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Archive 2007 | Archive 2006 | Archive 2005 | Archive 2004/2003

Ireland Calling with John Spain

Going from Bad to Worse
LAST week, just when we thought things were so bad they could not possibly get any worse, they did exactly that. All week the Irish stock market sank like a stone.

From Boom to Doom and Gloom

THE speed with which Ireland’s boom has turned into absolute doom and gloom is truly frightening.

Immigration Honesty Is Best Policy

IT seems that I can’t take a holiday at all. I’m off for a couple of weeks and what happens? The whole country goes down the toilet, that’s what.

Lisbon Nightmare for Government?

THIS Thursday, June 12, Ireland goes to the polls in a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, and it looks like the first big test for our new Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen could turn into a nightmare.

New Book on Cowen Set

I’M only in the effin job a few effin weeks and already they want to do an effin book on me! That may well have been the reaction of new Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen to the news last week that the first book on him is already being written.

The Grade So Far on Cowen

OUR new Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen and his team have now settled in, and it’s time for his first school report. Of course it’s early days yet. It’s only a few weeks since he gave Bertie Ahern the heave-ho and took over as leader. But it’s

Now for the Good News

The economic news out of Ireland for the past six months or more has been uniformly bad — the property market collapse, factory closures, jobs vanishing to cheaper locations in Eastern Europe, unemployment figures climbing.

When the Guinness Went Flat

IT tasted like a pint that had been left standing for too long and had lost its bubbles. The news early last week that Diageo, the drinks multi-national that now owns Guinness, was going to make a major announcement left us all feeling a bit flat.

Where the Jobs Are Going

THERE was a two-part TV show on RTE television in the past two weeks that made compulsive viewing. It was called Where’s My Job Gone?

Tackling Ireland’s Binge Drinking

WE have a very serious alcohol problem among younger people in Ireland today, something that has developed over the last 10 or 15 years and which has been covered in this column several times before.

Heavy Turbulence Hits Aer Lingus

THE way Aer Lingus tried to cancel the *5 premier class seats to the U.S. it had “mistakenly” sold on its website last week has done an unfortunate amount of damage to its image here.

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