"Guns & Roses" - How left wing coalition might be Ireland's Labour Party's only hope (IrishCentral)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 05:31:00 PST

At this stage, there seems to be only one option, one that isn't all that palatable to some, but it's not like Labour have a choice: alliance with Sinn Fein. It won't be easy for the ex-Stickie dominated Labour to countenance a move jokingly referred to as a "Guns & Roses" coalition, but ultimately what choice do they have? The long wished for unification of the left in Irish politics should and could have happened a few times over in the last two decades, but for Labour to maintain any relevance in the next decade and beyond, they need to become a senior partner in a cogent force advocating genuine social democratic principles. Once the old embarrassments of the Sinn Fein parliamentary party finally stand down, and it's only a matter of time before they do, the only obstacle remaining will be outright snobbery. But if Labour can't detach themselves from their death grasp with Fine Gael for the "politically naive" or "economically illiterate" Sinn Fein, then pride will surely come before a very large fall.

Home thoughts from abroad can cause serious January blues - New year blues for immigrants leaving their families again (IrishCentral)

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 05:30:54 PST

2012 a tale of two Northern Irelands - from the celebrations of the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympics to the violent Union flag protests (IrishCentral)

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 05:00:16 PST

In times past, such altercations and conflagrations such as this would carry with it a certain degree of community justification, as ammunition in an eternal rally of "Whatabouttery". But in today's Northern Ireland at least the daft actions of the 1% are ridiculed by the rest of us. All progress, so it's said, depends on the unreasonable man.Northern Ireland has made great progress in this last year, sportingly,civically, commemoratively, things we can be proud of and build on for 2013. It's important we don't let the unreasonable flag-beaters undo it all.

The Irish langauge, the X-Case and youth voices heard: Being Young And Irish Seminar concludes (IrishCentral)

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 03:31:09 PST

Belfast's Marie Stopes clinic -- the last thing vulnerable women need is a culture war over abortion (IrishCentral)

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 05:30:19 PDT

But try telling that to those who proclaim to be pro-life but never say a word about a child’s welfare post-womb, picket services for vulnerable women and throw words like “murder” around while they’re doing it. It never fails to amaze that for people who seem to care so deeply about the life of the unborn, they can be so callous in their treatment of actual human beings.

President Higgins' last big push to hear the voice of the diaspora - Seeking a new vision of Ireland (IrishCentral)

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 10:32:35 PDT

Being Young And Irish - what are Ireland's young people saying about their country? (IrishCentral)

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 06:32:26 PDT

You never know where it might lead.

Looking to 2016 - future candidates for Presidents of the United States (IrishCentral)

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 07:17:07 PDT

But 2016 is miles away, and plenty of time for someone else to surge through. Or, more likely, for one of the aforementioned front runners to slip up.

The trampling of women's rights - Pussy Riots imprisonment, Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" comments, and abortion legislation in Ireland (IrishCentral)

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 05:01:57 PDT

Being Young And Irish - taking care of the Irish Diaspora around the world (IrishCentral)

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 07:01:46 PDT

Being Young and Irish - Our disappointed generation should learn from past mistakes and make Irish education something to be proud of (IrishCentral)

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 07:16:36 PDT

Now more than ever, Ireland needs people of skill, talent and imagination to speak up and share the ideas that will shape and influence the way we think, act and work well into the future. We owe it to ourselves and to generations ahead to build an education system that helps encourage that, and all the incredible things borne of such a system. Ours is a generation that faces disappointment regularly, but we have to use that disappointment to strive to do better for ourselves and the young people that come after us. Ireland needs to learn from it’s mistakes, and then become a better teacher.

Being Young and Irish - President Higgins wants to know your vision for Ireland's future - VIDEO (IrishCentral)

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 05:31:27 PDT

Support rallies for Sean Quinn is everything that's wrong with Ireland -- we're addicted to local sugar daddies (IrishCentral)

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 04:31:21 PDT

How the IMF are killing the Irish patient -- more austerity cuts are the wrong diagnosis for ailing Irish economy (IrishCentral)

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 03:46:15 PDT

Beauty pageants for children in Ireland - Maybe one Americanism too far (IrishCentral)

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 05:01:02 PDT

As the old saying goes, when the US sneezes, the other side of Atlantic catches cold. And while we have benefited immensely from certain elements of American culture being introduced over here – rib joints, Dr Pepper, Neil Patrick Harris – there are a few things we could be doing with not traveling over. Child pageants, for example.

Healthcare, gay marriage and the right side of history - dealing with our modern pressing social issues (IrishCentral)

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 06:16:27 PDT

Sometimes, it seems that imagination is a slave of modernity. You can look around you and see the swirl of technological gadgets that assist your living and generally consider the relative ease with which you live and think to yourself: how can we possibly top this? Are there any quantum leaps left? What possible thing could our kids complain in a “back in our day” manner to our grandkids?

The meaning of pro-life abortion argument in Ireland -- what happens once these children are born (IrishCentral)

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 05:00:37 PDT

Time for a new Munro Doctrine for the press: don't be a git like Obama's Irish heckler (IrishCentral)

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 05:45:32 PDT

Starbucks Ireland macchi-atone for their "British" sins, but who really cares? (IrishCentral)

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 06:01:53 PDT

Maybe it’s because summer is closing in, but this week we may have already got the silliest story of the season.

On Tuesday, Starbucks, the most famous thing to take its name from a Herman Melville book now that Moby doesn’t seem to be making records anymore, launched a UK marketing campaign to dovetail nicely with all that Jubilee business. Except, they made a now infamous geography malfunction. Now, social network marketing campaigns can be a difficult needle to thread at the best of times, but whenever you send out a tweet asking what makes proud to be British from your Irish account, you’re just asking for a hiding.

Ireland Government's women trouble - why we badly need new gender quota (IrishCentral)

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 05:32:07 PDT

The Irish-American Presidents visits to Ireland - from John F Kennedy to Barack Obama (IrishCentral)

Sat, 26 May 2012 06:46:06 PDT

This week in County Offaly they celebrated the one year anniversary of President Obama coming to town by opening his ancestral home in Moneygall. There in attendance were the US Embassy’s director of communications, Barack’s long-lost cousin Henry Healy and Canon Stephen Neill (Trading – quite successfully - as “Paddy Anglican” on Twitter) to mark the event.

It might be seen by some as a tenuous attempt at notoriety on the back of the most powerful person in the world, but Moneygall is right to take its place among the surprisingly plentiful locations all round the island to which The 44 can trace their ancestors.

Irish sporting hero James McClean and football's culture war (IrishCentral)

Fri, 18 May 2012 06:00:35 PDT

Get them while they're young - Catholic Church are experts at recruitment (IrishCentral)

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 06:00:29 PDT

That way, by the time they come to vote at 16 they'll not only be ready, they'll be able and willing too.

Che-nge the record, it's just a statue (IrishCentral)

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 06:00:17 PDT

Every so often you see a story and think “How the hell is this still a thing?” The furore around Galway’s proposed Che Guevara statue is one such story.

An Irishman's guide to celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Ireland (IrishCentral)

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 08:15:15 PDT

If you decide not to go down the drink yourself into a Daily Mail-outraging stupor on St Patrick’s Day, you can always go home, perhaps with a takeaway, and watch a good oul Bank Holiday film, often with an Oirish twist (Sean Connery as an Irishman in Darby O’Gill anyone?) but sometimes without (Tropic Thunder, as RTE showed last year, crosses all ethnic barriers. Except maybe Vietnamese ones). Sure what else would you be doing?

University qualifications - what do they really mean? Confidence goes a long way (IrishCentral)

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 05:00:20 PST

Recently I started a new job in Belfast, namely as a question writer for a TV quiz show. As you might expect it’s a conversation-starting occupation, as proved to be the case when talking to a taxi man a few days ago. When I jokingly asked him if he’d ever take part in a quiz on telly and maybe win a bit of money, he said back without much consideration: “Ah sure I’d be no good on things like that, I don’t have any qualifications or that."

Has the time come for Celtic Independence? - Scottish win could spell seismic shift (IrishCentral)

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 05:45:18 PST

The Ian Paisley paradox - considering the career of Dr. No (IrishCentral)

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 06:30:20 PST

As I write this, Ian Paisley remains in the intensive care unit of the Ulster Hospital, and like everyone else in the media I’ve been reflecting on the career of an incontrovertible political giant of these islands.

But it’s incredibly difficult.

RTÉ sport's inspirational Colm Murray and his battle with motor neurone disease (IrishCentral)

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 07:00:18 PST

The documentary on Colm Murray, RTE's sports anchor, promised to be must-see viewing, and yet extraordinary difficult.

Newt Gingrich attacking Mitt Romney for speaking French? How gauche! (IrishCentral)

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 06:30:20 PST

The view from over here: the GOP’s true primary colours (IrishCentral)

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 05:15:18 PST

Apart from having a long-term interest in US politics I also have the sleeping patterns of a musician, so that means watching coverage of the Republican Primaries isn’t such a taxing thing for me to do. From a sleep point of view that is, in pretty much every other way it’s tough going.

Margaret Thatcher, Meryl Streep and The Iron Lady's true legacy - VIDEO (IrishCentral)

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:30:14 PST

While walking round Dublin of a crisp, pre-Christmas morning, you couldn’t help but be taken aback by some of the posters adorning the city buses. As if the sharp Arctic air wouldn’t take the breath out of you easily enough, seeing Meryl Streep made up uncannily like Margaret Thatcher for her latest film would wind a man for sure.

The film in which Streep plays "The Iron Lady" is being released this very week, which is as intriguing as Meryl Streep’s makeover is terrifying.

My favourite story of 2011 - Ontario nursing home and an Ireland-mad Canadian girl (IrishCentral)

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 06:15:15 PST

What the Republican Presidential candidates can learn from Donegal teenagers (IrishCentral)

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 07:00:16 PST

Rick Perry

The only thing that is preventing the Republican primary race from becoming a complete head bang is the sheer comicality of it. There’s Mitt Romney, who is only marginally more popular than smallpox; there’s Rick “EPA?” Perry, a man who is to memory and general regular behaviour what Mr Magoo is to eyesight; there’s Herman Cain, who I’m not sure could name any more than five other countries in the world; there’s Newt Gingrich, a man whose opinion of himself is in orbit, for no compelling reason. And then there’s the most hilarious of all, John Huntsman, the one sane man among them and the only one who could actually bring a fight to Obama, but his numbers are so low they can only be measured by the Kelvin Scale.

While the Republican base are amped up to stiff peaks of mental at the minute, the last two years in particular have not been good ones for political sanity in the States in general. Warped ideological fidelity has trumped practicality. Bloody-minded obstinacy is now apparently official policy. Every word spoken is either advancing or casting aspersions on some political agenda or other. It’s toxic in the extreme.

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Ireland needs to get serious about mental health - Kate Fitzgerald and Gary Speed's untimely death starts conversations (IrishCentral)

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:00:14 PST

Former Naas Mayor Darren Scully and 'black Africans' - ignorance is no excuse for racism (IrishCentral)

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 08:15:17 PST

The Democratic Unionist Party neurosis - dribbling while Northern Ireland burns (IrishCentral)

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 05:30:19 PST

Twenty-six-years-old and the living is easy - reflecting on being a year older (IrishCentral)

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 08:00:16 PST

Reflecting on a a birthday

I've been a bit distracted this week, and not just by the Dublin Divas. Not only did I turn 26 this week, but I'm also doing a review with the youth group I work with, and recorded videos for the 10th anniversary of Dáil na nÓg, an event I've attended twice, the first time in, gulp, 2002. And, with Michael D Higgins being inaugurated today, I've been reminiscing about the last time a President was elected.

I actually remember it quite vividly, because it was the same date as my 12th birthday party. And that night, after my party (three hours of indoor football, followed by cake eating) I went to Eason’s in Derry to buy a book I’d long coveted with my card money (some things, it seems, never change) and took to reading it while watching Mary McAleese’s acceptance speech. It certainly doesn’t feel like 14 years ago.

Now, as I stare into turning 26 and it stares back into me, birthdays aren’t so much a pretext for putting scoops of ice cream in a large glass of coke and pretending to be your favorite goalkeeper so much as it becomes an inventory on how your life is going. I’m not sure how I rate.

Prayers for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi from the most Christian man I know (IrishCentral)

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:30:25 PDT

Not a great deal happens in east Donegal by and large, but one of the more bizarre stories of last week happened a couple of miles down the road from me.

At Sunday Mass in Raphoe last week Fr Dinny McGettigan, in addition to praying for the recent dead, also prayed for Colonel Gadaffi. It raised a few eyebrows elsewhere in Ireland, and indeed beyond, but it didn’t surprise me at all, because I’ve known Fr Dinny for years.

Michael D poised for victory in long presidential race for The Aras (IrishCentral)

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 06:45:26 PDT

Ireland's unemployment crisis - job bridge scheme and the future (IrishCentral)

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 07:15:16 PDT

The EU and Ireland - the importance of being close to Boston and Brussels (IrishCentral)

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 07:45:25 PDT

During the tremulous time following the 1992 general election, the embattled Taoiseach Albert Reynolds was handed a lifeline. With his grasp on power hanging in the balance, Reynolds went to an EU summit in Edinburgh at the end of that year and secured £8billion in European structural funds. Even his most optimistic supporters were expecting something closer to six. Emboldened, Reynolds told his press secretary, “Now watch me put a government together”.

Debating with the stars - candidates for president put to the test (IrishCentral)

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 06:00:17 PDT

What’s the point of a United Ireland? - Martin McGuinness' presidential campaign raises questions (IrishCentral)

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 06:00:17 PDT

Martin McGuinness' run for presidency may insult some but we can't run from our past (IrishCentral)

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 05:45:06 PDT

Race for Irish Presidency - possible candidates begin to emerge (IrishCentral)

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 01:15:05 PDT

I have to hand it to you Americans: you’re very early starters.

About a year and a half to go before Obama attempts to get re-elected and already high-profile Republicans are queuing up to get on the good ship More Heat Than Light. We’re not nearly as organised here.

Which is strange, considering our race for the Presidency is a lot more open than the one you’ll be having next year. No incumbent, a range of quality candidates either in the ring or loitering with intent around the ring, but with a couple of months to go the race for the Presidency is still very much in the blocks.

President Obama and Ireland - a love story (IrishCentral)

Fri, 27 May 2011 06:45:06 PDT

PHOTOS: President Obama's trip to Ireland - photo gallery

At the end of this week, we’re likely to feel a bit bereft.

After all, given the febrile flurry of the last fortnight where we’ve hosted the Queen, the President and, eh, Portuguese football fans, you’d be forgiven for wondering who was next. The Pope maybe? The ghost of Che Guevara? Shirley Bassey? Alas, no. No visitors next week. But even though Obama has left us, at least we have the man who nicked his lines in front of his face.

My favourite revolutionary Thomas “Ken” Whitaker (IrishCentral)

Tue, 10 May 2011 05:30:08 PDT

Irish media personality, Ryan Tubridy set for BBC (IrishCentral)

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 06:00:02 PDT

It may not be up there with Glenn Beck somersaulting off Fox’s deep end, but Ireland has had its own media personality storm of late: our own Ryan Tubridy is moving to the BBC, albeit only for a few months. I don’t blame him.

The BBC is, after all, the best in the world at the very numerous things it does, and any broadcaster who wouldn’t want to work there has a serious salt deficiency. It’s also very much a world station, so it’s not a case of joining the Beeb means he’s betraying his roots or something mad like that.

But I have to confess, it’s a perplexing move to me. Ryan, arguably the biggest presenter in Ireland, has taken on the role of National Flag Waving Morale Officer very much to heart of late, emphasising with metronomic consistency on both his radio and TV shows that the country needs good news, to accentuate the positive the country has to offer and realise what a great little country we are.

The Dalai Lama's visit to Ireland - the Irish see that what’s possible is anything we like (IrishCentral)

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:45:02 PDT

The fundamental problem with writing about an experience as profound as seeing and hearing the Dalai Lama speak is that the feeling it gives you is very hard to verbalise. Thankfully, the man himself has no such problem verbalising complicated concepts, and I came to realise that how he says what he says is as important as what he says. His is a wisdom that is more powerful stated than assumed, and it was wonderful to hear.

The reasons for the Dalai Lama being in Ireland and my being there to see him go back several months. The Possibilities Civic Forum was dreamed up a couple of months ago by three great Irish NGO’s: Children in Crossfire, Afri and SpunOut.ie, groups that do a host of inspiring work on social justice and well-being both at home and abroad. As a long-time member of the SpunOut family, there was no way I wasn’t attending. Their combined resolution to organise an event that could bring individuals and local groups together and energise them in their pursuit to change the way we do things in Ireland was, in every sense, a long time coming.

You could feel the 2,000 strong audience felt the same, as speaker after inspirational speaker was awarded rapturous standing ovations that came from their socks. Richard Moore, the founder of Children In Crossfire and the Dalai Lama’s hero, was a special highlight of the day. Blinded at the age of ten by a rubber bullet in his native Derry, Richard is a truly extraordinary example of forgiveness and compassion. Not only has he let blindness or bitterness consume him, but he’s dedicated his life to helping other children in conflict zones. He even sought out the soldier that shot him, and the two are now friends. It was hard not to well up listening to him speak.

ICBlog: Across-the-pond