Search Results for 'Politics of Europe'

Now that most of the posters are gone and the rest are being taken down in record time, what passes for normal life has resumed in Kilkenny.

It was a nail biting election for candidates over Sunday and Monday as the Euro election hopefuls waited to hear their fate.

The people of the Ballyragget Electoral Area appeared to be content with what they had as they returned the five sitting councillors on Kilkenny County Council once again this year.

It is finally all over. Not only are the candidates all exhausted but we are all a little exhausted from politics at the moment and from now on it will be winding down.

The Lisbon Treaty bill has been published and the Lisbon II referendum is set for Friday October 2. To start the debate in Athlone, the chamber has organised an information evening on Wednesday August 26 at 6pm in the Radisson Hotel in Athlone, with expert speakers to talk from their differing perspectives on the Lisbon agenda.

“Lisbon will worsen the economic crisis both in Ireland and throughout Europe” according to Sinn Fein Councillor Rose Conway-Walsh. “The threat to our economy is not in a rejection of Lisbon. It is in the ongoing privatisation policies of the government and the failure to properly invest in education, health, childcare, research and development and broadband.” Rectifying these failures will be all the more difficult if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified, the councillor claims.

Slightly later than advertised, despite Ryanair’s usual record of arrival before time, the familiar figure of Michael O’Leary strode into Ireland West Airport Knock last Tuesday morning with European flag in hand, which he quickly draped over the podium at the head of the room. Along with O’Leary was European Transport Commissioner Antonio Tanji. The two men on first glance appear as strange bedfellows for the Yes campaign, especially when Commissioner Tanji constantly mentions his support for passenger rights in relation to air travel, something that O’Leary tells the assembled crowd is something he will vehemently fight against.

Lisbon is not a remedy for Ireland’s economic ills or the way towards a more social Europe. It will simply take the EU further down the road of militarisation and “give away almost all of Ireland’s sovereign power”.

With Paddy Power offering odds on Éamon Ó Cuív becoming Ceann Comhairle and Pádraic McCormack a dark horse possibility, it’s easy to forget another big political job could also be heading to a Galwegian.

THIS WEEK marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, but while the wall and the Deutsche Demokratische Republik are gone, memories and memorabilia of the DDR are still going strong.