The heroic but failed champion of Tara is leading the campaign against a motorway near Newgrange   Vincent Salafia is back with a “Save Newgrange” campaign. A man with a panache for publicity, the populace associates the 43-year old with the Tara/ M3 and Carrickmines Castle campaigns. Now he is to address plans for a
[continue reading...]

  For those who see the media affected by liberal or secular bias, for those who see the media as agents of corrupt power, reading the editorial direction of any particular newspaper is a simple task. They can always find confirmation of their view in particular opinion pieces or news stories. Ireland’s newspapers do not
[continue reading...]

The Egalitarian Niall Crowley, equality consultant and former CEO of the Equality Authority, commissioned some alternative voices economically, socially and environmentally We are constantly told there are no alternatives. The markets allow for no flexibility, they say. The Troika demand this, they tell us. Closing down the debate inspires a hopelessness and yet it suits
[continue reading...]

Social Partnership is corruption.   Illegal corruption – in its various forms and expressions – is hardly a rarity in Irish society. This much we know. Perhaps less well understood are the legally permitted forms of corrupt behaviour that contribute to social and economic degradation and undermine democratic institutions and the legitimacy of the State.

In Ireland’s crisis the beleaguered, state-subsidised broadcaster needs to be more than just a window or mirror

Pádraig Ó Ríordáin, a partner with Arthur Cox solicitors, is recent governments’ go-to lawyer for finance and now aviation. After a seven-month search by Fine Gael’s scrupulous Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, the appointment, over the becalmed Christmas period, of high-flyer Pádraig Ó Ríordáin to the role of chairman of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA)
[continue reading...]

Village’s 2012 list: Party politicians, international economic overseers and people who have earned  respect. We asked an informed and not unrepresentative group to contribute a list of who they think are the most influential people in Ireland; and to rank them.

[Editorial, April, 2012] As Mahon finally grinds to a somewhat disappointing report, it is time to recognise that corruption, even more than its cousin greed,
[continue reading...]

To be saved, abandon hope.   Irrational hope is the mortal enemy of resolve, as it blindsides us to our existential predicament. By John Gibbons

Let’s leave our useless banks with worthless IOUs, writes Mick O’Broin. Even before it emerged that the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) was definitively bailing out developers, its dealings with banks were problematic. NAMA is, as Enda Kenny said from the opposition benches, “another blank cheque to bailout the banks”. And, like the bank bailouts
[continue reading...]

[Current Magazine] As Malawi elects a new and female President, Joyce Banda, following the controversial death of her 78-year old predecessor,  Deirdre Mulrooney reflects on her recent visit there.

Village Magazine, June 2011: Despite malpractice and unlawfulness, Carlow planning boss merely shifted sideways. Minister Hogan decides against even appointing inspectors in national planning review. By Michael Smith

The new issue of Village Magazine (April 2012) is in shops from Saturday 24th March. This is a 96-page issue, including an 18-page special on the Mahon Tribunal report, with analysis by Frank Connolly, Michael Smith, Elaine Byrne, John Gormley and others.

The independent Garda watchdog produced a report about the Corrib Garda ‘rape tape’ that misinformed the public and undermined the women who brought the recording to public attention. By William Hederman. It was one of the most extraordinary news stories of 2011. On March 31st, Gardaí in north Mayo arrested two anti-Shell campaigners and seized
[continue reading...]

Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney seems bent on leaving a biodiversity wasteland – and once again forcing the emigration of the last small farmers that keep the hills alive.

  With Germany reluctant to allow debt write-downs least of all by Ireland it’s interesting, as Patrick Guinness notes in a comment on Constantin Gurdgiev’s recent article, how little attention has focused on Ireland’s signature on a 1953 bailout for Germany. The London Agreement on German External Debts between the Federal Republic of Germany on
[continue reading...]

Denis O’Brien sent the following letter to the Village editor in response to an article published in the November 2011 issue of the magazine. The letter is published without comment and will also be reproduced in our January 2012 edition.

Denis O’Brien is one of Ireland’s leading entrepreneurs with investments in international telecoms, radio, media, property, aircraft leasing, golf and other leisure interests. He founded the Esat Telecom Group plc and built it throughout the 1990s until its sale to British Telecom plc for €2.4 billion. He became a Portuguese resident and avoided £55m in
[continue reading...]