Saturday, March 20, 2010 Previous editions
SO Martin McGuinness, senior IRA figure, now Sinn Féin’s deputy first minister in the Northern Assembly, felt confident enough on Tuesday to suggest Cardinal Seán Brady should be “considering his position”.
IN normal circumstances, Johnny Ronan’s lifestyle would be a personal matter. While most newspapers have ignored him, some, and not just the tabloids, have enjoyed chronicling details of the 52-year-old businessman’s relationship with 20-something model and TV presenter Glenda Gilson.
I WOULDN’T dream of ingesting any of the muck they sell in head shops, but 20 years ago I might have been tempted. Once, when younger and without fear (or real understanding) of the consequences of alcohol and drugs, as is the way with many young people, the availability of such things, without breaking any laws, might have proved attractive to me.
LAST Monday the Fianna Fáil TD Frank Fahey joined the small band of interviewees who have offered me a bet live on radio to emphasise his certainty of the point he was making.
BRIAN COWEN is facing an enormous test of his political pragmatism. Tribal to his core, the sacrifice of Willie O’Dea, one of his Fianna Fáil family, to satisfy the demands of his Green coalition partners must have been like a hammer blow to Cowen.
OUR schools are producing students whose maths and science capabilities are less than the international average. That’s what Craig Barrett believes and if his views are shared widely in American business circles then we are in trouble.
I LIKE my food just a little bit too much as anyone who has seen me recently will know.
THE Government has told us repeatedly over the past 18 months that a fully functioning banking system is essential to our economic wellbeing. This has been its justification for keeping what are in reality failed banks in existence.
FIANNA FÁIL was boxed into a corner by the demands for an investigation into the banking catastrophe but, experienced political survivor that it is, it has not thrown in the towel. Yes, it has granted the demanded inquiry but it has continued to feint and weave with much of its old skill, thereby staying on its feet.
SEÁN QUINN has a brass neck. The businessman would be central to any public investigation into the banking crisis that has crippled the country, yet he regularly opines publicly on what government and citizens need to do to rescue the country from a situation which he was involved in creating.
WATCHING live sport provides a welcome respite from the realities of life but examining the business models behind English soccer provides an opportunity to witness fantasy.
AT the start of both 2006 and 2008 I decided to give up drinking alcohol for six months and I intend to repeat the experiment from today, with one get-out clause which I will get to later. It will be hard not because of my own desire for alcohol, which is relatively limited and occasional, but because other people are likely to make it difficult for me.
THE trade union movement is in a very difficult place. Angry at the way its members have been treated by the budget it has to find a way to respond that protects their interests.
THE unofficial and undeclared contest to become the next leader of Fianna Fáil has taken more than a few twists and turns in recent weeks. There is no vacancy – as yet.
THERE was a time when people in Fianna Fáil regarded Brian Cowen as a brilliant public performer. From an early stage in his political career — having been made minister at a young age — he was used as a “warm-up” act for the party at árd-fheiseanna, rousing the delegates to a crescendo before the emergence of the leader for his annual address.
THERE’S so much talk of the economy contracting, of jobs being lost, of incomes falling and of taxes rising that I’ve decided to recall a positive story this morning. A story of a business being started 20 years ago that nobody said could succeed but which has created jobs for its employees, wealth for various owners and a product that has provided a useful service to the public.
RUGBY fans should well remember what Neil Back did to Munster in 2002. It was the closing minutes of the Heineken Cup final between the Irish team and his side, Leicester. The English side is winning by 15 points to 9, but Munster have a scrum in front of the Leicester posts, in a perfect position to launch a final assault on the Leicester line, to score a try that would have left Munster with a conversion to win the cup.
WHO really needs to buy a new car? Needs to buy one, as opposed to wanting to do so. This difference is one of the central dilemmas facing the beleaguered Irish new car sales sector at present as it seeks desperately to persuade people to buy.
ONE THOUSAND construction jobs for north Tipperary for three years, followed by 2,000 more jobs in the finished development sounds like a good deal that no government could object to, especially when no government financial assistance is being sought.
THERE’S a section in Donal Óg Cusack’s excellent autobiography where he details how the Cloyne senior hurling squad and its management held “truth meetings”.
THE Government is finding out that owning just 25% of a major commercial entity confers very little benefit but an awful lot of hassle.
HOW much money would you pay to the boss of an effective and efficient health service?
The Greens ascended onto Planet Bertie — a location that Gormley had said they would never inhabit — and breathed deeply of the noxious air. The Greens were brought in as lobby fodder... and to provide cover for the dirty work of introducing enforced recycling, carbon taxes and water metering
More men than women have lost their jobs during the downturn, particularly in the construction sector – and please let no one pretend that working on the sites in all weathers is somehow easier than cleaning the Dáil, especially when men are more likely to lose their lives at work and have lower life expectancy
IT seems Craig Barrett might be the man to give us a state of the nation address.
The car is going to be the next battleground, and with good reason. The car is an enclosed space, even with the windows open, and the dangers (as well as unpleasantness) posed by second-hand smoke are obvious to most... it is still not uncommon to see adults smoking while children (or others) are in their company
Should we follow the American model of requiring the president to sit regular medical tests and of releasing the results? The BBC’s Jeremy Paxman was vilified in 2002 for asking Charles Kennedy on Newsnight what were pertinent questions about his drinking
The predictions are subjective and, it could be said, designed to suit whatever side of the argument people were paid to be on. Some of those making them had been correct before and others wrong, but as the ads say, past performance is no indicator of future performance
This talk that the institution of marriage would be somehow devalued by making it available to gay people is ridiculous. Surely the value of a heterosexual couple’s marriage is defined by the effort and commitment that they put into it rather than by the mere fact of their being married?
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