Observing Irish politics and other absurdities http://dublinopinion.com/archive 2009-01-08T16:36:52+01:00 http://dublinopinion.com/archive http://dublinopinion.com/archive/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png text/html 2006-10-17T09:48:06+01:00 http://dublinopinion.com/archive http://dublinopinion.com/archive/news/news/hugo-against-the-owners-of-the-universe.html The New York Times has been getting a bit of stick of late. For the last couple of years the US’s paper of record has admitted to reporting government spin regarding the Invasion of Iraq as fact, publishing reports by journalists who simply cobbled them together from other papers and most recently, misquoting Hugo Chavez as saying that he regretted that he didn’t get to meet the author of Hegemony and Survival, Noam Chomsky, before he died. In the case of the latter, it turns out that the New York Times hadn’t checked the translation. What the Venezuelan President had... text/html 2006-10-16T08:17:32+01:00 http://dublinopinion.com/archive http://dublinopinion.com/archive/news/politics/all-brass-and-no-knickers..html We can blame the Brits for this, I suppose. There's a whole universe of academic studies that put the Irish inferiority complex down to centuries of colonial governance. It's just that, what with the fourth post-independence generation toddling off to the crèche in mommy's SUV it's hard to equate that self-loathing with the present-day economic reality. Yet in the past week we had two shining examples of how much we hate ourselves and how we want to have that self-loathing reflected in our national ambitions. Let's start with the seemingly innocuous FAI and Steve Staunton. First of all, could you... text/html 2006-10-12T08:36:10+01:00 http://dublinopinion.com/archive http://dublinopinion.com/archive/news/politics/twisting-the-governments-arm.html According to Breaking News, the Government has been forced to pay an allowance to a gay man who had to give up work to care for his terminally-ill partner. “The Government has agreed to pay a dependent allowance to a gay man who had to give up work to care for his terminally ill partner. The Department of Social and Family Affairs initially refused the man's application last March, but this has now been reversed on appeal. The Equality Authority says the outcome reflects an important recognition for same-sex couples and their relationships.” Looks bad for a government that... text/html 2006-10-11T11:30:54+01:00 http://dublinopinion.com/archive http://dublinopinion.com/archive/opinions/opinions-ireland/counting-the-dead-new-lancet-survey-published.html The new Lancet report Mortality After the 2003 Invasion of Iraq is published online today. Jon Ihle from Backseatdrivers has a bit on it, to which I’ve responded. Whereas the initial Lancet survey, published in 2004 claimed controversially that 100,000 civilians had died as a result of the invasion and subsequent turmoil, the new figure is even more shocking. According to the MIT sponsored report, there have been 654, 965 post-invasion deaths as a consequence of the war. Jon questions that a leap of half a million deaths in two years could be possible and according to an AP... text/html 2006-10-10T04:28:47+01:00 http://dublinopinion.com/archive http://dublinopinion.com/archive/reviews/review/if-staunton-should-fall-from-grace....html What was he thinking, sending out inexperienced players last Saturday before an expectant, roaring crowd? You'd imagine, with all the lineup changes, the injuries sustained along the way, the fights, the firings and rehirings while playing away, that there's no way they could hold it together. But they came on so confidently, and as the skeptical fans waited nervously for the real action to start the champions pounded confidently along. Immediately we realised that they were going to be magnificent. They're playing so well, we thought, this can only end in glory. At this point of...