Author Archives: Aaron McAllorum

Anti-Choice: Sister Mary
Pro-Choice: Jeni Gaynor
Anti-Choice: Part of the “All Ireland Rally For Choice”
Pro-Choice: Denise Ryan
Anti-Choice David Tutty and his daughter Selina
Pro-choice supporters Suzanne Lee and Leness Falls. on O’Connell Street
Anti Choice: Anthony Buckley

The “All Ireland Rally for Life” in Dublin yesterday encountered the “All Ireland Rally For Choice” at the GPO bringing back fond memories of the feeble-minded sloganeering of the SPUC wars of the 1980s.

Guess which group had the better after-party?

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)

The Irish Daily Mail reports this morning that a file is being sent to the DPP into suspected voter fraud in South Kerry during the March election – and that the claims relate to people connected with the Healy Rae campaign.

It concerns at least three incidents of canvassers calling to elderly residents asking to “collect” their postal votes. One reported in The Kerryman in March, involved an 87-year-old man.

“This is the postal ballot that a person would fill out themselves,” said FG councillor Bobby O’Connell. “Then they asked the person would they be able to fill it out themselves, and should they not fill it out for them.. The woman went to another house in the locality that we know of . When the person was asked to identify themselves they gave a false name at first. This has all been given in a statement to the guards. I am satisfied myself that the charges relate to a member of the Healy Rae campaign.”

A further claim that canvassers gave free cigarettes to Travellers to secure their votes is also being investigated.

(Photocall Ireland)

ALSO: In civilised societies this late night call alone might be considered harrassment.

A prescient exchange on last night’s Tonight With Vincent Browne between the host and Paul Clarkson, deputy editor of the Irish Sun.

At the end of a show devoted to the future of the newspaper industry Vincent challenged Paul on the allegations contained in his paper’s exclusive on Louis Walsh, obviously prior to today’s developments.

Vincent Browne: “I think there’s a problem about this story. There’s an allegation being made about Louis Walsh and if it turns out to be totally untrue isn’t his reputation smeared by the publicity given to an unsupported allegation, Paul, huh?”

Paul Clarkson: “I just like to…Obviously the Irish Sun broke this story last Thursday. It’s a story we are quite proud of. It shows that newspapers can still be relevant and breaking stories despite the online challenges. With the Irish Sun we approached this story, basically, and we tried to play it with a straight bat. We were aware of the allegations, we checked the allegations, we put them to Louis Walsh, we put his side of the story and we published. And It’s a simple as that.”

Vincent: “But it’s not as simple as that. Say for instance, I’ll give you an example, somebody is accused falsely of sexually abusing a child and saying that it’s only an allegation and this person denied it. That won’t do. That person’s reputation is marred forever and if it subsequently emerges, when it subsequently emerges that this is totally untrue the damage has been done…”

Paul: “Well this is why it’s so important to give both sides of the story and you give them ample time…”

Vincent: “Paul, Paul

Paul: “I can tell you Louis Walsh is more than able…”

Vincent: “Paul, I don’t think you get my point. Some publications such as this  cannot be undone. The damage has been done. If for instance in incidents of sexual abuse of a child. You have the allegation, somebody is accused of the abuse, you name them, they deny it and even it turns out to be subsequently untrue that person is marred forever.”

Watch full show here. (exchange starts at 30.45).

Earlier: The Gropes Of Wrath

An 8-year-old Afghan girl was murdered yesterday when she was unwittingly forced to carry a bomb. The New York Times reports that Taliban insurgents in Kabul tricked the girl into carrying a package wrapped in cloth. When she was close to a police vehicle, they detonated the bomb remotely. Only the girl was killed, and the local police chief says her body was “taken to a nearby security check post, and the police called her relatives.”

Afghan Girl Was Tricked Into Carrying Bomb (New York Times)

Taliban Uses Married Couple, Young Girl In Bombings (Jezebel)

Our money’s on the hairy guy.

According to maverick investigative journalist Jurgen Roth AIB may have literally been given an offer they couldn’t refuse when they sold half a bank for €100,000 this week.

He told Sofia news agency Novinite back in February:

“The story is incredible, but was confirmed through inquiries to to those concerned. The matter on hand is Bulgarian State-support, through some very unconventional actions, for the powerful and shady business group known as TIM, which many media connect to organized crime,” Roth writes.

Roth says that in January of this year, the investment fund Expat Capital Sofia had asked permission from the Bulgarian National Bank (Central bank) to purchase fifty percent of the shares of the Bulgarian-American Credit Bank (BACB) in Sofia.

These fifty percent were owned by AIB, purchased at a cost of €260 million three years earlier.

The first response from the Bulgarian National Bank had been positive. For this reason Expat Capital Sofia had commissioned KPMG to carry out a Due Diligence verification.

After finding out the KPMG’s report is satisfactory, Expat had submitted an offer to the Irish Bank, for the purchase of the shares for EUR 7 M. At the same time, representatives of AIB had been invited to Sofia to receive final approval for the sale of their stake.

This is not going to end well.

They had arrived in mid-February without even imagining what was in place for them and for Expat at the Bulgarian National Bank. They were personally received by the BNB Head, Ivan Iskrov, who explained to them it would be better if they give up the EUR 7 M and rather offer their share to the Central Cooperative Bank, and for BGN 1 – the equivalent of EUR 0.5, according to the German journalist.

“The proposal had been provided in writing to the representatives of the Irish Bank on February 23, 2011. The Central Cooperative Bank is part of the TIM group, regularly mentioned by media in connection with high-profile organized crime. What explanation is there about bankers from Ireland and representatives of Expat Capital being offered to sell the shares for BGN 1 to the TIM group, and to knock out EUR 7 M?”

It’s not personal.

It’s business.

German Journalist: Bulgarian PM Protects Shady Business (Novinite)

Earlier: AIB Paid €260 Million For Half A Bank And Sold It For €100,000

Thanks Vernicious

They have much in common, the boy wonder of the golfing world who returned to his native Ulster on June 21 and the lads who that same night fought running street battles in an enclave of Belfast called Short Strand.

Yet as U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy, 22, disembarked at an airport named for his country’s most famous sporting export, George Best, and headed home to a hero’s welcome in Holywood, just outside Belfast and only five miles from Short Strand, hundreds of men of McIlroy’s generation, born and brought up within that five-mile radius, donned masks to cover their fresh faces and armed themselves with petrol bombs, stones, guns—and even golf balls.

Obviously McIlroy, blessed with prodigious sporting talent, has always enjoyed greater prospects than most of his contemporaries, but many ordinarily gifted Northern Irish men and women also grow up with some vision of a productive future. What distinguishes these children from others is not religion: McIlroy is Catholic; Graeme McDowell, another Ulsterman who won the U.S. Open in 2010, is Protestant. Nor is it pure economics. McIlroy’s father worked long hours as a cleaner and bartender to finance his son’s ambitions. But money and location do count. It’s hard to see beyond the rubble-strewn sidewalks of Short Strand to a better way of life.

Rory’s Return To A Divided Northern ireland (Catherine Mayer, Time)

(Rueters/AP)
Thanks Andrew Smyth

Apart from the fact that he was out of his depth and living on mixed grills and Guinness.

Consider the advice he was getting.

Economist John McCarthy, Brian’s ‘guy’ at the Department of Finance, first cropped up in one of last month’s Wikileaks cables:

In a ‘confidential’ dispatch to the US State Department in Washington, former US Ambassador Thomas Foley wrote of how the government was “bouncing from crisis to crisis”.

The cable, dated December 2008, reports on a meeting with John McCarthy – described as the “chief forecaster” in the Department of Finance – and two “economic officials” from the Department of the Taoiseach, John Shaw and George Shaw.

According to the cable, Mr McCarthy told US Embassy officials that “forecasting anything in the current uncertain environment is almost impossible”. He added the government could “only react given the fast pace of the downturn”.

Why they were still calling him John “Chief Forecaster” McCarthy in 2008 is an even bigger mystery this morning than it must have been then.

A memo in the Irish Times written by John to Brian Cowen and dated July 2007 shows he not only denied what was happening around him but, almost politically, rubbished warnings by the likes of economist Morgan Kelly. He practically scoffs:

“[Kelly’s] analysis considers house price developments in OECD countries and finds a strong relationship between the size of the initial increase in prices and the subsequent fall. If the same relationship was to hold for Ireland, then real house prices would decline by 40 to 60 per cent over a period of eight to nine years.

Of course it has taken less than five years. Then there are Cowen’s dummy cards.

The “speaking points” prepared for Mr Cowen in response to Prof Kelly’s article assert that people “must be careful that we do not overreact to the current easing from the very high levels of activity” in housing market.

“House prices have fallen back slightly in recent months,” states the next speaking point, before adding that “prices still remain about their levels this time last year”.

In the final speaking point, Prof Kelly’s analysis of a property bubble is rejected, pointing to other factors as the reasons behind the high property values.

It recommended that Mr Cowen say: “I share the view of most commentators that house prices increases in recent years have been underpinned by many factors including a strong economy, increases in employment and earnings, reductions in taxation and lower interest rates resulting from participation in monetary union.”

After a year like 2007 wouldn’t John himself have concluded that he was probably not cut out for forecasting things. Huge strengths in other areas, sure, just not a predictions kind of guy.

Anyway, wonder where he’s working now?

Cowen Told To Dismiss Property Warning (Harry McGee, Irish Times)

Revealed Total Chaos As Economy Collapsed (Shane Doran, Brenadn Keenan, Irish Independent)

(Photocall Ireland)

Three rounds were fired and the man, who is working for the Press Association, has been taken to hospital for treatment after he was struck in the right leg at around midnight at the bottom of the Newtownards Road. Police said the extent of his injuries are not known.

There are unconfirmed reports that the bullet was fired from the Short Strand.

Gangs gathered in the Short Strand and lower Newtownards Road areas of the city on Tuesday evening and began throwing bricks, bottles and petrol bombs.

Video: PA Photographer Shot As 700 Riot In East Belfast (UTV)

East Belfast Street Violence ‘Orchestrated’ By UVF (Dan Keenan, Irish Times)