Ireland Calling
by John SpainRSS 
Recent Posts
- Abortion reform Irish style - Women still have no rights over their own bodies, continue to travel to the UK for procedure
- We’re total abortion hypocrites - proposals for new legislation were laughable
- Catch 22 for Irish abortion law - navigating Ireland’s rigid, Catholic influence legal framework and Savita Halappanavar’s case
- The late Baroness Margaret Thatcher had her good points
- Letters from the tax man - the mounting cost of Ireland's property tax and running the country
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The Queen is coming! She's due within the next year, and already the Sinn Fein boys are working themselves into a lather of outrage.
Saludos amigos! Last weekend I was at a Mexican themed barbeque in Dublin where the hosts were serving cold Cerveza and frijoles refritos (that's beer and refried beans, senor) along with fajitas off the grill, burritos, enchiladas and tacos.
Last week Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen was hit with a deadly double whammy, twin knockout punches that could eventually be killer blows for him.
Last week Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen was hit with a deadly double whammy, twin knockout punches that could eventually be killer blows for him.
The first blow was the publication of the official reports into the causes of the banking crisis here. These separate reports by the new Central Bank governor and by two independent international banking experts concluded that homemade factors, not external events, were the main cause of the meltdown in the Irish banking system.
The hype and hysteria last week surrounding the final days of the journey of the Rachel Corrie, the "Irish" aid ship for Gaza, was extraordinary.
After what had happened a few days earlier to the Turkish aid ship, a confrontation in which nine of those on board had died, there was alarm at all levels about the possibility of a repeat performance by the Israeli special forces.
Thankfully, the journey of the Rachel Corrie ended without anyone getting hurt, and it's worthwhile now looking back at exactly what went on.
When it was first revealed a couple of years ago, like most people here I took the claim that Barack Obama's ancestors could be traced back to the village of Moneygall in Co. Offaly with a grain of salt. Not another American president with roots in an Irish cottage!
But it soon became clear that this was for real. A detailed family tree could be followed, generation by generation, from Obama's mother all the way back to the Kearneys in Moneygall. The births of the same Kearneys who went to America at the end of the 18th century are there in the local church registry books in Moneygall. The link is real and can be traced all the way down to the present day.
