The myth of the immigrant exodus from Ireland | Ireland after NAMA
Reports on the exodus of recent immigrants from Ireland serve an important political purpose. The Irish government has long acted under the illusion of temporary immigrants, motivated solely by economic considerations. When work dries up, the assumption is that these economic migrants will leave [...]

Geoffrey O’Brien | The Persistent Pleasures of Eric Rohmer | The New York Review of Books Blog
I think it will become clear that Rohmer was one of a handful of really great filmmakers of the last half-century. I can’t think of a greater. His movies will be seen as aspects of a single enterprise in [...]

Full text of Lenihan statement on banks - The Irish Times - Tue, Jan 19, 2010
There has been some reference to the Dirt Inquiry as a possible model for the inquiry into the financial crisis. But the fact is that the investigative work in that inquiry was done by the C&AG. An Oireachtas Committee cannot [...]

As noted on Cedar Lounge Revolution, a stunning story about how big tabacco manufacturers used a front organisation to lobby intensively to shape EU policy making.
One of the biggest tobacco manufacturers in the world led a group of chemical, food, oil, pharmaceutical and other firms in a successful long-term lobbying strategy to shape European Union [...]

Michael Burke | Who Benefits from Current Government Policy
According to Sean Quinn of the Quinn Group and Jim O’Hara of Intel, the most significant employers in the country, nothing is being done to prevent prolonged unemployment and mass emigration – clearly a situation that they consider needs to be avoided. So who is current government [...]

YouTube movies: the diamonds among the debris | Joe Queenan | Film | The Guardian
Stumbling upon a jewel such as A Working Mom amid so much flotsam and jetsam drove home the point that the internet's most enticing feature may be its randomness. Stupidity comes at you from every direction. Vulgarity, too. And fascism. But [...]

US Policy in Haiti Over Decades “Lays the Foundation for Why Impact of Natural Disaster Is So Severe”
Democracy Now discuss the situation in Haiti following Tuesday’s massive earthquake, as well as the history of Haiti, with two guests who have spent a lot of time there: Bill Quigley, the legal director at the Center for [...]

Howard Zinn | Three Holy Wars
On May 2nd last year Howard Zinn delivered a speech as part of the 100th Anniversary of the Progressive Magazine. It’s one that he has been delivering all over the US since, most recently in Boston University last November and filmed by Democracy Now. Below is the original speech presented [...]

BBC - Adam Curtis Blog: YEMEN - THE RETURN OF OLD GHOSTS
Adam Curtis, the BBC documentary film maker responsible for The Century of Self & The Mayfair Set is writing in his blog about Yemen in the wake of the Underpants bomber story. As he points out in this piece, much of what is happening [...]