This afternoon.
Chia, Sardinia, Italy.
Ciara Mageean after competing in the European Cross Country Championship.
A little snooze.
Well for some.
Pic via Balls.ie
Update: Just kidding.
Category Archives: Misc
From top: Gerry Adams at the Dublin Wax Museum last Summer; Derek Mooney
The drama and untruth surrounding Gerry Adams handling of the Stack family will not topple Adams as leader, but it points us towards the fault line under his leadership that will.
Derek Mooney writes:
One of the most cherished tactics of the ever harder working army of Gerry Adams defenders is the “whataboutery” argument.
It is deployed, almost as regularly and speedily as the online shinnerbots, whenever Adams comes under attack. Indeed, whataboutery has so become the modern-day Provo’s weapon of choice that we may yet see a range of whataboutery trinkets and t-shirts available for online sale alongside the old Kalashnikov pins and ‘sniper at work’ t-shirts
The whataboutery tactic is a form of ad hominem attack, where you attack your critic, but you make it seem like you are expressing concern for others.
We saw it used a lot last week as the troops rushed forward to defend Adams in his dealings with the Stack family.
Asked why Adams would not give the Gardaí the name of the person he took a blindfolded Austin and Oliver Stack to meet; they answer: what about all the other victims? Why do you only want to talk about Brian Stack? Why are we not talking about all the others?
The point that they very conveniently forget is that Brian Stack was one of those “other” victims about whom they themselves have not spoken for years, if not decades. He was one of the unnamed others when we spoke about other named victims.
Adams and, by extension, Sinn Féin likes its victims in the abstract. In theory Sinn Féin has huge sympathy for all victims. Its rhetoric on victims – as a collective – is close to faultless.
A major problem emerges however when it comes to putting that rhetoric into practise for individual victims, particularly the victims of the Provos. Then the sympathy comes more slowly and rarely stretches beyond a few tired old phrases.
The Stack family has been quietly and patiently seeking the truth for decades. Brian Stack’s name and his memory is being spoken about now, not because Michéal Martin or Enda Kenny have brought it up, but rather because Austin Stack and the Stack family have.
I should at this point declare that Austin Stack is a friend of mine and that I have known him for very many years. I know that Austin has been working quietly and constructively with victims’ groups, North and South, for several years.
I know this partly due to my past involvement with the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation. As the centre operates under Chatham House rules I will not identify any of the people I have encountered there, but I can say that I have seen victims and former combatants from all sides to the conflict in Northern Ireland reach out to help each other. This includes people with provisional IRA connections.
The other assertion that Adam’s apologists make is that the rest of us are trying to hold Sinn Féin to a higher standard than others. What they really mean is that we are wrong not to hold them to a lesser one.
As part of this process they consistently and persistently attempt to re-write the history of the past fifty years on this island. They try to portray the IRA as arising seamlessly out of the Civil Rights movement of Hume and Cooper as a popular army fighting on behalf of all of us against a British aggressor.
It is this concoction of a false past and a fake narrative that creates a responsibility, if not an imperative, on the rest of us to call Sinn Féin out. We all have a particular duty to hold the Provos, the INLA and all the other self-styled republican terror groups to account as they claimed to be carrying out their campaign of terror in our name.
They sought to embroil us all in their actions, so they and their apologists must face the opprobrium of those whose mandate they erroneously claimed.
Holding the Provos and the others to account does not stop us from doing right by all sides. The whataboutery is wrong. So, we should and we must also pursue the British government and security forces and hold them to account too for their excesses, their dirty tactics and abuses of human rights during the conflict.
The drama and untruth surrounding Gerry Adams handling of the Stack family will not topple Adams as leader, but it points us towards the fault line under his leadership that will.
One of the smartest and most consistent voices of reason in Northern Ireland is that of Derry man, Denis Bradley. Writing in the Irish News just before the latest phase in the Stack drama unfolded, Denis said:
“Gerry Adams should ride off into the sunset. That day has arrived. No matter what good or important contribution already made, his presence is now a hindrance.”
He is right. Adams has stayed on for far too long. Over the past few years, perhaps since winning his seat in Dáil Éireann, Adams has focused more on turning Sinn Féin into an organ for promoting the myth and legacy of Adams than a political party looking to change Ireland.
As I have written here before, Sinn Féin is not so much a “party in transition” as it is “transitioning into a party”. Adams handling of the Stack killing and his apparent insistence that the next generation of Sinn Féin put their fingerprints over his defence can only slowdown that transition process, if not reverse it.
The eagerness of Mary Lou McDonald to be one of those championing her floundering leader may help her gain the support of the Sinn Féin grandees in Belfast, but it may render her hoped for leadership banjaxed before it starts.
And so, I end this week’s Broadsheet post. Now, let the tirade below the line commence…
Derek Mooney is a communications and public affairs consultant. He previously served as a Ministerial Adviser to the Fianna Fáil-led government 2004 – 2010. His column appears here every Monday. Follow Derek on Twitter: @dsmooney
Looking for stocking fillers that won’t empty your pockets.
Read on.
Charmaine Kenny, of The Irish Workshop, online home of Irish crafts and whatnottery, writes:
Two weeks to go folks! Here are some Irish-made gifts that you’re unlikely to find on the high street, and that might just surprise and delight on Christmas morning… All of these items are available on The Irish Workshop, and will make it on time for Christmas.
1. Turf Fire Candle €16.50
The comforting smell of a real turf fire is magically captured in a scented candle by Belfast’s Bearded Candle Maker. This is a perfect little gift for people who don’t have a solid fuel fireplace. Oh and they have a ‘Midnight Mass’ scented candle too.
2. Rustic Fern Scarf €25
Foxford Woollen Mills are well known for their high-quality and cosy blankets and rugs, but they have a wonderful collection of scarves that are just as high-quality and cosy. There are 10+ designs to choose from.
3. Illustrated Map of Your Home Town €25
Illustrator Richard E Dalton has 25+ towns in his repertoire of town maps including Navan, Naas, Enniskillen, Westport and Dundalk. A particularly nice gift for the returning emigrant.
4. Mr. Pocket Sewing Kit €29.95
Pippablue have a series of sewing kits for crafty children and adults alike. Mr. Pocket is our favorite. He can be made by hand, or using a sewing machine. And we love that his body is made from Irish tweed from Tipperary.
5. Love is in the Éire Print €20
Super cute. Super clever.
irish-made stocking fillers to broadsheet@broadsheet.ie marked ‘Irish-Made Stocking Fillers. No FEE!
From top: Denis O’Brien, Noel Rock.
In yesterday’s Sunday Business Post.
Fine Gael TD Noel Rock wrote a column about Independent News and Media (INM) and its pension cuts – some of which will amount to 70% – describing the company’s moves as “appalling”.
He also referred to the pockets of INM’s biggest shareholder, Denis O’Brien, without naming him.
Mr Rock wrote:
“… But what shifts it from appalling to repugnant is that INM is a massively profitable company, in large part because workers agreed to write down the value of their pensions by 40 per cent in 2013.
“INM announced some months ago that it made a profit of €37 million in 2015. It will have a Euromillions Jackpot figure of €87 million in pure cash burning a hole in its corporate pockets by the end of this month.
“…Sadly, and wrongly, this is not illegal in Ireland. It is in Britain.
“…While Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar is investigating the possibility of intervening in the forthcoming High Court hearing on the capital restructuring of INM and asking the court to consider appropriateness of capital restructuring when it’s closing this pension scheme, it’s certainly worth asking if a “wait and see” approach is good enough, or whether we need to directly intervene.
“…[INM shareholders] also benefited when banks, including the state-owned AIB as well as Bank of Ireland, wrote off almost €140 million in INM debt. These are banks that we bailed out.
“So every single person in Ireland was involved in the indirect bailout of INM. We wrote off their debts, and they crushed their own pensioners to the tune of two-fifths of their entitlement.
“We didn’t take that hit as a society so that, three years later, the company would come back, throw its pensioners under a proverbial bus, and suck all the money out of the company for the shareholders we, effectively, did a deal with.
“Nor did we do it so that the company could use the cash it is taking off pensioners and transfer it directly into the pockets of its largest shareholder, by buying Newstalk or any other asset he happens to have.”
Yikes.
Noel Rock: Why the INM pension scandal should concern and anger us all (Sunday Business Post)
Rollingnews
‘Sup?
Yikes!
Also: YAARRRGGHHH!
Portmarnock Strand, Dublin 13, yesterday.
Thanks Graeme Kelly
This morning’s Irish Sun
On Friday, Gary Meneely reported in The Irish Sun that the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) is investigating allegations that a Munster-based garda sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl.
Mr Meneely reported that the garda, against whom the allegations have been made, “is based in a busy station and involved in some of Ireland’s most serious crime cases”.
Further to this, Mr Meneely reports today:
“…we [The Irish Sun] have learned the gardaí failed to contact the appropriate child protection agencies as rules of conduct dictate.
“It is understood that concerns — that the young girl had been abused by a senior officer — were raised to gardaí around three years ago. But it was only when a separate complaint was made to the Garda Ombudsman that GSOC referred the concerns to the relevant children protection agencies.
“…Gardaí have acknowledged that on this occasion a referral to the HSE Children and Family services was not made. This was is in contravention of the responsibility for reporting in accordance with the Children First Guidance document — the national guidelines for the protection and welfare of children in Ireland.
The District Officer failed to retain in writing a record of the decision and the justification for not initially reporting the alleged child protection issues in compliance with the HQ directive.
Garda quizzed over sex attack on 11-year-old girl (The Irish Sun, December 9)
Joe Dole
at
Part 4: Match-head partakes in some healthy venting…
Joe Dole is a weekly webcomic with a continuous storyline. Previous parts here.
Further to US president-elect Donald Trump becoming Time magazine’s Person of the Year.
The latest video from Jonathan Pie, who sez:
Trump is man of the year, May is arms dealer of the year and Farage is twat of the year.
This morning.
The Central Bank of Ireland has released the residential mortgage arrears and repossession statistics for the third quarter of 2016.
The Central Bank writes:
The number of mortgage accounts for principal dwelling houses (PDH) in arrears fell further in the third quarter of 2016; this marks the thirteenth consecutive quarter of decline. A total of 79,562 (11 per cent) of accounts were in arrears at end-Q3, a decline of 3.1 per cent relative to Q2 2016.
The number of accounts in arrears over 90 days at end-September was 56,350 (8 per cent of total), reflecting a quarter-on-quarter decline of 2.1 per cent. This represents the twelfth consecutive decline in the number of PDH accounts in arrears over 90 days.
Buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage accounts in arrears over 90 days decreased by 2.4 per cent during the third quarter of 2016. At end-September there were 14,518 BTL accounts in arrears over 720 days, with an outstanding balance of €4.3 billion, equivalent to 18 per cent of the total outstanding balance on all BTL mortgage accounts. There was an increase of 5.4 per cent in the number of BTL accounts where a rent receiver was appointed; this follows on from an increase of 1 per cent in the previous quarter.
Residential Mortgage Arrears and Repossession Statistics: Q3 2016 (Central Bank of Ireland)
Meanwhile…
In Saturday’s New York Times, Liz Alderman reported:
The Tobun family never missed a rental payment on their modest brick rowhouse in eight years. But in February, the couple, who have two young children, received a letter warning that they would be evicted when their lease expired. Forty of their neighbors got the same notice.
When they went to investigate, the tenants, in the working-class suburb of Tyrrelstown, discovered a trail that led all the way to Wall Street.
After Europe was ravaged by a financial and economic crisis, the giant investment bank Goldman Sachs snapped up huge swaths of distressed debt in Ireland, including the loans of Tyrrelstown’s developer in 2014. The developer [brothers Rick and Michael Larkin, of Twinlite] now wants out of the rental game and is selling the properties. As the owner of the loans, Goldman will reap a large portion of the proceeds.
Goldman has nothing to do with the possible evictions here. But because American banks have played such a large role in Europe’s housing recovery — and have made huge profits in the process — they have become the main target of a growing backlash among homeowners and renters.
“Somehow, these funds have gotten involved in our community,” Funke Tobun said. “They’re profiting, but it’s the people who are being made to suffer.”
Wall Street has become the biggest new landlord in Europe, as American financial firms have swept into cities, suburbs and towns to take to advantage of the fallout from the worst economic downturn since World War II. In the last four years, Goldman Sachs, Cerberus Capital Management, Lone Star Funds, Blackstone Group and others from America have bought more than 223 billion euros’ worth of troubled real estate loans around Europe, nearly 80 percent of the total sold.
The firms have made the usual calculation: buy distressed investments on the cheap during tough times, betting that the outlook will eventually turn and riches will follow. And the firms are paying little or no tax, by employing complex strategies that often involve subsidiaries with no operations or staff.
The huge profits and dubious tax strategies have made Wall Street a major object of frustration and anger, as people grapple with evictions and higher mortgage payments. In some cases, the Wall Street firms are passive players, the money men behind the landlords, developers or banks that are exerting force. In other cases, they are direct participants taking action.
…Ireland is now enjoying a robust recovery. But growth has been fueled partly by financial maneuvering, and the real underlying gains are far from even. More than 5,000 people have been left homeless by the crisis, with the government subsidizing many in shelters.
Mrs. Tobun does not have many options. She does not want to move farther out, since it would mean changing schools for her son who has special needs. A nearby rental is too expensive. Rents in Ireland have risen around 20 per cent since the crisis as home construction dried up after the bust.
…Like other Wall Street players, Cerberus came into the country quietly, creating a local subsidiary under a different name and setting up a complex and extensive web of interconnected businesses.
There are the 13 subsidiaries in Dublin, all with Promontoria in their names. They have no employees and no offices. They are all registered to the same address on Grant’s Row, a letterbox near Parliament. Those subsidiaries, in turn, are subsidiaries of holding companies in the Netherlands, more than 110 of which had the Promontoria name.
The structure has helped Cerberus profit in Ireland…
Wall Street Is Europe’s Landlord. And Tenants Are Fighting Back (New York Times)