No Irish Economic Recovery til 2010

July 10th, 2008 · No Comments

Well, the forecasts get worse and worse. But I think that Dermot O’Leary from Goodbody has it pretty much right:
Sharply declining output in the construction sector, coupled with a consumer in retreat, is expected to contribute to a fall in output in the Irish economy in 2008 for the first time since 1983. We now [...]

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Tags: Business · economics

Ireland votes No on EU Reform

June 13th, 2008 · 3 Comments

My first take, on the Guardian website: we voted No because of the economy and because of incompetent and disconnected elites.
The Yes side blame-gaming is getting embarassing. They need to stop blaming the No side for winning the argument.

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Tags: EU · Ireland · irish politics

Ireland’s “Extreme Commuters”

March 19th, 2008 · 7 Comments

For a magazine piece I’m writing, I’m looking for people with the longest daily commutes in Ireland. People who travel more than 90 minutes each way, every day. “Extreme commuters”, they’re officially called.
They’re a fast-growing group, and we’re going to see more, I think. The reasons are the housing slump and the overall slower growth [...]

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Tags: Ireland · Society · economics · media

Thoughts on the Irish Blog Awards & the future of media

March 4th, 2008 · 10 Comments

Contrary to some reports, Herself and I did make it down to the Alexander to catch some of the Blog Awards - though the vicissitudes of bedtime cannot be rushed, we opted to come late rather than not come at all. And I’m glad we did, because we got to see something important happen - [...]

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Tags: Blogging · US politics · media

You Cannot Be Serious.

February 27th, 2008 · No Comments

What is up with Irish pundits and Barack Obama?
Since Super Tuesday we’ve had more than a few appearances on Irish radio and TV from Niall O’Dowd, the Irish-born publisher of the NY-based Irish Voice, explaining - quite bluntly - that a black man simply can’t win an American presidential election.
Today’s Indo brings us [...]

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Tags: Obama · US politics · economics · media

The View from Killiney Hill

August 7th, 2007 · No Comments

A recent walk up Killiney Hill - just because it’s sunny (for once this summer) and to give some folks an idea of what it looks like. Even with the crappy weather this summer there’s no where else I’d rather live. Bellissimo.

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Rethinking the West and Islam

December 3rd, 2006 · No Comments

This column first appeared in the 3 December 2006 edition of the Sunday Tribune.
Richard Delevan
Remember the book, “How the Irish Saved Civilisation”, by Thomas Cahill? It did the rounds in the 90s, marking the intellectual high water mark of that decade’s tsunami of sentiment about Ireland fed by the peace process, Seamus Heaney, Mary Robinson, [...]

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Tags: column · irish politics

Islam, the West and the Irish Saving Civilisation

December 3rd, 2006 · 1 Comment

Sunday Tribune column from 3 December 2006. Please send your hatemail and explosive devices to the office rather than my home. Cheers.
REMEMBER the book How the Irish Saved Civilisation, by Thomas Cahill? It did the rounds in the 1990s, marking the intellectual high-water mark of that decade’s tsunami of sentiment about Ireland, fed by the [...]

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Tags: Uncategorized