With funding at crisis levels, merging the county and city councils must be considered

Thu, Feb 25, 2021

It is with some bemusement that I noted the recent contributions in Seanad Éireann regarding the future of local authority arrangements in Galway and, in particular, the voicing of opposition to the amalgamation of the Galway county and city councils.

Adrian Curran selected as People Before Profit’s Galway representative

Thu, Feb 25, 2021

Adrian Curran has been selected as the People Before Profit local area representative for Galway by the party's members in the city and county.

Does the Labour Party have a future?

Thu, Feb 18, 2021

There was a feisty and interesting exchange in the Dáil last week that caught the attention of the national media and woke some of the sleeping deputies in the unparliamentary surroundings of the convention centre.

Where next for the arts in Galway in 2021?

Thu, Feb 11, 2021

For The Insider, engagement with the arts in 2020 often meant watching them from my sitting room with a cup of tea - or a G&T - in front of me, and, sadly, given the continuing uncertainties surrounding the rollout of the nation’s Covid-19 vaccination programme, that situation might remain unchanged for months to come.

City bypass might increase, not lessen, traffic congestion in Galway

Thu, Feb 11, 2021

The long, and often controversial, saga of a bypass for Galway may be brought to a close when An Bord Pleanála decides the fate of the Galway City Ring Road in April.

City Hall officials need to work more closely with councillors

Thu, Feb 04, 2021

Insider has been a keen observer of activities in City Hall for two decades and, regardless of what the public think, it is always best for Galway when there is a good working relationship between the elected members and senior management.

Waste water and poor planning threaten city's future development

Thu, Jan 28, 2021

In its recent publication, Wastewater Treatment in Galway, An Taisce reminded us that until the wastewater treatment plant on Mutton Island came into operation in 2004, this city had historically allowed 6,000,000 litres of untreated raw sewage a day to flow out into Galway Bay, a Special Area of Conservation.

Irish Unity no longer a question of if, but when

Thu, Jan 28, 2021

There is no doubt that we live in extraordinary and unpredictable times. Covid-19 has proven just how quickly life as we know it can change. Few would have predicted our current situation only a short time ago, just as few would have predicted that the issue of Irish Unity would be pushed to the forefront of political debate and become an increasingly likely eventuality in the near future. Unity, once thought of as a remote and distant prospect, is no longer a question of if, but when.

Dare we see a spark of hope amid the gloom that is 2021 so far?

Thu, Jan 21, 2021

Looking back 12 months at Insider’s preview of 2020, the danger of making even short-term predictions is starkly illustrated! The upcoming General Election, a post-Brexit trade deal, and the ongoing housing crisis were cited as the issues likely to dominate the political year; as it turned out, all featured but there was not one word about the issue that dominated the year - Covid-19.

Trump, the coup, and the lessons for Ireland

Thu, Jan 14, 2021

As I write this, it is not quite a week since the incumbent (and outgoing) president of the United States, Donald J Trump, attempted a coup, seeking to prevent the formal announcement of the election results, to overturn the results of that election, and somehow to cling to power.

Irish politics, 2020, and tales of the unexpected

Thu, Dec 10, 2020

Insider heard it said recently that anyone who was in the predictions business at the outset of 2020 would have found themselves out of work before too long.

Galway - a city in transition?

Thu, Dec 03, 2020

So here it is, the news that Galway city and county are lodged “within a province that from a spatial planning point of view, is full of low density housing, is totally reliant on private transport (the car) and which is in need of transforming to using rail and public transport” to become a “high density city and to support cycling and walking?”

Where next America?

Thu, Nov 26, 2020

“I feel like I can breath again”. It was a term often heard after it became clear Joe Biden had won the 2020 US Presidential Election. Yet if Irish people felt they could ‘breath’ as the votes pointed to a Trump defeat, what was going through the minds of Americans living in Galway?

No certainties in politics as thoughts turn to the next General Election

Thu, Nov 19, 2020

The next General Election is an eternity away, or is it? As things stand today, Insider believes it is at least a couple of years away, maybe more.

Who will really benefit from the city council's 2021 budget?

Thu, Nov 12, 2020

The Galway City Council made two housekeeping decisions of note at its November meeting earlier this week. One was to permit the participation of members meeting in a socially distant manner; members can now Zoom into the proceedings. The second was to defer the annual budget meeting; originally intended to take place next week but now put back to November 30.

Why a political revolt by Ireland’s under twenty fives is now a certainty

Thu, Nov 05, 2020

One recent evening Insider watched the 1967 Jean-Luc Godard film La Chinoise in which a small group of French students sit around their apartment, located in what is described as a “workers’ district”, and engage in theatrical discussions about how they must overthrow the bourgeoise and, in particular, the hierarchal French university system which saw students as passive receivers of knowledge handed down by their god-like professors, rather than participants in a dialectical exchange in which both students and teachers learn from each other and grow as a result. No one, with the exception of chairman Mao, is radical enough for most of these students. The French Communist Party which, to draw an Irish parallel, would have been more or less the political equivalent of present day Sinn Féin, is condemned as hopelessly “revisionist”. The Soviet Union, in particular its then president, the now largely forgotten Mr Kosygin, is convicted by the students at their kitchen table discussions of failing to do enough to support the Vietnamese in their war against Lyndon Johnson. And the French working class, with whom said kitchen table debaters absolutely sympathise, are seen as hopelessly passive. In a mix of desperation, madness, and idealism, the students decide to mount a campaign of terrorism, which will involve them doing something they have singularly failed to do for most of the film; getting up from that kitchen table and going outside. They plan to kill the visiting Soviet minister for culture who has been invited by President de Gaulle’s own culture minister, the novelist and decayed Stalinist intellectual Andre Malraux, to open a new wing of the university. After that, they hope to bomb the Sorbonne in the belief that this will spark a revolution. Insider is against blowing up universities. Partly because he knows such actions more often provoke backlash than revolution. But also because Insider happens to teach at a university and coming out in favour of blowing up universities might lead to an awkward email from one’s department head.

Trump, Johnson and Sinn Fein: Singing from the same hymn sheet?

Thu, Oct 29, 2020

Political developments in recent times have reminded Insider of the quote from G.K. Chesterton, (also sometimes credited to Emile Cammaerts, the Belgian playright) 'When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.’

A Trump re-election puts democracy at risk, not just in the US, but across the world

Thu, Oct 22, 2020

As you read this, there are just 12 days left until the US presidential election. It seems every election is described as "the most important of our lifetimes" - in this case of the 2020 election, I suspect it may be true.

Is Galway’s Extinction Rebellion extinct?

Thu, Oct 15, 2020

Is Galway’s Extinction Rebellion extinct? Has it fallen victim to Covid-19 or is its silence political due to the Greens going into Government?

Light rail, not more roads, is the only real solution to Galway's gridlock

Thu, Oct 01, 2020

Hands up those who can remember getting their first home phone installed? Insider had to wait six months after application before Albert Reynolds, Minister for Communications, waved his hand in 1980, and as if by magic, I got a wired in house phone, then being manufactured by our own Northern Telecom in Mervue.

E-paper

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