DUBLIN: Now comes Sean Doherty, former Minister for Justice in the Irish government, the point man in a major scandal in the early 1980s involving the illegal tapping of phones of leading journalists. Doherty recently declared that he tapped the phones with the full knowledge of party leader Charles Haughcy, and that he personally handed over transcripts of the tapes to … [Read more...] about First Word: Another Year, Another Scandal
First Word
First Word: All in the Family
The 1993 Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans also carries a section on "Great Family Fortunes." Unlike a similar list of the European great family fortunes, which would be top heavy with royalty and titled nobility, the American experience shows the true strength of a "bottoms up" society where, in the first instance, wealth was earned rather than bestowed. Put … [Read more...] about First Word: All in the Family
“Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor…”
"Gunmen Kill Irish Aid Worker in Somalia." The story made the headlines on Monday February 22, 1993. The worker was Valerie Place, 23, of the Irish charity Concern. For months the media had been bringing us the latest on famine-ravaged, war-torn Somalia, and it seemed that in almost every story an Irish volunteer was quoted. Now one had been killed. Relief workers have no … [Read more...] about “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor…”
The First Word: Does the South Want the North?
"We have constitution which perpetrates the fallacy that Ireland is one nation with a right to territorial unification...when are we going to recognize that the 'national territory' is Santasyland." - John A. Murphy. Sunday Independent Newspaper Dublin "Northern Ireland Catholics are not our responsibility. They are citizens of a modern democracy and a regional economy … [Read more...] about The First Word: Does the South Want the North?
Is There Any Hope?
The goverment press release reads: “Monday's papers reported on renewed violence in Northern Ireland which left four men dead and twelve people seriously injured. In Belfast loyalist UFF, gunmen murdered three Catholic men in a gun and grenade attack on a betting shop. The attack was described in the Irish Times as 'a virtual carbon-copy repeat of the UFF attack on a bookies … [Read more...] about Is There Any Hope?