Monday 2 August 2010

Au revoir


I SHOULD have explained that I haven't been blogging for a while as my new job might produce a conflict of interest (as long as the job lasts, of course).

Apologies.

That said, to paraphrase the Governor of California, I hope I'll be back.

Saturday 6 February 2010

Eamonn Lillis murder trial: Media victims

AM I the only one to be amazed at how far the Irish Independent will go to milk the story around the murder trial of Eamonn Lillis, found guilty this week of bludgeoning with a brick his wealthy wife, a former model and James Bond movie star, at home in the upmarket County Dublin suburb of Howth?

Celine Cawley (46) appeared with Roger Moore in the 1985 James Bond movie A View To Kill.


Her husband has been sentenced to six years and 11 months in prison for her manslaughter. He was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter despite trying to cover up his crime with a string of lies to police investigators about her being attacked by an intruder and naming a former gardener as a possible suspect.

Behind the trappings of successful professional careers in the media, the couple's marriage was on the rocks and the 52-year-old Eamonn Lillis had embarked on an affair with a beauty therapist 20 years younger.

Admittedly, it's a real life and death story that will undoubtedly be made into a TV drama but was it really necessary for the Irish Independent today to go to the home town of Lillis's young lover, highlight who her siblings are and where they are working, and look to local councillors for a comment on the case?

As even the piece by Barry Duggan all but admits in a quote from one neighbour, being a mistress is not a crime and being a relative of someone unwittingly caught up in a murder trial is not a crime.

What would journalists think if people aggrieved by their reporting took to highlighting all their relatives' backgrounds in responses to false or intrusive reporting?

Six Nations rugby: Ireland welcomes Italy

EVEN though I used to play rugby union at school (and enjoyed it), it's seldom excited me like this Six Nations campaign that kicks off today.

Ireland welcomes Italy to Croke Park in Dublin this afternoon and with a strong Irish-Italian community running the domestic takeaway food trade, the craic should be mighty in the chip shops of Ireland today.

Friday 5 February 2010

The North: At last, DUP agree on transferring policing and justice powers from London

RTÉ reports:

"The First Minister and DUP leader Peter Robinson has said his party's representatives at the Stormont Assembly have backed a deal with Sinn Féin on the devolution of policing and justice powers from Westminster.

"The breakthrough follows lengthy negotiations involving both governments at Hillsborough Castle over the past two weeks.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will travel to Belfast this morning to put their seal on the agreement."

Watch the press conference live from 10am

Thursday 4 February 2010

1 in 3 Brits thinks 'Family Guy' leads BNP

ONE in three members of the British public matched a picture of Nick Griffin (far right), the odious and oily führer of the neo-Nazi British National Party, with the name of Peter Griffin, the protagonist of the TV cartoon sitcom Family Guy.

A money-saving website survey of 1,498 people found more were able to identify a picture of Alex Reid, the new husband of Katie Price (aka Jordan), than recognised Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Explains a lot.

System beliefs

HAVING spent my formative years in Suffolk, England, and still with an attachment to the county, I was pleased to see this letter from my old home county about the Pope's visit, also in Wednesday's Independent (London).

'PEOPLE of faith' have every right to exert their influence, using our democratic system, but they must not be allowed to invoke their beliefs to trump that system.
Patrick Smith, Beccles, Suffolk

My sentiments entirely.

Papal Bull

THIS letter appeared in Wednesday's Independent (London).

THE Pope has confirmed that he will make a state visit to our country but doesn't much like our equality legislation for gay men and women. Surely he must be familiar with the maxim "When in Rome..."
Roy Askew, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire

The Pope: Against Equality Bill

THE Pope has set the tone for his visit to England by publicly attacking Britain's Equality Bill because it will bar the Catholic Church from discriminating against gay people (that's not how the Pope said it but that's the gist of it).

More than 4,000 people have signed a Facebook petition protesting against the Pope's visit, one of the organisers pointing out that taxpayers will be faced with a bill of £20m for a visit in which the church leader "will attack equal rights and promote discrimination".

Human rights campaigner and gay rights activist Peter Tatchell is quoted as saying that the Pope seemed to be demanding that churches should be above the law

And he's right, isn't he?

Wednesday 3 February 2010

Junket jolly: Central Bankers did it

THE Central Bank in Dublin has confessed that it was the state body that paid for 52 spouses of staff to go on foreign trips over a two-year period at taxpayers' expense.

But while it was admitted that there were 49 trips (and not just one giant junket jolly, as previously reported), the Central Bankers refused to give any details on who went on the trips or how much they cost.

Why not? What have they got to hide?

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Junket jolly: 'State bosses used taxpayers' cash to take 52 spouses overseas'


JUST what the XXXX is going on? Is this report about an Irish state organisation using taxpayers' money to bring the spouses of 52 staff members on a foreign trip actually true?!!

Not surprisingly, no one wants to own up to the big days out – they must be still getting over the jet-lag.

So, if no one will step up to the plate (unless it's for a free lunch on a junket overseas), each Irish Government minister should be tasked by Taoiseach Brian Cowen with getting a solemn declaration from each agency under their department's umbrella to state categorically that they are not the guilty holiday party.

Then maybe we can flush out the culprits and make them pay, if not in hard cash but in public opprobrium.

And where are all the ministers who love banging on about getting tough on social welfare claimants taking the taxpayer for a ride? Or, for that matter, the Green Party ministers? They should all be putting their own houses in order.

Robbie Keane: Off to Glasgow in the green


GOOD to see Robbie Keane joining Glasgow Celtic on loan from Spurs as the transfer window closes.

Celtic need some firepower up front and perhaps Robbie can inject some vigour into the Bhoys' attack.

Another reason to visit Parkhead on my visits to Glasgow's fair city. I wonder if Celtic would take me on loan.

Sunday 31 January 2010

Jeremy Paxman's Newsnight Challenge Quiz

JEREMY PAXMAN'S Newsnight Challenge Quiz in last week's Media Guardian has gems such as:

Which presenter complained that they were having a difficult time on air because "I've got Ian Smith coming in my ear"?

Go on, test yourself.

FÁS Failure: FÁS boss pockets half a million while community groups axed, FÁS training budgets slashed

FIANNA FÁIL Tánaiste Mary Coughlan has defended the huge pay-out to former FÁS Director General Rody Molloy (left) who was given a "larger than necessary" severance package because the Government wanted to "move the organisation on and make sure it changed".

Molloy retired on a pension of €111,245 per year and also received a once-off lump sum of €333,735 and two other separate payments of €55,622. He was also allowed to keep a car.

This is all at a time when Community Development Programmes are axed and people trying to get back to work through FÁS jobs training and employment programmes are having their training budgets slashed.

RTÉ says in its report headed Coughlan defends Molloy severance package:
"[Rody Molloy's] departure in November 2008 came after months of criticism at the excessive expenses incurred by executives of FÁS.

"The Tánaiste said his package was agreed following advice from her officials and under sanction from the Department of Finance." (My emphasis.)

So the Fianna Fáil minister and her advisers are responsible for the half-million pay-out to get rid of someone who, it appears, wasn't up to the job.

Whatever happened to the sack?

Andy Murray: Great Scot Swiss rolled by Federer


A VALIANT effort by Scotland's Andy Murray in the Australian Open tennis final but Switzerland's Roger Federer is in a class of his own.

The Scottish tennis ace squandered five set points in an agonising tie-break on his way to losing to the Swiss champion in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (13/11).

During the closing ceremony in Melbourne, Andy made a tearful apology to the fans who faithfully supported their hero.

Thursday 28 January 2010

Roy Greenslade: Death of Spanish editor who defied Franco | World BB News


Roy Greenslade: Death of Spanish editor who defied Franco | World BB News

Tabloid Watch on: Media fosters hate crimes, says University of Exeter report

Report says media is a motivating factor in anti-Muslim hate crime

A REPORT published today by Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer and Dr Robert Lambert MBE, from the European Muslim Research Centre at the University of Exeter, looks at anti-Muslim hate crime and Islamophobia in London. It is, they say, the first report in a ten-year project to look at these issues in cities across Europe, Tabloid Watch writes.

Lambert, incidentally:

headed Scotland Yard's Muslim contact unit, which helped improve relations between the police and Britain's Islamic communities. The unit won praise from even long-standing critics of the police, and Lambert was awarded an MBE.

So he's well-qualified to write about such issues.

Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: a London Case Study reveals:

how perpetrators of hate-crimes against Muslims are invariably motivated by a negative view of Muslims acquired from mainstream or extremist nationalist media reports or commentaries.

So not something that is going to widely covered by the tabloids then?

No...