Despite this blog being dead for a considerable time I thought it only proper to log in and express condolences at the passing of a (perhaps) once great (but mostly abortive) nation.
Courageous in the face of its long-term and crippling disability - an incapability since the middle ages to put petty personal differences aside in favour of the common welfare - Ireland suffered more than once the indignity of being subject to its neighbours; calling on the French, the British, the Germans and the Americans multiple times to bail it out and right its incapability to look after itself.
At some vague point in the earlier half of the twentieth century, Ireland did at least declare, if not successfully enact, its independence from all other nations.
Eventually though, dogged by its own apparently incurable handicaps, Ireland succumbed - in the end clinging on to life only through the sheer power of delusion and denial.
North Korean nuclear submarines set out for Ireland on Friday, to bomb all of its major centres of population from Cork to Belfast and wipe this likeable but terminally-idiotic nation from the face of evolution - thus sparing the rest of humanity any further embarrassment at having to share species categorisation with it.
God speed.
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The true ignominy of our current situation is not that our sovereignty has been taken away from us, it is that we ourselves have squandered it. Let us not seek to assuage our sense of shame in the comforting illusion that powerful nations in Europe are conspiring to become our masters. We are, after all, no great prize for any would-be overlord now. No rational European would willingly take on the task of cleaning up the mess we have made. It is the incompetence of the governments we ourselves elected that has so deeply compromised our capacity to make our own decisions.
Irish Times
Irish police have solved the mystery of a Polish recidivist who clocked up 50 traffic offences on different addresses and who was never caught, after one officer noticed his name meant driving licence in Polish.
An internal police memo cited by Irish papers on Thursday said officers taking details of Polish traffic offenders had been mistakenly using "Prawo Jazdy," printed in the top right corner of the driving licence, as the holder's name.
"Prawo Jazdy is actually the Polish for driving licence and not the first and surname on the licence," the police memo dated June 2007 said. "It is quite embarrassing to see the system has created Prawo Jazdy as a person with over 50 identities."
Yahoo.com
Reindoctrina.. education for all Gardaí now on diversity sensitivity and West Slavic languages.
Now heres something interesting:
Environment Minister Sammy Wilson has said firms should give jobs to locals ahead of foreign nationals in the current economic downturn. He said it made sense to give preference to people "with roots here". "A lot of people moved in because of opportunities that there were," said Mr Wilson, who is also a DUP MP.
Alliance leader David Ford said: "Whether somebody is from Carrick, Craigavon or Krakow, the best person should always get the job." "Mr Wilson needs to careful not to be seen to be encouraging people to return to the sort of times when a preference was given because of somebody's religion or indeed sex."
Eva Grosman, who publishes a Polish magazine for Northern Ireland, said politicians should be focusing on addressing the economic difficulties instead of trying to discriminate against migrant workers.
BBC News
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Not too long ago also, came this; from the recent Republican Sinn Féin Ard Fheis (via The Irish Bulletin) :
70. In this period of economic uncertainty RSF should insist on the employment of native workers in preference to migrant workers to insure that we do not return to the mass emigration of our Irish youth - Limerick Comhairle Ceantair
71. That this Ard-Fheis condemns all Irish employers who discriminate against Irish workers in the present economic crisis - Smith O’Brien/Colbert Cumann, West Limerick
It seems surreal saying this, but the DUP and RSF have both reached the same very sensible and admirable conclusion. Regardless of your wider political stripes this can only be seen as positive - as much for the fact it indicates Irish politics might be coming back down to planet earth as the implications for the Irish workforce.
I'm not surprised one bit however at the alliance MLA using sectarian-guilt as a rod to beat a dissenter to mass immigration/multiculturalism - I had long been waiting for that one to come into fashion. Frankly though it's absurdity is obvious. There is a pretty big difference between the contemporary problem - when employers are overlooking a swelling population of native born unemployed whilst importing foreign workers - and a time when there weren't many jobs anyway but protestant employers were deliberately overlooking catholics.
A new opinion poll shows that 70% of people do not want a rerun of the Lisbon Treaty. The poll also shows that if a new treaty was forced upon the electorate that it would end up being heavily defeated.
The poll was carried out by former staff members of the Catholic Hibernian magazine, who have now set up their own non-profit social affairs research organization Gael Poll. Famously the last Hibernian opinion poll which was published in the Irish Sun (June 4th) accurately predicted that the Lisbon Treaty would be defeated by a margin of 54 % for the No side versus 46% for Yes campaigners. On the day of the count -which took place nine days later- the actual result was 53.4% No and 46.6 % Yes. The uncanny poll prediction which was out by only a half a percent was the most accurate poll in the country.
Last week Gael Poll polled 501 respondents in Dublin, Cork and Limerick. The respondents were asked two straightforward questions:
Do you want another referendum on the Lisbon Treaty? A clear 57% said No as opposed to 23% who said Yes with 20% of people undecided. When pollsters discounted the don’t knows: an overwhelming 70% of people indicated that they did not want a rerun of the Lisbon Treaty, as opposed to 30% who did.
Wise Up Journal
People can quite clearly see the EU are trying to bully Ireland into accepting a treaty it doesn't want. Along with the fact the public are now thoroughly fed up with the present domestic administration (who happen also to be the ones pushing this treaty at them) and the crippling effect being in the eurozone is having on the Irish economy (Ireland is unable to determine its own financial policies and must put up with decisions made in the EU that are tailored primarily for the German/French economies) it's unlikely that this treaty will fare any better on its second run than its first.
When combined with the cost of living in the rip off republic the euro is damaging businesses in the border areas.
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The flight of shoppers across the Irish border claimed its first major victim yesterday when Superquinn announced it was closing its Dundalk store with the loss of 68 jobs -- and cutting a further 332 jobs in its other stores.
Superquinn blamed the closure of the Dundalk supermarket, the same town from which the Superquinn empire began in 1960, on the droves of shoppers going north to shop for cheaper groceries in Newry. "It breaks any retailer's heart to close a store, but recent developments in cross-border shopping have left us with no alternative. It is our hope to avoid any other closures as part of the programme," said Superquinn chairman Simon Burke.
Dundalk has been particularly hard hit by the fall in sterling and strengthening euro which saw thousands of shoppers bypass it in favour of Newry in the run-up to Christmas. While the main road into the Co Down town was gridlocked with motorists, shopping centres immediately south of the border were left empty.
Independent Senator Feargal Quinn who, along with his father Eamonn, founded the supermarket chain almost 50 years ago, and recently sold it for €450m, refused to comment last night.
Belfast Telegraph
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Buncrana's Mayor is calling on the British government to bring in the euro to help get Inishowen out of its economic hell.
He thinks the British government should now adopt the euro making life easier for Inishowen people, particularly those who work in the North and who have, effectively taken a 25 per cent wage cut as a result of the devastating exchange rate.
He said: "I have always felt the UK should bring in the euro, there is no question about it. In the long term interest of both Ireland and Northern Ireland there should be an equalization to stabilize the situation."
Derry Journal
A uniform and unified economic system across the whole island makes sense. Having one portion of the island administered by Brussels and the other by London is farcical and underlines the arguement nationalism has always grounded itself on - that Irish society is best understood and managed from within Ireland itself.
A few people have passed comment on the future of stirling and the british banking world generally, suggesting it is finished and time for the UK to join the eurozone. I however cant see how the eurozone has much more of a future, in Ireland at the very least. At least britain is only next door. Brussels is much further geographically and light years away in terms of how close and how aware of life in Ireland it is. Choosing between the two though is moot. Neither one is an option that will bring us out of economic and cultural chattelage. A single, natively-run system can be the only way forward.
A referendum on a united Ireland could be held before 2016, Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy has claimed.
The fading international spotlight on Northern Ireland and the current economic climate could create the right environment to go to a vote, the Sinn Fein MLA told supporters last night.
At a public briefing, An Ireland of Equals — the Peace Process and Beyond, held in the House of Commons, Mr Murphy added that reunification was not a spectator sport. “We were accused of setting 2016 as the date for the hundred-year anniversary. It may take longer,” he said.
“I actually think it could happen sooner than that in reality if we keep the momentum going when the economic realities and the political realities hit."
Belfast Telegraph
If a referendum really is on the cards in less than a decades time then I can only hope that Fianna Fáil get up north quick and get working. Irish unity makes good sense but it needs a political backer that doesn't also represent unrealistic social policies and, above all, doesnt violently repulse protestants - who will need to vote in favour of a united Ireland if it is ever to happen.
I have no faith at all in Sinn Féin ever bringing about a united Ireland. They have no strategy whatsoever on how to win around the majority of the population up north nor any clear view of a future Ireland that I would be willing to sign up to.
Hopefully FF's economic record and history of antagonism to SF down south will give them enough respectability to appeal across the old divides. Lord knows we need someone who will.
EU leaders have agreed on assurances to pave the way for a second Lisbon referendum in Ireland by November next year.
The plans, to be made public later today, would see the EU agree to allow Ireland to retain commissioner post in exchange for putting the treaty to the people again.
RTÉ News
Complete non news story. As soon as Ireland had said "No" Brussels had replied "Wrong answer". The time between the vote and now, when they finally admit that they do actually want the Irish to vote again, has only been as farcically drawn as it has by the propaganda war they've been waging. Since the vote they and the Irish political/media establishment have done nothing but lie, slander and distort "no" arguments in the vain hope that they will cajole the electorate back into their sweaty embrace. Democracy in action, folks: manipulation by an entrenched civil-service, backed by big business oligarchs, fronted by salesmen posing as leaders.
A joint operation by gardai and the Department of Social and Family Affairs has uncovered social welfare fraud involving more than €2.2m in false claims by asylum seekers so far this year.
Figures obtained by the Irish Independent last night showed that one Nigerian man and his wife had illegally claimed almost €33,000 a year in social welfare before the racket was discovered.
A snapshot of some of the biggest abuses include :
- A Nigerian woman who applied for asylum here in 2003 and was granted refugee status in 2005 and who was subsequently found to have a multi-entry visa for the UK, which she sought while living in Lagos. She had previously claimed in her asylum application that she had been forced to flee from Nigeria. She is still living here in receipt of rent allowance of €1,143 a month and payments of €245.80 weekly.
- A Nigerian man was stopped in Belfast on his way to Dublin, had two Nigerian passports, one which gave him permission to live in Ireland and the other to reside in the UK. He was registered to live here with his Nigerian wife on the basis that they had an Irish-born child but he had also been granted the right to live in the UK on the basis of a marriage to a Portuguese woman. He works in the UK but he and his wife claim social welfare benefits of €32,677.60 a year from the Irish State.
- Another Nigerian man was stopped in Belfast while in transit to Birmingham. He had been here to collect his monthly social welfare benefit of €2,240. He is suspected of sub letting a house in Longford and is stated to have left the country in 2005.
Independent
Few countries are as riddled with chancers, scammers and general parasites as Nigeria. Even other heavily troubled African nations are cautious of them. If our society's leaders had even an ounce of common sense between them they would've seen these people coming and slammed the door in their face.
But if that happened the liberals would cry: "Not all nigerians are scammers! Some are really fleeing persecution! Racism!!", which, whilst the first part of that is factually true, is overall an ignorant and naiive view. Most Nigerians dont leave because they are being persecuted, they leave looking to make a quick buck. Ireland is selected for it's overflowing wealth and willingly naiive population, not any other reason. Nigeria is also not a nation that we owe any assistance. If reaching out a helping hand to a needy few from a failing society such as Nigera is going to open our own society up to a host exploiters, wreckers and destabilisers - then we'd be fools to ever extend that hand.
The British military is experiencing a large rise in recruits from the Irish Republic, figures obtained by BBC Radio 4's PM programme have shown.
They reveal a four-fold increase in military personnel from the Irish Republic during the past three years.
Between 2005 and 2006, just 3% of recruits entering the military through its recruitment centres in Northern Ireland came from the Republic.
The figure so far this year is 14%, and officers believe it will rise further.
Michael Godman, 19, from County Offaly, is one of those who would like to join the British military, hopefully to become a sniper.
He says he wanted to be a soldier from a young age and it was an easy decision to approach the British rather than the Irish military.
"The Irish Defence Force - as the name suggests - is a defence force, it's not an army," he says.
Ciaran Curran, 23, says he wants to join to experience a combat environment.
"A friend of mine joined a couple of years ago and he was out in Afghanistan this year with the Royal Irish Regiment. He got his action and I want mine," he says.
BBC News
These kids are joining the british army looking for an "adventure". They want to go to the middle east, shoot terrorists and play at being a soldier. The Republic's own military really is pathetic, the worst in Europe I recall a report not long back saying, so they'd never seriously look there for a chance to get their kicks. It probably is true that most of them don't think too much about the oath to the queen when they make it, but then most people dont think, full-stop.
For more than 80 years 26 counties of Ireland have been a sovereign country independent from britain - which is supposedly something we Irish are fiercely proud of. Why then do why find this happening? Why do these kids think it acceptable to join the british army?
The elephant in the room no one wants to mention is just how close to britain Ireland is. The same people who will drunkenly belt out Amhrán Na bhFiann at Croke Park once a year are the same that will slavishly follow the various bits of trash that comes out of the british media every other day of the year. Much as we like to paint ourselves in a green and glowingly fenian light, the reality is that we normally only pay lip-service to the Irishness we say makes us so distinct. We are a cultural province of britain, a colonial marketplace for british peddlers and have been for years. The fervour sparked by the war for independence has gradually dissipated over the handful of generations that've followed it, in all perhaps but the 6 northern counties. The old routine never really went away. dominated by british commerce, media, language, fashion and ideas - the only alternative to which our political leaders have ever provided is that we make prostitute ourselves to the USA or to mainland Europe instead - we have no truely strong sense of being Irish that definitively separates us from being british.
This must change if we are to save ourselves from complete destruction as a distinct people. If we had good quality, rigorous military service for youngsters perhaps we wouldn't have them looking to join the dubious crusades of foreign armies - perhaps also they'd be better disciplined, in better physical shape and have a deeper sense of duty toward their nation & community. Perhaps if our media, politics and culture weren't all directly lifted from britain our youth might better know the difference between being Irish and being british. Perhaps indeed.
By Brett Stevens, taken from the Corrupt front page:
Modern political borders are rarely clean when it comes to dividing ethnic groups. Brittany, the west of France, is not ethnically French. People there are Celtic, related to the Welsh and the Irish. Just a couple of generations ago, Paris was so threatened by Bretons that if you were a parent in Brittany and you gave your child a Breton first name, civil servants refused to put it on the birth certificate. That would be laughable today.
When I first visited Barcelona, locals were not allowed to speak Catalan, wave the Catalan flag or dance their beloved sardana. Now, in public schools, children speak Catalan first. And every Sunday in front of the cathedral, locals gather in a circle to dance the sardana, celebrating their Catalunyan heritage.
The smaller ethnic groups support each other as well. In Barcelona, a local told me, "Catalunya is Spain's Quebec. We don't like people calling our corner of Iberia a 'region' of Spain ... because that's what Franco called it. We are not a region; we are a nation without a state."
CNN
The nation-state is a political creation emerging from the liberal idea of freeing people from aristocratic rule, and lumping them together by political convenience.
If Europe can maintain a European identity while doing this, it will mean that populations will have greater incentive to preserve culture, which will be good for the environment and stability of those nations.
If you have culture -- shared values, language, heritage and outlook -- you can always assess an action you're considering by comparing it to your cultural values. If it doesn't measure up, you reject it.
This enables you to keep your region of the world pure from the corrupting influence of commerce. Someone wants to build a giant stupid looking entertainment complex? "Um, no, in Catalan, we value contemplative quiet. So sorry!"
And the environment? Your population keeps itself in check because it's keeping commerce in check. Unchecked commerce demands more consumers and more workers; commerce, regulated, has to make do with what's there and forego the huge profits, the cheap imported labor, and other environmentally-destructive factors.
Pan-Nationalism, is not just a good idea, it's the future. The past belongs to dividing people by politics; the future belongs to the organic state.
Original post
The INLA in Derry have seized a batch of deadly weapons, including martial arts knives and an imitation gun, from young people across the city.
It's believed the gun - which was seized from a 16 year-old - was used in recent incidents in the Ballymagroarty area in which a masked and armed individual called at a number of houses, demanding cash at gunpoint.
The INLA says its volunteers seized the weapons after being contacted by concerned residents.
"The INLA is coming under increasing pressure from communities to take action against these activities," a spokeperson for the organisation told Foyle News. "We will keep a watching brief on the situation over the next few weeks. We are calling on people not to become involved in this activity or to carry weapons."
Derry Journal
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The INLA have no mandate to police local communities, the chairperson of the Derry District Policing Partnership has said.
Councillor Gallagher said while he wanted to see weapons removed from circulation, it was the responsibility of the PSNI to do so.
Derry Journal
They were approached by someone in the community about a problem; sounds to me like they've managed to get more of a mandate than the PSNI - who are still greeted with violence whenever they enter many parts of Derry. I'm ofcourse not necessarily suggesting the INLA are the best men for the job, or even that they have the broad consensual backing of the community - but someone, somehow would rather trust them than the police to get things sorted.
If we dispense with the bureaucratic nonsense and think about it sensibly, maintaining civil order is pretty much a common sense issue - burglars, drug dealers and muggers are not wanted in any sane community therefore we set up forces to keep them from running rampant and ruining the place.
With that in mind; if people in Derry don't want the PSNI coming in and ordering things, why can't they police themselves? Why not put the resources poured into such "cross community" efforts as the PSNI into local residential police corps, whereby people take responsiblity for their own areas and communities? This would still leave unanswered the issue of punishment and courts, but it seems to me that it would at least be a step closer to a sensible peaceful settlement on policing.
