Fianna Fáil’s Cork show houses

John Jefferies
Cash-strapped Cork City Council drafted in 20 cleaning staff to remove hoardings from derelict buildings in the Knocknaheeny area in preparation for the visit of a Fianna Fáil politician.
During the ‘clean-up’ for the October 11 official opening of a new community centre in the area by Junior Minister for Housing Michael Finneran, shuttering on [...]

There’ one law for the rich…

Justin O’Hagan
Last year tax protestors took to the streets of Dublin to highlight the hypocrisy of U2’s Bono in the wake of the band’s 2006 decision to move its business to Holland, a well-known tax-shelter. U2’s move came after the Irish Government capped the artist income tax exemption scheme at €250,000.
While Bono and chums weren’t [...]

The Saville Report – Still defending the realm

Kevin McCorry, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) chief march steward on Bloody Sunday, finds the Saville Inquiry sidestepped the key issue of who made the political decisions that led to the deaths of 14 innocent men.
George Bernard Shaw once said, “Truth telling is not compatible with the defence of the realm”. Did the [...]

Campus Bank Teach-ins

Francis Donohoe
On Budget Day December 7 Lecturers and students at several third-level colleges staged Budget Day “teach-ins” at campus bank branches in protest at their role in the economic crisis.
Protesters gave short lectures and answered questions about the relationship between banks’ reckless lending during the Celtic Tiger years and the latest Budget austerity measures — [...]

Interview: Joe Higgins

Kevin Brannigan
It’s just over a year since Dublin elected its first Socialist Party member to the European Parliament,
Joe Higgins seeing off the challenge of incumbents Mary Lou MacDonald and Fianna Fáil’s Eoin Ryan to take the final seat.
In the months that have passed since the late night drama at the RDS count centre, Higgins has [...]

The Jemmy Hope Column

The Jemmy Hope – “As a people, we are excluded from any share in framing the laws by which we are governed. The higher ranks usurped the exclusive exercise of that privilege, as well as many other rights, by force, fraud, and fiction.”
The gangster, the super model and Bertie Ahern
“I’m a professional gambler…the more money [...]

Swedish elections – the rise of the far right

While working for the Social Justice party in the recent Swedish elections, Jimmy Dignam witnessed the disturbing emergence of far right anti-immigration sentiment in what until recently has been a country synonymous with social democracy.
The Sweden Democrats (SD) shocked many across Europe as they won 5.7 per cent of the national vote in the [...]

Blue Ireland?

Ireland has few enough indigenous enterprises but does the country really need its own porn industry, wonders Annajoy O’Gorman.
A new magazine was launched in Ireland this summer, Ireland’s only totally Irish-run pornography magazine, Blue Ireland. Edited by Wexford woman Ami O’Brien, the rather poorly produced magazine aims to bring the ‘the girl next door, (to) your [...]

Revolutionary Stomp – Backstage with Alabama 3

Preaching the gospel of revolution to a backing track of stomping acid house techno and melancholy country music while fighting for those wrongly accused, Francis Donohoe steps into the righteous world of Alabama 3.
They’re not from Alabama, and the band numbers well more than three but that’s the type of contradictions that the [...]

Chasing the Dream

For decades youngsters have chased the dream of professional football success in Britain, but would it be better for them – and the development of Irish football – if there was greater regulation at home, Frankie Lally reports.
Every year many youths travel to Britain with hopes and dreams of making it as a professional footballer [...]

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