2009 June | David McWilliams

June 21st, 2009
Leviathan: Does Ireland Now Need Radical Political Reform?

24th June 2009
20:00 – 23:00
Button Factory (formerly Temple Bar Music Centre), Curved Street, Temple Bar, Dublin, Ireland
In association with Delta Index
Does Ireland Now Need Radical Political Reform?
David McWilliams is joined on the sofas by Transport Minister Noel Dempsey, Ciaran Cuffe and Killian Forde next Wednesday at 8pm at the Button Factory to rake through the [...]
June 7th, 2009
Moral of the Mayan meltdown

A wonderful aspect about having generation upon generation of an Irish diaspora is that the Irish have been almost everywhere. When Jovani – my guide in the jungle by the ancient Mayan city of Copan – heard I was Irish, his face lit up, and he asked me whether I had heard of John Gallagher.
June 3rd, 2009
And the bride wore Fair Trade organic cotton lace

The sun is out, the Leaving Cert is upon us, the place is coming down with scary looking politicians leering out from lamp posts, begging to be loved — so it must be early June.
June 1st, 2009
Extend Citizenship to Descendents

Israel has recieved well over 200 Billion American dollars in large part because Israel grants citizenship to American Jews. If Ireland were to remove the 2 generation granny rule, millions of Irish Americans could become dual citizens, and advance Ireland’s agenda in America. This would result in a large increase of foreign aid [...]
June 1st, 2009
Redundancy Offset Programme for Enterprises (ROPE)

The loss of a job has several financial impacts for the person and Ireland as a whole, namely:
- Reduced spending power for the individual/family
- Lowered income tax (and indirect tax) for Revenue
- Increased Social Welfare costs
Besides these, there are also the ‘soft’ issues relating to job loss including:
- A loss of honour/pride
- The worry [...]
June 1st, 2009
ATLAS returns

Receipt of social welfare, in all but exceptional circumstances i.e. sick,old age etc. should involve some “work in kind”.
A National effort should be put in place where work is returned for receipt of payments.
All unemployed, or at least most of the unemployed would prefer to be at work, to meet their friends, pass [...]
June 1st, 2009
Schadenfreude is not an option

Some of the oddest things about Germany are the soundtracks you hear in its hotels. Not for the first time in the past two days, Enola Gay by OMD, Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears, and Guns N’ Roses covering Bob Dylan’s Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door have wafted out of the elevator.