Irish politics discussion thread

"Wait a minute - the Queen was here????"

ha no not quite that bad

http://i.imgur.com/bU38T.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/bU38T.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/bU38T.jpg

Biggest day for the Offaly Tourist Board since the 2007 National Ploughing Championship.

better than Reagan did anyway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5qQwbg2Ukw

Tower Records provided protection from the media storm in dublin, in musical style.
http://completelyinthedark.com/main.php?g2_itemId=11429

West Coast people -- wtf is wrong with you [Started by he does guitar with his mouth lmao mint (ex machina) in February 2005, last updated 8 minutes ago by am0n on All Noise Dude Summertime Fun Board and Pickle Bar] 36 new answers
Irish politics discussion thread [Started by darraghmac in May 2007, last updated 8 minutes ago by Proger on I Love Everything] 10 new answers

Truth

Obama's accent impressive. He's havin a good effect on enda too imo

LOL

http://youtu.be/yo5zH0Il8B0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo5zH0Il8B0

i've really been struggling with working out O'Bama today

he's just enjoying himself tbh, the speeches have all been fun hollywood stuff, it's a nice soft gig before he has to do some work.

Obama says Ireland's 'best days are still ahead'

Somehow this seems like a lie.

depends, really. we've not really given adult politics a sustained run since.....

?

someone older than me would be helpful here tbh

we're due a very rough grind, without much in the way of relief, but i don't know of anyone that starved due to the banks this past three years. at some stage everyone who had a vote in the last cabinet will be rotting wormy pigflesh. you have to concentrate on the little positives.

not politics, but

Thoughts on yerman that went climbing everest and didnt make it?

Kids left behind aged 3,2 and newborn

Thoughts on yerman that went climbing everest and didnt make it?

Kids left behind aged 3,2 and newborn

Metaphor rearing its head there p'raps?

not politics, and always wary of passing comment on people I don't know, but given how many people die climbing Everest you would have to be a bit foolhardy to give it a go, and a bit feckless if you have children to worry about.

how much money is there around the place, really?

Fintan o'toole reckons a lot. It's kind of a byline to his article today, but got me wondering how we might get to the metaphorical cash under the mattress, and what we might do with it.

it is one thing to say there is a load of money lying around, another thing entirely to actually get it into the state's maw.

not even necessarily advocating that- indeed, for as long as our govts seem intent on throwing it into bank debt and current deficits and the like, keep it away from them.

but there must be ways to get it out and spent, get some cash swimming along the main streets again

boardsdeals.ie is a good idea, i suppose, something along those lines maybe, but on a somewhat grander scale. people will allow themselves to spend on non-necessities if the can be convinced they're getting a bargain.

and let's face it, our economy was based on a lot of non-necessary spending. if you weren't a property developer you were a celebrity gardening hairdresser interior personal fortune consultant at the weekends, or you simply weren't anybody, daaarling

brian lenihan dies

hmmmm

maybe should have posted that to the excelsior thread tbf.

i jest, i jest. Kinda.

He lasted longer than most people expected, i suppose.

The decision to keep working was an interesting one.

he had form in denying the inevitable realities.

God, it's a whitewash out there atm. Unsurprising, a young man with a young family passes away, and not in an easy manner- but his political legacy can't be rewritten because of his illness/death. They should probably leave it out of the platitudes altogether.

Too soon, i suppose. I'm probably racking up the irish sb's.

It's incredible that he was making a serious attempt to be FF leader six months after most doctors thought he'd be dead. Can't fault the optimism.

The whitewash is to be expected, and won't last long. I don't know whether he'll be seen in the long term as a decent-enough guy who was incapable of dealing with a set of circumstances beyond the control of anyone in his party or someone who made a bad situation exponentially worse. I get the impression that there was a level of residual respect for him in a lot of quarters, even if only in comparison to the rest of FF.

you're right of course. I'll just grit me teeth for a week.

I think labelling ahern, cowen, lenihan et al as merely misguided or incompetent is possibly naive.

Bertie was a wrong 'un. No question.

I'm slightly more inclined to believe that Cowen and Lenihan were victims of circumstance, to a degree, but they all bear at least some moral responsibility for their complicity in a patently rotten system.

it's all the bank guarantee, that's where the country was brought into it. That's brian's baby i'm afraid

That's true, and will define whatever legacy he has. I'm not really defending him but i have a sliver of sympathy for anyone dealing with the house of cards that Ahern and the bankers left behind, even if they were in a position to do more about it while it was being constructed.

oh god don't mention the c word

lol

Can't believe this isn't working

lol

Any sign that other ratings agencies might downgrade?

not really, reports seem to have it as a bit of a pre-emptive move tbh

course, if markets react badly...?

cross ref with the abuse thread, but feel like enda was strong today.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2011/0721/1224301063509.html

I agree, I was very impressed by him and I've never voted FG in my life.

hadn't read the full thing until just now.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2011/0721/1224301061733.html

booming imo

bout time people started using the word "rape"

abuse is far too kind to these guys

yep.

In one case, the abuser even officiated at the victim’s own wedding

pretty horrible

cant even process tbh.

v well written speech, credit enda's speechwriter.

party political stuff devalued it tho

bout time people started using the word "rape"

yes

xp maybe so, but tbf in context he's announcing a pretty radical departure in attitude towards dealing with the church on this and maybe other issues, and it's correct to note that FF have been complicit in the obfuscation of the church/state divide not just historically, but up to eg the agreement to indemnify the church against the cost of legal settlements as recently as 2002 and since then a marked reluctance to challenge clerical law as a relevant factor in any of this.

The previous govt failed to address these issues, and these issues are an intolerable disgrace. While noting that the state had responsibility for its failings, i think it's allowable and fair to point out that it was a previous administration that allowed the muddy waters to stay muddy for so long.

bout time people started using the word "rape"