Great little program here which interviews two candidates in the recent local elections: Patrick Maphoso and Tendai Madono.
I have to say I found Patrick’s interview quite interesting. He’s a trade unionist and has worked and campaigned for migrant rights in Ireland. Patrick stood (unsuccessfully) as an independent in Dublin North Inner City. He talks about his background, the experience of being a candidate, and also about the racist abuse he received while campaigning.
Tendai stood for the Greens in Tallaght South and actually polled quite well, despite standing, well, for the Greens!
This issue of The Insight is about the African community in Ireland, with Patrick and Tendai’s interviews kicking off the show.
[This is an edited version of an article I wrote which first appeared in Football Studies 11, 1 (2008). The article itself is based on a paper I presented at the 2005 Irish Sport History Conference.]
In 1955 the Irish political, cultural, and religious establishment found itself challenged by an unusual and reluctant opponent: The Football Association of Ireland (FAI). The clash arose over a friendly soccer game between the Republic of Ireland and Yugoslavia, which was played at Dalymount Park on 19 October of that year. The Catholic archbishop of Dublin, Dr. John Charles McQuaid, one of the dominant figures in Irish 20th century life, called for the cancellation of the game. This was echoed by various government ministers, senior civil servants, and Catholic lay organisations. The Irish national broadcasting service Radio Televis Éireann (RTE) declined to cover the game after its main sports commentator, Phil Greene, pulled out of the broadcast.
The protests arose out of the continued persecution of the Catholic Church in communist Yugoslavia, and were similar in tone to other protests held in Ireland over the previous seven years. The fact that the game went ahead with an attendance of around 21,400 has been read by some as a counter-protest against the forces of conservative Ireland, especially the public influence of archbishop McQuaid. Indeed, the archbishop’s biographer, John Cooney, wrote that the Yugoslavia game was ‘a populist revolt against McQuaid’s iron rule; the first of his reign.’ (Cooney, p.309.)
This article will argue that the controversy reveals a clash of culture in 1950s Ireland, rather than one over politics or ideology. This is not to say that 1950s Ireland was bereft of clashes over politics or ideology, but that the Ireland v Yugoslavia game became a protest against an attempt by the dominant Irish conservative forces to interfere with the most popular cultural activity of working class Dublin, rather than one energised by a desire on the part of the working class to confront the government, the Catholic Church, or the permanent secretaries of the Irish civil service. The game also provides an entry into Irish working class life – an area often neglected by Irish historians, and one with a culture that, on this occasion at least, found itself in uneasy conflict with the Irish establishment.
If they tried this on in France, there’d be riots.
Here’s Brian Lenihan, speaking at the Irish League of Credit Unions conference in April about the admiration he felt coming from the other EU foreign ministers after implementing those budget cuts:
“In France you would have riots if you tried to do this,”
Okay, so maybe Lenihan’s riot comment is well known, but Carey’s whole piece is another attempt to bash unions and claim that the ‘only show in town’ is cutting public spending and increasing taxes.
As usual it’s a column filled with distortions and inaccuracies. What else would you expect from a piece of propaganda.
Take this one for example. When suggesting that there is a ‘palpable tension’ between Irish Economy and Progressive Economy she is shocked to discover that intelligent, well informed people can actually agree!
“If the lefties were willing to concede the point to the academics then it must be true.”
So only one of the blogs is written by acadmics? Of course it’s obvious what she is trying to do but hopefully, the sudden surge of Irish Times readers now going to Progressive Economy will be able to read the list of contributors on the side bar and make their own mind up.
A guest post by reader Colm Byrne, who sent this to me this morning. Thanks Colm
The owner of a giant hummer vehicle refused to move out of a handicapped zone in a shopping centre in Clarinbridge this morning.
The woman, who was not displaying a handicapped parking permit, moved into the clearly marked spot in her imported 2005 GM Hummer vehicle. Despite being informed that she was illegally parking in a handicapped zone, she refused to move. When asked if she was aware that her action was preventing disabled drivers and the elderly from safely parking and potentially causing harm, her response was ‘I don’t care’. She then proceeded into the shopping centre. No tow trucks were on hand to impound the vehicle and the woman subsequently left a short time later without incident.
This is another example of how Ireland’s nouveau riche are Ireland’s new problem. They believe themselves above the law and above the common rules of living in a community. This kind of arrogance and disregard s is symptomatic of the trouble we are in and why things will not change until we do.
It seems that every where I look today there are websites filled with kind words about famous people who’ve recently died. It’s grim. Of course, there’s Farrah, Michael, and the former NME writer Swells. But now there’s Giovanni Arrighi to add to the list. He passed away on June 24th last.
Steven Colatrella provides the kind words and for simple souls like me, gives an accessible run through of Arrighi’s work.
Sli Eile on Progressive Economy has already mentioned this but I think it is worth putting up here too. Michael Casey, him formerly of the Central Bank has said that instead of a stimulus package we have gone in the other direction and that it could be ‘the worst own goal in our history’.
The thing is, for some reason this opinion piece didn’t appear where his articles usually do, in the main opinion pages of the Irish Times, snuggled neatly against the editorial. Instead it was published on page 10 of the Innovation supplement. In it he suggests that the Government could be wrong to rely on a three year plan to stabilize the public finances (according to the IMF, Casey says, most attempts to do this in other countries have failed) and to ignore the benefits of a stimulus package. The objections to a stimulus package, he said, are
“…mainly assertions without much research support. For example, the last fiscal stabilisation in the late 1980s was successful for a variety of reasons - reasons that no longer exist. The international economy was growing well; there was no problem with banks, no credit crunch and no fear factor arising from deep recession and job losses.”
By bailing out the banks he adds, the government stopped the flow of domestic deposits into its own coffers. When the mains banks appeared to be unstable Irish people started to put their money in to An Post. When the guarantee was announced they stopped, thus cutting off a potential source of borrowing for the government.
