And to ALL the Debt-Enslaved Nations of the World ~ You Are All About to Be Fleeced Once Again!
Look out, Ireland! Financial debt-bergs, dead ahead! The Irish “external debt to GDP” ratio is currently at 609%. In December 2010, it was well over 1,000% (1,091.5% to be precise). No other nation on Earth carries this much external debt to its GDP. The United States, the world champion of all debts for sure with...
Read MoreGerry Adams helps police with their inquiries.
One summer’s day 32 years ago, during a spell of employment at the U.K. offices of Marathon Oil Corp. in London’s Marylebone Road, I was taking lunch at a nondescript greasy spoon near those offices when from the near distance there came an almighty THUD. Startled, I looked across at the proprietor of the place,...
Read More“Give the spivs your taxpayers’ money or we’ll bring down your banking system.”
An American took his phlegmatic English friend to see the Niagara Falls. “Isn’t that amazing?” said the enthusiastic American. “Look at that vast mass of water dashing over that enormous cliff!” “But what,” replied the unimpressed Englishman, after viewing the sight for some moments, “is to stop it?” I owe the story to my father,...
Read More"Tell the EU and IMF to Shove It!"
Imagine that Yasser Arafat had succeeded in ending Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. Now imagine that 10 or 15 years later, new Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, agreed to hand over control of his country's budget to the IMF so his people's future would be controlled by outsiders....
Read MoreWhen the Cure is Worse Than the Disease
Ireland could be the next Lehman Brothers. That's what has the markets worried. If Irish leaders refuse to accept a bailout from the EU's new European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), then bondholders will be forced to take haircuts on their investments which will leave banks in Germany and France short of capital. Bonds yields will...
Read MoreIreland is on the Way to Default
There was a bank run in Ireland last Wednesday. LCH Clearnet, a London based clearinghouse, surprised the markets by announcing it would increase margin requirements on Irish debt by 15 per cent. That's all it took to send investors fleeing for the exits. Yields on Irish bonds spiked sharply as banks tried to close positions...
Read MoreTwo cheers for the Celtic Tiger.
Ireland is midway between two elections. March 7 saw an election for the new Northern Ireland Assembly in the six counties under British rule. In the Republic of Ireland — the southern twenty-six counties, self-governing since 1922 — there is a constitutional requirement for an election this spring. The precise date will be announced by...
Read MoreThat would be the folk of the Middle East
We all know, and have known since 9/11, that our country faces a threat. What kind of threat is it, though, that has brought us this War on Terror? I doubt there are many of us who think that it is the kind of threat that Britain faced from Hitler, or the Roman Republic from...
Read MoreThey are Europeans now.
There were big demonstrations in Northern Ireland on Tuesday. Around two thousand people, from both the South and the North of the divided island, converged on the fine old 18th-century manor house, rather misleadingly called a "castle," at Hillsborough in County Down. Ten miles away in Belfast city center, several hundred more took part in...
Read More1916: The Easter Rising, by Tim Pat Coogan
The Easter Rising of 1916 is the central event in 20th-century Irish history. At noon on April 24 of that year, Easter Monday, a small group of violent separatists seized some key points in the city of Dublin and proclaimed a Republic independent of Britain. After a week of bitter fighting the insurrection was put...
Read MoreThe most interesting place in the world.
When I write about Irish affairs for U.S. readers I generally begin by apologizing for having brought to their attention a tiny country that seems to be of no real consequence to the great affairs of the world. This time I am going to depart from that formula. I am, in fact, going to begin...
Read MoreNorthern Ireland is.
I always feel a little apologetic when I write about Ireland for an American audience. Given that Ireland is a very small place with very few people, it's hard to see why Americans should bother about it. A few Americans, of course — the so-called "Irish-American activists" — are very bothered about it. These people...
Read MoreA dark episode in Irish history.
John Derbyshire •
The New York Review of Books (Letters) • October 5, 2000 • 300 Words
————————— Writing of the Irish city of Limerick in his portmanteau review of Frank McCourt's books, ["Not-So-Great-Expectations," NYRB, May 25], Julian Moynahan says: "Then there is the dark episode in the city's history when its defenders, in 1690, were overwhelmed by the Williamites." I should think a better candidate for Limerick's dark episode would be...
Read MorePrisoner releases in Ireland.
I note that the Republican Party platform includes a few words of support for the Belfast "Good Friday" Agreement of 1998. Now, it is too much to hope that, in an election season, Americans can be persuaded to think for long about a place as inconsequential as Ireland. Still I believe we should spare a...
Read MoreMalign results of various "peace processes."
At the time of writing, the "peace process" conversations between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs are still going on at Camp David. The prospects are that Israel will yield on almost every point, the Arabs on none. Meanwhile in Northern Ireland another "peace process" has moved into its final phase, with the national flag of...
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