Search Results for 'Angela Merkel'

With summer upon us and the political season drawing to a close, it is an opportune time for Insider to take the political temperature and to speculate about what may lie ahead. This review is of course given an added edge by the fact that, at some point in the next nine months or so, what is likely to one of the most unpredictable general elections in the history of the State will be held.

THE WORD ‘bespectacled’ is usually preceded or followed by the term ‘mild-mannered’, but there is nothing ‘mild-mannered’ about the bespectacled trio of wild women in sequinned mini-skirts that go by name The Nualas.

“Ireland took the bullet for the EU” over the collapse of the continent’s economic and banking institutions, and now “it’s pay back time”, as younger generations should not have to face a future of “austerity in perpetuity”.

Hopes are high that enough funding will be in place for work to begin in six months time on the €7.5 million Mary Robinson Centre planned for Ballina.

For years now the people of this country have been taking our medicine, swallowing the bitter pill. Sure weren’t we all part of it. We all bought into the dream. The holidays, the cars, the second houses, the au pairs, the gadgets, etc, etc. The flamboyancy of it all. When the banks told us to take out a home improvement loan or a car loan to buy the latest model with all the bells and whistles, or to extend our mortgage and put a few bob into savings, or when they kept increasing our credit card limits, we went along with it. We’re as guilty as Drumm et al, or so they’d have us believe.

“The EU Fiscal Compact Treaty is a straitjacket that would lead to misery in our country and throughout the EU. This is not the way to solve our problems. It is against the whole spirit of the EU.”

It shouldn’t be surprising that a visual artist is, well, visual. I can’t count the number of times cartoonist Donal Casey goes off to find a sketch or object, search the internet, or open a book to show me exactly what he means.

“We must seek to build together an active, inclusive citizenship; based on participation, equality, respect for all, and the flowering of creativity in all its forms. A confident people is our hope, a people at ease with itself, a people that grasps the deep meaning of the proverb; Ní neart go cur le chéile’ - our strength lies in our common weal - our social solidarity.”

Tomorrow will see former Galway Mayor and Galway West TD Michael D Higgins become the ninth president of Ireland. It will be a proud day for everyone from the city and county he has called home for the last 50 years.

Tomorrow will see former Galway Mayor and Galway West TD Michael D Higgins become the ninth president of Ireland. It will be a proud day for everyone from the city and county he has called home for the last 50 years.