There was a time when I couldn’t get enough of Maureen Dowd in the New York Times but I have tired of the formula, and the over-cleverality, and the devices, and verbal pony tricks. I have switched loyalties to Paul Krugman (him of Erin go Broke fame) and Thomas Friedman in the same paper. Both are required reading, especially when it comes to the big issues like the economy, climate change, and the future of society.
The summer won’t be as quiet politically as previous years. We are awaiting important reports from ‘An Bord Snip Nua’ and the Commission on Taxation and, of course, the Greens will be wrestling very publicly with their consciences.
The great are only great because we are on our knees: Big Jim Larkin statue in O’Connell Street, Dublin (Photograph by Frank Miller)
…. another Questions and Answers, of course.
Most people who have more than a passing interest in Irish politics would have looked at the last episode of Q and A last night.
The prolonged mourning for the late Michael Jackson is becoming distasteful. No doubt he had a great musical and theatrical talent and, of course, anyone’s death is a tragedy, especially the demise of one who was still relatively young and had a lot more to offer in artistic terms.
A couple of years ago after yet another glowing IMF report about Ireland, the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern famously commented: “The boom is getting boomer.”
It was always goingt to be a spectacular boom. But there we were thinking it was all to do with economics when it was about the deafening noise that was made when the bubble burst.
The political scene is overcome with ennui and sluggishness. The warm weather contributes to a mood where everybody wants to be somewhere else, preferably on a beach with a long, cool drink in hand.
Wolfe Tone: admirer of the ‘men of no property’
(Photograph by Cyril Byrne)
Given the number of bad weeks he has had since becoming Taoiseach, it was about time for Brian Cowen to have a good one. He got his guarantees and his protocols on the Lisbon Treaty and even managed to convey the impression of a little “Brit-bashing” along the way.
Did Brian really put Brown in his box in Brussels? (Photograph by Frank Miller from May 2008 at Stormont)
If you haven’t already done so, please read today’s column in The Irish Times by John Waters (click here). It concerns a hero of our time, Dr Cyril Daly, who was a lone voice against corporal punishment in schools way back in the 1960s.
Columnist John Waters (Photograph by Frank Miller)
I am looking at Brian Cowen on the TV screen in the office, drudging through Taoiseach’s Questions. The Dáil this week has been like a burst balloon or a wind without sails or an end-of-season clash between two mid-table teams.
There has been a sense of tiredness - maybe it’s anti-climax - after the elections season and the emotion of the debate on the Ryan report. Nobody has whipped themselves into a froth of fury this week. There have been some more wringing of hands by parties (mainly the Greens) about the future and all the dreadful things that may be in store.
Here’s a little saga that may or may not speak volumes about the political set-up in this country. The story begins with a news report by yours truly last week on a report from the Standards in Public Office Commission about the funding of political parties. 
Ford's focus on performance results in a RS that's in a class of its own