Image via Wikipedia Enda Kenny yesterday addressed the YFG conference twice. Once during the Prime Time speech and once during the Gala Banquet last night. Both his speeches were well received by the audience. Below is the text of his speech from the Prime Time session. Yesterday was the anniversary of the proudest day in the life of a young man when he got elected to the national parliament of the country he loved. This young man found himself...
Lucinda Creighton TD has blogged about how she thinks the Government and Opposition should work together on the budget. She raises some interesting points. Need for Patriotic Rather than Political Response to Economic Crisis Some may say it is naive of Opposition politicians to suggest that now is a time when we must put aside the old fashioned confrontational, adversarial politics of old and replace it, albeit temporarily, with a constructive engagement with the Government and the Minister for...
Image via Wikipedia Having read Pope Benedict’s XVI pastoral letter to Irish Catholics, I can say I my respect for him and the Vatican has increased. He has apologised on behalf of the church and is sending an Apostolic Visitation for certain Diocese. It will be interesting to see which ones. I have reproduced part of the letter below, 6. To the victims of abuse and their families You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know...
Image via Wikipedia This arrived in my inbox today. It may be of interest to some readers! You may wish to be aware that Mr. Micheál Martin, T.D., Minister for Foreign Affairs, has announced details of the 2010 Communicating Europe Initiative. Applications for funding are invited from voluntary organisations and education bodies who are interested in raising awareness about how the European Union matters in their community. Consideration will also be given to proposals for events, large or small,...
Image by eliot. via Flickr As I didn’t do a Monday links last week as I was in Luxembourg, for punishment I am doing one today on the Bank Holiday here in Ireland! Kosmopolit has a post explaining EU Jargon. I have a post on that coming soon, maybe even today! Bryan has a post on Islamophobia and the far right.It was nice to read that after coming home from the intercultural training in Luxembourg. Sticking with interculturalism, there...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife On Sunday I head off to Luxembourgh to take part in the ALF Euromed Bloggers Training on Intercultural Dialogue. As part of that Programme I have to look up a bit on interculturalsim. Searching Irishblogs.ie I found a few websites dealing with the issue, but most were websites and not blogs. Only two of the blogs I found were ordinary blogs but the rest were photoblogs. Does this mean that Interculturalism isn’t an...
Its not often I find the phrase from Cromwell’s speech to the Rump Parliament in 1653 coming to mind, but after watching clips of Micheal Woods TD, the former Minister for Education, from back in September 2003 on Prime Time its the only thing that is in my mind. At the end of the interview he blames the people of Ireland for what happened and not the religous orders. See Gavin’s Blog for the full clips from that Prime...
On Monday after the Fine Gael Ard Fheis, UCC Young Fine Gael had a walk about in Cork City for Sean Kelly, a Fine Gael candidate in Ireland South. One member of the public asked to meet Sean Kelly, he was introduced. What was his question? Go on take a guess. Can you get me a house? Yes, in typical Irish fashion, his question was on the housing lists which plague this country. This is something so sitting or...
I hope you are all enjoying your St. Patricks Day. I for one have spent most of the actual day in bed. I had to get up early this morning and bring the Macoaimh (Cub Scouts) to mass. So I went back to bed afterwards. So whats the point of this post? I was going to do a post like this but then decided, why should I be posting about that on what is our National Day as well...
Road Deaths: 240
Image by Getty Images via Daylife 2009 saw 240 people killed on Irish Roads. This is down (a record!!) 39 on last year. It is still a high figure. Among those killed were: 40 pedestrians, 7 cyclists, 128 were drivers 38 passengers 27 bikers. Road deaths can effect anyone. They leave devastation behind. My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those killed this. Here’s hoping that there will be less this year. So buckle up,...
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