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What you want to say – 1st August 2018 August 1, 2018

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
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As always, following on Dr. X’s suggestion, it’s all yours, “announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose”, feel free.

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1. Paddy Healy - August 1, 2018

Government Making it Easier to Evict Home Owners And Tenants by Authorising Sale Of PTSB Loans to Vultures. Over 20,000 people to be threatened of which 50% likely be Evicted (David Hall)

Housing and Homelessness https://wp.me/pKzXa-wc

Leo Varadkar, Asked to Comment on RTE said: “ I hadn’t Heard of That, that is news to me to-day”!!! Varadkar, Finian McGrath, John Halligan and all ministers are responsible.
Denial by Finance Minister Donohoe on Morning Ireland was misleading. He only denied that he couldn’t reverse the ECB requirement not that he couldn’t prevent the sale !!

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2. ar scáth a chéile - August 1, 2018

From the bit i caught , the hurling documentary on rté the other night had a lot of the tacky pseudo epic waffle that blights discussion of the game these days ( including John Mullane’s side commentary which to me is cliched puffery ). A mate summed it up in a text to me:
“We are hurling. We are short puck outs. The club is everything. We are the club. We are me. The GAA is us. I am him.”

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ar scáth a chéile - August 1, 2018

and as identified by Peter Sweeney https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.rte.ie/amp/982052/
there are too many scores with the light sliothar and its getting like basketball.i remember going to Offaly v kilkenny Leinster Championship ( pre backdoor) in 93. It was adownpour and the ball didn’t go out of play from throw in for what seemed an age – magificent . It’s rare to get a sustained passage of play like that now and we are losing one of the features of the game – open play that is often more exciting than the actual scoring

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3. Gearóid Clár - August 1, 2018

A comment from a user on broadsheet.ie regarding our local racist soapbox, politics.ie:

dav
August 1, 2018 at 11:46 am
Oh, I don’t normally do this, but is politics.ie dead forever? Seems to have gone out with a whimper..

Cruel Summer

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WorldbyStorm - August 1, 2018

I had wondered. Dipped back in during the referendum to see if it was taking the temperature of matters. It surely wasn’t.

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Starkadder - August 1, 2018

Used to post there years ago. It always did have a right-wing bias, but there were sensible folk there as well. I left P.ie
about 2009-10.

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WorldbyStorm - August 1, 2018

Agreed, some very sensible folk. I was amazed by how bad it had got in the last number of years.

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4. Starkadder - August 1, 2018

In view of the discussion about Hannah Gadsby a few
weeks, ago, I thought this was interesting: Picasso’s “Guernica” as an
anti-fascist statement.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/04/guernica-anniversary-spanish-civil-war-franco

Note also that “Guernica” includes a woman weeping over her dead child- contradicting Gadsby’s statement that Picasso only depicted women as sex objects.

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WorldbyStorm - August 1, 2018

It would seem Gadsby was waaaayyyy too reductionist.

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internationalfrontdisco - August 5, 2018

Right. Because depicting weeping mothers of dead babies is a way more sophisticated feminist position than sex objects.

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Starkadder - August 6, 2018

“Right. Because depicting weeping mothers of dead babies is a way more sophisticated feminist position than sex objects.”

I think you misunderstand my argument. Gadsby said Picasso ONLY depicted women as sex objects. I pointed
out he depicted women as mothers and intellectuals as well. Not often, but enough to invalidate Gadsby’s arguments.

Also, bear in mind what’s Gadsby’s answer to political
problems? Not socialist feminism. Not striking, protesting
or voting for left-wing parties. No, Gadsby’s heroine is
Hillary Clinton. The only politican solution Gadsy mentions
in “Nanette” is how wonderful everything would be if only Hillary Clinton was in charge of the US. (Gadsby’s Australian-why doesn’t Gadsby mention any feminist Aussie politicians in “Nanette?”)

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5. Tomboktu - August 2, 2018

Visited my parents this evening. While there, I was looking at my phone and I noticed a new WiFi connection.

Yes, my father explained, there’s an App somewhere in the house.

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6. Paddy Healy - August 2, 2018

Chairman of Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee Accuses Minister Donohoe of Lying on Protection of Homeowners and Tenants following PTSB Sale of Loans to Vultures-Irish Independent https://wp.me/pKzXa-wc
Deputy McGuinness(FF) said it was wrong of the Minister for Finance to say that the protections the borrowers had with PTSB on their loans would travel with the loan to the new lender.
“That is simply not true, it’s not correct and Paschal Donohoe knows it.”
“We’re constantly told by Government that the protections that are in place travel with the loan and that simply has not been the experience of those caught up with vulture funds. This will be that a significant number of people will lose their homes

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7. meru - August 2, 2018

really do wish that clr would take a look at the four courts.
when a person who has only been to there on one day weeks previously, can be so familiarily greeted by their Group4Security is really depressing.
Why do not the nation’s own Gardai oversee all security at the nation’s (own???) four courts?

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Barnes - August 3, 2018

Cause its cheaper.

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EWI - August 3, 2018

Cause its cheaper.

And that’s the kindest interpretation.

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meru - August 3, 2018

finance seems to be what the high court is all about? or mainly? and that Global lse250 company group4security are overseeing every solicitor and barrister that is putting any case there, is a dubious scenario?
with global money in situ, the high court will probably remain out of reach of the poorer cases; are be only for those who can attain e10k, e20k, to bring a case.

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8. Paddy Healy - August 3, 2018

Blood Spattered Gate From Murder Scene of Sophia Toscan Du Plantier Gone missing also pages from murder file missing!!
Corrupt Irish Elites https://wp.me/pKzXa-17e
No Garda Corruption -you understand!-Garda Síothcána Ombudsman Commission Report
Wouldn’t it be strange if Experienced Senior Gardaí left evidence of corruption?
What a misgoverned country!!!

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meru - August 3, 2018

aaa shurrr paddy; we really want gardai who have no clue of bad.

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9. Gerryboy - August 3, 2018

Will the trial in absentia of Ian Bailey in Paris be presented (by whom?) with all this information about vital evidence and clues concerning the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder going missing? Are French newspapers going to pick up on the facts revealed in this latest enquiry? It amounts to what in their language is known as a ’cause celebre’.

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10. EWI - August 3, 2018

I would hope that IALPA resist being led down the garden path by Fórsa (former IMPACT) to a Mulvey ‘mediation’, the favoured method by Nerney’s Court apparatchiks in washing their hands of disputes and keeping chummy relations with management:

https://www.rte.ie/news/2018/0803/982826-ryanair-pilots/

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11. EWI - August 3, 2018

The new head of the British armed forces says that there shouldn’t be investigation of potential crimes carried out by his organisation in the North, ‘otherwise we will lose the moral high-ground.’

https://www.rte.ie/news/2018/0803/982884-northern-ireland-veterans/

The extra-legal ‘Appaling Vista’ defence by the British state is maybe still alive and well?

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12. Paddy Healy - August 4, 2018

From The FB Page Federal Democratic Socialist Republic
Proposal For “An Irish Sovereign Socialist 32-County Assembly” To Define Socialist Republicanism https://wp.me/pKzXa-tz
Fiachra Mac Luaidh :Wouldnt it be great if socialist republicans cpuld come together to form an irish sovereign socialist 32 county republican assembly where we agreed on a definition for our kind of socialist republicanism, a detailed constitution that gave guiding principles or a guiding framework, so that future generations could clearly point to that tradition of socialist republicanism that they ascribe too? Or would that be too logical, too revolutionary, too much in the spirit of republican co-operation and taking ownership?

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13. Michael Carley - August 5, 2018
WorldbyStorm - August 5, 2018

That is grim. Sign of very worrying times.

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14. Paddy Healy - August 5, 2018

Government ‘ideologically incapable’ of addressing homelessness – Father Peter McVerry Irish Examiner July 31
(Ministers Finian McGrath and John Halligan are supporting this !-Why are they being allowed to escape criticism even on the left? Paddy Healy) https://wp.me/pKzXa-wc
The homelessness crisis is getting worse and the Government’s solutions are not working, according to Father Peter McVerry.
Father McVerry says he has not changed his mind that the Government are “ideologically incapable” of addressing the problem. There are now just under 10,000 people living in emergency accommodation in Ireland.Father McVerry cannot see things changing.He said: “They(Government) will address the private rented shortage at the top level rather than at the bottom level where low-income families have to try find a place in the private rented sector”

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Gerryboy - August 5, 2018

So who in Irish society is ideologically capable of addressing homelessness and acute housing shortages? The Catholic church? The Georgian Society? The National Heritage Council? The Dublin Chamber of Commerce? PBP? The Greens?

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Polly. - August 5, 2018

I am hoping the voters will rise to the challenge.

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internationalfrontdisco - August 5, 2018

Yeah, since you asked, the PBP are ideologically capable, as per their bluntly started policies. They just need the people to rise to they challenge.

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Gerryboy - August 5, 2018

and vote for whom, so that a massive social housing building programme will be government-financed and launched?

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internationalfrontdisco - August 5, 2018

The PBP, who are for it?

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WorldbyStorm - August 6, 2018

But that would – with no disrespect to PBP who I work with myself regularly to have massively more candidates elected etc so while ideologically they and a number of others are likewise well positioned in truth in concrete terms they’re not. Still it is an interesting point re ideologically… I think in previous generations FF and the LP would have been tbh, but now…

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internationalfrontdisco - August 6, 2018

Is there someone else more tactically plausible to vote for?

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internationalfrontdisco - August 6, 2018

I guess that comes down to inside baseball constituencies.

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WorldbyStorm - August 6, 2018

It depends I’d agree on the constituency. In some instances it would be PBP, in others Solidarity, in others again Left Independents and in others again possibly the WP, and dependent upon how they go SF. But even if we look at them in the aggregate, and apologies for the pessimism, but this is borne of the maths of the situation, there’s no prospect of a broad left majority because there aren’t sufficient broad left candidates and there’s no prospect of them being voted for in sufficient numbers to see them elected.

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wolfie - August 7, 2018

architecture may be a crucial part of the homelessness crisis. what’s the bet that fine gael would be whoop-the-hoop to build some huge council dreary estate of all precisely the same housing, as ‘Stock’ housing.
they just will Not address the situation of, in this day and age, persons/some, not being in the 20th century, approved life pattern; and to factor in a mix of buildings.
and it may be way about time that some Councils began to acquire some of the 19th cent. housing in city centres, for conversion.

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Polly. - August 7, 2018

I would love to see that, both because it is a ready made way to achieve mixity, and to save buildings, but I can already hear builders making the case that it is more expensive to renovate and adapt than to build new on green or brown field sites.

It is or it isn’t more expensive, depending what you count as relevant costs, but it’s certainly easier for builders to slap up something brand new.

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EWI - August 7, 2018

architecture may be a crucial part of the homelessness crisis. what’s the bet that fine gael would be whoop-the-hoop to build some huge council dreary estate of all precisely the same housing, as ‘Stock’ housing.

FG is not, and never really ever was, in favour of providing public housing (the neo-liberal ILP types neither). What’s the crucial feature of prefabs modular rapid ‘volumetric’ housing? The extreme unlikelihood of it being eventually sold to and materially-benefitting the working class.

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15. Gerryboy - August 6, 2018

So, around the country, we need to vote for Brick-and-Cement candidates? How do we distinguish them from the Milk-and-Water candidates?

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WorldbyStorm - August 6, 2018

Fair point even joking. You makes your choice, you takes your chances – hasn’t it always been the way?

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16. Paddy Healy - August 6, 2018

Elections are important but they are only part of the answer. And at the beginning of a campaign they are not the most important part. FF, Gn, FG, Labour supported domestic water charges. Now there are no domestic charges for normal use.

Why Are We Not Having Mass Demonstrations On Housing?
We are on our way back to before the land war and the land acts in the late 1800s. Except this time its urban living accomodation not farming land. Labour-Fine Gael Government Caused This -Paddy Healy
Housing and Homelessness Crisis https://wp.me/pKzXa-wc
Comment By Barnes on Cedar Lounge Revolution
“The goal appears to be short term stability and no one worries about the mid term.
It’s the same in many cities across Europe. Should we do as new Zealand does and recognize that open markets mean the ability for huge amounts of outside cash to come in and exploit the local populace without giving much return.
I think we should. It’s clearly an issue. ”
Reply by Paddy Healy
We are on our way back to before the land war and the land acts in the late 1800s. Except this time its urban living accomodation not farming land. Huge and increasing amounts of rent leaving the country. Irish citizens excluded from buying over-priced houses and forced to pay exorbitant rents. Remember the Land League’s 3 Fs-Fair Rent, Fixity of tenure, Freedom of Sale. Its needed again!
Fine Gael and Labour introduced the vulture system with tax incentives added for the vultures-and Almost No building of local authority houses.-Total dependence on the market including over-use of Housing Assistance Payments which drive up rents. Mortgage repayment on one bed apartment in Dundrum-1000 Eu per month, rent on same apartment 1500 Euro per month- landlord makes massive profit because renter cant get mortgage! This must not continue
Why are we not having mass demonstrations?
I-Res-Reit letting 2,600 dwellings in Dublin announced half-yearly profits of 69 million to-day-up from 31 million last year!
I will address the reason why we are not having mass demonstrations shortly and how this should be remedied

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Barnes - August 6, 2018

Paddy,
In economics there is the relationship between capital and labor. Both are needed, one makes the other productive. If we start to ask about the inflow of foreign capital then it will be only small time before it’s counterpart is questioned.
Now, question away there can be no sacred cows but I’m just highlighting that’s where the conversation goes.

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Daniel Rayner O'Connor - August 6, 2018

Actually, the anti-immigrant frenzy that is being stirred and maintained across Europe ( and in Britain) has not been started by any conversation about stopping the influx of foreign vulture capital.

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WorldbyStorm - August 7, 2018

Yep. Agreed DRO’C. And there’s another aspect, take it in relationship to this state and housing, immigration is not the key ingredient. Lack of investment by government after government and an indifference or hostility to social solutions to this issue are the key aspect.

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Daniel Rayner O'Connor - August 9, 2018

Let’s get this clear, if I do not understand your arguments it is because I do not understand what to economic school you belong. It is clear that you are defending neoliberalism, consciously or unconsciously, but I do not see where you get your idea that restriction on imported wealth must mean restrictions on labour: that unless one is prepared to allow capital to be brought into the country there can be no full employment. Obviously, you are no marxist (unless a Zeppo one), but you do not seem to follow the tenets of classical political economy either. After all, it was originally these that predicated that labour produces capital.
I gather that your conclusion is based pragmatically on the experience of the years here before the slump. It is worth remembering that this open door policy to foreign capital saw one of Ireland’s major restrictions on foreign immigrants, Macdowell’s racist referendum of ’04. It is also worth remembering that the employment supplied by these investments disappeared like the snows of Autumn when the slump hit us. it is worth remembering that the said slump made little affect on the state’s population; by your argument, it should have caused greater immigration control and general emigration. Above all, it is worth remembering that the whole celtic tiger binge was maintained by dedicated capitalists; a socialist government would have handled matters differently.
As to your q.: do I support Paddy Healy’s call to restrict , if not stop the flow of money entering this state? Yes, I do, in principle, tho’ we may disagree on the details. In fact, I was advocating something similar years ago when Paddy denounced the idea as a gross capitulation to bourgeois nationalism. Perhaps, friend Barnes, you will come round too, some day.

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WorldbyStorm - August 9, 2018

Apologies, not sure where this comment will wind up on this thread, but isn’t there a degree of confusion here between the two of you which is clearly unintentional on both parts.

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Barnes - August 9, 2018

I’m not sure it’s unintentional.

I’ve never seen so many leaps made per post.

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WorldbyStorm - August 9, 2018

Well perhaps if the misperceptions were untangled – for example that you definitely weren’t saying in a comment that DRO’C was calling for a left nationalist party, and that he picked up that bit incorrectly from your comment and so on…

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Barnes - August 9, 2018

Yeah sure, but sure I kept pointing that type of thing out over and over.

All his responses are to points I haven’t raised.

”
I do not see where you get your idea that restriction on imported wealth must mean restrictions on labour: that unless one is prepared to allow capital to be brought into the country there can be no full employment”

Where does all this come from?

I don’t get the barnie and friend Barnes stuff either.

Fair play, your in mediation mode but it’s all good

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WorldbyStorm - August 10, 2018

Don’t want either of you to feel I don’t have your back as best as is possible.

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Barnes - August 7, 2018

Daniel,
Agree 100% but I think that it’s actually unrelated to the point I was making.
This is not about the frenzy and how it came about but is about the interlocking nature of investment inflows and labor.

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Daniel Rayner O'Connor - August 7, 2018

There is no necessary interlocking nature of investment inflows and labour. If there were, we could expect to see a left nationalist movement developing demanding controls on incoming investments while being studiously silent on drowning asylum seekers.
It jest aint gonna happen, Barnie.

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Barnes - August 8, 2018

Again you seem to be inferring a point not being made. First about the origins of the anti immigration frenzy in Europe and now about some apparent desire for a left nationalist anti immigration party and how such a fictional entity shoukd react.

Back to what I wrote. There is a relationship between capital and labor because if you have exhausted your current labour supply you can employ your capital. This isn’t my idea this is economics. If as Paddy suggested you restrict capital then you will invariably result in a restriction, even if unintended on labor entering. Unless we are all going to stand around the one machine looking at it. So what are your thoughts in Paddy’s proposal to restrict foreign capital.

I could not but help look at your last sentence and wonder about it.

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Barnes - August 8, 2018

That should be you can’t employ your capital.

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Daniel Rayner O'Connor - August 8, 2018

The suggestion that I was advocating, or just wishing for a left nationalist party is beneath contempt.
Restrictions on capital must lead to restrictions on labour? Pure economic determinism. What about the capital that is here already and is sending potential capital out of the country? Might not the workers, native and immigrant have a say in working the machines that Barnes suggests can be worked only by an influx of vulture capital?

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Barnes - August 9, 2018

You get that the only person suggesting that is you Daniel?
I said you were inferring, in quite a strained way, the wrong thing about what i wrote and you still are.

Your idea about domestic capital being sufficient would appear to fail to explain the massive influx of funding that this country experienced in the Celtic tiger.
I see that your final sentence is an appeal to the workers of Ireland. It’s stirring stuff but it’s not connected to any point previously made and isn’t part of a discussion. Just a straw man exercise.
So I’ll clock off here.

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Paddy Healy - August 7, 2018

It has bee correctly pointed out to me that land is now also been confiscated. I did not men to imply otherwise

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Daniel Rayner O'Connor - August 9, 2018

See above *16, 5th entry.

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Daniel Rayner O'Connor - August 10, 2018

‘If we start to ask about the inflow of foreign capital, it is only a matter of time before the counterpart [labour] is questioned.’
Your words, Barnes. If that does not mean that challenging the supply of foreign capital to Ireland must must lead to arguing for restrictions on foreign labour, then what does it mean?
Or are you just mucking about?
I suspect that its the latter.

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EWI - August 9, 2018

We are on our way back to before the land war and the land acts in the late 1800s. Except this time its urban living accomodation not farming land. Huge and increasing amounts of rent leaving the country. Irish citizens excluded from buying over-priced houses and forced to pay exorbitant rents. Remember the Land League’s 3 Fs-Fair Rent, Fixity of tenure, Freedom of Sale. Its needed again!

There’s a lot of merit in distilling down it down to a catchy manifesto which reflects the quite deliberate nature in which all this is being driven by FG policy (and restraining the WP/SP/SWP etc. from forming the usual circular firing-squad).

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17. Paddy Healy - August 6, 2018

Earlier Discussion:
Alibaba – April 8, 2018
I see the Housing march yesterday attracted 10,000 people. That’s not exactly setting things on fire. Not yet. But that is not to say it cannot happen in time to come.
It won’t be helped by the non mobilisation of some parties like Sinn Féin, as mentioned by Paddy. Nor will it be helped by those who insisted on staying away because of Labour party members in some organisational ranks. If a demonstration is called on the housing crisis, to shun it is simply sectarian.
On the plus side, the demo had some union sponsorship. It attracted a broad coalition of organisations and it could make headway if political cop on prevails.
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Paddy Healy – April 8, 2018
I agree with that. If any demonstration is called to force statutory declaration of a housing emergency it is damaging the movement to shun it.

Paddy Healy To-day: The claim by organisers including Sinn Féin that 10,000 marched is big exaggeration. Other reports put the number as low as 3000. I attended the demonstration. As an old “demo” hand since the early sixties (civil rights, PAYE, H-Block, Water Charges etc), I was surprised at its small size. I therefore walked back through the march estimating the numbers behind the banners of large organisations to inquire further.. The total number who actually marched was about 5,000 at most.
Clearly there are huge problems on the left and in the trade unions which have not been solved and need to be solved URGENTLY!

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18. Paddy Healy - August 6, 2018

As Alibaba correctly observed on even the 10,000 estimate ” That’s not exactly setting things on fire”

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19. HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS CRISIS | Paddy Healy's Blog - August 6, 2018
20. Paddy Healy - August 6, 2018

Demonstration For Emergency Action To Remedy Housing and Homelessness Crisis https://wp.me/pKzXa-wc
Tomorrow, Aug 7, 5 pm, GPO Dublin
Direct Action: Take Back The City!!
Sponsored By Dublin Central Housing Action, Irish Renters Union, North Dublin Bay Housing Crisis Community, Take Back Trinity, Blanchardstown Housing Action Committee, Brazilian Left Front, Migrants and Ethnic Miniorities for Justice

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Paddy Healy - August 7, 2018

That is now to-day 5 pm GPO

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21. EWI - August 6, 2018

I see that Jeffrey and Ian Jr’s ‘Causeway Institute’ refuses to leave the news (another letter about ot today, a non-denial denial by the Bahrainis). For those who aren’t aware, the allegations mostly centre around this little enterprise being a consulting shop for regimes who need ‘Ulster’ expertise in how to ceack down on populations and get away with it:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/human-rights-charity-concerned-at-bahrain-links-of-ni-companies-1.3496486

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22. EWI - August 7, 2018

‘The Daily Express has learnt that one proposal put forward was to wait for a Corbyn election victory and then to use the large group of moderate Labour MPs to prevent him from becoming prime minister.’

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/999804/jeremy-corbyn-labour-leadership-coup-brexit-antisemitism

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23. Paddy Healy - August 7, 2018

TODAY! CHANGE OF TIME FOR HOUSING DEMO
HOUSING ACTION TODAY! TODAY!, 6.30 pm, GPO Dublin
(Note Change of time from 5pm to 6.30PM)
Demonstration For Emergency Action To Remedy Housing and Homelessness Crisis https://wp.me/pKzXa-wc
Direct Action: Take Back The City!! Please Support!
Sponsored By Dublin Central Housing Action, Irish Renters Union, North Dublin Bay Housing Crisis Community, Take Back Trinity, Blanchardstown Housing Action Committee, Brazilian Left Front, Migrants and Ethnic Miniorities for Justice

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24. RosencrantzisDead - August 7, 2018

Is anyone else tired of this Mary McAleese vs. the Vicar of Rome palaver?

For all of its the coverage it receives, this surely ranks about the same as someone trying to get Portmarnock Golf Course to admit women members.

(For those outside Ireland, see here for an example of the ex-President’s crusade to reform the RC Church)

Yet, everywhere I go I must suffer people who think this is the bravest move they have ever witnessed. Words like ‘inspirational’ and ‘formidable’ are used. Am I alone in feeling this way?

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WorldbyStorm - August 7, 2018

I’m not agin it, but I did think this morning that it had gone on quite some time and might be subject to a law of diminishing returns.

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RosencrantzisDead - August 7, 2018

What is there to be agin, though? None of these criticisms are particularly new. Some would have been made in 1917, making the former Head of State’s contribution very, very tardy.

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WorldbyStorm - August 7, 2018

Ah, but you know yourself, it’s one thing if one is outside it, but if one is inside it can be very difficult to realise the true contours of the issue, or be willing to appreciate them. I’ve a good friend who is my age and recently did courses in sociology etc – suddenly he’s got class politics and structures in a way that, despite me knowing him for a long time he didn’t see in quite the same way. He’s one of the most intelligent people I know but his framing was (despite my own efforts 😉 ) hegemonic until now. I think looking at McAleese it’s clear that the penny has dropped, and dropped again and again and again in the last decade. What really intrigues me is what the RCC does back…

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WorldbyStorm - August 8, 2018

Just reading Dermot Ahern’s comments this morning though it strikes me she’s got a deeper purpose in this… and certainly she’s right to publicise the events of 2003/4.What she describes is a direct attempt to influence the response of this state by the Vatican.

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25. EWI - August 7, 2018

‘Protestant hurling’, as wags on Twitter have been calling one of the national sports of South County Dublin, seems set to get a big wad of cash from Minister Ross:

https://www.rte.ie/news/2018/0807/983672-shane-ross-sport-funding/

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Liberius - August 8, 2018

“Protestant Hurling” = banter!!!
“Catholic Hockey” = er, sectarian bigotry? eh?

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Logan - August 8, 2018

Depends on the context surely, Liberius.
The only people I have heard using the “Protestant hurling” and “Protestant rounders” jibes in real life were well-heeled Catholic private school educated types from Malahide using it to jeer well-heeled Catholic private school educated types from Terenure that happened to play hockey.
Its not exactly incitement across the barricades of Short Strand.
Apologies if you were being tongue in cheek…..

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Liberius - August 8, 2018

I never said it was, I was just thinking what the reaction would be like if it were reversed, double standards and all that.

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Logan - August 8, 2018

You mean like if a well heeled Dublin Protestant said something about the GAA?
It’s not really comparable as in the mainstream (southern) Irish culture, Catholicism is simply the default, so who is to know if a Foxrock Protestant sneering at Gaelic football as “bogball” is making a sectarian crack, or has absorbed the attitudes of his wealthy south Dublin Catholic peers by osmosis?
To be honest, I think a south Dublin Protestant writing an article in say the Irish Times where he referred to hurling as “Catholic hockey” in a wan effort to be humorous, would just raise a smile from most, as he would seem to be “cute” and “ethnic”.
About all anybody might say is “Oh, look, the IT has found itself a Protestant version of Declan Lynch. Isnt that precious?”

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Liberius - August 9, 2018

I’m not really thinking about wealth here so much as political persuasion, a unionist calling hurling “Catholic Hockey” might well attract fairly negative attention from self-described republicans, and wouldn’t be as likely to be written off as quaint or just banter.

Although, with your talk of the well-heeled I’m becoming more interested in the sort of people EWI follows on twitter as I’d assumed they were of the Barry McElduff variety.

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WorldbyStorm - August 9, 2018

Was that last line really necessary Liberius?

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Liberius - August 9, 2018

Possibly not.

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Joe - August 9, 2018

Surely in a thread discussing banter and how it might be funny to some and offensive to others, Liberius’ last line was kosher?
On this posh boy Protestant/Catholic Dublin banter. I’ve been to three or four rugby matches in my life. The first was what they call a Colours match between UCD and Trinity in 1977 or 78. A famous game as it turns out because at the first ruck the lads went over the top big time and I witnessed the biggest mill on a football field that I’ve ever seen. It led to one sending off and several hand wringing press stories including an article in the Herald that the good hack opened with: “I wasn’t at the game myself but I understand that the behaviour on the terraces was even worse…”. Which it wasn’t. Not a blow was struck on the terraces. Just good banter. The UCD crowd’s chosen chant at the Trinners boys was “Oxford rejects, Oxford rejects”. I was a UCD boy myself but I assumed the Trinners lads would take up the obvious retort. It was an open goal but they spurned it. Obviously they weren’t as witty as me because if I was them, I would have replied with “Trinity rejects, Trinity rejects”.
PS: Obvs, the two crowds were both overwhelmingly Catholic.

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WorldbyStorm - August 9, 2018

To me it sits oddly in a series of comments on negative if low level sectarianism – potential, implied and otherwise, to make a very pointed reference about someone few would disagree was very visibly sectarian and link a commentor here to that. McElduffs actions were reprehensible – no need to try to link EWI to that even tangentially.

Banter is grand to a point but what you describe doesn’t seem to me to be sectarian – more about divisions within middle and upper middle class. Let them at it!

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Liberius - August 9, 2018

For what it’s worth many of McElduff’s defenders tried to make the claim at the time that it was all just a joke (which I think puts us in the banter realm), so while it was of a higher grade it was coming from the same vain of humour at the expense of the “other”; why should we be tolerating sectarianised banter of any degree of severity, surely tolerating one is just enabling the other?

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WorldbyStorm - August 9, 2018

I don’t tolerate any of it or anything – I don’t condone sectarianism whether ‘mild’ or ‘severe’ – don’t think any terms referenced here re religion are useful or funny.

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EWI - August 9, 2018

Although, with your talk of the well-heeled I’m becoming more interested in the sort of people EWI follows on twitter as I’d assumed they were of the Barry McElduff variety.

Knock yourself out, sunshine.

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EWI - August 9, 2018

Surely in a thread discussing banter and how it might be funny to some and offensive to others, Liberius’ last line was kosher?

I’d be interested in hearing why exactly you think it’s ‘kosher’, Joe. Do tell?

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EWI - August 9, 2018

“Protestant Hurling” = banter!!!
“Catholic Hockey” = er, sectarian bigotry? eh?

Jesus H. Christ, cop on to yourself.

They clearly meant it tongue-in-cheek, and more about the RC side more than the Protestant one.

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EWI - August 9, 2018

‘Catholic hockey’, by the way, isn’t remotely funny even on the face of it. Where’s the joke?

Maybe don’t give up the day job for stand-up?

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Liberius - August 9, 2018

Neither is ‘protestant hurling’, yet your wags obviously thought it worthy of leaving their brains and entering the twittersphere.

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EWI - August 9, 2018

Neither is ‘protestant hurling’, yet your wags obviously thought it worthy of leaving their brains and entering the twittersphere.

Oh, get a life, you’re being completely ludicrous. It’s a dig both at a certain posh population in South County Dublin/North Wicklow who would sneer at ‘hurling’, and at the non-posh GAA crowd to whom it exists in another universe.

It is, actually, funny.

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Geraldus Galwensis - August 10, 2018

In the republic of Ireland since 1922 the word ‘protestant’ has tended to have a middle class/upper class connotation. (There were not many working class protestants of the Sean O’Casey vintage in Dublin due to migration etc.) The Big House protestants – the ones that survived the bankruptcies following the famine – lived on, some of them in genteel poverty & the others hunting, shooting and living graciously. Some of them sent children to boarding schools in England lest they pick up the brogue accents of country (protestant) school mistresses in C of I local primary schools. On account of accents they were quietly regarded by villagers as West Brits or ‘unionists’ (southern variety). If they were ‘good employers’ and donated to GAA and other deserving causes, they were regarded as ‘the relics of auld dacency’ and their appearance, in full regalia, at the annual hunt to rid farms of unwanted foxes tended to brighten up the dullness of country life. There were/are some protestant farm families in Wicklow and elsewhere who could be termed small farmers, and I have known of a few protestant farm labourers.
The South Dublin social situation has been legendary. Irish Times small advertisements into the 1970s regularly offered domestic employment to protestant girls up from the country, and other hopeful country girls from similar families were lucky if they were accepted for trainee nursing places in the Adelaide Hospital. In the decades since the 1970s, particularly after the influx of catholic students to Trinity College, there has been a lot of middle class blending through inter-marriage, sport and professional associations. Suburban middle class has become bland.
In Ireland for historical and class reasons the word protestant has carried a lot of socio-cultural ‘baggage’ which is not so visible in other former colonies in Africa and Asia.

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WorldbyStorm - August 10, 2018

True – that said I’ve known a fair few working class CofI and Presbyterian Dubs.

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EWI - August 10, 2018

There were/are some protestant farm families in Wicklow and elsewhere who could be termed small farmers

I can vouch for this, not least in my own family tree.

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26. Paddy Healy - August 8, 2018

Vigorous Discussion on Left in Ireland Taking Place here (c.100 comments)
From Irish Republican Education Forum Facebook Page
Paddy Healy:This discussion and the composition of the “Left Speaks” (Belfast Festival) panel shows that the left is in a dire state. It is no consolation that the situation is as bad or worse in other countries including the UK. Will the debacle of the left in the Westminister election in the 6-counties be discussed. ? Committing to take seats in the imperial parliament even within a year of the commemoration of the first Dáil!!! The biggest left group in the 32-counties outside of Sinn Féin is the 1916 societies by a distance. I don’t see anybody on the panel from that side of the house (See Sean Bresnahans post on this page) . I don’t see anyone on the panel with a James Connolly position. This is my proposal and I am prepared to discuss it with anybody genuinely interested in finding a way forward; FOR A 32-COUNTY CAMPAIGN AGAINST AUSTERITY AND AN ALL-IRELAND POPULAR ASSEMBLY https://wp.me/pKzXa-tz It is derived from a marxist/trotskyist analysis of the next step needed to progress towards an Irish revolution.

Paddy Healy:Further to the Comments of Workers Party Activists Donal O’Driscoll and Terry Carberry- “but the only thing left about the 1916 group and their like is that they are a leftover from disgruntled and malcontent elements who refuse to move on in the real world” This mere abuse is a substitute for political argument. Dieter Rheinisch has posted Sean Bresnahans statement on this page.. Readers can judge for themselve. To my knowlege (I am a member of Workers and Unemployed Action), 1916 Societies have more than twenty branches north and south. They put 5000 people under their own flag on the streets of Dublin during the 1916 celebrations. I don’t know any other political body other than Sinn Féin which could do that. Could the Workers Party put 500 on the street behind a Workers Party banner??.

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27. Logan - August 9, 2018

I cannot seem to answer Liberius directly, for some reason, so not sure where this comment will end up on the thread.
Liberius said : “I’m not really thinking about wealth here so much as political persuasion, a unionist calling hurling “Catholic Hockey” might well attract fairly negative attention”.
That’s partly the whole problem, myself and Joe were talking about the posh boy Protestant/Catholic Dublin banter, which obviously is in a quite separate realm to with what goes on once you get a few miles north of Crossmaglen (although of course it is historically and culturally connected).
Posh boy or posh girl Protestant/Catholic Dublin banter is only nonpolitical as long as it stays within Dublin – once it moves north of the border, it acquires a quite different interpretation, and it is a bit obtuse to ignore this context
Somebody who throws out the “Protestant hockey” line with an acquaintance within Dublin could be the soul of discretion (or political correctness, if you prefer) if he is bringing some work clients from Bangor out to dinner.
But sometimes observers seem to miss this, and so can come out with something along the lines of “you cannot complain about the Catholic granny in Bannbridge getting intimidated by an Orange march if you simultaneously make a crack about “Protestant hurling” to your posh CofI coworker across the desk in your Baggot Street office.”
I suppose with social media now, people can forget who is witnessing comments, which can complicate things, but I think it still is in separate realms, so to drag in McElduff or whatever in this contexts is, as I said, being a bit obtuse.

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EWI - August 9, 2018

Somebody who throws out the “Protestant hockey” line with an acquaintance within Dublin

Or the posher parts of Wicklow.

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Liberius - August 9, 2018

That’s partly the whole problem, myself and Joe were talking about the posh boy Protestant/Catholic Dublin banter

We weren’t starting with the same frame of reference so as I wasn’t thinking about posh boys until you introduced them to the mix. I thought I’d made it clear that it was an actively political sort of person I was thinking of, maybe using McElduff as shorthand for that wasn’t a good idea, but I did explain the logic of it to WbS above and am not going to apologise for thinking that any leftist worth their salt wouldn’t be indulging in sectarianised banter irrespective of severity, who it is aimed at, in the earshot of,in the same county as.

Your CofI Baggot Street officer co-worker has as much right not be subjected low-level sectarian banter as anyone has a right not be be subjected to bullying behaviour even if the banterer thinks it’s all good natured fun. If that makes me some sort of PC snowflake then fine, I’m glad I’m a generation or two younger many of the other commenters on here.

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WorldbyStorm - August 9, 2018

Yeah, but no Liberius. You’re the one who made a ‘joke’ about EWI and McElduff which was at the least not taking sectarianism seriously. So it rings a bit hollow to say leftists shouldn’t indulge etc, when you’re happy to do precisely that to launch a gratuitous dig at someone on here. And then in almost the same breath to try to simultaneously take on the mantle of protector of those who might use sectarianism mild or severe and position yourself as a PC snowflake put upon by all us oldies…

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Liberius - August 9, 2018

You’re the one who made a ‘joke’ about EWI and McElduff which was at the least not taking sectarianism seriously.

The part about the well-heeled, that was a joke (albeit a poor one, I’m no comedian and don’t pretend to be), the part about McElduff, wasn’t, it was an honest, if crude, view of the sort of person I was thinking of.

The PC thing is coming from this line from Logan;

Somebody who throws out the “Protestant hockey” line with an acquaintance within Dublin could be the soul of discretion (or political correctness, if you prefer) if he is bringing some work clients from Bangor out to dinner.

Now maybe it’s crass to acknowledge that there has been a change for the better in the degree of normality of off-colour comments, but I wouldn’t expect to get much push-back on this from my own peergroup; although I shouldn’t have risen to it, I’ve little idea what Logan’s age profile is so maybe I’m wrong.

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EWI - August 9, 2018

The part about the well-heeled, that was a joke (albeit a poor one, I’m no comedian and don’t pretend to be), the part about McElduff, wasn’t, it was an honest, if crude, view of the sort of person I was thinking of.

I’m still waiting on your report back to us on my Twitter feed… sunshine.

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WorldbyStorm - August 9, 2018

Honest if crude… no, it was snide and offensive and extremely unfair to EWI. And let’s be clear EWI and I have differing views on many matters, but one thing he isn’t is sectarian, and speaking of him in the same breath as McElduff is seriously out of order.

As regards your curious fixation about relative ages – you make an argument you simply cannot sustain because you do not know Logan’s age and FYI neither do I. Still on you go making a whole thesis about your supposed superiority of sensitivity in the face of people here who again you do not know the age of or indeed the circumstances of or whether they have interaction with people older, younger, or whatever.

Curiously, though, for all that supposed sensitivity and for all the talk about change for the better and degrees of normality and off colour comments and your peer group we still come back to the reality that it was you who when push comes to shove couldn’t resist making a sectarian inflected jibe at someone on here.

Self-serving stuff Liberius and no dispute.

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Liberius - August 9, 2018

Honest if crude… no, it was snide and offensive and extremely unfair to EWI. And let’s be clear EWI and I have differing views on many matters, but one thing he isn’t is sectarian, and speaking of him in the same breath as McElduff is seriously out of order.

That is not the perception I’d picked up from the comments that I’ve read over the years, however I’m willing to admit that my perception might have been wrong, and in that case it is out of order, I will accept that.

As regards your curious fixation about relative ages – you make an argument you simply cannot sustain because you do not know Logan’s age and FYI neither do I. Still on you go making a whole thesis about your supposed superiority of sensitivity in the face of people here who again you do not know the age of or indeed the circumstances of or whether they have interaction with people older, younger, or whatever.

Maybe I’m wrong to think of it in an age way, and I do accept your argument below that there aren’t age silos, however it does feel like that at times, again that might just be my own perception, that my own peergroup is less inclined to this sort of thing; but I accept that might not be the case.

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WorldbyStorm - August 9, 2018

I’ll happily leave it there.

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EWI - August 10, 2018

That is not the perception I’d picked up from the comments that I’ve read over the years, however I’m willing to admit that my perception might have been wrong, and in that case it is out of order, I will accept that.

Thank you. I am equal-opportunity when it comes to dislike of nearly all Christian sects.

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EWI - August 9, 2018

We weren’t starting with the same frame of reference so as I wasn’t thinking about posh boys until you introduced them to the mix.

Are you really going to tell me that you’re unaware of say, the existence of a certain IA minister from South Dublin in the current government and his travails around hockey pitches for fee-paying schools? really?

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28. Logan - August 9, 2018

Liberius, you said “We weren’t starting with the same frame of reference so as I wasn’t thinking about posh boys until you introduced them to the mix.”

Given that the subject was introduced to the thread by EWI referencing Shane Ross and grants to hockey clubs, I would have thought the posh-boy banter aspect would be pretty obvious, as I said before, a different context than such comments if made referencing a hockey club in Portadown.

Regarding my age, I am in my early forties, so not that much older than you i think, perhaps, but I would agree that different generations have a different view on these matters. However I doubt that even the dewiest-faced 17 year old fresher would have much difficulty in differentiating the difference between the severity of such comments.

(By the way, watch for the ageism there Liberius! – granted quite a few of the posters here seem old enough to have joined the good old SFWP around the time of Jack Lynch’s last election campaign, but from my admittedly inconsistent reading of this blog, it seems a few of the regulars here are college lecturers in England, so they are probably better in touch with the mores of the “yoof” than you might think)

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WorldbyStorm - August 9, 2018

This age thing puzzles me. It’s not as if as one gets older one lives in age based silos with no interaction with others around us or lose an ability to see how different ages function or their views – indeed that sort of attitude that we are constrained strikes me as portraying a very limited view of how most people interact.

I’m a decade older than you Logan, and agree with what you’re saying, I’ve got a ten yo daughter for a start, a youngest brother just a little older than you, nephews and nieces in their twenties, friends I’ve known for years, the sort I’d go for a pint with – many through this site, in their early 30s ranging right through to their 70s (crazy stuff, but somehow I manage to have human interactions with people them and people twenty years younger than me) and so on). And re the yoof have lectured people in the 18 to mature student range since 2003.

Of course there are differences in attitudes across generations, but coming from a progressive and left viewpoint my sense is that what has happened is views that many of us around since the 80s, at least politically, hold have been normalised and spread more broadly, in relation to attitudes to gender, sexuality, etc.

It’s certainly odd to hear the idea that somehow people here who might or might not be older and who would have been politically active in parties that were explicitly against sectarianism would find it tolerable.

By the by having met him EWI is a fair bit younger than I am.

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EWI - August 10, 2018

By the by having met him EWI is a fair bit younger than I am.

Quite a bit of age difference. I look much older than I really am, and WbS appears to have discovered the secret to eternal youthful looks, the bugger.

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29. Paddy Healy - August 10, 2018

I had a discussion recently with Donal O’Driscoll on the Facebook page, Irish Republican Education Forum. I also posted my remarks here on Cedar Lounge Revolution In the course of the discussion, I described Donal as a Workers Party Activist. Donal has pointed out to me that though he has been attending political events, he has not been a card carrying member of WP for over two years. I fully accept this. It was an error on my part to ascribe also to him the remarks of another who denounced the 1916 societies on the page. Donal did not make those remarks. It was an error on my part to ascribe the remarks to him. I understand that Donal has had health issues in recent times. I apologise for any distress caused and wish him a speedy recovery.-Paddy Healy

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30. Paddy Healy - August 10, 2018

When I was younger, social democrats and stalinists used to use this joke as a put down:”There are 3 7 kinds of Trotskyist world wide.” It wasn’t that much of an exaggeration. I met most of them- nearer to 17. Now there is a new joke. Since the fall of the Soviet union and the turn of the Chinese leadership to capitalism, there are 57 kinds of communist part stretching from “third period” ultraleftism to right wing social democracy. Unfortunately it is not a joke. Trade union leaderships and social democracy worldwide through their capitulations to extreme capitalism, created a political vacancy among the poor. The left “communist” and “trotskyist” ,due to the exreme dislocation, rivalry and competitive recruiting(the lot nearest to you are the biggest enemy) were unable to fill the void. Right wing populists (eg Trump, Le Pen, Farage) are filling the void instead just as fascism did in the thirties followng the failure of the German left. If we all don’t come to our senses we will soon have a new Hitler in some large capitalist country-but this time he will have nuclear weapons and massively effective chemical weapons !!!

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31. Paddy Healy - August 10, 2018

A number of people have been saying on facebook that we have fascism already in Ireland. I don’t agree I understand the point that is being made. But we must be careful. What has been happening, particularly in housing and health, since the crash is a form of capitalist savagery visited on large numbers of people. But however capitulationist the Irish trade union leaders are, we still have non-state trade unions and elections in this and many other countries. If fascism had already arrived these things would have been abolished. and there would be widespread jailings and executions of trade union activists and ethnic minorities as well as wars and massacres between big powers in the home countries of big powers. THE MAIN POINT IS THAT there is still time and opportunity to stop this happening. The recapture of trade unions by the workers themselves is a key task-The capitulators in leaderships mus be removed.and the left must learn to co-operate in key tasks in good faith. Remember, even in Ireland, some of the poorest workers were mobilised by the Blueshirts in support of Irish Fascism. This had ppened on a large scale on Hitlers way to power. Now in France, with its radical democratic and left-wing tradition, MILLIONS of French workers who previously voted for the French Communist Party and the French Socialist Party (which was the ruling party a short few years ago) are now voting for Marine Le Pen-a fascist! We must use the time and political space we still have to ward off catastrophy before it is too late!

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32. Paddy Healy - August 11, 2018

Reorganise the Left at Home and Abroad
This work is urgent! Unless Stopped New Hitlers and Mussolinis Are on the Way! https://wp.me/pKzXa-17F
The first, second , third, and fourth socialist internationals are now effectively gone. But there are remnants of the second, third and fourth internationals in many countries including Ireland
I believe that it is now necessary to draw together workers groups of many backgrounds and histories at home and abroad. There are many political groups with origins in the 2nd, 3rd and fourth internationals in many countries, several with the same origin in some countries including Ireland

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33. Paddy Healy - August 11, 2018

Brief History of The Restoration of Capitalism in Eastern Europe and In Soviet Union. What are the Lessons for Socialists?? https://wp.me/pKzXa-17M
Leon Trotsky’s Predictions 1936–55 Years Before The Restoration!!!
Wikipedia: One of the founders of the USSR, later expelled by Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky devoted much of his time in exile to the question of the Soviet Union’s future. In time, he came to believe that a new revolution was necessary to depose the nomenklatura and reinstate working class rule as the first step to socialism (Otherwise, he said, capitalism would be restored-Paddy Healy). In 1936 he made the following (detailed) prediction:—-

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34. Paddy Healy - August 11, 2018

Letter from Dr Ed Horgan (Comdt. Retd) Published in Irish Times
Shannon “Stop-Over” Facilitating Saudi Atrocities in Yemen https://wp.me/pKzXa-Ut
” On 10 July a National Air Cargo plane on contract to the US military was refuelled at Shannon airport on route from an airbase in the US, and it went on to make deliveries to air bases in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Djibouti, before returning through Shannon on 12 July. Djibouti is just across the Red Sea from Yemen.”

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35. Paddy Healy - August 13, 2018

Gene Kerrigan: Housing, health, horror and hopelessness:
FULL Article https://wp.me/pKzXa-wc
Disgust is not enough. The horrors of homelessness are firmly rooted in the politics of greed, writes Gene Kerrigan
‘The shape and content of our society is being decided by greed’
“(Former Housing Ministers) Hogan, Kelly(Lab), Coveney and Murphy aren’t the brightest, but they’re not incompetent fools. Their leaders – Enda Kenny, Leo Varadkar, Eamon Gilmore and Joan Burton – have had enough competence to achieve and retain high office year after year. In serving us, though, one failure follows another. The problem is politics. The same hopeless right-wing obsession with the power of the ‘free market’.”

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36. Paddy Healy - August 17, 2018

Rents more than 26 per cent higher than the high point during the Celtic Tiger-Daft.ie https://wp.me/pKzXa-wc
Average rent across the country reached yet another peak of €1,304, more than €560 higher than the trough in 2011 and more than 26 per cent higher than the high point during the Celtic Tiger. Having set a new all-time high for the last nine consecutive quarters, rents grew by an average of 12.4 per cent in the year to June, outpacing growth in residential property prices as the stock on the market remains the lowest on record.According to the quarterly rental report from property website Daft.ie, prices across the State are €274 per month higher than the 2008 peak.-Irish Times 17/08/2018

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Paddy Healy - August 17, 2018

Ministers John Halligan and Finian McGrath, erstwhile leftwingers, are getting away with supporting the right wing extreme pro-business ideology causing this outrage!!!

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GW - August 17, 2018

An absolute rentier super-exploitation of workers outside their work-places through artificial scarcity and transfer of wealth from the poorer to the rich.

The potential for a mass movement against this is there, for anyone who wants to pick it up and run with it.

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CL - August 17, 2018

The Irish economy is run for the benefit of parasites and predators. Vulture funds rule.
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/how-vulture-funds-got-their-tentacles-deep-into-irish-lives-1.3426876

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GW - August 17, 2018

It’s not just the Irish economy, CL, it’s universal. I’m currently renting in a block of flats that’s been bought an sold and eventually landed with a US private equity fund.

I’m expecting a massive rent increase which can only by managed in these parts by eviction first.

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CL - August 19, 2018

‘A century after Bolsheviks swarmed the Winter Palace in Petrograd, Russia (now St. Petersburg), the Indian state of Kerala, home to 35 million people, remains one of the few places on earth where a communist can still dream….
Kerala’s communists embraced electoral politics and since 1957 have been routinely voted into power. Instead of being associated with repression or failure, the party of Marx is widely associated with huge investments in education that have produced a 95 percent literacy rate, the highest in India, and a health-care system where citizens earning only a few dollars a day still qualify for free heart surgery.’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-place-where-communists-can-still-dream/2017/10/26/55747cbe-9c98-11e7-b2a7-bc70b6f98089_story.html

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37. GW - August 17, 2018

Another example of how climate change is effecting local weather her in the floods in Kerela on the west coast of India.

The worst sustained flood in 100 years, at least a 100 have died, hundreds of thousands of people displaced. Water is being let out from reservoirs to protect the dams, adding to the flooding.

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38. Paddy Healy - August 18, 2018

Letter from Dr Ed Horgan (Comdt. Retd) Published in Irish Examiner 18/08/2018
Has Irish State Made Illegal Status Of Force Agreement With USA? Full Letter https://wp.me/pKzXa-Ut
“Serious crimes committed by US military personnel in Ireland will not be prosecuted in Ireland”
Dear Editor,
According to reports in the US Navy Times in March 2017 and August 2018, a US Navy officer was arrested by Gardai in March 2017, over an alleged rape of a female US Navy sailor in Dublin, and accused of violating Section 4 of Ireland’s Criminal Justice Act 1984, but instead of being charged with any offence in Ireland, the suspect was released back to US Navy custody.

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39. Paddy Healy - August 19, 2018

Recall The Dáil Immediately To Declare National Housing Emergency-Seamus Healy TD
Deputy Healy has called for the immediate recall of the Dáil to declare a Statutory National Housing Emergency to deal with the crisis in Housing and homelessness.
FULL STATEMENT https://wp.me/pKzXa-wc
“The Dáil should be recalled immediately to legislate for a housing emergency, to declare a moratorium on all evictions until the emergency is over, and to give the government powers to instruct NAMA not to sell land and property it owns to private developers and to make such properties available for social housing. The government must also be instructed to actually issue such an instruction to NAMA immediately”

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40. Paddy Healy - August 22, 2018

Following Seamus Healy TD, FF Deputies McGuiness and McSharry Call for Recall of Dail To Deal With Housing Crisis
FF TD accuses FF party leaders of having ‘no backbone’ on Regulation of Vulture Fund Bill https://wp.me/pKzXa-wc
Kitty Holland ,Irish Times Wednesday, August 22,
Fianna Fáil TD and chair of the Oireachtas Finance Committee, John McGuinness, has written to his party’s public representatives accusing the FF leadership of losing its “backbone” and seeking their support for an early recall of the Dáil.In particular he wants the Dáil to come back early to address the mortgage arrears issue and progress his bill to regulate “vulture funds”

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