Wall supports Brand Ireland
Following on recent calls by An Taoiseach Brian Cowen and journalist Enda O’Doherty for Irish writers to ‘do the state some service’ (and leaving aside the fact that the first man to use the expression [see footnote] committed suicide immediately afterwards), I want to say: Good Taoiseach (as Joe Higgins used to [...]

Ireland is changing and along with it the many ways oppression including racism manifests in society.  The past few years has seen a marked denial of the very existence of racism with the language of diversity and integration dominating the policy and public discourse.
The only formal structure with an exclusive focus on racism, the National [...]

On the 17th of June last Professor Kathleen Lynch, Professor of Equality Studies at the School of Social Justice at UCD, gave the 2010 TASC Annual Lecture at the Royal Irish Academy. It was called From a Neo-Liberal to an Egalitarian State: Imagining a different Future and it provides not only an excellent analysis of [...]

The most important aspect of the most recent Irish Times poll was not the 32% for Labour, but the combined 45% for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.
Individual polls tell you very little, it’s the overall trend that counts.
Since February 2009 Labour has scored from 20% to 25% in the MRBI polls. Their recent dramatic 10-point [...]

This article is an edited version of a presentation I gave at the “Equality in a time of crisis” conference organised by the Egalitarian World Initiative and the UCD School of Social Justice (May 6 - 7).
View as a PDF (select Save As to download)
Introduction: youthful mistakes
I was asked to talk for this paper about [...]

The arrival of Matthew Elderfield a.k.a. The Financial Regulator a.k.a. The Regulator a.k.a. The Sheriff of Dodge City has been universally heralded by the media and political establishment as the second coming of Christ. Well, the Christ of ledgers, calculators and informal speeches at the Financial Services Ireland Conference anyway.
At a time when public sector workers and government are almost [...]

The recent tragic killing of Toyosi Shittabey behooves us all to critically reflect upon, and engage in national dialogue about, the true scale and nature of racism in Irish society today. The pervasiveness of racism in Irish society is a reality that a number of young people in the Tyrellstown area—where Toyosi was killed—have eloquently [...]

Mary Harney has returned from New Zealand where she evidently gave some thought to coming up with another of her straw-man arguments for facing down criticism of her management of the health service. In relation to the enormous backlog of X-rays requiring diagnosis at Tallaght Hospital, the Minister says that she cannot be responsible for [...]

Okay, let’s keep in mind my caution about the current polls… but the most recent one this weekend from the Sunday Business Post was - despite showing no variation from the previous one, bar a 1% increase for Sinn Féin and a 1% decrease for the Independents, pretty telling in its own way.
Firstly the fact [...]