inane analysis - it also means that I [...]

That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain.
The happy highways where I went
and cannot come again.
I was brought up in the Seventies. Strong colours and oversized jumpers. These are my memories. The boundaries of my world were the Harmonstown road to the Santry river, the shops on Edenmore park, the old dump [...]

This is just a quick response to the latest truism that wage inflation undermined the Irish economy.
Basically, what we see in Ireland over thirty years is that the average industrial wage and inflation oscillate around each other quite closely. As inflation drops/rises, wages follow, and vice-versa.

What follows deals almost entirely with internal divisions within Cork republicanism and is not meant as a comprehensive outline of republican and left-wing activities in the city during the period covered. Moreover, these notes were put together following specific queries from historical researchers and, hence, the focus at times is on matters that they raised.’ [...]