Archive for September, 2006

Apart from sounding like something that Stalin’s best copywriter would come up with, the Soviet-sounding �National Centre for Partnership and Performance� is a quango that has been set up to assess skill levels in the economy.

Two years ago, I travelled to Budapest and had a wonderful time. The euphoria of EU accession was in the air and the plane was full of Irish investors clamouring to get into the property market.

When the Taoiseach starts talking like the leader of the Opposition, we know that the election campaign has begun.

On Saturday 23rd September, writer and broadcaster David McWilliams will host what is sure to be a passionate interactive debate at Bray’s Mermaid Arts Centre on the sprawl of Dublin’s metropolis into County Wicklow and its effects for good and ill .

Joining host David McWilliams for a mouth-watering evening of intelligent entertainment to discuss issues such as the global politics of food production, the Slow Food movement, Ireland: the Food Island, restaurants, critics and more.

You know that Polish girl who just served you a coffee, the one with the high cheekbones and the green eyes?

This week lots of commentary was concerned with the big stuff, like 9/11 or Michael McDowell and all that.

Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary. Where were you when you heard?

What for you was the biggest event of the last few days? The thrilling All Ireland hurling final, the brilliant Electric Picnic at Stradbally, the plucky but doomed football display in Stuttgart or the government’s “think in” in Westport? Yes I thought so; Westport didn’t figure much, despite getting wall to wall coverage on radio and in the papers.

This weekend, 35,000 people have flooded into Stradbally for the Electric Picnic, the last, and for many the best, music festival of the summer.