The Dubliner Magazine

Yikes!

From Bloomberg today:

"Ireland's Govt debt now rated riskiest in Europe

Ireland’s government debt became the riskiest in Europe, surpassing Greece’s sovereign bonds, according to credit-default swap prices.

Contracts on Ireland rose 2 basis points to 262.5, CMA Datavision prices show. Credit-default swaps on Greece’s debt fell to 251 basis points, from 255."

There we have it: The world now thinks that the Micks are more feckless and reckless than a bunch of indolent Southern Europeans who were governed by generals until thirty years ago and condemned the father of modern philosophy to death. Then again, at least they blew it all on the Olympics. What do we have to show for the binge years? The Spike? Liffey Valley shopping centre? The Port Tunnel? Even the "Christina O" was originally built by Aristotle Onassis, for Christ's sake. And it looks like Séan Dunne's days cavorting aboard this whale-foreskin upholstered behemoth are numbered....

Pirates Watch Out!

Downloading takes a hit

Uh oh, your attempt to download the entire back catalogue of all Western musicians from 1968 to 2009 via Limewire may have hit a snag today with Eircom's decision to implement a three strikes rule when it comes to illegal downloading.

Eircom will, according to itself:

"1) inform its broadband subscribers that the subscribers IP address has been detected infringing copyright and

"2) warn the subscriber that unless the infringement ceases the subscriber will be disconnected and

"3) in default of compliance by the subscriber with the warning it will disconnect the subscriber".

Now if only EMI, Sony, Universal and the rest of the big music companies could get Eircom to promise to actually deliver the broadband speed that they claim, everybody could be a winner. Well except for free music lovers of course.

Risky Business

The downturn and the upswingers

The kids should be taking risk assessment classes according to the UK’s only Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk, Cambridge's David Spiegelhalter. 

“I regard myself as part of a movement we call risk literacy,” Professor Spiegelhalter told The Times. “It should be a basic component of discussion about issues in media, politics and in schools.

Of course such advice might have been a bit more useful 40 years ago when our current bank managers were in short trousers. Besides, with their heavy diet of Medal of Honour, casual coitus interruptus and online poker, today's youth are like little risk abaci, capable of millions of risk calculations a minute.

Meanwhile our university graduates are flopping out of the hallowed halls of Trinity, UCD etc with four year degrees in redundancy, according to the Irish Times. They've become so desperate that even the civil engineers have come over all Hemingway.

“I love engineering and I hope to work in the area some day. I can’t now, so I’m seizing the opportunity to try something different. I will travel and write for the year and see what happens after that.”

Good luck, Ernest!

UPDATE! Thanks to My Little Piebald, who pointed out in this week's mailshot that this budding "creative writer"  and part-time nanny (Joe Cosgrave, pictured) has his own blog, in which he calls complainers "bushy ass lesbians", decides that everything is "gay" and spends "the little money I have on getting drunk, fucking around, destroying things, stealing things and basically doing whatever I want, whenever I want with little regard for anything or anybody else."

So, there you go prospective employers. Why won't you hire this man?

Bussed Up

Night night Nitelink

The weekday Nitelink is being dumped, a thousand scheduled journeys are being lopped off and  290 people are losing their jobs at Dublin Bus. Another victory for Noel Dempsey, the Greens and their fight against automotive vehicles!

Now we'll all have to walk home to Shankill or Malahide or Tallaght at 2am, saving tonnes of greenhouse gases. And the nice taxi men will have loads more fares so won't have to protest at Parnell Square on 2 February about the abundance of other nice taxi men.

According to the Indo, "The Nitelink service will be cancelled from Monday to Thursday and final departures on Friday and Saturday nights will be at 3am instead of 4.30am."

Buy some nice walking shoes now. Or visit Friends of the Irish Environment.

Betwixt Clarity And Cliché

Max McGuinness on Obama's speech.

Well, it wasn't quite Henry V but President Obama's inaugural address struck three or four powerful notes:

"We are ready to lead once more" could have been a slogan on a par with "Ask not..." etc. but, perceiving that it would have been bad form towards Bush, he didn't overly emphasise it.

"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals" was another well-aimed dig from "44" to "43" sitting behind him.

It is notable that he immediately set to work yesterday on both counts, suspending the military tribunal in Guantanamo and weighing in on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

The reference to how his father "less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant" was very poignant and a sort of release for Obama who had, with the exception of his rhetorical masterpiece "A More Perfect Union", done his best to avoid making that point on the campaign trail.

More surprising was the inclusion of the last word, marked out by a dramatic pause and verbal stress, in this sentence: "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and non-believers."
Though the speech was not devoid of the gooey piety afflicting public debate in America, I think it's fairly plausible that President Obama isn't much of a believer himself and, as related in Dreams From My Father, if he found God at all it was because he felt rather isolated on Chicago's South Side where the dubious conclave of Rev. Jeremiah Wright (no sign of him on Tuesday) provided a spiritual home. Of course, whatever about the milestone of a black man being elected president, Obama knows that no atheist would have a chance in hell of being elected dog catcher let alone commander-in-chief so I cannot blame him for being slightly less than candid on this front. 

The Inauguration of Barack Obama

Pictures from the day

No matter what your feelings about the new chief sitting in the Oval Office, you can't help but be impressed by these incredible snaps at Boston.com.

The Country's Going for a Song

Our Taoiseach does his best Rat Pack impression

A bit of banter, a bit of chanter. It is nice to know the country's "been buried by a member of the Dáil".

Gravity Hates U2

Bono tumbles down to earth

Courtesy of My Little Piebald

Watch Out Robert

A clothes shop in Dun Laoghaire does its bit for Zimbabwean freedom

Brian Versus Brian

Max McGuinness on the cabinet's psychodrama

So Biffo and Brian Lenihan are going through a hard time in their relationship. It's gotten so bad that the Taoiseach has stormed out of the government house and gone to...Japan. Each month when the credit card statements arrive, a flaming row erupts as Brian, ashen-faced, contemplates the billions that his partner has frittered away on extravagances like pro-government independent TDs, management consultants, medical cards, and make-up artists.

"For Christ's sake," bawls Brian "you spend more money on slap than Mary Harney!" (see the Indo).

"You spend even more!" retorts a sobbing Biffo. "And how do you expect me to do you justice as a Beautiful Intelligent Filly From Offaly without a few tonnes of foundation? I'm a whole 18 months older than Barack Obama, don't you know?"

"Look, darling, it's gone a bit too far. Our overdraft is up to €13 billion and that's not even counting the €5 billion that's due this year on the car loan. It's time to make some hard choices. Either you cut back on the eyeliner or I'm cancelling next month's dinner-dance with your friends from SIPTU."

"But Brian, we could never...Imagine the shame, Brian! We'll have no social partners left! Oh the indignity! And no-one will ever vote for us againnnn........" (sobs)

"There, there, alright Biffo, snuckums, I'll tell you what. You can go ahead with the dinner-dance but there'd better be no Krug this year and to cover our costs, let's run a charity auction -- all proceeds due to the plain people of Ireland...and the international bond market, of course."

"But Brian, we simply must have the Krug! I knew I never should have left Charlie for you. Oh how we used to laugh! And Krug every single day of the week; we even used to bathe in the stuff. I foolishly took you for a toy boy but ever since we've been together you've taken all the joy out of my life."