Gene Kerrigan summed up the State We’re In in one word: screwed. He’s right, of course. We are screwed. It’s patently obvious that we’re screwed. The rapidity of Ireland’s descent into screwedity, and the depths to which we have plunged, is unparalleled in what the IMF calls the “advanced economies”. We are, let’s say, very seriously screwed.
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Dublin on Saturday (3 December) to protest against the devastation of Ireland's community sector. View a slideshow of images of the event below, and Paula Geraghty's video report here. {jathumbnailoff}
This was not a leak. It wasn't even a 'leak'.The 40-page document detailing Ireland’s budget plans for 2012 and 2013, and the covering letters of intent from Minister for Finance Michael Noonan discussed by the Bundestag’s finance committee yesterday were not faxed under cover of darkness from deep within the Department of Finance.
Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy has released a statement describing his experience of imprisonment in Ramla’s Givon prison. Murphy was one of the crew on the Freedom Waves flotilla intercepted in international waters by Israeli security forces on 4 November as it sought to breach the naval blockade of Gaza. He was imprisoned for 7 days by the Israeli authorities after the flotilla was intercepted and redirected to the port of Ashdod.
Protesters interrupted a speech by President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy on Friday with one simple question: “What about democracy?” Van Rompuy was delivering his speech - on the political and economic challenges facing Europe - at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. The EUI is the prestige university of the European Union. Many of the senior staff are former members or heads of European Union bodies, and a large percentage of the mainly post-graduate student body go on to take up jobs in European institutions.
Seven Irish human rights activists due home in Ireland from Israel this afternoon were prevented from boarding their flight out of Ben Gurion airport this morning by Israeli armed guards. The activists had been detained by Israeli authorities after their ship, the MV Saoirse, which was sailing with the Freedom Waves flotilla, was intercepted by Israeli soldiers on 4 November as it sought to break the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The last major opinion poll - the Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll - was published on Monday and showed Seán Gallagher with a strong lead. However, three online polls conducted after the final presidential debate tell a quite different story.
Donal Palcic is a lecturer in economics at the University of Limerick, and co-author, with Eoin Reeves, of the book Privatisation in Ireland: Lessons from a European Economy.
This week saw "the largest demonstration in living memory" in Greece as 500,000 people took to the streets in Athens to protest against a fresh round of austerity measures being voted through by the Greek parliament. Wednesday and Thursday saw a two-day general strike across the country.
Our corporation tax rate was thrown into the spotlight once again this week when it was revealed that Ireland is the third most popular ‘tax haven’ in the world for subsidiaries of UK FTSE 100 companies. On Tuesday (11 October), UK based charity ActionAid released a comprehensive dataset and report on the location of these subsidiaries.