Bad planning costs us a lot — just look at NAMA
April 18, 2012
This weekend, friends from Uruguay visited. For Guillermo O’Neill and his wife Alessandra Lawlor, the trip was a sort of homecoming. They are part of the great Irish Tribe down in Latin America. Their great grandparents left here — from Navan — at the turn of the 20th Century and they have kept their Irish…
Teachers need to learn hard lessons about pay
April 11, 2012
Did you ever have a teacher who was compassionate to his or her students? Did you have a teacher who took so much interest in individual pupils that they’d take the time to worry about whether the student was good enough for honours or pass papers? This was done with the welfare of the pupil…
Ireland frozen in an anxiety recession
January 2, 2012
Did your mother ever tell you to be afraid of umbrellas because they could take your eye out? When I was a child, the humble umbrella transformed itself into a weapon of mass destruction in our house capable of all classes of contortions, which would lead directly to poking some misfortunate’s eye out. I have no idea where the…
Great Read -The Excellent John Mauldin’s Take on Ireland and Europe
October 10, 2011
Just as only four short years ago it was All Subprime, All the Time, and then it was the Credit Crisis, now it is Europe. (When) will Greece default and which banks will implode as a result? Is there another banking crisis in our future? I just came back from a whirlwind four-country visit to…
Superquinn saga sums up our economic tale of woe
July 20, 2011
IF anything sums up what went wrong with Ireland, it is the saga of Superquinn. On the positive side, if anything shows how we can get out of this mess, it is also the receivership of one of Ireland’s best-known brands. Before looking at the receivership and the implications for the rest of the country,…
Diaspora’s ‘soft power’ will help fuel our future
May 25, 2011
David Mc Williams watching Obama’s speech in Fallons in the Coombe on Monday afternoon. Photograph by Gabe Murphy. THE lad beside me in the queue for Obama had driven down all the way from Donegal. We joined the queue at 2pm, just at the back of Christchurch. The very same scarf seller who was flogging…
Time to play another game in a new Ireland
May 16, 2011
Last week was a great week. I have employed a few people and intend to employ a few more every month if things go according to plan. Ireland is full of good people who just need the proverbial ‘start’. There is always a great sense of excitement setting up a new venture, rolling up the…
We must go back to the land
May 3, 2011
With the sun glinting off the Shannon, boats meandering across Lough Allen and green rolling hills in the distance towards Fermanagh, this county on this gorgeous morning easily lives up to its tourist billing of ‘‘lovely Leitrim’’. In the centre of Drumshanbo, under a plaque to a local fiddler named Ciaran Emmet, a knot of…
Recession party poopers beware: the future is fun
April 27, 2011
When you leave this country for a few days, you get the distinct impression that we are stuck in a time warp. We aren’t moving on. This is the feeling I got over the weekend in London. On the eve of the Royal Wedding, the British capital captures the very essence of modernity or globalisation…
We’re broke but still buying rounds that we can’t afford
March 2, 2011
Yer man never stands his round. He does normally. But he’s not doing it now. ‘Cause he is broke. I don’t care; a man has got to stand his round. What are ye havin? I’m buyin’. Good Man. I knew you’d always cough up. Never let it be said I wasn’t good for me round….
April 3, 2012
May 21, 2012
May 18, 2012
February 10, 2012
January 4, 2012
