Category: Newswhip
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Unholy trinity of religious referendums on a single day
With Charles Flanagan’s call for a children’s rights referendum as soon as possible in the wake of the latest clerical child abuse scandal, the intriguing possibility of an unholy trinity of religious-inspired referendums now looms in the near future. Flanagan’s call for Fianna Fáil to hold the children’s rights referendum double-quick is unlikely to be […]
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Could European abortion ruling be Fianna Fáil’s salvation?
Fianna Fáil’s election worries, starkly laid out in a record low of 17 percent in an opinion poll published by the Ipsos MRBI/Irish Times, could be eased by an ally from an unlikely source — the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The party fell seven percent in the poll yesterday, mirroring a similar fall […]
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Health authorities in the dark about Harney abortion statement
Officials at the HSE and the department of health are unable to say what specific regulations minister Mary Harney was referring to when she spoke about the grounds on which an abortion could legally take place in Ireland during an RTÉ interview yesterday. Speaking on News at One, the health minister said that an abortion […]
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ATM outage at Bank of Ireland spurs bank run rumours
Yesterday’s ATM problems at Bank of Ireland were not a one-off event. But the reaction to the outage, with customers unable to access savings, may say something fundamental about how jittery we have become. This reporter remembers well a wet November evening in 1990 when the ATM machines had a nervous breakdown. Customers queued at […]
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Brian Cowen is €14K worse off. Ho hum.
As the country tightens its belt, dons a hairshirt, and adopts other metaphorical fashion choices, media coverage of the budget has varied from relief and fury to Nazi comparisons. Irish newspapers have different takes on the impact of the budget, with the Irish Times declaring “All groups hit as budget increases tax, cuts welfare”, while […]
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British actor steals Irish job
Stephen Fry’s visit to Ireland was plagued by travel screw-ups, but the actor nonetheless enjoyed his cameo on Irish language soap Ros na Rún. The British actor plays “a bewildered tourist” who wanders into Tigh Thaidhg and tries to ask for directions in Irish. Fry was asked to do the cameo while filming a BBC […]
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Exactly what crime is being committed here?
The image to the right, taken from the RTÉ website, shows gardaí removing posters from a cherry picker crane parked on Kildare Street this morning. Gardaí have confirmed that a 41-year-old man is in custody, and may appear before the courts later. But take a look at that image again. Underneath is the caption: Gardaí […]
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42 percent rise in Irish Secret Service budget
The Irish secret service budget gets a 42 percent boost next year, even as budgets for other government departments are slashed. The new budget sees the allowance, presumably for Ireland’s spies, rise from €702,000 to an even €1,000,000 (and isn’t it odd how hard it is not to say “one, million, euro” in a Dr […]
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What’s the French for gombeen?
A left-wing politician backed by an alliance of greens, socialists and communists has vowed to end a culture of bribery and envelopes stuffed with cash. His opponent is the puppet of a local senator accused of buying votes, under police investigation. All the familiar electioneering tactics are in play by the leftist rainbow coalition: mass […]
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Internet woes at Vodafone
Internet connection problems at Vodafone are causing chaos for Ireland’s home workers, knocking home workers and telecommuters off the internet and resulting in lost work. Brian Greene, a web developer, noticed persistent problems with his Vodafone connection since September. After several visits to his home, Vodafone engineers established everything was fine at his end, and […]
