by Frank Schnittger
Sun Sep 24th, 2023 at 08:55:43 AM EST
Rugby World Cup: Ireland 13 South Africa 8
There is an old rugby aphorism that it is the forwards who decide who wins a match, and the backs decide by how much. The Irish backs decided they weren't having any of that, dealing with the Springboks kicking game and providing an almost impregnatable wall in defence. Faf De Klerk and Mannie Libbok are a wonderful pair of half backs, but their place kicking can be iffy, and on the night, it was their lack of place kicking accuracy that decided the scoreboard in Ireland's favour.
by Frank Schnittger
Sat Sep 2nd, 2023 at 08:36:48 AM EST
My first book (and venture into fictional writing) is about to be self-published with Amazon/Kindle. It may not be available to order for a couple of days but will become available in Kindle, paperback and hardback formats. Your support and reference to any of your contacts or friends who may be interested would be much appreciated.
The book is a future history written from the perspective of 2040, 15 years after Irish re-unification. It is written in the form of a memoir by a young English journalist who ends up falling in love with an Irishwoman, Ireland, its people, and its politics. It gives a personal account of how a Border Poll was called, why it was carried, and what happened afterwards. It traces the development of a unified Irish state over a 15 year transition period and looks at how it all turned out, from a variety of points of view in Ireland and Britain.
The Good Friday Agreement is silent on what happens after a Border Poll is carried out and returns a majority for re-unification. My book is an attempt to flesh out, in a hopefully informative, entertaining, and amusing way, what could and should happen!
Table of contents below...
by gmoke
Wed Aug 30th, 2023 at 05:57:51 PM EST
These kinds of events below are happening all over the world every day and most of them, now, are webcast and archived, sometimes even with accurate transcripts. Would be good to have a place that helped people access them.
This is a more global version of the local listings I did for about a decade (what I did and why I did it at http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html) until September 2020 and earlier for a few years in the 1990s (https:/theworld.com~gmoke/AList.index.html).
A more comprehensive global listing service could be developed if there were enough people interested in doing it, if it hasn't already been done.
If anyone knows of such a global listing of open energy, climate, and other events is available, please put me in contact.
Thanks for reading,
Solar IS Civil Defense,
George Mokray
gmoke@world.std.com
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com - notes on lectures and books
http://solarray.blogspot.com - renewable energy and efficiency - zero net energy links list
city agriculture links list
- geometry links list
http://hubevents.blogspot.com - Energy (and Other) Events
by Frank Schnittger
Sun Aug 20th, 2023 at 12:54:42 PM EST
Keir Starmer was in a tricky position. With 290 seats he was 36 short of an overall majority and only two ahead of the Lib Dems and the Tories combined. Only the SNP could give him an overall majority, and they refused all entreaties to support his government unless he would agree to a second independence referendum to be carried out within 12 months. He might even have been agreeable to that if they not also insisted on a Treaty between Britain and a newly independent Scotland which would transfer all British assets in Scotland to the new Scottish state, together with only a small portion of the UK national debt proportionate with its population.
Published on Slugger O'Toole
by Frank Schnittger
Tue Aug 15th, 2023 at 04:59:12 PM EST
I was out and about at various voting centres in Belfast on election day in October 2024 being careful to divide my time between protestant, Catholic, middle class and working class areas. Most people were happy enough to chat though some gave me the middle finger. Reactions were sharply divided with many unionists saying they were protesting against "Sunak selling out our country when it isn't even his to sell!"
This chapter follows on from:
Chapter 1: My private meeting with Rishi Sunak
Chapter 2: The Bombshell
Chapter 3: Belfast
Chapter 4 is posted on Slugger O'Toole here
by Frank Schnittger
Mon Aug 7th, 2023 at 02:23:54 PM EST
Sovereignty 2045 Chapter 3:
Belfast
Much has been written about the amazing result of the 2024 UK General Election. As I was now the Climate Change Correspondent of the Tribune, I didn't actually cover the lead up to the campaigns as a professional reporter. However, as an amateur enthusiast I kind of felt I knew how it would all play out, even though I had little hard evidence to back up my hunches.
This chapter follows on from:
Chapter 1: My private meeting with Rishi Sunak
Chapter 2: The Bombshell
by Frank Schnittger
Wed Aug 2nd, 2023 at 08:09:47 AM EST
Chapter 2: The Bombshell
Continued from Sovereignty 2024: My meeting with Rishi Sunak
My second private briefing in Chequers in August 2024 wasn't all that different from the first. The rumour was that the PM was considering calling the general election for October. He didn't want to have to reconvene parliament to give Labour a platform to lambaste the Government. Better to get it over with quickly. The public wouldn't start paying attention until September anyway, and memories of a paltry budget were fading.
Also posted on Slugger O'Toole.
by Frank Schnittger
Mon Jul 31st, 2023 at 11:06:55 AM EST
My private meeting with Rishi Sunak
My story begins one fine summers day back in 2024 in Chequers, the country home of the British Prime Minister. The PM had just been given a rather ominous briefing on the prospects for the British economy. A general election was in the offing and there was almost no good news for the PM to build a campaign around. I was there as a relatively new reporter for the Tribune, a reputable British broadsheet not known to be overly well disposed to the Conservative government.
Our senior political correspondents had all tied their colours to mast, declaring the government to be a lost cause and facing inevitable defeat. The government press office had asked for a "more objective" reporter to be sent to a private and confidential press briefing with the PM. Even though I was still very junior, I was the only one on the political staff who wasn't either on holiday or known to be hostile to the government. My editor told me it was my big break and not to f*ck it up.
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Jul 27th, 2023 at 09:28:07 AM EST
In Pleas for greater speed and transparency must be heeded if the Windsor Framework is to succeed, Brian Walker presents continuing discussions on the operation of the Windsor Framework as being simply a case of finding practical solutions to practical problems. But there are at least five distinct games being played here:
Also posted on Slugger O'Toole, where the usual lively discussion is in progress
by Frank Schnittger
Wed Jul 26th, 2023 at 09:24:33 PM EST
RIP Sinéad O'Connor 1966-2023
Along with U2, Van Morrison, The Cranberries, The Boomtown Rats (Bob Geldof), Riverdance and perhaps Rory Gallagher and The Pogues, Sinéad O'Connor is one of the few Irish musical acts who can be said to have made it into the global musical consciousness.
by Frank Schnittger
Wed Jul 5th, 2023 at 07:44:36 PM EST
In Dáil Elections 2024 - Predicting the Northern Six Counties... David Nesbitt paints a benign picture of elections taking place for Dail Eireann in the northern 6 counties after a shock border poll for a united Ireland in 2024. He assumes there will be a smooth transfer of sovereignty with no mention of violence or disruption and no transitionary period for Stormont.
Cross-posted from Slugger O'Toole, where it has attracted 9,000 readers and 850 comments!
by Frank Schnittger
Fri Jun 23rd, 2023 at 07:32:39 PM EST
This is the third time I have felt compelled to respond to a speech or Opinion Piece by my friend Andy Pollak whom I hold in the highest regard despite disagreeing with him so fundamentally on several issues.
Crossposted from Slugger O'Toole.
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Jun 15th, 2023 at 09:33:22 PM EST
Imagine you have just landed a job as adviser to DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson. Your job is to make him and the DUP look good and promote the Union with Britain.
Would you: A) Crash the democratic institutions of Northern Ireland within the UK, inhibit investment in Northern Ireland by creating maximum political and policy instability, enrage the UK government to the point that it proposes a punishment budget for Northern Ireland, and alienate everyone broadly disposed to support the Union but who doesn't vote DUP?
Or B) Make sure Northern Ireland political institutions work as well as possible, promote investment in the economy, work hand in glove with your allies in Westminster to improve public services in Northern Ireland, and work hard to build a broad political coalition of all those prepared to make Northern Ireland work better within the Union?
Cross-posted from Slugger O'Toole
by Frank Schnittger
Sat Jun 10th, 2023 at 02:44:21 PM EST
The last thing Sinn Féin want is to let the DUP off the hook they have impaled themselves on...
Newton Emerson, a unionist commentator, has an article up on the Irish Times about Sinn Féin's confused approach to the current Northern Ireland political impasse. He accuses Michelle O'Neill of trying to contort reality into an archaic Republican world view during her current trip to Washington.
Apparently, according to Emerson's view of Sinn Féin, the problem is the British, and specifically the Tory, failure to put sufficient pressure on the DUP to force their return to operating the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement.
Cross-posted from Slugger O'Toole, the leading Northern Ireland political website.
by Frank Schnittger
Sat May 27th, 2023 at 08:48:56 PM EST
A response to Andy Pollak's complaint about the southern Irish media
My friend Andy Pollak has written long and eloquently about the ignorance of the southern electorate of all things north of the border, and delights in quoting academics who share this view. Academic disdain for the ignorance of the masses is, of course, nothing new, but in fairness, Andy’s latest treatise on Slugger O'Toole on the ignorance of the southern media could only have been written by an insider who knows the industry well.
As someone who has never been published in the southern media other than in a couple of hundred Letters to the Editor or a feature, in the Village Magazine, critical of the Irish Times website reboot some years ago, I have no particular interest in defending it.
And yet I find myself in utter disagreement with Andy.
Ireland is a small country, with a limited media market and very few prominent titles, each with their own agenda. The state broadcaster, like any state broadcaster, tends not to stray too far from government policy.
by Frank Schnittger
Fri May 5th, 2023 at 09:59:17 PM EST
I would like to open up a discussion on the future of the European Tribune. As will be obvious to regulars here, the level of participation and contribution has been in decline now for many years, since the hey day of blogging on the internet.
It's partly in line with global trends, where short form text and video based social media have been taking over from longer forms of blogging. Perhaps there is also an element of the European ideal losing its appeal, or worse, being taken for granted by younger writers.
But it's also undeniable that our user base has been ageing, dying off, and not being replaced by a younger cohort. I am now the last remaining active front-pager, and even I have started to write more for an Irish readership on Irish forums and newspapers. Even Brexit and the Ukraine war couldn't save us indefinitely.
So perhaps it is time to call it a day on a fascinating chapter in our lives that sadly is no more. Perhaps it is time to close ET down, much as it pains me to admit defeat in my efforts to keep it going. But I wouldn't want to take such a momentous step with consulting with the many who have contributed here over the years.
What does everyone remaining here think?
by Carrie
Sun Apr 30th, 2023 at 05:09:46 AM EST
As you may recall, Helen was the resident trans woman on this site since the early days until her untimely passing just under 18 months ago. With her gone, I should have picked up the mantle but that would have required me to out myself when I wasn't quite ready. Now, however, my social transition is complete as some of you who are my friends on Facebook may know already.
Frontpaged - Frank Schnittger
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Apr 27th, 2023 at 05:43:26 PM EST
Journalists, politicians, and political writers have a tendency to project their own political preferences onto their visions for the future, and nowhere is this more evident than when Irish writers express their visions for a united Ireland. Fintan O'Toole and Andy Pollak have frequently lamented the state of Irish society and vented their feelings about how things must change, allegedly to accommodate unionists, but in reality, to satisfy their own political preferences.
Former TD, MEP, and government Minister, Gay Mitchell is the latest to join the throng. Writing on the letter's page of the Irish Times he opines:
by dahuk
Wed Apr 26th, 2023 at 10:49:04 AM EST
I used to enjoy reading his articles here years ago and it's nice to see one of his articles get so much attention.
The real lesson about the end of nuclear in Germany
Frontpaged with edited link - Frank Schnittger
by gmoke
Thu Apr 13th, 2023 at 06:24:04 PM EST
My friend and mentor Mel King died at the age of 94 on March 28, 2023.
I first met Mel when he was a MA State Representative in the mid-1970s. It was in a State House hallway after a hearing on food and agriculture issues. He was a big man, 6 foot 5 inches, and, in those days, he was wearing overalls to work. He was also bald, bearded, and Black. As I recall, he walked down the hall away from the hearing room still gently lobbying a fellow Representative on the issues. He was working hard for an urban/rural coalition, building community gardens in the South End and other neighborhoods of Boston while rebuilding the Commonwealth's agriculture infrastructure with farmers, foresters, and others from far beyond Route 128 and Boston's South End, his district.
One of the good guys! Frontpaged with minor edit - Frank Schnittger
