Let’s look forward with hope and optimism

Wed, Dec 23, 2009

2009 wasn’t a great year for most. Dole queues lengthened. People who never dreamed they would become a statistic joined the live register. Month in, month out, we reported increases in unemployment citing stats and figures. But what we must remember is you aren’t a statistic. You are so much more than that. You have contributed to Ireland’s reputation as a highly skilled nation. Gone is the tiger, but your worth and your importance are what must be cherished and reinvested in next year.

Look to the future with hope

Fri, Dec 18, 2009

I took a piece of my own advice last weekend. I was in Birmingham and Liverpool for a short break, the purpose of which was to watch the Liverpool v Arsenal game. The less said about that the better. There didn’t seem to be much sign of a recession in those two thriving cities. That’s from an outsider’s point of view anyway.

Bah, humbug!

Fri, Dec 11, 2009

The most anticipated budget has finally been delivered with miserly news from Scrooge Lenihan casting a shadow of gloom over the festive season for many householders. The harshest of cuts are once again impacting on the most vulnerable, with social welfare recipients and public service workers to bear the brunt of the €4 billion savings in expenditure.

Forget your troubles — laugh, play, and reminisce this Christmas

Fri, Dec 04, 2009

With the drop in temperatures this week and the odd shower of sleet it really feels like Christmas is approaching.

Four beautiful women, four families devastated

Fri, Nov 20, 2009

Ireland has been rocked by the tragedy which took place on the Mayo-Galway border on Tuesday night.

It is everyone’s responsibility to stop the carnage

Fri, Nov 13, 2009

In Ireland this year a total of 203 people have been killed on the roads, 43 fewer than by the same time last year. However there has been no reduction in the number of road deaths in Mayo which stands at eight — the same for this time in 2008. In total last year there were 10 people killed on Mayo roads, so the statistics would dictate two more people could yet die in this county this year. Armed with this knowledge let’s prevent this from happening. While figures and statistics give us a broad view of what’s happening, they don’t delve into the human pain and suffering experienced as a result of these deaths.

Castlebar marketing drive needs big brand support

Fri, Nov 06, 2009

There has been much discussion and debate in recent weeks on the national airwaves about shopping local and the dash for the border by shoppers in the Republic. Minister Mary Coughlan has called on the public to spend their cash at home in a bid to save our own economy but other commentators feel she has no right to make such appeals when it is the Government’s fault there are such glaring anomalies between the prices of groceries North and South.

City slickers should not be charged with running our fisheries

Fri, Oct 23, 2009

The threat to the future of the North Western Regional Fisheries Board is real and one which should be campaigned vigourously against. Politicians in Mayo, especially those with influence at a national level, must step up to the plate now before decisions are made to scrap the Ballina office.

One for you, two for me

Fri, Oct 16, 2009

Or should it be one less for you, big bonus for me. It beggars belief that a time when frontline medical staff and services are being battered consistently by reduced budgets, the CEO of the Health Service Executive would be paid a handsome €70,000 bonus. While Professor Brendan Drumm hasn’t actually drawn down the lucrative bonus, nor has he sanctioned it himself, it has been approved by the board of the HSE and Health Minister Mary Harney.

Could Fine Gael be any worse?

Fri, Oct 09, 2009

Ceann Comhairle John O’Donoghue has finally succumbed to public and political pressure and resigned. Well actually after the weekend he will take the shameful step, that is if the Government haven’t already fallen. 

Use your democractic right to vote

Fri, Sep 25, 2009

The countdown is on to Lisbon mark two and both sides of the camp are hysterically throwing out the ‘facts’. Everyone is accusing the other of scaremongering and lying. Who can contradict them, I’m not sure — maybe the Taoiseach has got round to actually reading the Treaty this time and could put a few myths to bed.

Our NAMA nightmare has just begun...

Fri, Sep 18, 2009

Just over a year since the Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy causing financial shock waves throughout the world, with the crest of these shock waves forcing Ireland into a deep recession, the Government’s legislative resuscitation for our economy, through the establishment of the National Asset Management Agency to purge the five financial institutions in the country — AIB, Anglo Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, EBS Building Society and Irish Nationwide – of toxic loans which were incurred during the property boom, has begun.

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