Monthly Archives: January 2012

Taken on January 5, 1915 on the quays in Waterford City.

From The National Library of Ireland:

Came across this while searching for a photo taken on 5 January, and got very excited when I spotted the poster in the window of no. 127, the offices of L. & N.W. Midland and L. & Y. Railways. It’s a WWI recruiting poster that we also have in our Ephemera Collections here at the National Library.

It’s amazing to think of the young men who may have passed this shop window, looked at this poster with excitement or fear, or even disdain. And it’s amazing that we still have the photo and we still have the poster…

 

National Library of Ireland Flickr Stream

But let’s consider this transport authority for a moment. It was set up two years ago as an independent regulator; independent of government, independent of the transport operators. So far so good. Except its Usain Bolt-style sprint to protect CIE doesn’t promote an image of independence, does it?

Perhaps you think I’m being hard in accusing the NTA of safeguarding CIE. But the NTA ‘fesses up on its own website, acknowledging cause and effect where it says the fare increases “follow from the reduction in funds available to subsidise public transport announced in the Dail”.

At a time of unprecedented focus on expenditure, in the midst of an austerity programme, the case for any increase has to be extremely persuasive. It has not been made adequately in this case.

The public has a right to know what the NTA’s objectives were in reaching the conclusion it did. Did it engage in rigorous analysis of data? How did it weigh this data?

 

Transport Providers Are Taking The Public For Ride (Martina Devlin, Irish Independent)

And yet never before has a candidate running on such a radical, and specifically libertarian platform—abolish the Federal Reserve, withdraw from all foreign entanglements, end the war on drugs—done so well. The size and character of his vote suggest his candidacy will matter right until November. His [Ron Paul’s] supporters included many young people, out-of-state volunteers, and cyber-activists. They are not going to melt away. Yet they are not going to secure the Republican nomination for their man, either. What, then?