Lansdowne Road not a fashion victim
It has a dizzying effect as you look up at it before rolling your head towards the West Stand and across the city of Dublin with its settlements of cranes. Soon they will be here amongst the suburban houses, tearing down our Tokyoesque West Stand branded by the DART running underneath, a nod to a brutal city that Dublin luckily never became.
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Space and time
The Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin has invited five international artists to respond to the gallery's space, in their own time. Billy Leahy reports
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Beverly Flynn: Still a Fianna Fáiler
Enjoying the freedom of being an Independent, still having a zest for politics, Beverly Flynn is not fazed by the disbandment of Mícheál Ó Móráin's cumann in Castlebar. She talks to Eoin Ó Murchú
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Blair set to make history
With Labour poised to win a third term in government, Tony Blair will be the most successful Labour prime minister ever, in terms of longevity. But what of his legacy, asks Diarmaid Ferriter
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From Mars or Venus?
Tony Parsons' My Baby and Man and Wife , Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and papal book news and Richard and Judy's Book club choices including The Jane Austen Book Club, The Shadow of the Wind, Cloud Atlas
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Water under the bridge
Despite failing to gain the advantage at Stamford Bridge, Mourinho still believes that Chelsea can put the game behind them and clinch the winner at Anfield. Even from the penalty spot, writes Graham Hunter
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Constitutional divide
The left is split over the EU Constitution, with Labour calling for a YES vote and Sinn Féin encouraging a NO. We asked MEPs Proinsias De Rossa and Mary Lou McDonald to follow up their recent exchange in our letters pages with a one-on-one email debate
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Endgame in Ecuador
He won power with the help of the left but broke his pledges and governed from the right. Michael McCaughan looks at the fall of populist Ecuadorian leader Lucio Gutiérrez
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Wrong side of the tracks
The delegation going to meet the Minister for Health, whom one of them refers to as "the Mata Hari", gather on the train with all the anxiousness of a group of kids on an outing to Dublin. They count themselves on; four here, two joining them in Limerick and some driving. They check their statistics, adding the latest. Saying that they shouldn't overestimate the importance of the medical profession, one of them quotes from The Observer article of the day before, which recalls that during a month-long strike of doctors in Israel some years ago, the death rate in the country actually went down. Much hollow laughter.
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The poverty of politics
Recent events – or non-events – in the political scene have served once again to emphasise the poverty of politics in modern Ireland. Very rarely is any matter of genuine political principle or policy choice an occasion of conflict or controversy: that is reserved for personalised in-fighting and career manoeuvring.
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Searching for sustainable forests
A campaign to combat plantation-style forestry in Ireland has been launched by the Woodland League, an organisation that aims to restore the relationship between communities and their native woodlands.
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Candidatitis and other ills
At some point in every election campaign every candidate forms a view that they are going to win. This syndrome, which is known as candidatitis, is capable of moving even the most rational aspirant into a state of extreme self-belief. It strikes without warning, is no respecter of gender, and can infect the lowly, municipal hopeful as well as lofty presidential wannabe.
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Paralysis on policy decisions
The government this week deferred, yet again, decisions on the proposed second terminal at Dublin airport and the funding of Aer Lingus. Also this week, the European Court of Justice found Ireland in serious breach of waste directives. The Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, acknowledged the State had been slow to implement environ-mental legislation. The revelations merely underline the state of paralysis there is within the government on a wide range of issues. An audit by Village on the key promises made by the government parties prior to the last election shows that at least 25 major promises have been broken or are now certain to be broken within the lifetime of the government (ie by May 2007). They range from hospital beds, Accident and Emergency, infrastructural commitments, education, housing, taxation, poverty and overseas development aid. But they also include commitments made on preventing corruption in politics, an issue of sensitivity for Fianna Fáil in the light of the revelations of the Flood (Mahon) and Moriarty tribunals established when it came into office in 1997. No review has taken place of the ethics legislation, as promised. The promised Proceeds of Corruption Act has not materialised. Far from ensuring financial contributions to political parties would not influence decision making, the possibility of precisely this happening has been enhanced by the new Fianna Fáil initiative to encourage donations from business people. Furthermore, contrary to an explicit commitment, the Freedom of Information Act has been undermined. The paralysis extends to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and An Garda Síochána, which have failed to meet their own commitments of nine months ago to respond, as a mater of urgency, to the recommendations of the Morris Tribunal report. By Hilary Curley and Vincent Browne
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McDowell ducks key issues at GRA conference
The Garda Representative Association's opposition to proper disciplinary procedures continues to threaten discipline within the force and ultimately could lead to 'disaster'. By Vincent Browne
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More academics oppose Goverment over Tara
Over three hundred academics have now petitioned the Government to reverse the decision to route the M3 motorway through the Tara/Skryne Valley. They include a large number of prominent academics from Britain, the United States and other foreign countries.
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Forty per cent
Have you ever noticed how, if you mention anything to do with gender balance, the first reply you get is "but we have a woman on the committee/board/management etc"? I like to think of that response as the recognition that one, solitary, lone, token woman is the equivalent of the dozen men who have permanent residence on the committee/board/management etc. In allowing myself to believe that, it helps to suppress the overwhelming desire it provokes in me to deck the eejit who just said something that dumb.
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