Yearly Archives: 2017

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From top: Vladimir Putin; Donald Trump; Dan Boyle

We now are the meat in a US/Russia sandwich. We need firstly to look to ourselves and recognise both these scoundrels – Putin and Trump – as being the same.

Dan Boyle writes:

When first I read his tweets I sniggered. Then I sneered. Then I reacted with revulsion. Only lately, and far too late into this story, have I tried to analyse them in order to understand. I don’t think I’m alone in these reactions.

An effective understanding is, I’m afraid, beyond me. I don’t hold with the view of some who support him, that he is possessed of genius. There is too much inconsistency, illogicality and incoherence, on display here to reach such a conclusion.

He is though quite skilled. It isn’t a skill born of intelligence. It is an intuitiveness that has served him well, which his messianic self confidence, fuelled by arrogance, believes will continue to serve him well. His sexual peccadilloes are an irrelevance to me. I care not whether water sports are his preference or his phobia.

I’m not possessed of sufficient fact to determine whether Mr. Trump is in the pocket of Vladimir Putin. Those whose views I respect indicate he may be. Without empirical evidence that’s a call that cannot yet be made.

What is a worry is the observable fact that Don and Vlad seem to be of one mind (Putin’s I imagine), when it comes to our common European home.

Both seem to feel that formalised co-operation, with the infrastructure that makes that possible, between the nations of Europe, is something that should be discouraged and preferably ended.

Whose endgame is this? Who benefits? Everything seems to point to the bare-chested one.
I don’t share the sneaking regard of some for the master oligarch. I see him as a thug, an autocrat, an assassin of political opponents, and an arch manipulator of truth.

Having his counterpart in Washington DC as his mouthpiece is an appalling vista. It is not a Brave New World I want to a part of. It may though be the world that have to get used to, at least for the next few years. So what is it we can do?

I’m fairly sure regular flying pickets at the US embassy by the bullhorn brigade will be particularly useless. Although at least it may keep them out of harm’s way.

We now are the meat in a US/Russia sandwich. We need firstly to look to ourselves and recognise both these scoundrels as being the same.

The EU must be reformed. In order to make ourselves stronger we need to make ourselves better. There are many inconsistencies of our own we need to correct.
We need to identify with and support civil society in the US and Russia. These are the partnerships that need to be forged if we are to begin to make a value based polity dominant, and persuasive, again.

It’s not going to easy. Putting the world to right never is.

Dan Boyle is a former Green Party TD and Senator. His column appears here every Thursdyay. Follow Dan on Twitter: @sendboyle

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From top: Savoy 1 cinema, Dublin 1 and Rick O’Shea

2fm broadcaster Rick O’Shea writes:

I Was told yesterday by someone in the know that the glorious Savoy 1, the largest cinema screen left in the country, is being closed and subdivided into smaller screens.

Trying to confirm with them, they’ve been a bit evasive on Twitter, but if it’s true it will be a sad day in the history of Irish cinema-going.

The screen that held almost 2,500 in the 1920s, holds 800 today with still that glorious giant set of red curtains that peel open before the film starts, and has been the location of pretty much every Irish movie premiere for decades will be chopped up into little ones in the coming months.

I’m not blaming the owners, this is obviously to make money to keep their heads above water in a competitive business, but to see the screen in which I saw my first James Bond movie, Superman, Silence Of The Lambs and hundreds since – and the place where I introduced Star Trek, almost every Marvel movie and many others – divided up will be as sad as the day the Adelphi [Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1] closed.

The less big the screens are, the less I want to go to them.

Yeah, there’s an element of the Clerys/ Bewley’s paradox at work here.

Be honest with me – when was the last time you went into a movie at Savoy 1?

Still, it’s the last of the truly great old big screens left…

Mmf.

Previously: Meanwhile, Close To Clerys

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A British RAF Hercules  at Shannon  Airport on December 29, 2016

The Carlow Nationalist writes:

British military chiefs are facing a dressing down over the unapproved landing of RAF aircraft at Shannon Airport.

The diplomatic spat was revealed after a Hercules transport plane landed at the airport on December 29 without seeking clearance from the Government in advance.

Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan said: “The Government views breaches of the procedures set down for the granting of permission for such landings with the utmost seriousness. I have instructed my officials to discuss the matter further with the British Embassy with a view to ensuring that correct procedures are followed in future.”

The British Embassy in Dublin told Irish officials that the RAF Hercules landed in Shannon to refuel.

As Ireland is a neutral country, permission should have been sought in advance and assurances given that the aircraft was unarmed, carried no cargo of arms, ammunition or explosives and that it was not on an intelligence-gathering mission or a military exercise or operation.

British diplomats told Irish officials there had been a “communication breakdown”.

“The embassy has confirmed in writing that the purpose of the landing was refuelling, and that the flight was unarmed; carried no arms, ammunition or explosives; and was not engaged in intelligence-gathering nor formed part of a military exercise or operation,” Mr Flanagan added.

Unapproved landing of British military plane at Shannon Airport sparks diplomatic row (The Carlow Nationalist)

Previously: Meanwhile, In Shannon

Pic: Shannonwatch