Month: January 2010

Bertie Ahern, de-yartist

Suzy had the eyes peeled on somewhere none of the rest of us thought of interest. Go read her post.

Bertie Ahern, he’s an artist, didn’t you know.

Updated: Four thoughts –

1) Does this mean The Buke is officially deemed a work of fiction? “Cultural or artistic merit”, hmm… set me straight here, folks.

2) He has a tax clearence certificate now?

3) Shouldn’t it be Richard Aldous, not Bertie Ahern himself, who avails of this tax exemption.

4) I’m keeping this one to myself… I’m sure regular readers will know exactly what I’m thinking.

Whiddy Island Tribunal report

Update: the full version is below, made available by the Oireachtas.

I have started scanning the report of the Tribunal of Inquiry into the accident at Whiddy Island. I will upload it in tranches. It has also been OCRd. This is, I believe, the first time this document has appeared online.T

You can also view this Wikipedia page if you wish to read more about the Whiddy Island incident. It was an explosion of an oil tanker off the coast of Cork in the late 70s that caused the death of 51 people and serious environmental damage.



Donegal County Council's Budget-passing woes

A small sidebar piece on page four of today’s Sunday Tribune raised a half-smile-half-grimace from me.

Today’s edition hasn’t gone online yet, so I can’t link, quote or send traffic to Tribune.ie, unfortunately. However, the story to which I refer is pretty much a rewrite of this piece from the Donegal Democrat. One-line summary; the 10 Fianna Fáil county councillors in Donegal passed the annual council Budget while the other 19 councilors were out of the room.

Carolyn Farrar of the Democrat reports…

Labour Cllr. Frank McBrearty Jr said that Donegal Mayor, Fianna Fáil Cllr. Brendan Byrne, has broken the trust in the council chamber by allowing a quorum of 10 Fianna Fáil councillors to adopt the 2010 budget while the remaining 19 were in a meeting down the hall.

[…] This was Cllr. McBrearty’s first budget meeting and he said he was led to believe meetings would be adjourned and reconvened several times to allow for negotiations among parties, as they had been in the past.

“Dirty tricks politics is what it is,” Cllr. McBrearty said. He said the move will affect the way he sees the chair.

Note: Labour, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and one independent are in coalition to run the council.

How does the Fianna Fáil mayor, who is also the chair – therefore, neutral – feel? Ocean FM reports… Continue reading “Donegal County Council's Budget-passing woes”

Digest – Jan 3 2010

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Fiona de Londres of UCD on the Human Rights in Ireland blog, writes about the blasphemy law.

Cian O’Callaghan of Ireland After NAMA on NAMA staff being exempt from public sector pay cuts.

Belfast Gonzo of Slugger on dissident republican’s “uninspiring” New Year’s statement.

Suzy on the Green Party state board appointees.

Interesting piece on the possible non-illegalities and potential failures of the Athiest Ireland campaign of purposeful blasphemy by Colm MacCárthaigh.

Brendan Hughes of the Irish Internet Association’s Social Media Working Group on the opportunities for Ireland in 2010.

There has been a growing mistrust of all that is BIG. Big business. Big government. Big economy. Big media. Big brand. Big church. The past 18 months was particularly torrid for BIG. The corporations and institutions that dominate modern society, for increasing numbers, are no longer seen as the bastions of all that is good. The doubters are no longer just those on the fringes or with leftist leanings. Capitalists, communist and fundamentalist alike are taking a stand.

In many cases we are revolutionaries and not even aware of it. Have you transferred from a monopolistic brand in favour of a new market entrant? Have you read a blog instead of an opinion piece on a broadsheet? Have you purchased online from a foreign retailer rather than head to the local mall? There are many small acts that cumulatively and over time mark a clear shift in intention and action away from BIG organisations.

However BIG is not going away…

VonPrond on Student “Enterprise”. This raised a few questions for me. He notes that many students would be engaged in would could technically be called full-time employment. I worked about 30 hours a week while in college, I think, taking in freelancing and part-time working. I then quit part-time working (in Debenhams, oh, the glamour) and struggled freelancing for a while before taking two (unpaid) internships which led to reliable freelance work (for the time being). I should still be in college now, actually, but deferred the last year. Continue reading “Digest – Jan 3 2010”

JOD expenses OCR

When I originally scanned the expenses documents of former Minister for Tourism and Ceann Comhairle John O’Donoghue, they were images only, and individuals pages were uploaded as individual documents. To make it easier for reference, I have combined and OCRd the expenses.

Department of Tourism

JOD Turin
JOD Manchester
JOD New York
JOD London/Ascot
JOD India
JOD Berlin
JOD Venice
JOD Stuttgart
JOD Birmingham
JOD London
JOD Paris

Ceann Comhairle

Explanatory note and schedules (21 pages)
Domestic travel and one stop shop constituency expenses (935 pages)