Not to be outdone by Fidelma Freely Memes, Galway East Senator Lorraine Higgins has taken to the tweet machine to launch a Condemn-A-Thon. Let he who doth not cast a stone be assumed to have sinned, or something (see 2007 for it’s last relevance). Senator Higgins came to light when roaring about Brickgate a few months ago. Calling Ireland a “Lawless Utopia” (sounds good to us!) we got our … Read More
Humiliating Turnout for Youth Defence in Belfast.
Youth Defence are on the move. Not too far unfortunately. Oireachtas Retort has a look at their day out. Back in 2012, our intrepid photographer had great fun outside the Dáil I have never been challenged so often at any demonstration as this evening as to whom I ‘represent’, which paper, and do I know the truth about the story. While being herded around the big screens carrying a … Read More
Citizens Of Water World
Oireachtas Retort takes a look at the people employed to sell you your own water. Remember Citizens, ‘Water Is Free. I Pay For My Water’. Back in January, three years after the Troika’s arrival, the Irish media collectively decided to start caring about water. To their credit, they waited for legislation to pass before asking any awkward questions. Two weeks earlier, on the day Irish Water became law, the … Read More
#meEJit: We’re Adults! Get RTE Away From Us!
It is remarkable just how much RTÉ can chime with Irish government policy. Oireachtas Retort looks at Montrose’s latest offering of unreality TV. The broadcaster’s role in normalising austerity and undermining dissent is nothing new but their lifestyle & entertainment content is equally insidious. Think of it as Fáilte Ireland for the home audience. Towards the end of Ireland’s housing bubble we had I’m An Adult Get Me Out of … Read More
The Iona Mind
Are we living in an Ireland of two halves? One looking towards a future of equal rights for all, free from the clutches of a church bathed in controversy, the other with more of a medieval take on things: anti-women, anti-LGBT, anti-choice. Oireachtas Retort investigates the proportions and finds that it appears to be the minority making the most noise. It would be easy to think of the Iona … Read More
Life Goes On: Youth Defence Haven’t Gone Away You Know.
Youth Defence. Remember them? At last weekend’s poorly attended ‘Convention for Life’ Niamh Ui Bhriain & Bernadette Smyth outlined future plans. Oireachtas Retort sits through some crappy speeches. First off they are keen to emphasise the importance of ‘voting pro-life’. May elections will be the first concrete look at party standing since 2011 and anti-choice groups will be quick to claim the inevitable drop in government support. Niamh alleges she … Read More
Burton’s Bullshit: Unemployment Nearly 3% Higher Than Reported
Just this evening, 3,850 Irish visas for Canada were gone in less than five minutes but emigration isn’t the only way Joan Burton fiddles the figures behind Ireland’s unemployment horror. Oireachtas Retort has a poke around. Labour Party TDs & ministers were beside themselves last October with claims that jobless figures fell below 400,000 for the first time since 2009. Their steadfast commitment to patronising and coercing the unemployed … Read More
Cables, Cowards and Contraception
Oireachtas Retort has been digging in wikileaks and takes a look at the McGee case as seen from the US Embassy in 1973. Most people are familar with the tale of the condom train or how the Virgin Megastore started selling rubber johnnies on behalf of the Irish Family Planning Association in 1990. But what about the young woman who bravely stood up and went about kicking stultified social policing … Read More
#rabbleRaker: Watching The Detectives
Ten things you need to know about GSOC, Alan Shatter and the Gardaí. Oireachtas Retort provides the skinny. 1) In 1997 Kieran Boylan was sentenced to serve more than seven years for the possession of cannabis in England. In 2001 Boylan was convicted of theft and dangerous driving. 2) In 2003 Boylan obtained an international haulage license from the Dept of Transport after Gardaí provided information which suggested that he … Read More
Repeal the Eighth
It’s been a year since crowds held images of Savita Halappanavar outside Leinster House. Oireachtas Retort wonders if we are starting to leave ‘vanity Ireland’ behind? On the 18th February 1992 An Taoiseach Albert Reynolds stood in Dáil Éireann to outline details on Ireland’s injunction of a fourteen year old girl. He was followed by a brief statement from each opposition leader. As the Chair called time two deputies … Read More