Category: Newswhip

For many who struggled with Péig and dreaded the intricacies of the modh coinníollach, a press release earlier this week from Pat Carey on when to use an úrú (eclipse) or séimhiú (lenition) might have been easily ignored. But behind the dry grammar of the impressively named Standing Committee to review Caighdeán Oifigiúil na Gaeilge […]

Fine Gael’s pre-budget proposals, launched today, are something of a curates egg, at once promising 30,000 job losses in the civil service, yet aiming for 100,000 extra jobs. We look at some of the highlights of the plan and what they will mean for you. Limiting tax increases to one-quarter of the adjustment next year […]

The Labour party pre-budget plan, In Ireland’s Interests, [PDF link] runs to 34 pages. Much of it is feel-good promises and aspirations, but it does also contain some concrete proposals. We look at some of the highlights from the plan and what they will mean for you. Imposing a €6 billion adjustment in 2011 poses […]

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” Barack Obama’s chief of staff famously said. What new political groups are emerging from the ashes of the Celtic Tiger? Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama’s chief of staff, made the notorious comment as the new president laid out his plans for his administration. Emanuel’s theory is […]

Green party senator Dan Boyle has tweeted that there is “too much speculation and not enough fact at the moment” about the IMF negotiations. “There are stories I know are not true and some I’m hoping are not true,” he said. But in response to a query from a Newstalk broadcaster about which stories were […]

Journalism suffers as staff cutbacks in media groups lead to an over-reliance on media releases, according to NUJ Irish secretary Seamus Dooley. “There is also a marked absence of what used to be called fresh air journalism, reporters who left their desks and went out on the streets to meet people,” said Dooley. Last week […]

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan is still odds-on to keep her Dáil seat in the next general election, despite the poor showing by Fianna Fáil in today’s Donegal Southwest byelection. Paddy Power bookmakers have not yet calculated odds for most individual TDs, but offered 1/4 on Coughlan in response to a punter’s inquiry yesterday, a spokesperson said. […]

Four Irish news websites differ markedly in their handling of a Garda press release referring to groups who might “exploit” tomorrow’s GPO rally to cause “disruption”. The Irish Times breaking news section feature carries a dramatic photograph of a Garda in full riot gear holding back a crowd, taken during the recent student demonstration. The […]

For those of us of a certain age, the name of the government’s four year plan carries eerie echoes. The National Recovery Plan 2011-2014 sounds familiar. Twenty years ago, the Programme for National Recovery produced by Charlie Haughey in the 1980s helped lift this country out of another recession. But while the NRP (the 2011-2014 […]

Eyewitness Report: #YoureFFired, Ireland’s first internet-organised protest movement, moves into the “real world”. Arriving at five minutes before midday, there was no sign of the planned #YoueFFired assembly outside the Kildare Street entrance to Linster House. But as I looked around, wondering if I’d got it wrong and should have been at Merrion Street, I […]