deshocks

I have moved!

2010-10-26T10:49:00.000+01:00

I've moved to Wordpress, visit my new site here. Thanks for checking in!

Bail and bail outs

2010-09-30T10:29:00.000+01:00

@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }span.uistorymessage { }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } This was written yesterday, before we had all the figures. For a proper analysis of those see

Because I am a Girl

2010-09-28T09:27:00.000+01:00

This week I'm guest blogging on Plan Ireland's Because I am a Girl blog. Plan is a great development NGO working around the world providing education, healthcare, and most importantly capacity building for families and communities, with a particular focus on women. Educate a girl and you educate a whole village. I had the privilege of meeting Plan's spokesperson Benedicta Attoh at a meeting of

Saving the nation

2010-09-24T16:56:00.001+01:00

@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Yesterday I went to get a sandwich in the middle of the newsroom rush. One of the annoying things about working in an

Juvenile delinquents

2010-09-18T18:46:00.002+01:00

Editorial from Thursday 16 September I’m not talking about the Junior Certs. They’re paragons of good behaviour, compared to some of their ‘role models’. While everyone was busy sniggering at Brian Cowen, or invading the moral high ground this week, it was another image from this week’s Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party shindig that caught our imagination here at Cork Independent HQ. An image

Delusions

2010-09-18T18:44:00.003+01:00

Editorial from Thursday 9 September Bertie Ahern might be our next President. Ivor Callely is a victim. There’s no need to be concerned at our international credit rating being downgraded. Not only are we expecting a royal visit, but Queen Elizabeth is going to move into Blackrock Castle with Gerry Adams, as they have always secretly had a thing for one another. Cork is going to be made a

Working things out

2010-09-18T18:42:00.000+01:00

Editorial from Thursday 2 SeptemberThroughout the Celtic Tiger years we were told that the rising tide was lifting all boats, and the lot of every sector in society was improving as a consequence of the genius of our bankers and the Government. There are a number of untruths in that sentence, but you can pick those out for yourself. Even during those years, there was doubt about the kind of work

Landmark moments

2010-09-18T18:40:00.000+01:00

This is my editorial from Thursday 26 August. Apologies for delay updating! We all have those moments in our lives that stand apart as landmarks. They might be a way of remembering a loved one or idyllic period, or they might be the marker of a turning point or an 'annus horribilis'. While they are moments that may be historically significant to the entire world, they can evoke a powerful

2010-09-01T19:34:00.002+01:00

De-energising

2010-08-23T11:09:00.000+01:00

This is my editorial from last week's paper. I've noticed similar pieces a couple of places,in yesterday's Agenda magazine and elsewhere, but this was written last Tuesday. There are a lot of euphemisms about these days, masking unpleasant news. We’re all familiar with downsizing, resizing and – the most recent word from the world of human resources – ‘rightsizing’. De-energising is the

Justeat.ie - it's pretty simple!

2010-08-17T18:19:00.001+01:00

There are some evenings you just don't want to cook. I love cooking, and even I will admit this. But I'm usually pretty reluctant to get a takeaway - I've watched all those 'You Are What You Eat' shows where they show you what you eat in a week on a big table, and I'm determined that my big table would, firstly, be a little table, and secondly, mostly be constituted of things I can identify,

Radiohead

2010-08-16T15:05:00.002+01:00

I've been doing some work with Newstalk recently. Here I am on last Friday's Lunchtime show, with Newstalk's Cork correspondent Jonathan Healy, talking about two things I really know very little about - children and the GAA! So you'll forgive me if I sound a bit, well, blonde. Because I had done lots of research on Larry Murphy and this is what I ended up talking about. (From 35 minutes). The

Protest power

2010-08-16T14:54:00.001+01:00

This is my editorial from last week's Cork Independent As I drove to work last Wednesday, I was delighted to hear on the radio that a protest against the attitude of the Catholic Church to women is being organised, for 26 September. Finally, I thought, women are getting angry.I have been angry for quite some time at the treatment of women by one of the world’s largest organisations. We in

Silly season

2010-08-06T12:46:00.001+01:00

Thanks to The Guardian's Organ Grinder and, of course, The Sun, for this image, which you can find at http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2010/jul/23/the-sun-parasailing-donkey My predictions just two weeks ago that silly season had begun (following a nervous chat with a journalist and photographer from another fine Cork publication, in which the sense of dread felt by all three of

Secret life of Cork

2010-07-29T12:36:00.000+01:00

Living in the city centre, I thought I knew everything that was going on in Cork. On my doorstep, I have the English Market, Opera Lane, Patrick’s Street, historic Shandon, the Docklands, the genteel business district of the South Mall, all waiting to be discovered. And I have explored all of them numerous times. But, like a lot of people, I don’t go outside my comfort zone too often – mostly,

Fertile ground

2010-07-26T17:06:00.000+01:00

Fertile ground For a fertility feature we ran in the paper a couple of weeks ago, I spoke to leading Cork fertility expert, Dr John Waterstone, about the hows, whys, and whos of fertility treatment. The interview reveals some interesting things. You can read it here... I wonder if anybody else will come up with the same queries and misgivings I had in relation to some of those statistics. Dr

They’re at it again

2010-07-22T16:27:00.001+01:00

They’re at it again. Pesky politicians. Politicians across the very narrow spectrum of Irish politics are incredibly predictable. We’ll go through them, and you’ll see what I mean. Fianna Fáil. They’re lying low. Brian Cowen was off in the States recently proclaiming our economic recovery, and fair dues to him. He’s more likely to get a friendly reception almost anywhere than in Ireland these

Making our own good news

2010-07-20T21:31:00.002+01:00

The news today about McElhinney's of Athboy is really heartwarming. Unusual for business news to be "heartwarming", but this is a through-and-through good news story. I'm not too acquainted with the finer points of the deal, but from what I gather, after going into voluntary liquidation, the company did a deal with another Irish company - Flairline - allowing it to reopen the store and rehire

2000 years

2010-07-19T15:20:00.000+01:00

'I will put enmity between you and the woman...' 3:15 No, that's not a quote from Joseph Ratzinger at 3.15 this morning. It's a quote from the Bible, a compilation of hearsay, rumour, innuendo, misogyny, fairytale, legend, biography, social history and advice written by various men over a period of a few hundred years. The Bible has largely been the same since it was agreed upon as a

Progress

2010-07-15T10:10:00.002+01:00

Image (c) Tony O'Connell Photography Cork City Manager Joe Gavin this week said goodbye to the city he’s taken charge of for the past ten years. Mr Gavin leaves with a considerable list of achievements under his belt, for which he was widely applauded at Monday night’s City Council meeting. A vox-pop of our readers carried out on Facebook and on the streets suggests that the

Radiohead

2010-07-05T10:08:00.001+01:00

I've been on the radio a couple of times lately - on Newstalk's Lunchtime Show on Friday, for example. Listen here (from about 40 minutes):

Inside Out

2010-07-05T10:06:00.006+01:00