Northern Ireland goes back in time – Foreign Policy
March 12th, 2009
http://experts.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/03/12/ireland_goes_back_in_time
Continuity IRA Slogan
It’s looking dangerously similar to the 1980s in Northern Ireland, but a lot has changed since the worst days of “the troubles.”
Last weekend shattered the illusion that the gun had been permanently removed from Irish politics. Two Irish Republican Army (IRA) splinter groups carried out what seemed to be well-planned hits, first against two Afghanistan-bound British soldiers, and later, against a Catholic policeman responding to what turned out to be a terrorist trap. Tragedy that it was, the violence was just the first of two related messes now threatening peace and prosperity in Ireland. The financial crisis has also sent a wave of panic across the now-dead ‘Celtic Tiger’ — whose economy is now set to shrink by at least 6 percent in 2009 after a decade and a half of record growth. (more…)
Celtic Tiger Dazed by the Ritalin King – World Politics Review
February 13th, 2009
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=3289
Irish Poster - Campaign against the EU Constitution
The tale could begin, “During the short reign of the Ritalin King cameth the downturn. . . .”
During his six-month EU presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy laced into any number of challenges with a typically hyperactive gusto and self-importance. The spirit of the Sun King may have been whispering in Sarko’s ear, as he put his own stamp on Louis XIV’s famous motto…”L’Europe, c’est moi.”
When time came to pass the EU crown to Prague, the Frenchman threatened to boycott the handover, after unsuccessfully pushing for self-serving alternatives to existing EU mechanisms. The Coulisses de Bruxelles blog quoted an aide to Sarkozy saying, “France is leaving a roadmap on the financial markets, the economic relaunch, immigration, defense, energy, climate change. If [Czech Prime Minister and current EU President] Mirek Topolanek does nothing, Nicolas Sarkozy, who has brought France back to the center of the game, will take the initiative.”
In a globalized world, foreign policy and macroeconomic challenges come thick and fast, and Sarkozy’s mile-a-minute style won plaudits, even if the mix of unilateral gambits alongside rhetorical “EU-nity” was contradictory. Remember last September, when Angela Merkel stood beside Sarkozy as he talked up France’s response to the global downturn, implying that Germany and the rest of Europe lagged behind? (more…)
Ireland, Singapore: Tigers Down – The Washington Times
January 18th, 2009
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/18/boisterous-and-strong-economies-now-imperiled/
Boisterous and strong economies now imperiled
High-rise banking - financial district Singapore (Getty Images)
Two of the world’s most open and successful economies face tough times as the global downturn marks the end of one era and opens a new period of peril and possibility for both. Singapore and Ireland have staked their fortunes on being small, export-oriented, investor-friendly dynamos. Singapore was one of the original Asian Tiger economies, and the label passed to the Atlantic nation in the 1990s, as 15 years of 5 percent average growth earned Ireland its “Celtic Tiger” reputation.
But as Kishore Mahbubani, a former Singapore diplomat and author of “The New Asian Hemisphere – The Irresistible Shift of Power to the East,” told The Washington Times, “being globalized has its downside – when the world economy stutters, the more open economies feel the pain first.”
Both Singapore and Ireland are officially in recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
Last week, U.S. computer giant Dell Inc. culled 2,000 jobs at its plant in Limerick, while Singapore’s Trade Ministry stated Jan. 2 that it expected the economy to contract 2 percent in 2009, the worst predicted performance of any Asian economy for the coming year. (more…)
Obama’s Victory – ISN
November 6th, 2008
On the campaign trail, S.Carolina 26/1/08 (APPhoto)
It remains to be seen how an inexperienced public representative with an uncritically liberal voting record can become the reconciling planet healer (in a country and world marked by profound differences in political views) that he has promoted himself as. Even as he was elected, developments at home and abroad set the tone.
Liberal California voted against “gay marriage,” something Obama favors. Does this mean that the new president will have to curtail some of his liberal platform on the altar of political compromise, as doubtless he will seek re-election in four years? What, then, will become of the liberal machine from whence he built his powerbase, if the “Obamessiah” displays a yet-unproven nous for compromise? Or bouyed by a Democratic majority in the Houses, will Obama push the type of reworked European social-democratic policies that may, as per the California vote, run aground?
Abroad, Obama’s vacillating reaction to Russia’s invasion of Georgia in August set alarm bells off across Eastern Europe, and was noted by a Moscow bouyed and bellicose on the back of high oil prices. Obama had no sooner taken a congratulatory call from Bush than the Kremlin announced it would deploy missiles in Kaliningrad, wedged between Poland and the EU Baltic States, in response to a US missile shield for central Europe. Clearly the Kremlin believes the incoming president – reminiscent of JFK’s rough introduction to international relations at the hand of Nikita Krushchev – warrants a direct challenge. (more…)
Europe’s Sharia Question – ISN
September 26th, 2008
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=92057
CGI of mosque, Ehrenfeld district of Cologne. The building will hold up to 4,000 worshippers (DPA)
In recent weeks, the European Commission and the UK have made apparent concessions to Islamic law, and with confrontations in Cologne over a proposed mosque, the role of Muslims in a future Europe is again in the spotlight, writes Simon Roughneen for ISN Security Watch.
Princeton University historian Bernard Lewis made his famous prediction in 2004: “Current trends show that Europe will have a Muslim majority by the end of the 21st century at the latest […]. Europe will be part of the Arab West-the Maghreb.”
Similar claims have been made by other authors, with European countries featuring below-replacement birth rates, while Muslim immigrants and their descendants predicted, in some quarters, to reach over 20 percent of the population of Europe by 2020.
A low fertility rate of 1.47 babies per woman, according to the 2005 estimates for the EU as a whole, is far below the 2.1 needed to keep a population constant, and with newspapers reporting “Muhammed” as the most popular baby’s name in London, the swing toward Mecca has some popular culture branding to match the statistics. Europe’s Muslim population has tripled in the past 30 years, fuelled by immigration from North Africa, Turkey, Pakistan and Bangladesh. (more…)
EUFOR: damned either way? – ISN
June 20th, 2008
EUFOR logo (ISN)
How will the refugees EUFOR is protecting react when they see the same thugs that killed their families and looted their villages take control?
By Simon Roughneen
With senior Sudanese officials in Paris on 19 June to discuss Chad and Darfur with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, an already dangerous and complex situation for EU troops in eastern Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) looks set to worsen.
After a recent rebel advance in eastern Chad, that country’s president Idriss Déby told national TV that “We welcomed EUFOR with joy [...] but it took us by surprise to see, in the first hostile situation, this force cooperating with the invaders.
“We have the right to question the effectiveness of this force and how useful its presence is in Chad.”
Whether EUFOR behaved with partiality or impartiality is not the real issue. (more…)
EU tries to rescue treaty after Ireland’s veto – The Washington Times
June 17th, 2008
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jun/17/eu-tries-to-rescue-treaty-after-veto-by-irish-vote/
Pro and anti-Lisbon Treaty campaign posters
DUBLIN | EU foreign ministers faced mounting confusion at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday in an attempt to salvage a political union of the 27-nation bloc after a veto by Irish voters.
Some are urging other EU countries to press ahead with ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, even without Ireland’s approval, while others are demanding that the pact be scrapped altogether.
“The rules are absolutely clear: If all 27 countries do not pass the Lisbon Treaty it cannot pass into law,” said British Foreign Secretary David Milliband.
French European Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Jouyet told French radio that there was “no other solution” than for Ireland to hold a second popular referendum, akin to the scenario in which Ireland rejected an EU treaty in 2001 before passing it during a second attempt a year later.
Monday’s meeting precedes a two-day summit Thursday and Friday of European leaders, who are expected to take up the same issue. (more…)
The Church in Albania – The Irish Family
May 10th, 2008
from Ottoman control to Communism to?..
TIRANA- An old Albanian saying goes as follows: ‘Where the sword is, there lies religion’ . Thus, under the long years of Ottoman rule, up to 70% of Albanians converted to Islam, escaping the onerous taxes and dhimmitude second-class citizenship imposed on non-Muslims. Before then, Albania’s strategic location on the marches between western and eastern Christianity saw its people divide into largely northern Catholics and southern Orthodox.
St Pauls Cathedral, Tirana (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Later, under the Stalinism-on-steroids Hoxha regime, Albania was declared the world’s first atheist state, and the Catholic Church felt the force of Tirana’s totalitarian jackboot even more than Albania’s other major faiths. As Hoxha himself said: “The Muslim religion..[..]..was not as serious an obstacle..[..]…as the Catholic”, and as the Archbishop of Tirana-Durres Rrok Kola Mirdita told this reporter “priests were called Vatican spies, Hoxha feared us, many were executed”. (more…)
Irish party says U.S. ‘opposed to EU integration’ – The Washington Times
April 30th, 2008
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/FOREIGN/383010006/1001
DUBLIN — The party once led by the current European Union ambassador to Washington is claiming that the U.S. is actively opposing European integration, posing a potential embarrassment as Prime Minister Bertie Ahern prepares to address a joint session of Congress today.
Lucinda Creighton, a spokeswoman for Ireland’s largest opposition party, Fine Gael, says in a Web posting that “U.S. foreign policy has traditionally been opposed to EU integration.”
“The U.S. supports the EU as an economic bloc but nothing more. The idea of a politically strong EU, acting as a check or counterbalance on the U.S. does not sit well with our trans-Atlantic friends,” says the spokeswoman, a member of Ireland’s Parliament. (more…)
US Woes danger to Celtic Tiger – The Washington Times
April 8th, 2008
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/apr/08/us-woes-danger-to-celtic-tiger/
Croagh Patrick, on top of which St Patrick emulated Christ's 40 days in the desert. Each St Patricks Day the Irish PM meets the US President at the While House (Simon Roughneen)
DUBLIN — Before his recent resignation, outgoing Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern prefaced the annual St. Patrick”s Day pilgrimage to the White House by predicting “a hard year” ahead for the Irish economy.
The banking crisis and credit crunch in the United States, as well as the falling dollar, worry Irish policy-makers. Ireland has 25 percent of its trade in dollars and has bet much of its recent economic boom on a 12 percent corporate tax rate — an enormous incentive for U.S. multinationals such as Intel and Microsoft to run pan-European operations out of Ireland.
Google has the headquarters of its European and Middle East operations in Dublin.
“The company is very pleased with how the Dublin operation continues to develop,” a Google spokesman said.
The spokesman, who asked not to be named in keeping with company policy, said the company “was attracted to Ireland for a number of reasons, including its highly educated work force, multilingual talent pool, where there are in excess of 140 languages spoken, and its solid economic environment.”
The unanswered question is: How will the present economic slowdown in the U.S. affect Ireland?
Dublin”s Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) is predicting the lowest economic growth in 20 years, at just 1.6 percent. Others are even more pessimistic, predicting zero growth. (more…)
