Government proposals to introduce surveillance of all internet users are unacceptable. The proposed law will require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to log details of every email, every instant message or chat message, and every time users log on or log off, and to store that information for up to 18 months. This information will then [...]

Hugh McFadden dropped me this (I reproduce it with his permission)
A Limerick on the subject of the German Ambassador & the Celtic Tiger. Why don’t we start a competition?
An astute German Envoy, Herr Pauls,
said this Celtic Tiger appals:
the feline [...]

It looks like our revered Taoiseach isn’t the only international leader in trouble because a pal gave him a dig-out out in getting himself a pad. In France the authorities have opened an preliminary investigation into the purchase of an old apartment in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 2006, after the satirical magazine Le Canard Enchaîné revealed [...]

I do my best to avoid schadenfreude - it’s kind of childish after all - but somehow, this one was too hard to resist.
You may have heard about it, so I’ll cut to the quick.
The great Italian politician and tycoon, Silvio Berlusconi, made the mistake of paying some off-kilter compliments to not one, [...]

There were nasty scenes in North Mayo early this morning, when the Gardaí (Irish Police) baton-charged local residents and supporters when they tried to block a convoy of Shell construction workers building a gas pipeline near their homes.
It seems extraordinary that the Irish police would baton-charge its own people to allow a multinational company [...]

Robert Fisk gives an object lesson in the contemporary history of Iraq as he reflects on the death sentence of Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti .
The suffering of Iraq beggars belief. All because of the curse of oil.
Robert Fisk in The Independent (London)

Bernie Goldbach over at Irish Eyes has a powerful piece about Michael McDowell’s Definition of Security, and how it panders to prejudice about migrant workers.
What gets me about such prejudice in Ireland, and some of it is pretty scary, is that at least some of those who harbour it actually endured it themselves when [...]

“TOM McGURK hosted an interesting programme this morning on Irish national radio and one of his segments included discussion about the Irish government’s data retention scheme. Simply put, the government is trying to expand its reach into your mobile phone, email records and web browsing history. “
If you think that this subject is too complex [...]

Emmet Oliver in The Irish Times reports that just 20 years after the Chernobyl disaster, a group of scientists, businessmen and academics have set up the Republic’s first campaign group in favour of nuclear energy.
Nuclear power is against the law in Ireland, and they want to change that.
“The nuclear debate in Ireland [...]

Paul Brady wrote this song in 1985, and it has come back to haunt us.
They say the skies of Lebanon are burning
Those mighty cedars bleeding in the heat
They’re showing pictures on the television
Women and children dying in the street
Paul Brady: The Island Lyrics