Léargas

Two weeks ago the Fine Gael and Labour government published a new bill to regulate the marketing and advertising of alcohol. The Public Health (Alcohol) Bill was also supposed to tackle the important issue of alcohol sponsorship of sporting events. While many of the elements contained in the Bill are important and welcome the government was rightly criticized for failing to tackle the key issue of drinks sponsorship of sporting events. Instead of clear legislation to end drink sponsorship of sport we got waffle. The Dáil was told that the question of sports sponsorship and the associated marketing and advertising of alcohol will be dealt with in a way that does not allow for the deliberate targeting of children. While the problem of drink linked to children is a matter of concern it is a fact that the greatest number of citizens affected by drink sponsorship of sports are adolescents, young men and women, and older citizens. A report three weeks from University College...

    Bobby Ballagh and mise   Wynn’s Hotel in Lower Abbey Street in the centre of Dublin played a pivotal role in the formation of two of the key groups that shaped the 1916 Easter Rising; Oglaigh na hÉireann – the Irish Volunteers, and the Cumann na mBán. On November 11th 1913 a small group of republican activists met at Wynn’s Hotel. Present were Bulmer Hobson, Eoin Mac Neill, Padraig Mac Piarais, Sean Mac Diarmada, W.J. Ryan, Eamonn Ceannt, The O'Rahilly, and several more. It was agreed to hold a public recruiting meeting for a body called the Irish Volunteers whose aim was ‘to secure and maintain the common rights and liberties of Irish men’. Three of those in attendance; Pádraig Mac Piarais, Sean Mac Diarmada, and Eamonn Ceannt were among the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation. They were subsequently executed by the British. Two weeks after that first inaugural meeting - on November 25th - over seven thousand joined the Volunteers at a meeting in...

The United Nations estimates that there are currently over 50 million people around the world who are displaced persons. In 2013 there were 16.7 million refugees worldwide. 50% of refugees are under 18 years old. The escalating conflict in Syria has displaced an estimated  five million  persons. Like the Irish who fled the great hunger in the 1840s and died in their thousands in the coffin ships crossing the Atlantic, thousands of Syrian and north African people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea for Europe. Some refugees have made it as far as the south of Ireland. In November 1999, a decision by the Fianna Fáil government established a system “to deal with matters relating to the dispersal of asylum seekers throughout the country and preparation of plans for a system of direct provision of housing, health needs etc.“ Direct provision centres have been described as “a holding pen where people are kept for efficient deportation” and conditions have b...

The Stormont House Agreement was for Sinn Féin a defensive negotiation. It was about defending what had been gained previously and was being diluted as a result of the ongoing process. In large measure the outcome, while not comprehensive was positive. However, following on from that agreement, one aspect of the negotiation that bears closer scrutiny is the role of the Fine Gael/Labour coalition government. It is important to recall that for much of the twentieth century successive Irish government’s, mainly led by Fianna Fáil, ignored what as happening in the north. So too did successive British governments. The result was the civil rights movement of the 1960s, a violent response by the Unionst government and loyalist mobs, and the militarisation by the British of the north. Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s former Chief of Staff for much of the peace process, recently acknowledged the contribution British government inattention made to the failure of politics and the emerge...