Category Archives: Misc

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Glenda Gilson with personalised Lindt Gold Bunny

The votes are in

To celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and with FOUR personalised Lindt Gold Bunnies to giveaway we asked you: if you could give a chocolate bunny to a fellow ‘sheet commenter who would that be.

You nominated people in your dozens.

Happy Molloy: “Please give a personalised Lindt Gold Bunny to Broadsheet commenter ‘Clampers Outside’ because he/she is happy, friendly and an example on how to be civil to those we disagree with.”

Dόn ‘The Unstoppable Force’ Pídgéόní: “If we are going to be saps, then I think Meadowlark should get it. She is always lovely and funny even in the face of complete stupidity and is touchingly honest about the state of her winter legs.”

Janet, I Ate My Avatar: “Please give broadsheet occasional commentator Janet, I Ate My Avatar the lindt bunny because my Mam once cooked my real bunny Nibbles when I was a kid ( he was digging up the garden and she’d from the country ) and I think it would help with the trauma to eat another bunny but this time with knowledge and purpose…”

The Old Boy: “Please give a personalised Lindt Gold Bunny to Broadsheet commenter Sarah Murphy because she may find herself in need of an emergency sugar intake more than most.”

We will contact all winners via email.

Previously: A Bunny To Call Your Own

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Free TONIGHT?

Paul Mullin of The White Hag [craft] Brewery, writes:

So we’re launching our newest mystery beer tonight in 57 The Headline [57 Clanbrassil Street Lower, Dublin 8]  and we’d like to invite all our loyal BS readers/Critics along..

We’re pouring FIVE beers on a tap takeover and giving away some freebies, fun starts at 7pm.

To win a bottle of our batch of Barrell Aged Black Boar (above centre) just guess what kind of new beer you think we’ve made?

Lines MUST close at 4.50pm

White Hag

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The Fenian Café, Falls Road, Belfast

While the majority of the merchandise on sale relates to historic republican figures and 1916 there are a number of items of questionable taste including ‘Union jack toilet tissue’.

“Almost everything we sell is of our own, we design almost all of it,” the staff member said.

However, he did add that while most of the items have historic significance some of the items were intended to be tongue in cheek and for the benefit of tourists.

Fenian cafe with ‘IRA’ sign defends Union flag toilet tissue (Irish News)

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Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams with the party’s new TDs at Leinster House this morning

Further to the yesterday’s post about media bias during General Election 2016.

Evan writes:

Having read your article on #VinB with Mick Clifford on media coverage through #GE16 here is a discussion from The Pat Kenny Show last Friday morning on Newstalk. It annoyed me so much I transcribed it (as below) and lodged a complaint about it.

This was a five-minute discussion with participants which included Pat Kenny, outgoing Independent Senator Averil Power, former political editor of the Sunday Independent and Renua communications director John Drennan and political commentator, former advisor to Bertie Ahern, Paddy Duffy.”

Grab a tay.

Pat Kenny: “Just, a by the way, in terms of Sinn Féin, because they are largely irrelevant to this discussion because they are not going to go into coalition with Fianna Fáil or with Fine Gael. What do you think did for their prospects, I mean they’ve improved their number of seats but at 13 whatever it was, point eight per cent was it, or something certainly less than 14%. It was not up to their expectations. I mean was it? They had no ambition really on the USC which would put money back in people’s pockets or was it the Special Criminal Court or?”

Averil Power: “I think it was two words Gerry Adams… was their leader.”

Paddy Duffy: “Yeah, I think it was the faulty arithmetic of Gerry Adams (A), and (B), no middle sector worker or higher is ever going to let Sinn Féin get near their pay packet, okay. Because they don’t believe in that crazy economics that they have, okay, and then all the other attendant things, Mairia Cahill and all of that sort of stuff and the sort of, the, the stronghold that the Central Committee has on the party as a whole, particularly the women who were quite obviously ill at ease during many of those days, and their Deputy Leader in particular”

Pat Kenny: “Micheál Martin has always been pushing the line that Sinn Féin, Dublin, is controlled by Belfast, is that…”

Duffy: “Well, obviously I don’t personally know, so, this is what people think…”

John Drennan: “It certainly was, it was certainly a strong image was were you letting the Army Council into the cabinet rooms of the State via the back door, if you voted for Sinn Féin? I think another thing to possibly bear in mind is that, was it Ruairí Quinn had a very interesting piece during the middle of the campaign, in the Irish Times on Saturday, where he talked about Labour not really being a party of working class people, and that…”

Duffy: “I agree with that.”

Drennan: “…and what struck me was that, to a certain extent, Sinn Féin are not a party of working class people, in that, in that they have sort of, they’re very opposed or seem to have great difficulty in the sort of tax cuts that would improve the lives of working class people and they don’t understand that working class people aspire to improve their lives, aspire to better education, better services, they’ve no concept of that and I mean if you look at the track record of Sinn Féin in West Belfast and the, the, the almost Stalinist…”

Duffy: “The state of it, the state of it..”

Drennan: “…the East Germany economy that Gerry Adams presides over whilst he flies over in airplanes to get his teeth done in America. They do not…they are not a party with which the working class identify with. And I think they were very much squeezed in this election too, by the multitiude of options that were, such as Averil herself in Dublin Bay North, that was competition to Sinn Féin that they would not have expected and would not have wanted.”

Kenny: “But as part of their overall project they have improved their number of seats. They are obviously hoping that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will go into one massive coalition which will allow them to be the largest party on the Opposition benches, not necessarily the loudest voices because you’ll have your Mick Wallaces and you’ll have all those other people who have made the running in the last Dáil.”

Duffy: “Yes, and the party has quite a quota now Pat, of intellectual young things who are very bright, very sharp, very good, very well trained communication-wise. But it’s the gospel they preach is wrong. The performance is fantastic.”

Kenny: “Well, it has to be said…”

Duffy: “…economically, I mean…. economically, yeah.”

Kenny: “In Dun Laoghaire, when we had our debate in Dun Laoghaire the young Sinn Féin candidate, and I was talking about Gerry Adams being perhaps a liability, a political liability, and I didn’t want to go through the list of charges for fear I would be accused of actually… you know…labelling him and he said to me “well, what are you talking about?”. So then I had to begin, reluctantly…”

Laughter

Kenny: “….but he said “I am a child of the Peace Process”. You know he doesn’t have any memory, he could read about it in the history books but it’s not in his DNA.”

Duffy: “And we have to give them credit, I mean we give them tremendous credit. Gerry Adams, [Martin] McGuinness and all that team and all around them for having brought us from that horrible fratricidal war to where we are – that’s to their greatest credit. Simply we don’t believe any of their economic policies.”

Drennan: “They got us into it in the first place.”

Power: “It’s not the legacy of the Troubles that’s holding them back it’s their modern day attitudes on certain issues like the Special Criminal Court. You know I’ve a constituency that includes Coolock and other areas that have been blighted by gangland crime.”

Duffy: “Yeah…”

Power: “And, and people simply don’t understand Sinn Féin’s attitude on the Special Criminal Court. The notion that you would expect ordinary people to serve on a jury who would go up against these kind of gangsters without protection, people just can’t…”

Kenny: “About half of their own supporters disagree with their policy to abolish the Special Criminal Court and another interesting statistic in one of their polls was that… I think it was  40% of their people didn’t trust them on running the economy…of the people that are going to vote for them…”

Laughter

Duffy: “That doesn’t surprise me…”

Laughter

Kenny: “Anyway I want to read you some of the texts…”

Listen back in full here (part 3).

Leah Farrell/Rollingnews

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Fianna Fáil’s Seán Ó Fearghail in the Dáil this afternoon

Fianna Fáil’s Seán Ó Fearghail has been elected as Ceann Comhairle of the 32nd Dáil.

On the fourth count, Mr Ó Fearghail gained 13 votes, bringing his tally to 74. Fine Gael’s Andrew Doyle gained 10 bringing his to 58.

There were 19 non-transferable votes.

Previously: Business Of Order

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From top: Hozier and recently retired RTÉ reporter Valerie Cox

Gareth Naughton writes:

Hozier will be in studio to chat about his global success, what the last two years have been like and what’s next as he prepares for that difficult second album. And we’ll have his biggest fans in studio to get answers to the questions they’ve always been dying to ask.

In the week that specialists at Tallaght Hospital identified injuries in teenage players normally associated with violent trauma, The Late Late Show will be hearing from rugby pundit George Hook on his own concerns about the effect of rugby becoming an increasingly higher impact game.

As he finds himself embroiled in controversy around his views on concussion in the game and Ireland out-half Johnny Sexton, Hook will be giving his very frank views on how extensive the problem really is and telling viewers why he believes the rugby authorities are sticking their heads in the sand rather than confronting it.

As much-loved veteran radio reporter Valerie Cox retires, she joins Ryan to talk about her stellar career and how a recent visit to the Greek island of Kos to cover the refugee crisis for a television documentary shook her to her core and convinced her that Ireland is shirking its responsibilities.

We’ll be hearing from Simon Weston who became an iconic symbol of the terrible impact of war when he suffered severe burns to his face after his ship was bombed during the Falklands War. Funnyman Reginald D Hunter will talk about making it big as a US stand-up on this side of the Atlantic.

FIGHT!

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From top: Leinster House this morning Dan Boyle

The opening of a new Dáil today contains the possibility of real change.

Dan Boyle writes:

Unlike the Mother of Parliaments, from which we have inherited many unnecessary and often silly procedures, the opening of our parliament lacks the pompous pageantry in which Westminster seems to revel.

The opening of a new Dáil is more like an All Ireland final day. Crowds of supporters there to support their team. Knowing glances and nods being cast in the direction of those famous players from previous championship finals. Those most known for their fouling seeming to be granted a perverse level of respect.

On my first day my Mother found herself in the visitors’ gallery sat next to Gerry Adams. Then he was still member of parliament and assembly member for West Belfast.

He began the dialogue. “You have someone here belonging to you Ma’am?,” he burred as if he were an Irish Clint Eastwood. She replied with appropriate maternal pride that it was I, Dan Boyle of the Green Party. The conversation, having been polite, friendly even, didn’t continue beyond that exchange.Retrospectively I would have liked The Ma to have reached the question “What was it like in the IRA, Gerry?,” .

The business of the first day of The Dáil is a number of set pieces interspersed with long periods of nothing happening. The election of the Ceann Comhairle, followed by the election of Taoiseach, is followed by the Taoiseach presenting his (it has always been his) government to the house.

There has rarely been any uncertainty in relation to any of this. The changes that could have been made have been studiously avoided. The opening of this new Dáil contains that doubt, a doubt that probably hasn’t existed since 1948. This uncertainty may mean that real change can at last happen.

Let’s hope so. It would be nice to see all TDs being truly equal. A Ceann Comhairle who insists that members of the Executive give answers to questions asked not mere responses.

A parliament where legislation drafted is informed by the contributions of each member who speaks in debates, and who when offering amendment to the legislation will only be impeded by the quality of the argument they make.

Committees would see research and pertinent questioning being rewarded, with grandstanding being derided as the loudest sound from the emptiest vessel exercise it is. We may even see senior civil servants emerge from the shadows to have accountability applied to them for their role in the decision making process.

Public appointments would be made through reformed committees, where applied experience rather than implied patronage would see the right, or at least more properly accountable, people being appointed.

In 2002, on our first day, Eamon Ryan and I shared the last four minutes of speaking time. My garbled two minutes were an attempt at revisiting The Gettysburg Address. I made the reference to government of the people, by the people, for the people.

We may be closer to that goal than we ever have been in our history. Then again we may not.

Dan Boyle is a former Green Party TD. Follow Dan on Twitter: @sendboyle

Top pic via Samantha Libreri

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Chairman of NAMA Frank Daly and Finance Minister Michael Noonan

You may recall the sale of Nama’s property loan portfolio in Northern Ireland – the biggest loss on a Nama loan sale for Irish taxpayers.

The sale is now the subject of investigation by the National Crime Agency in the UK and the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US.

You may also recall how Stormont’s Committee for Finance and Personnel carried out a ‘fact-finding’ review of the sale for eight months.

Publication of an 18-page report on the progress of this review was embargoed until just after midnight this morning.

It criticised Nama and Finance Minister Michael Noonan – specifically for Nama refusing to give oral evidence to the committee; for Minister Noonan not encouraging Nama to give the same; and for Minister Noonan not stopping the sale of the Northern Ireland portfolio once he became aware that bidders PIMCO were due to send a sum of money to Northern Ireland Nama advisor, Frank Cushnahan.

From the report…

For its part, DFP [Department of Finance and Personnel] provided initial oral evidence and papers on 23 July 2015, but subsequently delayed providing further evidence until 9 October 2015, after it had concluded an internal file review and engaged with the NCA.

NAMA, on the other hand, while agreeing to answer questions in writing, refused to give oral evidence. The reason cited by NAMA is that the appropriate forum to which it should account for its activities is the Oireachtas and to committees established by the Oireachtas.

While the Committee does not dispute this point, it believes greater co-operation from NAMA would have assisted it in fully understanding the DFP-NAMA relationship since 2009.

And:

As with the oral and written evidence received from the other stakeholders, including the documents received from the Republic of Ireland’s (RoI) Department of Finance and NAMA, the Committee placed the DFP papers in the public domain, except for seventeen documents relating to individual borrowers.

In this latter case, DFP cited data protection and commercial sensitivity concerns for its request that the documents were not to be released. The Committee, however, took legal advice on this matter and continues to pursue the issue with DFP.

And:

In addition to the aforementioned evidence gathering exercise, the Committee accepted an invite from the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to make a formal address on the progress of the review. This invitation was made in light of the respective committee inquiries into the Project Eagle sale.

During the address on 1 October 2015, the Chairperson also took the opportunity to point out that there was an increased onus on NAMA to appear before the Committee, even simply out of courtesy and respect for the institutions in Northern Ireland.

And:

The Committee notes with regret the decision of the NAMA Board not to suspend the Project Eagle sales process once PIMCO had disclosed to the Agency in March 2014 that PIMCO’s proposed fee arrangement with the Brown Rudnick international law firm included also the payment of fees to Tughans, a Belfast law firm, and to a former external member of NAMA NIAC. From the evidence to date, the Committee considers this development to be a core area of concern within the entire sale and purchase process. The need for further information and clarification in this regard underlines the case for NAMA attending an oral hearing of the Committee.

Whilst it is does not fall to this Committee to pursue, given the seriousness of the revelation by PIMCO, it is unclear why the Irish Government’s Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, did not intervene at this point, by exercising his general powers of direction over NAMA to suspend the sales process until matters were investigated fully. The Committee also notes that Minister Noonan did not inform the Northern Ireland Executive of this development. In addition, the Committee regrets that Minister Noonan did not encourage NAMA to attend an oral hearing of the Committee.

And:

The Committee established that NAMA ‘…had no knowledge of meetings between Mr Cushnahan and prospective purchasers of NAMA-secured assets in Northern Ireland…’ including whilst he was on the NAMA NIAC. This is deeply concerning to the Committee.

And:

The Committee also noted from the BBC (NI) Spotlight programme that the other former external member of the NAMA NIAC, Mr Brian Rowntree, stated that the NIAC members had access to information which was of a ‘commercially sensitive nature’ and which offered ‘commercial opportunity’ and would have been of some value to a bidder for Project Eagle.

This is of particular significance as it appears to contradict the position adopted by NAMA to date. For example, in written evidence to the Committee on 27 November 2015, NAMA stated that the external members of the NAMA NIAC ‘never had access to confidential information’. Furthermore, in evidence to the Dáil PAC on 9 July 2015, the NAMA Chairman, Mr Frank Daly, stated that the external members of the NAMA NIAC ‘did not gain any confidential information or any useful insider information from being a member of that advisory committee’.

Therefore, given these seemingly contradictory positions, the Committee recommends that a full examination is made of what precisely was discussed at the NAMA NIAC meetings and what information was shared with the NIAC members.

And:

The Committee found the refusal of NAMA to attend an oral evidence session particularly unhelpful. NAMA needed to be more open and accessible given the importance of the Project Eagle portfolio to the Northern Ireland economy. The Committee does not accept NAMA’s rationale for not attending an oral hearing of the Committee, especially given that Agency representatives have previously held many meetings with Ministers and officials in Northern Ireland.

Read the report in full here

Previously: Spotlight Falls On Noonan

Mark Stedman/Rollingnews

H/T: Namawinelake