A sense of weariness with gombeen politics means I find it burdensome to comment on the farce that unfolded in the D�il yesterday. Alas, events perhaps reflected Beckett’s resigned observation: “The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.”On the radio this morning, presenter Cathal Mac Coille attempted to shame arch-waffler Miche�l Martin into […]

I’m aware that I risk becoming a crashing bore by banging on about the latest Irish political crisis, which in the global scheme of things appears irredeemably petty and parochial. It’s just that the kerfuffle over Bertie Ahern’s financial improprieties represents one of those episodes that forces you to recognize that a substantial proportion of […]

Poll results analysed in the Sunday papers suggest that although Joe Public believes it was wrong for Bertie Ahern to take wodges of cash from well-wishing businessmen, the majority of the electorate thinks the poor man (the victim of a witch hunt!) should stay in his job as Taoiseach. Astonishingly, the Sunday Independent states, “Besides […]

One rarely gets to witness a major political career imploding. It’s not a pretty sight, as evidenced by the footage of a floundering Bertie Ahern attempting to deal with journalists’ questions about a fee (or was it a gift?) he received for “promoting Ireland” at a mysterious gathering of business people in Manchester. (Click here […]

There were so many dubious defenses thrown up by Bertie Ahern’s teary performance during yesterday’s television interview, that one would have to devote a dozen blogs to demolishing them. Yet here’s one angle that I have yet to hear amid all the cant about our leader being basically a salt-of-the-earth bloke: can you recall the […]

Back from a short break from the blog after a weekend in Berlin: A truly great city, easy to navigate with an excellent U-Bahn & S-Bahn system, and with a laid-back ambience that seems at odds with the white-knuckled atmosphere that sometimes seems to choke Dublin. (Monday-morning rushhour in the German capital seemed positively somnolent […]

“Jealousy is the illusion of clairvoyance.” Well, I thought it was good. The above apercu is from recentish review in the Times Literary Supplement by Craig Raine of a London production of James Joyce’s only play, Exiles. The TLS was also quoted a while back by John Boland, better known as the Indo’s TV critic. […]

Way back when, Monty Python had a sketch mocking the insularity of BBC newscasters. The “News for Parrots” delivered an unashamedly parrot-centric view of the world: “Good evening. Here is the News for parrots. No parrots were involved in an accident on the M1 today, when a lorry carrying high octane fuel was in collision […]

What is the driving force of the modern U.S. economy, that $12.5 trillion colossus? Can it be found in Silicon Valley, recovered from the dot.com slump and rejuvenated by the revivalist-tent atmosphere of Web 2.0? Or is it manufacturing, leaner than ever and profiting from IT-led productivity surges? Or is it even the industrial-military complex, […]

The English-language web edition of Der Spiegel offers a rather chilling portrait of that supposed expat heaven, Dubai: If one accepts the commonplaces of the debate on world cultures, Dubai is an impossible city. On the one hand, it’s more cosmopolitan than eastern Germany and southern Italy, more tolerant than Poland or Louisiana, and consumers […]