Foreign holidays… July 21, 2020
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I didn’t think this came as much of a surprise, the news that:
Three out of four people on the island of Ireland are not contemplating a holiday abroad this year, a survey has suggested.
Even fewer are considering an overseas break in what remains of the summer, the research indicated, with 94% expressing a preference for a staycation.
Granted this was an online survey, so perhaps not the most robust – and carried out by a hotel group. It would be useful to get something a lot more solid by way of methodology. But there are basic realities at work here, not least the fact the Government continues to advise against non-essential travel abroad. Further that those countries open to Irish visitors are fewer in number. And so on.
Perhaps as important in its own way is that:
The body representing the insurance industry in Ireland has said that Government advice remains that people should avoid all but essential travel, and would-be travellers should confirm coverage with their insurer before booking holidays.
In a statement, Insurance Ireland said: “Insurance Ireland would advise all would-be travellers planning on booking a holiday to a green list country to check with their insurer whether they are covered first.
“Government advice still remains that only essential travel should be undertaken and we await further clarity on any change to this position.
“A green list does not equate to a relaxation of the non-essential travel policy.”
But put that aside, what of this intervention?
Alliance Party’s Health Spokesperson Paula Bradshaw, MLA for South Belfast, said travel corridors are making Northern Ireland very vulnerable and she would like to see a more consistent, whole island of Ireland approach to travel.
True. Very very true.
But wait:
Ms Bradshaw told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that she and her family are travelling to Italy, through Dublin, next Saturday.
On return, she said, her family will follow whatever travel advice is given in their local town.
She said it is a measured decision and that they will take precautions and not do anything to put anyone else in jeopardy on their return.
Fast forward mere hours following a twitter storm:
But later the Alliance Party issued a statement and Ms Bradshaw posted a series of tweets saying she had changed her mind.
“Like many people, I have a holiday booked, in my case to Italy,” she said.
“I should be clear when I said I would operate within the guidance, that obviously includes not travelling if the regulations and guidance at the time state that I should not do so. That is currently the case.”
Obviously. Well not absolutely obviously:
The NI Direct government website states that people are “strongly advised not to book foreign travel or travel abroad unless it is essential.”
However Italy is included on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s list of countries which are exempt from the restrictions on essential travel, and people returning to the UK from Italy are not required to self-quarantine for 14 days.
Not sure it was the most sensible place to book going to at quite this time and not sure the manner in which she framed it all was the best. Anyhow…
“It is important everyone, particularly in representative roles, adheres both to the spirit and letter of that guidance.
“I love Italy, and look forward to travelling there again when it is safe to do so!”
Curiously:
Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster said it was not for her to tell people whether they should proceed with foreign holidays.
She noted there were around 60 countries on Northern Ireland’s green list and people travelling to and from those destinations would not have to self-isolate when they come home.
No border poll? July 21, 2020
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What did people make of Micheál Martin’s statements late last week on a Border Poll.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he does “not see the possibility” of a border poll taking place during the lifetime of the new Government.
“But what I would like to see is significant work under way as to what a shared island would look like.
“I grew up in a tradition that wanted a united Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement was a fantastic breakthrough – yes it does have a provision for a border poll but also for the principle of consent.”
What’s interesting is that even that seems to bump into Arlene Foster’s expressed wish of ‘good neighbourly relations’. Is that quite the same thing as a ‘shared island’? And then there are obvious other aspects. Where is the sharing going on and with who? In truth it is not more accurate to say that the island is shared but that Northern Ireland is a shared space – it is, after all, there that the GFA functions (or not) most specifically.
And even the admittedly good news that the North South Ministerial Council is to meet later this month, for the first time in three and a half years, only underscores that reality. The Northern Ministers are by very dint of the GFA/BA structures in microcosm a representation of the ‘shared’ political context in the North.
I’m saying nothing July 21, 2020
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Sir, – Some of the views expressed by Patrick Honohan amazed Isme members (“Government must hold its nerve on borrowing as it reboots economy”, Opinion & Analysis, July 11th). Even in a worst case, where funds are provided to a business that fails, this capital does not disappear into thin air. It is paid in statutory redundancy to laid-off workers; and yes, it is paid to creditors and landlords. But in doing so, it bolsters their liquidity, and forestalls the chance of knock-on insolvencies. More than half of our current national debt of €205 billion consists of the private-sector bailout of our public sector in the last recession. That debt was incurred by citizens without pre-condition, in order to maintain our public services. A decade later, our indigenous enterprise sector has been shuttered by Government decree as a public health measure. It needs a bailout now, not as “payback”, but because the cost to the exchequer and society of maintaining the largest employment and revenue-generating sector in the economy dwarfs the cost of letting it go to the wall. – Yours, etc,
NEIL McDONNELL,
Chief Executive,
ISME,
Dublin 2.
Questions, questions… July 20, 2020
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But if the experts were wrong – if the virus could spread from seemingly healthy carriers or people who had not yet developed symptoms – the ramifications were potentially catastrophic. Public awareness campaigns, airport screening and stay-home-if-you’re sick policies might not stop it.
More aggressive measures might be required: ordering healthy people to wear masks, for instance, or restricting international travel.
Because given that is self-evidently correct, and should have been applied then, it still pertains now, so why are those measures currently being lifted quite so rapidly or ignored entirely?
That weekend poll July 20, 2020
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The poll IEL pointed to at the weekend from Ireland Thinks/Mail on Sunday is quite something. As IEL noted:
FG: 38% (+4) SF: 26% (-1) FF: 12% (-1) GP 5% (-3) LAB: 4% SD: 3% S-PBP: 2%
+Ind/Others: 10 (-) – June 2020
Obviously the headline figure is that of Fianna Fáil – nominally heading up the current administration. And it is an appallingly poor number for a party in that position. Of course the host of troubles that it brought with itself as it entered government and the following week or two surely didn’t help in warming people towards it.
As remarkably surely though is the fact that Fine Gael is up close to 40%. That’s a pretty remarkable achievement for that party. One has to wonder how many of those centre right voters are regretting that FG aren’t leading the government, or perhaps comforting themselves that in a way they are.
The GP losing 3% is hardly news. They might be well contented if that’s all they lose.
Sinn Féin is solid but not exactly stellar. Fianna Fáil’s continuing woes do not appear to have assisted it. Likely it picked up most of those voters who would go towards the party already. That said it can indeed claim with some justification to be leading the opposition.
And what of the rest. Not great numbers, look at the Labour Party (and therein surely is a cautionary example for FF). 4% is remarkably low. But none of the others are doing terribly well. Even Ind/Others on 10% seems a bit anaemic.
Of course all this is a bit academic. The government has only just been put in place, I’d imagine it will make at least a year, and if it does that then the chances of it sitting out a full term are good. In part because it is difficult to see what issue or set of circumstances would tip it over. The only ones who would gain from an election now are FG. And they surely won’t want to be seen to be the one’s initiating, even indirectly, any such contest. Fianna Fáil and the GP will no more want to go back to the voters than fly.
So, for the moment I’d think all is going to be static.
That said casting our minds back eight months, who would have thought we are where we now are.
Independent Left: Irish writers show solidarity with jailed Indian poet Varavara Rao July 20, 2020
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The latest from Independent Left, and a world premier of a poem by Gabriel Rosenstock.
‘In India,’ Arundhati Roy wrote in 2002, ‘if you are a butcher or a genocidist who happens to be a politician, you have every reason to be optimistic.’ Roy was referring to Narendra Modi, then the head of the state of Gujarat, and now (proving Roy’s characteristic clarity of political perception prophetic) the national prime minister. Modi was implicated in the notorious 2002 Gujarat riots, in which at least 1,000 Muslims were killed.
Left Archive: ‘Organise Against State Repression’, Revolutionary Struggle, National Question Collective, July 1981 July 20, 2020
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To download the above please click on the following link. rev-struggle-1-page-a4.pdf
Please click here to go the Left Archive.
Many thanks to the person who forwarded this to the Archive.
Dating from precisely 39 years ago one page document from Revolutionary Struggle National Question Collective issued during the Hunger Strike campaign argues for attacks on the enemy of the working-class. It argues in particular for the release of those arrested while protesting outside the British Embassy on July 18th 1981. As CAIN notes:
Saturday 18 July 1981
There were serious clashes between Republican demonstrators and Gardaí following a demonstration outside the British embassy in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. Over 200 people where hurt during the clashes.
Here’s one perspective on the day’s events in 1981. And here is another.
For more information on Revolutionary Struggle see here in the Archive.
Please note: If files have been posted for or to other online archives previously we would appreciate if we could be informed of that. We always wish to credit same where applicable or simply provide links.
Comet times and Starry Plough’s July 19, 2020
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Has anyone managed to see the comet Neowise yet? As Space.com notes:
Comet NEOWISE can now be seen just after sunset for observers in the Northern Hemisphere, according to NASA. (Sorry, Southern Hemisphere skywatchers, it’s not visible there.) The comet made its closest approach to the sun July 3 but was only visible before dawn until now.
It’s visible just under Ursa Major, better known to us all as The Starry Plough! Which by the by, and I was amazed people didn’t notice this, is part of the banner of this site and has been from the start, for obvious reasons. Another thing I didn’t realise is that the Starry Plough constellation, otherwise known as the Big Dipper in the US, has a broad graphic usage, not restricted to Irish republican socialism. For example, in addition to that:
…[it is] on the state flag of Alaska; and on the House of Bernadotte’s variation of the coat of arms of Sweden. The seven stars on a red background of the flag of the Community of Madrid, Spain, may be the stars of the Plough asterism (or of Ursa Minor). The same can be said of the seven stars pictured in the bordure azure of the coat of arms of Madrid, capital of that country.
Back to Neowise, it’s the brightest comet since Hale-Bopp in 1997. And it’s back in 6,800 years!
Another top 50 Irish Albums July 19, 2020
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Jason O’Toole is no stranger to this parish, mostly thanks to his political interviews – but he also writes regularly about music, these days doing a 2-page music interview every Friday in the Irish Daily Mirror (the next one being with Norah Jones). And not forgetting he was a senior editor of Hot Press on two separate occasions and edited the now defunct ‘The Beat’ music supplement’ for the Irish Daily Mirror. Many thanks to him for this list…
The Irish Times’ new top 50 Irish albums is a pathetic clickbait joke designed to create controversy judging by some of their very questionable inclusions and, more importantly, omissions.
After reading the recent post about it on the CLR I decided to compile my own top 20 albums list on a whim late last night, but then kept going till I reached 50.
But I purposely stuck with so-called “modern music” – in the true tradition of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll – and omitted acts more associated with the trad scene, such as Christy Moore, Planxty, Clannad or even one of my friendly neighbours, Martin Hayes with his project The Gloaming (sorry, Martin!). Otherwise I would’ve included at least two of the aforementioned and definitely Andy Irvine and Paul Brady’s superb album. Ditto Enya. Because 80million record sales is nothing to be sneered at.
You won’t find any “dancey” style albums on this list because I’m not a fan of the genre – sorry! I also excluded live albums and limited acts to a maximum of three possible inclusions – unless the artist in question also happened to be in Them – an underrated band whose name can turn any sentence into bad grammar.
While I didn’t bother my backside considering The Boomtown Rats because I’ve a strong bias against their singer after he once rang me up and said something like, “Is that Justin?” And when I corrected him, he replied, “Justin/Jason – it’s all the fucking same!”
Finally, I’ll probably be accused of being out of touch by not name checking more albums from the past five years, but it should be noted that I have listened to most of what’s come out in recent times, or “dropped” as some bands and labels like to irritatingly put it, – thanks to the record labels inundating me with vinyl promos and download links… literally on a daily basis. I’ve even interviewed most of these hottest new acts for the Irish Daily Mirror. But, as one prominent Irish musician, who shall remain nameless said to me recently, ‘The first Fontaines D.C. album is very good, but I doubt I’ll be still listening to it in ten years time – but I will still be listening to Whipping Boy and My Bloody Valentine’. I couldn’t agree more.
I would’ve loved nothing more than to have gone with the so-called Granny Rule, if nothing else, to hail the brilliance of Dead Can Dance. But if I did that, I’d be here all day listing off the likes of The Smiths, Oasis, The Beatles, and even Dido… well, maybe not Dido!
There’s probably some glaring omissions too, seeing as this was a total rush job, but Chris de Burgh wasn’t one. He was blackballed on the grounds of taste.
I am sure many of you won’t agree with some of my list, and that’s fine. You can even move some of them around like deckchairs on the Titanic, and I’d probably be fine with that too – but my number one album is etched in stone.
Let the debate begin…
50. Little Green Cars – Absolute Zero (2013)
49. Ash – 1977 (1996)
48. Pugwash – Jollity (2005)
47. Damien Dempsey – They Don’t Teach This Shit In School (2000)
46. Villagers – Becoming A Jackal (2010)
45. Power of Dreams – Immigrants, Emigrants and Me (1991)
44. God is an Astronaut – All is Violent, All is Bright (2005)
43. The Blades – The Last Man In Europe (1985)
42. David Holmes – Bow Down to the Exit Sign (2000)
41. Divine Comedy – Fin De Siècle (1998)
40. JJ72 – JJ72 (2000)
39. Rolleskate Skinny – Horsedrawn Wishes (1996)
38. Republic of Loose – Vol 4 Johnny Pyro and the Dance of Evil (2008)
37. Phil Lynott– Solo in Soho (1980)
36. Taste – Taste (1969)
35. BellX1 – Blue Lights on the Runway (2007)
34. Cathy Davey– Tales of Silversleeve (2007)
33. Gavin Friday – Each Man Kills The Things He Loves (1989)
32. Horslips – Dancehill Sweethearts (1974)
31. Lisa Hannigan – At Swim (2016)
30. Snow Patrol– Final Straw (2003)
29. Aslan – Feel No Shame (1988)
28. My Bloody Valentine – Isn’t Anything (1988)
28. Microdisney– The Clock Comes Down The Stairs (1985)
27. Mick Flannery – Mick Flannery (2019)
26. Paul Brady –Hard Station (1981)
25. Damien Rice – O (2002)
24. The Frames – Burn the Maps (2004)
23. Them – The Angry Young Them (1965)
22. A House – I Am The Greatest (1991)
21. Thin Lizzy – Jailbreak (1976)
20. A Lazarus Soul – The D They Put Between The R&L (2019)
19. The Waterboys – This is the Sea (1985)
18. Mic Christopher – Skylarkin’ (2002)
17. Stiff Little Fingers – Inflammable Material (1979)
16. The Cranberries – Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? (1993)
15. Rory Gallagher – Duce (1971)
14. Therapy? – Nurse (1992)
13. The Pogues – If I Should Fall from Grace with God (1988)
12. Van Morrison – Moondance (1970)
11. Sinead O’Connor – The Lion and the Cobra (1987)
10. Fatima Mansions – Valhalla Avenue (1992)
9. The Undertones – The Undertones (1979)
8. Van Morrison – Saint Dominic’s Preview (1972)
7. The Pogues – Rum, Sodomy & The Lash (1985)
6. The Radiators from Space – Ghostown (1979)
5. U2 – The Joshua Tree (1987)
4. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (1991)
3. U2 – Achtung Baby (1991)
2. Van Morrison – Astral Weeks (1968)
1. Whipping Boy – Heartworm (1995)
Statements in the media… good, bad and indifferent… July 19, 2020
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Credit where credit is due, Stephen Collins has a pretty good line in the IT this last Friday:
The ominous thing for Martin is that the early days of Fianna Fáil’s return to office were beginning to look like the final days of its last stint in power. The shambolic last phase of Brian Cowen’s government in January and February 2011 is something that threatened to destroy for good Fianna Fáil’s reputation as a serious party of power.
Though almost needless to say a lot to disagree with in the rest.
Behind the paywall, but this gives a taste of EH’s latest missive on the same topic:
Power reveals Micheal Martin stoically doing his duty despite a disloyal rump fuelled by a mostly hostile media.
Power reveals that a section of the FF parliamentary party, something between a rump and a rabble, is determined to defy the vast majority of the rank and file of Fianna Fail and bring down a good leader and a good man.
Air travel looks likely to struggle to get off the ground in coming weeks as the Government persists with travel restrictions. Rules requiring incoming passengers to self-isolate for two weeks and tell the State where they will be staying for the period will remain in force until next month at least.
The Government is also imposing extra limits on its own workers’ liberty, requiring 300,000 public servants to apply for leave, including unpaid leave, after their holidays if they want to escape Ireland’s rain-sodden summer by going abroad.
It complains about the UK being left off the list:
The UK is a big source of tourists for the Irish market, and air traffic between the two countries is normally busy. Excluding the US will hit Aer Lingus in particular, which has successfully expanded its business over the past five years by growing transatlantic flights.
And concludes with no evidence at all:
Politicians have weighed this against their own officials’ fears of the impact of a virus resurgence on the health service and opted to keep the shutters down.
Given what is at stake for tourism and aviation – two key industries – the only logical explanation for continued travel restrictions is that the health service is far closer to the edge than our Government cares to admit.
Huh?
Or perhaps like other EU states it has decided that there are minimum levels of risk in terms of travel between various states within and outside the EU and acts accordingly.
Meanwhile how about this for denial!
[The chief executive of Ryanair Dac, Eddie Wilson] suggested that other countries across the EU had contained the spread of the virus. “The rest of Europe is back to normal,” Mr Wilson said and he said there had been “no flare-ups” although he added that there were concerns around Lisbon and area in the eastern part of Catalonia.
It should not be forgotten that pubs were among the first parts of the economy to close for the common good in the second week of March, well before the Dáil passed legislation giving the Government powers to order them to do so. They agreed to do what society expected of them. The entire tourism and hospitality sector is now on tenterhooks awaiting the July stimulus, to see what support measures are introduced in return.
It is profoundly depressing to watch an entire industry reduced to this. The longer this runs on and the deeper the need for State intervention becomes, the greater the risk that we create an entire swathe of the economy that cannot survive into the medium term without taxpayers’ cash. Keeping businesses on benefits will be corrosive to our enterprise culture.
There’s more in that column that bears consideration too. And not necessarily in a good way.
Whereas liberals see in masks a symbol that they take the virus seriously and are willing to make personal sacrifices for the greater good, many conservatives regard them as a sign of overreaction and an unacceptable trampling on individual liberties (in this case, presumably, the right to make other people sick). The leading holdout, at least until this week, was of course Trump himself, whose resistance to wearing a mask helped turn it into a marker of political affiliation. A Gallup poll in April found that women, Democrats and city dwellers were all more likely to cover their face.
A member of the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has warned that a return to normality is “a long way off”.
In an apparent contradiction of Boris Johnson’s announcement that the country could return to pre-lockdown state by Christmas, Prof John Edmund, said: “Unfortunately I think it is quite a long way away.”
Speaking on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Edmund said: “If what you mean by normality is what we used to do until February and the middle of March this year – go to work normally, travel on the buses and trains, go on holiday without restrictions, meet friends, shake hands, hug each other and so on – that’s a long way off, unfortunately.
“We won’t be able to do that until we are immune to the virus, which means until we have a vaccine that is proven safe and effective. If we return to those sort of normal behaviours the virus will come back very fast.”
When asked by the presenter if he would hug his grandmother, Edmunds said no.
We can praise or criticise the government‘s handling of this pandemic, but we cannot ignore the impact of our own behaviours. Have we – understandably, after the stress of the past few months – begun to slacken off? In our desire to reclaim some normality in our lives, have we been paying less attention to the basic weapons in the fight against Covid-19, hand hygiene and physical distancing? Are we too quick to criticise the behaviour of others, while not doing as much as we can ourselves?
It is time to ask ourselves these questions, answer them honestly, and redouble our efforts to keep our coronavirus case numbers as low as possible. It is this, ultimately, that will restore the health of our economy too.
