The last time I wrote about xenophobic attitudes in Dublin I was assured it was the exception rather than the rule. I'm sure that was true then and is now. Nevertheless it's disappointing that such attitudes are one again evidenced by today's news that an English pipe-fitter received regular "racist" abuse from his Irish colleagues who deliberately sang "Irish songs of a political nature" to/around him.

The equality tribunal hearing the case found he was "racially" harassed but rejected the claim that his dismissal (after only 2 months) was based on his nationality.

There's more to Ireland than the South

It's one of those rare happenings that makes you wonder if you might actually be asleep. Many unionist bloggers have said repeatedly that Ireland is greater than the Republic and that neither nationalists nor the Southern state should not enjoy a monopoly on the definition of Ireland or Irishness.

Chekov (who, as ever, puts his point across much more eloquently than myself) has spotted that Barry McElduff has, rather uncharacteristically, done something vaguely sensible in recent days. Apparently the West Tyrone MLA has written to all the Republic's TDs and Senators to challenge "this notion that the 26 counties constitutes Ireland".

Read more »

It's easy to think, when you're travelling abroad in Europe (or even hopping over the border), that it wouldn't be a good thing if we were to join the Eurozone and do away with all the nasty changing money business.

The Irish Times carries a cautionary tale about the inflexibility of a central bank setting policy for such a large and diverse area as the EU though.

The European Central Bank's president, Jean-Claude Trichet, warned that the ECB has more important things to worry about than eurozone members like the Republic of Ireland [sic], Spain and Portugal that are experiencing economic difficulties.

"The ECB has to care for the superior interest of the euro area.
...
Our monetary policy must be optimal at the level of the whole euro area - exactly like the Fed [the ECB's American equivalent] would not look at what is in the interest of Missouri, California or Texas."

The European Parliament is set to vote on proposals that would ban airlines from quoting prices that don't include taxes and charges. Super, smashing, great!

Read more »

Coming hot on the heels of the Republic updating it's rules on learner drivers, an announcement that Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are to have mutual recognition of driving disqualifications and that it should be in place by next spring.

Not before time either.

A ban on Southern learners driving on their own comes into effect next week.

At the moment, the Republic of Ireland is the only country in the EU where learner drivers can drive a car without an experienced driver present in the car alongside them as long as they're on their second provisional licence (this only applies to provisional licences which were discontinued in October 2007 and replaced with learners' permits, which have tighter restrictions). The unsurprising result of this is that many people never feel any particular need to apply for a full licence.

It's a rather silly situation; I mean why bother going through all those lessons and the pressure of a test when you can already drive largely unrestricted and unhindered without it. The exception is that you're barred from motorways but outside Dublin and the south-east this probably wouldn't rank highly on one's list of concerns.

As of next week, however, the Republic of Ireland will be brought into line with the rest of the British Isles and indeed Europe in requiring learners to be supervised by an experienced driver (in the Republic 2 years is considered sufficient experience as distinct from the 3 years stipulated in the UK) or face a €2,000 fine or 3 months in prison.

2 pieces of good news greeted me when I arrived home on Friday lunch time. The first was that the voters of the Republic of Ireland had rejected the EU constitution. I'd like to believe the Czech president when he said ratification cannot go ahead following this but the British foreign minister has said we should continue with our process of ratification (when he says 'our' I think he means Labour's, after all today's hiccup shows you can't trust the people to make the right decision) and José Manuel Barroso (EC President) insists the treaty isn't dead. The EU are totally adept at ignoring popular opinion when it suits them, even if it is so bluntly stated.

Brian Cowen, the new leader of the Southern government, blames the no camp for confusing voters and that many people raised objections to issues not covered by the treaty. Then again it was the government's Yes camp who aimed to focus voters attention on the benefits of the EU rather than the Constitution they were actually voting on. And this is the main problem with the EU: the arrogant, 'we know best' attitude to its citizens.

Read more »

A judge from the Republic has branded people from Tyrone as typically thick.

It would seem difficult to disagree with him were it not for the fact that it was his own justice administration making a fuck-up that put her there in the first place.

His comments came after a woman from Donaghmore was wrongly summonsed to court because her details matched those of another woman and, being from Northern Ireland, she didn't have any Euros on her to pay to have the case thrown out.

Edit: Apparently this is the same judge who responded to a defendant who gave his address as Londonderry by saying he "didn't want to see this rubbish coming before him again" and that as far as he was concerned it was "just Derry with a capital D."

People in glass houses, your honour.

Slugger has highlights from Iain Dale's picking up on the Irish Daily Mail getting hold of a copy of an email. The email was sent from a UK diplomat in Dublin following a briefing from the Irish government. It lists the various underhand methods the government planned to use to get the answer they wanted from the referendum and let me tell you it's a strategy Robert Mugabe would be proud of.

You kind of expect a government to set the date they feel would be most suitable, but they've also been found to have been deliberately and consciously misleading the public and their opponents into believing it was a date much later than the date they had planned.

They're practically rejoicing about the fact that the document is "largely incomprehensible to the lay reader", which is no small help to a government whose inherently dishonest aim "is to focus the campaign on overall benefits of the EU rather than the treaty itself". Could that be because there are no tangible benefits in the constitution treaty itself? As the 'No camp' has pointed out, the Republic's place in the EU is secure and a no vote will not change that. What it will do is let the people have a say in what shape the EU takes, rather than having it decided in an undemocratic and unaccountable manner by a remote and powerful elite behind closed doors in Brussels.

The EU are obviously worried by this whole pesky exercise. The EC has promised to 'tone down or delay' any announcements from Brussels 'that might be unhelpful'. A lie of omission is still a lie, but what do you expect from an entity that, when they realised people didn't want their superstate, scribbled out the word "constitution" and replaced it with the much more vague and fluffy "treaty". Let's not forget that the punishment of the French and Dutch voters for defying their governments and exercising their democratic rights on the first vote was to be denied a second.

As an aside, all this makes me wonder what right the EU has to demand potential new members meet certain standards of democracy when the EU itself is one of the most undemocratic (in attitude and procedure), scummy and deceitful governmental institutions in existence anywhere in the so-called civilised world.

Read more »

Colm Bradley has outlined some ways he thinks the GAA can remove the barriers to Unionists joining. Just over a year ago I outlined that the GAA has a de facto ban in Unionists joining. Unfortunately Google hasn't cached it, so some of the substantive points are below the fold. The main contention I have though, is that the GAA is explicitly a political organisation, and should not be treated as a sporting organisation unless and until it sheds the vestiges of a political pressure group.

Read more »