Category Archives: Misc

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From top: Irish Water protest in Dublin city centre on Saturday; Dara Quigley

What I would have told the thousands at Saturday’s Right2Water rally.

By Dublin-born activist and blogger Dara Quigley (full text at link below)

Dara writes:

If it had been possible to blag my way past security and onto the Right2Water stage on Saturday, this is what I would have said:

“They said, when the water charges protest began, that it was a threat to democracy. As a human being, standing in front of a sea of humanity, it’s safe to say, they got that one wrong. We’re the ones saving democracy.

The government, the regime – they’d love to take voices, like mine, out of the equation. Voices at the sharp edge of austerity, voices at the sharp edge of a thousand economic cuts.

Let me save them some trouble. Tonight, I’ll be sleeping in a psychiatric hospital. Up until two months ago, I was dependent on methadone.

I’ve spent most of my life being controlled in one way or another.But, that does not make what I have to say any less important, any less valid or any less legitimate than what comes out of the mouths of the clowns and failed school teachers currently playing at being leaders.

They aren’t even a government. They are a glorified press department for EU officials, civil servants and insiders who operate under a veil of secrecy. Vulture funds and multinationals who operate in a protected environment of shadow economies and brass plates.

But we are seeing through the smoke and mirrors to what lies beneath.

The government, NTMA and NAMA have the cheek to tell us that they are acting in the best interests of the taxpayer. Which taxpayers? Because the people benefiting the most don’t seem to be paying much, if any, tax or contributing anything to this society.

We have a state broadcaster RTÉ, the R must stand for Regime because the state is the people.

RTÉ is outsourcing its responsibilities to the BBC. It took the BBC highlighting money bags changing hands to expose the corruption of NAMA. Selling our country off to vulture funds for the benefit of a select few….

…Natural diamonds are formed under extreme pressure and time. This regime has created a generation of diamonds who sparkle because of their flaws, not in spite of them. Diamonds are also tough and if you think feet on the street scare this government, voting terrifies them.

It’s time to take our responsibilities as citizens seriously. I’ve been to hell and back but the devil met his match and there is nothing in any of this to be afraid of, unless you have something to lose and that isn’t anybody standing here today.

…I know how much voting terrifies this government, I tried to collect more than one voter registration form at Rathmines Garda station. I was told it’s limited to one per person, this is simply not true. Who are the Gardaí protecting by limiting voter registration forms? Certainly not the citizens.

We are taught, from an early age, to fear revolution, we are told it leads to civil war. Does this feel like civil war to you?

Or does it feel like fun? Have some fun, report these crimes, march on your local station to register your whole area to vote and get out next Saturday for Repeal the Eighth march in Dublin.

Our economy and society is modeled on the behaviour of pigeons, survival of the fittest, everybody out for themselves.

The reality is more complex and beautiful than this regime can possibly imagine. In reality, we are more like a flock of starlings, producing intricate, amazing patterns all arising from one fundamental rule: no one bird is allowed to get lost.

This is the type of society I want to see, where no one person is allowed to fall between the cracks, nobody gets lost and no person is homeless. Jobstown are innocent.

Sparkle like the natural diamonds you are.”

Degrees of Uncertainty (Dara)

Pic: Dara

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Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope on RTÉ2 at 10pm.

A six-part series about two Cork girls whose lives revolve around partying in Dublin but who start to drift apart as one of them spirals out of control.

The clip above features Aisling (Seána Kerslake) visiting the pharmacist (Eileen Walsh) looking for the morning after pill.

Thanks Gareth

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derek

From top: Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou McDonald and Gerry Adams (centre) at a party strategy meeting in Ballyfermot at the weekend; Derek Mooney

How Sinn Féin conducts its change of leadership will determine if the transition into a ‘normal’ political party is genuine or merely an illusion.

Derek Mooney writes:

Yesterday was a busy media day for Sinn Féin’s Deputy Leader, Mary Lou MacDonald. Within the space of an hour she had appeared on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics and BBC 1’s Sunday Politics.

Mary Lou was doing what she does better than anyone else in Sinn Féin: taking no prisoners, firmly holding the party line and all without seeming unduly hostile or aggressive.

During the course of her one-on-one interview with BBC Northern Ireland’s Mark Carruthers; Mary Lou described Sinn Féin as being a party “in transition”.

Given the context, this was a reference to either: the potential for generational change in the Sinn Féin leadership, or to Sinn Féin’s ambition to be more seen as a potential party of government.

Perhaps it was a reference to both – either way, I am sure Mary Lou meant the phrase to convey the sense of a political party undergoing change and development.

I happen to agree that Sinn Féin is “in transition”, except that the transition I believe it is undergoing is into becoming a normal political party. It is a transition that it has been undergoing for some time, with varying degrees of success, but it is still an ongoing process.

Sinn Féin is not so much a “party in transition” as it is “transitioning into a party”.

The party leadership is an obvious example. It is not the only example.

Normal political parties do not have T.D.s collecting convicted Garda killers from prison upon their release, nor do they hail convicted tax evaders as “good republicans”, but for the purposes of this piece, let’s just focus on the autocratic nature of Sinn Fein’s leadership.

Though he is over thirty-three years in the role, we are expected to believe that no one over that time in Sinn Féin has ever been unhappy with Gerry Adams’ leadership or ever willing to challenge openly it.

For most of those 33 years obedience to the leadership of Adams and McGuinness has been a core principle – one that seemed to trump everything else.

But as the fictitious Chief Whip, Francis Urquhart, observes in the opening sequence of House of Cards: “Nothing lasts forever. Even the longest, the most glittering reign must come to an end someday.”

The blind obedience has started to slip over recent years. From the resignations of various Councillors North and South in the years after the 2007 election to more recent murmurings, including the resignations of 18 SF members in North Antrim in protest at the manner in which a replacement MLA was appointed and the Chair of Sinn Fein’s Virginia-Mullagh Cumann writing to the Irish News to say it was time for Adams to step down.

Even the most disciplined and united of political parties have various groups or factions not entirely happy with the leader.

Our most popular and electorally successful party leaders like Jack Lynch, Garret Fitzgerald or Bertie Ahern have had their internal party critics, even at times when their leadership seemed at its most secure and assured.

They either feel the leader is too progressive or too conservative, too weak or too strong, or they believe that their personal talents and skills may be better recognised if there was a new leader in place.

These stresses and pressures are customary in a normal political party. They are the forces that keep a political party democratic. They are also forces that grow over time, particularly after a leader has been in place for a decade or more.

Now, after over three decades of Gerry Adams’ leadership, it seems that Sinn Féin has a plan to do what other political parties do routinely and relatively seamlessly: change leader.

Except in Sinn Féin’s case it is a “secret” plan. Even the current Sinn Féin Deputy Leader concedes that she does not know what precisely is in this plan.

In most political parties the process for electing a new leader is transparent. People can see how potential leadership candidates are nominated and who has a vote in electing the new leader.

In some cases, this is done by an electoral college such as in Fine Gael where members of the parliamentary party have 65% of the votes; party members 25% and county councillors 10% or, as in the case of the Labour Party, it is done via a one member one vote system with all valid party members having a vote – though as we saw in the recent contest only the parliamentary party can nominate the candidates.

How will it happen in Sinn Féin? The stock answer from Adams and others is that the Sinn Féin Árd Fheis will decide, but how will that play out?

Will it really decide?

Will there be a real contest with rival candidates travelling to constituencies to meet those voting in the leadership election and set out their competing visions?

Or, will a new leader ‘emerge’, as the British Tory party leaders once did, following the intervention of a group of shadowy figures in Belfast with that decision gaining the semblance of democratic authority with a set-piece ratification at an Árd Fheis.

While I won’t hold my breath waiting for that change of leadership to actually happen, I am also a political realist and recognise that asking any leader to be specific as to when they plan to stand aside is to ask them to surrender their leadership at that moment.

How Sinn Féin conducts the change of leadership, whenever it happens, will be a major test of its transition. It will determine if the transition is merely an illusion or it is a sincere and genuine attempt to become a real political party.

Though I am clearly no fan of Sinn Féin, I believe that it is more the latter than the former, particularly as the organisation takes on new members and is compelled to allow more internal debate. Time will tell if I am right to be so optimistic.

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 mid-afternoon. Follow Derek on Twitter: @dsmooney

Rollingnews

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Finally.

Mattress Men will be in cinemas and on demand, from October 7.

But there will also be a screening of Mattress Men in the IFI, Temple Bar, Dublin on Thursday (September 22), at 8pm, followed by a Q&A session with Michael Flynn (Mattress Mick), Paul Kelly and director Colm Quinn.

The film blurb reads:

In an attempt to save his struggling mattress business, sixty-something Michael Flynn reinvents himself as the eccentric online personality ‘Mattress Mick’ under the guidance of his good friend Paul Kelly. Paul, burdened with debts and living with his family in inner city Dublin yearns to get a full-time contract working with Mick.

Using all his marketing savvy and entrepreneurial skills, Paul embarks on a mission to make Mattress Mick a viral sensation. Will Paul be successful in his endeavours? And will Mick finally overcome the challenges in their friendship and recognise the hard work and good intentions of his long-time friend? Mattress Men is a bittersweet and moving tale of friendship and the struggles of two men that is sure to delight audiences everywhere.

Mmf.

Previously: Going To The Mattresses

No Sleep Till Sundance

H/T (including headline): Lighthouse Cinema

This afternoon.

The Fianna Fáil think-in begins in the Seven Oaks Hotel in Carlow.

Hmmm.

Meanwhile…

Earlier: Taking The Michael

Previously: ‘It’s Almost As If There Was No C&AG Report’

Screech

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Joan Burton

Further to the trial of a 17-year-old youth, charged with the false imprisonment of former Tanaiste Joan Burton and her advisor Karen O’Connell in Jobstown, Dublin in November 2014, getting under way in the Children’s Court this morning…

RTÉ’s Legal Affairs Correspondent Orla O’Donnell reported on RTÉ’s Radio One’s News At One:

“Joan Burton told the court that being trapped in Garda vehicles on the 15th of November, 2014, was a very difficult and unpleasant situation. Ms Burton said she had received a warm welcome when she first arrived at An Cosán in Jobstown for a graduation ceremony. She said as they walked from the centre to an adjacent church, she was hit twice on the neck by some kind of water balloon and a young man was holding a camera in front of her face and saying, ‘talk to us, Joan’. She said she was anxious to continue her duties.”

“In the church, after giving her speech, she was advised to make haste to a Garda car which was going to drive her and her advisor, Karen O’Connell, away. She said there were people shouting and banging on the car, she said she was trying to keep her composure and was worried about children who were around the car.”

“She said that protesters were shouting a lot of vulgar abuse and using all the derogatory terms people use for women. Ms Burton said she was very apprehensive about what would happen to her if the crowd got the doors of the car open and she was looking around to see where she could run to. She said, after some time, they were moved to another car by gardai. They were later moved again and she said she flung herself into a Garda vehicle. She said afterwards she felt happy no children had been hurt and very happy to be safe and out of the car.”

Joan Burton gives evidence in case against teen accused of false imprisonment (RTE)

Earlier: Meanwhile, At The Children’s Court

Rollingnews.ie

UPDATE:

image

Sinead Cusack and her son Richard Boyd Barrett during Bloomsday 2016

 

On Saturday.

On RTÉ’s Marian Finucane show, Ms Finucane interviewed actress Sinead Cusack who is also People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett’s mother.

After Ms Cusack gave birth to Mr Boyd Barrett in 1967, he was adopted by Valerie and David Boyd Barrett in Dun Laoghaire. Ms Cusack and Mr Boyd Barrett were reunited some years later.

During the interview..

Marian Finucane: “Well, I mean, it’s well known now, that your son is People Before Profit and all of that. And you found him years…”

Sinead Cusack: “My son is not just People Before Profit. My son is Richard.”

Finucane: [laughs] Well, your son, Richard, of People Before Profit is where he would be known mostly by our audience. What age were you when you became pregnant?”

Cusack: “19.”

Listen back in full here

Earlier: Taking The Michael

Top pic: Dara Mac Donaill/The Irish Times

Meanwhile…

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The panel of the Marian Finucane show on September 4: Fianna Fail TD John McGuinness; Suzanne Kelly, a tax lawyer; Patsy McGarry, religious affairs correspondent at The Irish Times; Professor of Modern History  Diarmuid Ferriter; and Senator Michael McDowell

Anthony Sheridan of Public Inquiry writes:

To whom it may concern:

I wish to lodge a formal complaint against RTE for breach of its Public Service Statement 2015.

My complaint centres on the biased panel selection on the Marian Finucane Show as broadcast on Sunday, 4 September last.

Specifically, my complaint concerns the unbalanced and unchallenged views expressed during the discussion surrounding the Apple tax scandal.

The panel members were as follows:

Michael McDowell: Independent Senator and former Tanaiste and Minister for Justice.

Suzanne Kelly: Tax lawyer.

John McGuinness: Fianna Fáil TD

Patsy McGarry: Irish Times Religious Affairs Correspondent.

Diarmuid Ferriter: Professor of Modern History at UCD.

It is reasonable to describe all the panel members and the presenter, Ms Finucane, as individuals with conservative views that are mainly in line with the governing establishment.

It is also reasonable to describe the two politicians on the panel as public representatives with strong and uncompromising views on the political outlook of those who oppose the Government’s response to the Apple tax scandal.

Left wing political parties such as Sinn Fein, Anti-Austerity Alliance, People Before Profit and others who represent a significant percentage of the population were, by their exclusion, prevented from expressing a contrary view.

This is in breach of RTEs Public Service Statement 2015.

I quote:

Ensuring its treatment of current affairs and matters of public controversy, in addition to being impartial and objective, is fair to all interests.

It is also clear that RTE management is very well aware of the major changes taking place within Irish society.

I quote:

RTÉ today sits within a society, economy and media environment that is changing; and changing rapidly. Recent years have shaken public confidence in institutions and traditional authority.

Despite this awareness, or perhaps because of it, RTE management seems to be abandoning its objectivity and professionalism in favour of taking the side of State/Government.

The apparent packing of a discussion panel in favour of one side of the debate is also in breach of RTEs duty in law to be impartial.

I quote:

RTÉ has a duty in law to be accurate, fair and impartial, and to remain independent from all state, political and commercial influences.

Yours sincerely

Anthony Sheridan

Formal complaint against RTE for bias (Public Inquiry)

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[Adult Swim] animator and voice artist C. Martin Croker passed away last night at the age of 53.

An active producer for the Atlanta, Georgia-based peddlers of odd, fans will know Croker best as the voice of nihilistic praying mantis Zorak in long-running chat-show/cringefest Space Ghost: Coast To Coast and parody sitcom spinoff The Brak Show.

RIP