Articles: Ireland %

“Hi our FHC on this Sunday. Silly me assumed hairdresser open at 9, and thought the two of us cud go up then. I know very stupid to assume anything about communions. Would anyone know a hairdresser who works on Sundays?? We r in S county Dublin?Thax - Shnoggi” More

Have we learnt nothing? The most depressing – and I mean depressing – news last week was that useless, unproductive houses in upmarket Dublin are now making well over the guide prices at auctions, at a time when useful, productive SMEs are going to the wall for want of credit and working capital. After everything we have been through, this is pathetic. It means that the same banking and property cabal that got us into this mess is flexing its dangerous muscles again. More

A friend of mine, a small business owner, is typical of many thousands of cash-strapped entrepreneurs in Ireland at the moment. More

Enda Kenny would cut a dash in a pair of bottle-green, high-waist parallels and a snugly-fitted Bay City Rollers bomber jacket. Or maybe a Robin Gibb, Bee Gees one-piece with the flares up, in which you could hide a six-pack? More

Isn’t it curious how quickly the world changes? A few years ago, I argued that after a coming dreadful economic crash, Ireland would be well advised to look to its diaspora in a totally different way and if Ireland could see itself as the recharging battery for the Irishness of the Global Tribe, we could achieve great things. More

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 links. More

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 in mind. Sometimes a pupil struggled with the complexities of an honours paper and just couldn’t get it. The teacher who advised that pupil to drop down wasn’t being harsh but was being fair and honest. Nothing is worse than irrational expectations which are subsequently dashed. More

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 fear of the upturned umbrella came from, but someone, somewhere must have seen an eye poked out by the sharp end of a brolly rib – maybe it was my own mother or my granny. But the upshot was excessive caution around
umbrellas. More

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 Europe, and I will try to offer a few insights. This week we start with Ireland, move to the problem of Europe at large and, if we’re not out of space (and your patience!), we’ll visit some last-minute data points. There is a lot to cover, so let’s jump right in. More

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, let’s consider for a moment Superquinn. More