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.

Interesting to see how the Irish Times, the newspaper of record, handles challenging and sensitive stories concerning the political establishment – when you know what the real story is. Here’s an article from a December edition: Councillor’s property stake and vote to be investigated MARY MINIHAN, writing in the Irish Times THE STANDARDS in Public
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Belfast High Court says security forces may have had foreknowledge of the Omagh bombing. By Anton McCabe Omagh bomb victim, Laurence Rush, won an important legal victory in February, which attracted little notice. The North’s High Court allowed Rush to proceed with legal action against the North’s Chief Constable and Secretary of State. He is
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The Mahon Tribunal, perhaps to avoid discrediting chief witness Frank Dunlop, failed comprehensively to investigate the Cherrywood rezoning that led to its establishment. By Michael Smith In 1995 Colm MacEochaidh and I sponsored a £10,000 reward for “information leading to the conviction of persons for rezoning corruption” after I had been involved in a long
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The Quinn empire benefited from goodwill in Cavan County Council and among -at least most – locals By Anton McCabe The epic fall of Seán Quinn and his Quinn Group is the end of an empire – one which has left a legacy of environmental degradation along the Cavan-Fermanagh border. There is a network of
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The average household needs to find an additional €950 during 2011 to cover energy bills as higher oil prices are passed on by wholesalers and retailers. But must the steady rise in oil prices really have such stark implications for every home? And what should government be doing about it? Having averaged $85 a barrel
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Mechanised despoliation may cease, though pervasive exceptions  proposed and EU Commission sceptical. By Tony Lowes Devastating the Bogs In the end for a while even Ming the Merciless, TD, zipped his mouth, allowing the under-informed media to report a ‘cessation’ of immemorial turf-cutting in designated conservation areas – affecting “6,500” turf-cutters and an estimated “17,000”
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Despite malpractice and unlawfulness, Carlow planning boss merely shifted sideways. Minister Hogan decides against even appointing inspectors in national planning review. By  Michael Smith Former Louth Co Manager, John Quinlivan, completed a report on planning irregularities in Carlow in November 2010. The  report was commissioned after a Local Government Audit Service review of 2008 noted 
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Micheál Martin is a non-ideological constitutional republican who derides equality of outcome and believes in equality of opportunity How would you describe your political philosophy? I’m a constitutional republican and believe strongly that economic growth and social progress are closely linked.  I believe the old left/right ideological divide has no real relevance for the 21st
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“None of us know what to do” Fintan O’Toole has a brilliant agenda but doesn’t know how to implement it Michael Smith interviews Fintan O’Toole First of all, Fintan O’Toole is very charming.  He’s one of those people, like one of his Nemeses, Bertie Ahern, you think you know even if you’ve never met him.
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Fr Chesney defamed Contrary to lazy reports, the NI Ombudsman’s report on the 1972 ‘bloody Monday’ bombings in Claudy did not damn local priest, Fr James Chesney by Anton McCabe “Media confusion seems to have begun because the press statement from the Ombudsman’s office had a significantly different emphasis to the report” Media coverage of
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UniCredit breached liquidity requirements in 2007.  Matthew Elderfield nods.  The interconnectedness of banking dysfunctionality. Michael Smith There is a general official view that Ireland’s ethical delinquencies are in the past.  Corrupt planning stopped when the tribunals started; and bad bank-regulation stopped with the demise of Pat Neary and the production of two limited and innocuous
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Despite Angela Kerins’ claims, targets have not been achieved. Michael Smith Public-sector cutbacks and unprecedented levels of unemployment are reversing hard-won gains on the path to equality for whole swathes of society.  In July 2009, the Equality Authority launched its Annual Report 2009. It is telling that Angela Kerins, chairperson of the Authority, chose to
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Sligo County Council and the National Roads Authority have ruined Yeats’ grave. by Michael Smith Irish poets, earn your trade, Sing whatever is well made, Scorn the sort now growing up All out of shape from toe to top, Their unremembering hearts and heads Base-born products of base beds. Sing the peasantry, and then Hard-riding
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Some Unions will mobilise on 23 October against 19% UK block-grant reduction.b by Anton McCabe A Comprehensive Spending Review for the North is due for delivery on 20 October. This will announce major cuts, probably of Southern levels. This will have social implications, but also have political ramifications. So far this year, reductions of almost
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Sinn Féin is now, by a short head, the North’s largest party with 25.5% of the vote. The reduction in its total vote from 174,530 to 171,942 since the 2005 General election can be attributed to its withdrawing from South Belfast, where it had taken 2,882 five years ago. Since then, the Sinn Féin leadership
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In the mid-nineteen-nineties developer and architect, Paul Clinton, came up with an idea for a new street and shopping centre on O’Connell Street centring on the former Carlton Cinema site and brought together a group of four partners who had varying degrees of involvement. They developed ambitious plans for the ‘Millennium Mall’ retail scheme stretching
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The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission – acting through local Gardaí – is currently reviewing an investigation of the original Garda probe into how Declan Ganley acquired 3,000 first-preference votes from independent candidate, Fiachra Ó Luain, in the European election count in early June 2009 in Castlebar.

Déirdre De Búrca writes: we should change the dynamic or pull out of government

(F)lying
Villager thinks Michael O’Leary is great gas and a business superhero and he loves to see senior political figures and journalists fawning over him. Fawning over him.