Skip navigation

Category Archives: People’s journalism

Limerick City of Culture 2014 Public Meeting

It was a public meeting, following the resignations of the artistic director of Limerick City of Culture 2014, Karl Wallace and two of his co-workers.

Many of us at the meeting requested that the board of Limerick City of Culture 2014 take their responsibility and step down, or at least, that the CEO steps down. Over the past few days, all the bad headlines in media have been caused by the Board – not the culture workers or people of Limerick.

The honest questions from culture workers and members of the public were met with political platitudes, such as Pat Cox’s statement that Karl Wallace’s resignation “was only a bump in the road”. Cox also claimed that the board, altruistically, “works for free”. I think we need to see the full accounts and ledgers of Limerick National City of Culture 2014 Ltd if we were to believe that statement. From where are the €120,000 coming, to pay the CEO?

Limerick National City Of Culture 2014 Ltd (Company Registration Number: 533149) was set up on Tuesday the 24th of September 2013 in Limerick. The company’s current directors Conn Murray and Tom Gilligan have been the directors of 16 other Irish companies between them, 2 of which are now closed.

New (Irish) Dictionary

dead christmas tree

Arab Spring – a novel elastic form of democracy, originally developed in North Africa. It’ll never work in Ireland due to scattered showers and sunny spells.

Bailout – letting perpetrators get away while asking for more. Cf. dig-out, whip-around.

Billion – something you have never had but that you now have to pay to someone you don’t owe.

Bonus – an absurd amount of money paid to laid-off politicians, bankers, quango board members and higher civil servants in return for amnesia.

Crisis – what politicians and bankers experience when realising that their goal (making themselves richer) is not congruent with the goals of the general public.

Deficit – the current measure of trust in authority.

Haircut – a bald move, if succesful.

Household charge – the amount of electricity it takes to charge a mobile phone.

NAMA – an Irish nonsense word (cf. Bla bla bla), used for explaining all unmentionable things, avoiding truth (a.k.a. lying) and as a motivation for all kinds of unreasonable an irrational political decisions.

Occupation – reclaiming what is already ours.

Trolley – a major attraction in Irish hospitals. To be placed on a trolley makes you realise you’ve been taken for a ride, for years.

…to be continued…

>Irish Election 2011

>It is that time again when Gombeen men (and women) will call to your front door trying to convince you to vote for them or somebody that they support in the General Election 2011. This time, it is more important than ever to get some real answers and real commitment from the politicians-to-be, as the previous governments have managed to crash the economy beyond repair ad betray us all.

There are several excellent initiatives by ordinary citizens to try to bring clarity to what, if anything, the politicians-to-be say they stand for. In any case, we have to make sure that the politicians-to-be are made fully aware of that they will be hired to for work us, not the other way around.
So, here are some links to what YOU can do to help uncover the truth about the politicians-to-be:

1. The National Interview
Get your camera, phone or whatever recording equipment you might have and ask the questions, below.
Upload your video to YouTube (or whatever site) and post your video link on Twitter with the tag #natint.

Links to good questions can be found here and here.

In addition to this, some good questions are:

  • Do you think our government should give away Irish gas and oil for nothing?
  • Do you think the debts of a private bank should be paid by the Irish people?
  • Do you think pensioners should pay extra taxes to pay for the cost of the banking collapse?
  • How did you vote on March 20th 2003? Did you support the invasion of Iraq through your support for the US military at Shannon airport – against the will of he majority of the Irish people? 
  • Can you explain why we have still not sorted out the health system so that sick people have access to appropriate medical treatment?
  • Why have you given away millions of euros of Irish people’s money to bail out the religious orders that have raped and abused Irish children?
  • Did you support wasting millions of euros of Irish people’s money on electronic voting machines that are completely useless and expert advice would have told you this if you looked for it prior to commissioning them?
  • How could you sell off Eircom and Aer Lingus – they belonged to the Irish people, not you?
  • How can you justify building private hospitals on public grounds instead of spending the time, energy, and resources improving the public hospitals and health system for all people not just the rich?
  • Why don’t we have proper public transport? 
  • Why have you wasted millions of Irish people’s money contesting the rights of children to have access to appropriate education and have sentenced countless autistic children to a life of isolation and misery?

2. The Tell Us Why campaign
Just as any other job applicant, get your politician-to-be fill out this form so that you can determine if they have any qualifications and who is the best suited for the job and make sure that we don’t get the wasters back.

3. And finally, remember to vote! It’s your life, your money, your family and your future that is at stake.