Bertie Ahern’s socialist conversion occurred around the same time he took up reading Robert Putnam.[1] Putnam was famous for writing Bowling Alone, an appraisal of the erosion of personal connections in modern society. So inspired was Ahern, that he set up the Taskforce on Active Citizenship. Since they reported in 2007, little appears to have [...]

There’s a long and no doubt bitter election campaign still ahead before we can start talking about “President Obama”. But sober observers of the US political scene are confident enough to predict that the first African-American to get this close to the White House is going to win - and win big.
Immanuel Wallerstein argued recently [...]

The convenient green honeymoon.
With everyone from David Cameron to Enda Kenny wearing their green hearts on their sleeves it’s easy to think that climate change is beyond politics. In this post Inconvenient Truth world, we’re all signed up members of the must-do-something-about-climate-change brigade. We just have to switch to energy efficient light bulbs, buy [...]

There is plenty in the news today about Jim Flavin’s decision to step down as executive chairman of DCC, on the foot of :
“a new legal manoeuvre against the company by the official enforcer of corporate law, Paul Appleby, who wants the High Court to appoint inspectors to investigate how it sold a major stake [...]

The first decade of the millennium has seen an intense focus on the politics of the Middle East. Not that the region was considered insignificant at any time since the Second World War. But a series of events that include the 9/11 attacks, the second intifada, America’s war in Iraq and the bloody confrontation between [...]

Last week, Cork man Trevor Casey was sentenced to thirteen years in prison for the rape and sexual assault of two teenage girls. During sentencing, the judge referred to a letter from Labour Deputy Kathleen Lynch indicating that Mr. Casey was from “a good family”. On Sunday, Deputy Lynch issued a statement accepting [...]

“We sought workers, and in their stead came people”. That remark – now absorbed into German political discourse – is attributed to former German President Gustav Heinemann in the 1960s, speaking at a time when Germany was addressing the consequences of large-scale Turkish immigration.
Fast forward 40 years to the German elections in 2002: media analysts [...]