I’ll be doing an overview of the latest developments in local politics separately, but there’s still plenty of interest in this blog roundup. To begin with, we have the sad news of the death of Tomás Mac Giolla, formerly long-time president of (Official) Sinn Féin and latterly the Workers’ Party, at the age of 86. Garibaldy has an obituary, WorldbyStorm notes a remarkably candid interview, and Conor reproduces a clip of the great man at last September’s Desmond Greaves School, in one of his final public appearances.
For jaw-dropping moments, Madam Miaow is not taken in by Alistair Campbell’s tearful performance on the Andrew Marr show; almost as offensive are comments by the egregious Lorna Fitzsimons, noted by Neil. Across the pond, Gryphen takes a look at the Crazy Woman’s speech to a convention of racist lunatics, while Jacob Weisberg is taken to task.
It’s been a good week for reviews. Malachi does C4’s Mo Mowlam biopic, while Coatesy tackles Francis Wheen’s Strange Days Indeed. Fight Back! covers what looks like an interesting book on the Colombian FARC. And you always get good international stories from the PSL: there’s Venezuela cancelling Haitian debt (quite a while before the G7), coverage of Cuban relief efforts in Haiti, and the continuing story of Vieques residents’ battle against the US military. Meanwhile, the Communist Party of Vietnam celebrates its 80th birthday.
Leaving aside the media shitstorm around Pope Benny’s address to the English bishops, there are plenty of other juicy religious stories. The Scottish bishops have just had their ad limina, and as Mulier Fortis notes, got off without the coded rebuke aimed at their English counterparts. Rocco looks forward to the Irish bishops’ upcoming crisis summit in Rome. Meanwhile, Rankin’ Dave Cameron is attempting to bring the C of E’s doctrine into harmony with contemporary moral attitudes, as Ruthie reports; Cranmer is unimpressed, as is His Hermeneuticalness. Will gives us the SP on the race to be the next Presbyterian Moderator. And, in the funniest blog post I’ve read for a good while, Paulinus has a plan of almost Baldrickeque cunning for slapping it up Titus Oates. Fr Ray reckons it’s a good idea, while his commentariat are a bit more sceptical.
Here’s a good piece on the politics of climate change denial; Anton despairs of tabloid headline writers’ treatment of John Terry; Red Maria is annoyed at the Ukrainian government’s award of a posthumous honour to Stepan Bandera; and Professor Billy McWilliams is richt scundered at the lack of Ulster-Scots content at the Ulster Museum.
Links has a critical assessment of Slavoj Žižek, while Luna17 returns to Gramsci, this time on the united front. Socialist Resistance carries an opinion piece on recent happenings in the SWP. Aaro Watch has the ongoing Nick and Martin saga. I’m very taken by Jamie’s ascribing to New Labour of the practice of Chinese legalism. And finally, I’ve just seen this rather strange piece from the Cleverest Man In Ireland. Any suggestions as to what David actually means would be gratefully received.
Splintered Sunrise 
Northside Socialist said,
February 7, 2010 at 9:14 pm
“And finally, I’ve just seen this rather strange piece from the Cleverest Man In Ireland. Any suggestions as to what David actually means would be gratefully received.”
Far be it from me to try to provide an analysis of the writings of the “Cleverest Man In Ireland”, but his last few articles have been fairly critical of the Irish establishment’s handling of the current economic debacle in the 26 counties.
He seems to follow a pattern of (perceived) negative articles with an article extolling the abilities of Irish entrepreneurs to potentially drag the 26 counties out of the mire. I guess it keeps him onside for the “great and good” celebrity economics summits at Farmleigh house and also for the speaking engagements at Irish corporate and finance houses.
This type of article aside, it is worth following his writings (and others) to understand the cataclysmic threat to the economic stability of the Irish state.
His penultimate article gives more of a flavour of why he is worth a read:
“This country needs to be fixed, not patched up. We don’t need tinkering about with the old model. We need to see through the present government strategy. It is not about renewal but is all about keeping its incompetent fingers on the levers of power until something turns up. In so doing, it is aided and abetted by the ECB, which will keep the Irish banks afloat because it is afraid of an embarrassment such as a default within the euro.
The only way it can achieve this is by allowing the banks to mortgage the next generation with more useless borrowing to keep land prices falsely underpinned using the new device called NAMA bonds.
That’s the game — and they dress it up as patriotism.”
http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/2010/02/03/were-all-fools-if-we-think-recovery-plan-is-patriotic
splinteredsunrise said,
February 7, 2010 at 9:22 pm
He does have his moments. It’s just the Narnia stuff was a bit disconcerting. It’s like when you’re reading Gerry Adams’ blog and all of a sudden he throws in some beat poetry.
Foolish Penny said,
February 8, 2010 at 1:56 am
Hi guys,
Hi Lads,
From various Irish blogging communities, I’ve received great feedback on http://www.foolishpenny.com/featured/vietnama/ . In a nutshell, we’re trying to convince Joe Public to pull his cash out of toxic Irish banks. The page received hundreds of hits in the last two days, and dozens of comments. If you’re interested, could you please take a quick look and if you have any comments, please let me know on the site’s comment box, and please pass on to your friends.
Thanks again. Every little helps.
FP.