Many people have a much-practised and perfected socialising programme. A group of us, for example, have followed the same pattern after Dublin matches in Croke Park for the last number of years.
Sikhs have been living in Ireland for over 20 years, to the point where their community now stands at around 2,000 people.
Like everyone else, I am thoroughly fed up with the coverage of the ‘no’ vote on the Lisbon Treaty. Like many of my friends, but also like the Government, I believe the vote signalled true democracy – the people had their say.
Last week, for the first time in the history of the oil trade, the price of crude oil hit $139 a barrel. The ongoing conflicts in some oil-rich countries, especially Nigeria and Iraq, have been blamed for this latest development in a worsening world energy crisis. The four previous world oil crises were also mainly a result of political unrest
By the time you read this article, the Lisbon Treaty will likely have been voted upon – either accepted or rejected – and the post-mortem will surely have begun. Though the campaign has now drawn to a close, elements of it have left a sour taste in my mouth. A number of new political lobbying groups such as Cóir and Libertas have come to the fore over the last few weeks, and have made a real impact.
It’s hailed as the only true all-Ireland university by its supporters – and they have a point. After all, some 8,000 students across the island, aged between 18 and 90, study at the Open University. They benefit from 400 personal tutors based North and South – “from Coleraine to Cork” – and choose their studies from a range of up to 10,000 course modules.
I have just come back from Jerusalem, where I joined Palestinian and Israeli friends and colleagues commemorating the 1948 Palestinian Nakba, or catastrophe, while Israelis were celebrating their 60th Independence Day.
Sometimes a decision is made that makes one wonder what sort of society we truly live in. Anyone who has been reading my column for the last while will know that there are a few issues that exercise me greatly, and one of these is the area of the drugs crisis. Few things anger me more than the one-eyed political system that has fundamentally failed to tackle the scourge of drugs in our country in any meaningful manner.
The current debate over the Lisbon Treaty is gathering pace, with signs that political parties are opening up their chequebooks and mount- ing a vigorous campaign.
Abetter perception of ‘integration’ is vital to make things clearer about the social changes Ireland is undergoing, particularly those that have happened in the aftermath of mass migration, and in the transformation into a multicultural society.
I met a rather interesting man recently whose surname urged a question from me. His unusual name resonated with me as being identical to that of a generous family who once put an impoverished student called Noel Christopher Browne through college in the 1940s. Browne was impoverished because his entire family was wiped out by tuberculosis in the 1920s. However, he was determined to restore some justice to the medical and political system in an independent Ireland that had so betrayed his own and so many other Irish families.
The Immigration, Resi-dence and Protection Bill has already passed its second stage at Leinster House, and is now set to become law before the summer. Some of the reactions to date have been somewhat knee-jerk, however, and in a way typical of an immigration sector that has been mobilised around the rights-based approach that sits with the determination of asylum matters, rather than bigger-picture migration.
The news is just in, and the Irish team finally has a new boss to lead us to future glory. Giovanni Trapattoni is a great manager, and his appointment as manager of the Irish national soccer team is the best thing that has happened to the sport in this country for years. Trapattoni is definitely the best-qualified and most experienced coach to ever take up the position. And with Marco Tardelli being assigned the job of assistant manager, and the legendary Liam Brady waiting in the wings to get involved, things could not be brighter.
A couple of weeks ago, as I flicked through the Review section of the Sunday Tribune, my eye was caught by a disturbing headline. The piece by Una Mullally – Stop insulting us females, you fat, sexist pigs – was as disquieting as its headline. According to Mullally, female bloggers (unlike their male counterparts) are victims of personal and sexual insults posted on their websites’ comment facilities.
When the well-known US feminist Gloria Steinem was asked whether she would prefer a woman or a black president, her answer was simply ‘yes’. At the start of the campaign to elect the Democratic candidate for President of the United States, I too thought ‘Why not?’ –either a woman or a black presidential candidate would mark a break with tradition, and signify change and hope.
The Chinese New Year is upon us again. This is the key event in the Chinese calendar and promotes the culture of this huge country all over the world. Like our own St Patrick’s Day celebrations both here at home and all over the world, the Chinese New Year also underlines China’s vast diaspora and the sense of connection that exists between migrants everywhere and their home country.
The recent breaking down of the wall between Gaza and Egypt is a demonstration of the dignity of the occupied Palestinian people – imprisoned in the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated areas of the world – in breaking out of their imprisonment without shedding blood.
In the next month or so, the Government, trade unions and employers will sit down to hammer out a new national pay deal. The talks will occur against a background of mounting uncertainty about the international economy.