Friday, Nov 21st 2008
The public reaction of profound sympathy and outrage at the killing of Shane Geoghegan, by a killer or killers involved in a bloody feud between drug-dealing gangs in Limerick, is totally justified. Shane Geoghegan was an innocent bystander mistaken for the true target - a member of one of the rival Limerick drug gangs. Shane [...]
Do the findings of the TASC survey, The Solidarity Factor - Public Perceptions of Unequal Ireland, published this week, represent a paradigm shift to the left among Irish adults, particularly among wealthier people?
According to the survey of 1000 adults interviewed in April this year, 70% believe wealth distribution in Ireland is unfair and 80% are [...]
It is not the poverty
Of soil in Leitrim that makes me raise my hat
To fools with fifty pounds in a paper bank” (Lough Derg, Kavanagh)
A friend of mine is fond of saying, “he who tires of Bray, tires of life”. And there’s more than a line of truth in that one. As for myself, today [...]
Just when you despair of sensible commentary in our media, along comes someone like Carl O’Brien, Social Affairs Correspondent of the Irish Times. Writing today, he puts the educational challenges facing society into context - and not a very hopeful one considering the level of political debate surrounding the tuition fee controversy. [...]
The rain conjures up many things for people: depression, wet clothes and dreams of a sunny Mediterranean village with cheap wine and grilled prawns. I share in that but there are a few more inter-related things I’d like to raise: wild-eyed environmentalists, greedy public sector workers and falling profits for insurance companies.
I live in a [...]
The bloggers over at Dublin Opinion are forever uncovering gems. Their latest little dig, courtesy of Conor, brings us ‘Charley’s March of Time’- an animated promotional film produced by the British Labour Government to explain the introduction of social (or national) insurance back in 1948. This was the foundation of the modern [...]
Ah, the Sabbath and one is put in mind of Iris Robinson’s insistence that Governments must pursue God’s law. Now I don’t pretend to know more than the next congregant but I do have a particular background, having been engaged with American southern Christian fundamentalism in my early years. Yes, I learned the ‘good book’ [...]
Prohibition of drugs has not only failed in its own terms - it has actually been counterproductive, criminalising large sections of disadvantaged communities while making it more difficult to successfully implement harm reduction measures. At the same time, prohibition ensures continued revenues for the criminal gangs involved in the drugs trade. These are [...]