Stakeholder

I don’t feel unduly sympathetic toward Senator David Norris over his failed Presidential bid. The man showed an appalling lack of judgement and even in his theatrical exit it was clear that he still did not really get what had ‘done’ for him. One thing for sure, Senator Norris, who had enjoyed an Indian summer [...]

By this time next week the fat lady will have sung and whose tune she plays to is entirely up to you. We can all be cynical about politicians and God knows they give us enough cause but it’s like family we can’t live with them and we can’t live without them.  In fairness to [...]

Canvassers came to my home the other night and to be honest I could not be bothered to open the door. Campaign literature of all shapes and hues is building up in the letterbox outside the house. There was even one from a disorientated candidate who left his literature in the wrong constituency. Don’t get [...]

Elections bring out the worst in politicians and now armed with Facebook and Twitter there’s no real escaping them.   Yet there is no buzz about these elections and that’s probably because everyone knows that very little is likely to change.  Post the election the DUP and Sinn Fein are still going to be top dogs [...]

The expected fall of the clown but sinister dictator, Muammar Gaddafi is not going well. The duplicity of Western Governments towards this Northern African despot is mind-blowing.  One minute they are indulging every eccentric whim of this political windbag including clearing public parks in their capital cities so that he can erect Bedouin style tents [...]

Well surprise, surprise, Ireland is to have a new Taoiseach; Gerry Adams is a poll topper in Louth; Labour’s, Eamon Gilmore may have to settle for being Enda’s wingman; the breadth of successful independents elected look like the cast of Fraggle Rock and the once mighty monolithic catch all of Fianna Fail has caught next [...]

The architecture of the Good Friday and St Andrews Agreements has achieved political co-habitation but little else. Soon we will have to use a better measurement gauge for judging political effectiveness. The current system fails at the most basic levels required for a functioning government, namely responsibility and accountability. The fact that not a single [...]

Northern Ireland reached new levels of farce following our very own ‘Watergate’ and the need to be seen to be doing something replaced the need to be doing something meaningful.  The embarrassed management of Northern Ireland Water or its remnants meekly crept into to Stormont to face the three ringed circus of the Department of [...]

Last weekend I followed such luminaries as Nobel Laureate, John Hume, former Presbyterian Moderator, Rev. John Dunlop, the author, Tim Pat Coogan, banker, Sir George Quigley and politician and Fianna Fail matriarch, Mary O’Rourke as the Guest Speaker at the Annual Tom Dunn Society Commemorative Dinner in Rostrevor. The dinner marks a night hosted by [...]

If there was a prize for effective communication, the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) would win the booby prize. Having decided not to go the route of a toxic bank or indeed a good bank/bad bank, the Irish government put all their eggs into this one basket. The purpose was to do as it says [...]