Confusion over costing of proposed runway at Dublin Airport
Fingal County Council (FCC) recently issued a statement saying the information supplied by the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) for their planning application for a new runway was "insufficient and inadequate". This was the second time FCC had to ask the DAA for further information or clarification on future traffic projections they had supplied. The inadequate traffic assessment isn't the only area on which a lack of clarification appears.
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Celtic communion
The latest show at the Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Art from Glasgow, showcases the work of native artists and the Irish diaspora living in this artistically vibrant city
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Digital lirbaries
The little man began a fight-back this week when Alan Bennett urged fans to buy his book from an independent retailer rather than from a Waterstones or an Amazon. Good-naturedly, Amazon told the BBC that Bennett was "a national treasure" (presumably through gritted teeth). Either way, Bennett is primarily seeking promotion for his new book, Untold Stories Part One, a collection of his writing since his battle with cancer in1997. Nobel laureate and Bennett contemporary Harold Pinter is also both recovering from cancer and seeing new work hit the shelves this week with almost unseemly haste following the Nobel announcement. Various Voices: Prose Poetry Politics is actually a 1998 publication, updated with some of his work from this decade. The recent additions comprise the "politics" of the title, featuring scathing attacks on the Iraq war and British foreign policy. Pinter announced his retirement from writing last year to focus on his political interests.
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China's monster, second to none
This long, heavy tome makes the case for Mao as the most monstrous tyrant ever. However, it lacks insight into Mao's behaviour, his childhood, his writings and his political values. Review by Michiko Kakutani
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The great stink
Not since Perfume has a book brought strong smells to you, except these smells are not so good. Clare Clarke's latest novel is set in Victorian London, reviewed here by Susann Cokal
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Turow goes off
In his latest novel, Scott Turow abandons the thriller genre for a story about a son discovering his father's role in World War II. Review by Janet Maslin
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Don't cry for me, Venezuela
'I have more optimism every day. Joyful! Taking care of people! Solving problems. Looking to the future.' Alma Guillermoprieto hears an upbeat Hugo Chavez address his nation on the radio, and assesses his career
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Child Rape Crisis
A shocking report was published three-and-a-half years ago revealing the scale of child sexual abuse. In the meantime the Government has failed to implement the key recommendations of that report and are still stalling. By Emma Browne, Sara Burke and Vincent Browne
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Not ready for
The makeup of the population living on the island of Ireland will change rapidly over the next 25 years. By 2030 about 1.5 million people in Ireland will be foreign-born. This new population is being ignored by media and advertisers. Is this not a missed opportunity, asks Conor Brady
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Waxing lyrical
Bees have a busy but short life, only living for six weeks, but during that time they will forage up to two miles away from home and most of their body weight will become nectar. Darina Allen tells us about bees in Ireland, their goodness, and suggests a simple recipe
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No PC pressie
Right. Where was I? Oh yeah, my friend Paul's birthday do. When extending the invite to me a few weeks ago, he said, and I quote, "Hey, it's my birthday next week, so we're having a few drinks and a bit food in my place. And seriously – no gifts, okay?". So I didn't buy him a gift, much to the bemusement of another friend Declan's wife Helen, who was only dying for party night to roll around, hoping I would be shown up in polite company as some sort of tight-arse.
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Who's on first?
It was bracing to see the son of a New York doorman open the door on the mendacious Washington lair of the Lord of the Underground.
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Editor under fire
Aengus Fanning brazenly used a front-page apology to the Lawlor family to boast about the size of his newspaper's readership. This disingenuous act speaks a great deal about the character of the Sunday Independent, and its editor, Aengus Fanning
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A bleak legal house
Last week the BBC started a multi-part dramatisation of what is argueably Charles Dickens' best work, the huge novel Bleak House. It is a devastating critique of the legal system as operated around the courts of Chancery in London in the 19th Century, when lawyers acted with deep cynicism, concerned more with gaining money and power for themselves than with any sense of justice.
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Irish with a difference
Is Ireland a multicultural society? No. I am Irish, my wife is Irish and my daughter is Irish. Ordinarily, such a statement would not be a big deal. By "ordinarily", I mean if I were from Galway, Roscommon or Cork, in the same way that my wife is from Mayo. But I am from the Yoruba land of western Nigeria. Therefore, many people here don't regard me as being really Irish. Nor, for that matter, do many of these people regard my mixed-race daughter to be as equally Irish as other children born on the same day in Dublin's Holles Street hospital. It was the birth of my daughter on the evening of 18 September 2003 that made me begin to think seriously about Irish identity. Is my daughter really Irish? I know I am Irish but not really Irish, but what about her? Will she ever understand why she is Irish and, at same time, not regarded as really Irish? What is it that makes one really Irish? Is it the colour of one's skin, the passport one holds, the language one speaks or the birth places of one's parents? Although the June 2004 referendum shed some light on what Irish people think about their citizenship and nationality, it left a lot of questions unanswered. What, for instance, are the rights of the young Irish citizens who were recently deported with their mothers to Nigeria? These children are technically "aliens" in Nigeria. They belong here and it is, in my view, unconstitutional to deport them. The "sins" of the parents are being visited on the children. The only thing that differentiates them from other young Irish citizens is the colour of their skin.
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Ireland's boxing revival
Boxing divides people. The morality of watching a fighter put his life on the line for our entertainment has long been a tricky, relativist pursuit. This is precisely the reason so many people love it so much. We know that the boxers have shaved their weight and honed themselves to withstand all the violence another human can muster. We know that they've sacrificed hours taking beatings from lesser fighters in training to prepare their body for the shock of being head-butted, gouged and pummelled. They and their trainers, or the good ones at least, prepare themselves for unknown unknowns each day in the most isolated sport we've created. Heavyweights can piss blood for days after a fight. It's been a while but we finally have reasons to begin believing in the sport again.
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Concern over conditions in women's prisons in North
The conditions for female prisoners in Northern Ireland need to be addressed immediately, according to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. There are around 30 women prisoners in Northern Ireland, all of whom are held at Hydewood Bank, a juvenile prison which holds around 300 male prisoners.
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Ex-RUC man's book set to life lid on collusion
Jonty Brown, one of the most senior CID (Criminal Investigations Department) detectives in the RUC until his retirement in 2001, is expecting his former police colleagues to smash in his front door this week.
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