Mairéad McGuinness in line for significant EU party role
Mairéad McGuinness in line for significant EU party role
The former EU commissioner has not yet confirmed whether she will run for the Irish presidency later this year
Sarah Collins
18:01
Mairéad McGuinness, the former MEP, is in line for a significant role in Europe. Picture: Lukasz Kobus
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Irish Examiner
4 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Irish Examiner view: Kneecap and the debate over free speech
Yesterday, Kneecap rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, better known by his stage name Mo Chara, was in court in London. He faces a terrorism charge for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig in London last year. Kneecap have been in the spotlight for months because of their support for the Palestinian cause, and Ó hAnnaidh's latest court appearance attracted a huge amount of publicity, with hundreds present to support him as he entered Westminster magistrates' court. He is due back in court next month. The case has sparked much debate about free speech in general and the treatment of Kneecap in particular. Many pointed comparisons have been drawn between the band's treatment, for instance, and the laissez-faire attitude of the authorities in Northern Ireland recently when it came to sectarian displays around loyalist marches and bonfires. Kneecap are not the only Irish creatives facing the wrath of the British establishment, of course. It emerged this week that novelist Sally Rooney, a native of Mayo, could face arrest if she visits Britain for supporting Palestine Action, a proscribed organisation in the UK. Rooney has said she will continue to fund the organisation by using royalties from the televised versions of her books. This points up the essential absurdity of this legislation. Observers have noted that the BBC itself could be liable for prosecution if it continues to pay Rooney royalties, given she has declared her intentions to give the money to Palestine Action — yet the broadcaster would clearly be in breach of its contractual obligations if it withheld payment. The Kneecap and Sally Rooney cases can be seen as examples of judicial overreach and legislative incompetence respectively. Responding excessively to musicians' misbehaviour has been a feature of British justice going back to the Rolling Stones, while the consequences of laws enacted in haste have a far lengthier pedigree. However, it is also difficult to avoid the sense that the British establishment is focusing on Irish artists specifically here, with all that that implies. These cases will be watched very closely. Race for the Áras heats up A couple of days ago, we made the reasonable observation that the race for the Phoenix Park had not really caught fire, but then the old saw about a week being a long time in politics clicked into action. Early frontrunner Catherine Connolly has been learning what every presidential candidate learns soon enough — that throwing one's hat in the ring invites close scrutiny of one's track record. Ms Connolly's visit to Syria in 2018 has been widely publicised, for instance, as have some contradictory comments she made about our Defence Forces last weekend. Another candidate has had to do some fire fighting of his own in recent days, again, because of the focus on his past. Gareth Sheridan's emergence caught the headlines given his youth and freshness, but as recently as last weekend, he had to backtrack on how much revenue his company generates, while this newspaper has reported on fines levied on that company by the US government. Yet the real blood sport has been in Fine Gael in recent days, with the coalition partners scrambling to find an alternative to Mairead McGuinness, their fancied candidate, who dropped out of the race last week. Former minister Heather Humphreys was the warm favourite to replace McGuinness at the time of writing, though MEP Seán Kelly, another possibility, was remaining positive about his chances. Still, he appears destined for the role played by Albert Reynolds in 1997 — the runner-up forced to put on a brave face. If Humphreys succeeds, as expected, Fine Gael will have an experienced politician in the running, though her CV will surely be inspected with the same rigour as the other participants. Of course, Fianna Fáil has not yet picked someone for the race, and given its track record of success in presidential elections there will be considerable interest in its preferred candidate. Will it be an eminence grise like Bertie Ahern, a celebrity candidate out of left field, or a serving minister? Attention is well and truly focused on the race now. Child's play The schools are reopening, with all that that entails, from new stationery to battered school bags. For many readers with children of primary school age, an entirely new accessory may feature on many back-to-school shopping lists: The Labubu doll. For any readers not familiar with them, these are small furry dolls, which have been taken up by celebrities such as David Beckham and Rihanna. They are the perfect size to be attached to a schoolbag, but the manufacturers, seeing how popular they are with children and young people, are believed to be working on an even smaller model that can be hooked up to a mobile phone. Pop Mart, the Chinese company responsible for the Labubu, is doing very well — it is on track to meet its targeted revenue goal for 2025 of €2.4bn and its CEO stated recently that reaching €3.6bn should be 'quite easy'. The company's net profit has soared by approximately 400% in the last year. The bad news is that demand for the dolls is so high that harassed parents may struggle to find the genuine article — last month some dolls were recalled from a shop in Wexford amid concerns that they were not genuine, for instance. Parents who recall the fads of yesteryear may feel a little grateful that they only had to deal with the likes of the fidget spinner.
RTÉ News
4 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Why do wind farms attract so much misinformation and conspiracy?
Analysis: Conspiracy thinking is a stronger predictor of opposition to wind farms than age, gender, education or political leaning When Donald Trump recently claimed, during what was supposed to be a press conference about an EU trade deal, that wind turbines were a "con job" that "drive whales loco", kill birds and even people, he wasn't just repeating old myths. He was tapping into a global pattern of conspiracy theories around renewable energy – particularly wind farms. (Trump calls them "windmills" – a climate denier trope.) Like 19th century fears that telephones would spread diseases, wind farm conspiracy theories reflect deeper anxieties about change. They combine distrust of government, nostalgia for the fossil fuel era, and a resistance to confronting the complexities of the modern world. And research shows that, once these fears are embedded in someone's worldview, no amount of fact checking is likely to shift them. A short history of resistance to renewables Although we've known about climate change from carbon dioxide as probable and relatively imminent since at least the 1950s, early arguments for renewables tended to be seen more as a way of breaking the stranglehold of large fossil-fuel companies. The idea that fossil companies would delay access to renewable energy was nicely illustrated in a classic epidode of The Simpsons when Mr Burns builds a tower to blot out the sun over Springfield, forcing people to buy his nuclear power. Back in the real world, similar dynamics were at play. In 2004, Australian prime minister John Howard gathered fossil fuel CEOs help him slow the growth of renewables, under the auspices of a Low Emissions Technology Advisory Group. Meanwhile, advocates of renewables – especially wind – often found it difficult to build public support wind, in part because the existing power providers (mines, oil fields, nuclear) tend to be out of sight and out of mind. Public opposition has also been fed by health scares, such as "wind turbine syndrome". Labelled a "non-disease" and non-existent by medical experts, it continued to circulate for years. The recent resistance Academic work on the question of anti-wind farm activism is revealing a pattern: conspiracy thinking is a stronger predictor of opposition than age, gender, education or political leaning. In Germany, the academic Kevin Winter and colleagues found that belief in conspiracies had many times more influence on wind opposition than any demographic factor. Worryingly, presenting opponents with facts was not particularly successful. From RTÉ Brainstorm, What can you do with used wind turbine blades? In a more recent article, based on surveys in the US, UK and Australia which looked at people's propensity to give credence to conspiracy theories, Winter and colleagues argued that opposition is "rooted in people's worldviews". If you think climate change is a hoax or a beat-up by hysterical eco-doomers, you're going to be easily persuaded that wind turbines are poisoning groundwater, causing blackouts or, in Trump's words, " driving the whales loco". Wind farms are fertile ground for such theories. They are highly visible symbols of climate policy, and complex enough to be mysterious to non-specialists. A row of wind turbines can become a target for fears about modernity, energy security or government control. This, say Winter and colleagues, "poses a challenge for communicators and institutions committed to accelerating the energy transition". It's harder to take on an entire worldview than to correct a few made-up talking points. What is it all about? Beneath the misinformation, often driven by money or political power, there's a deeper issue. Some people – perhaps Trump among them – don't want to deal with the fact that fossil technologies which brought prosperity and a sense of control are also causing environmental crises. And these are problems which aren't solved with the addition of more technology. It offends their sense of invulnerability, of dominance. This " anti-reflexivity", as some academics call it, is a refusal to reflect on the costs of past successes. It is also bound up with identity. In some corners of the online "manosphere", concerns over climate change are being painted as effeminate. Many boomers, especially white heterosexual men like Trump, have felt disorientated as their world has shifted and changed around them. The clean energy transition symbolises part of this change. Perhaps this is a good way to understand why Trump is lashing out at "windmills".
Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
Letters to the Editor, August 21st: On Norman names, Tony Holohan and the Shannon pipeline
Catherine Connolly's suitability Sir, – I refer to two letters in today's Irish Times ( August 20th ) discussing Catherine Connolly 's suitability for the presidency, following the interview with her in Saturday's paper in which she expressed her very outspoken views on the US, EU, Nato, neutrality etc. Surely this is completely missing the point. The presidency is not, and should not be, a political appointment. This is a post in which the incumbent is obliged to represent the views of the majority and the government of the day. The person elected must be able to represent us all at all levels, nationally and internationally, with dignity, impartiality and intelligence. President Michael D Higgins can get away with expressing his heartfelt views at times because he has been in the post for nearly 14 years. He has earned that right. Catherine Connolly would need to trim her vocals to suit the role and I somehow doubt if she is able to do that, having already 'shot her bolt' so forcefully at this stage. – Yours, etc. PHYLLIDA WHITE, READ MORE Kilmanagh, Co Kilkenny, Oasis rubbish Sir, – My jaw dropped on Monday morning driving from Dorset Street across the apparently aptly-named Binn's Bridge. Whether it was the wonderful weather or high jinks before the Oasis gig in Croke Park on Sunday, I certainly turned left in anger (on to Whitworth Road) on seeing the amount of rubbish left around the Royal Canal. If citizens fail in their duty, litter wardens could clean up on such a day. Or event organisers should be required to have rubbish collectors on the main routes and known litter black spots before and during the gig as seen recently at Zach Bryan. There is no excuse. – Yours, etc, KATE HOGAN, Stillorgan, Co Dublin. A break for the health service Sir, – I recently spent my summer holiday in Ireland, and was unlucky to have an accident which resulted in a double fracture in my right arm. Because of the injury, I was treated in five different public hospitals – Ennis, small injury clinic; Limerick, fracture clinic; Croom, surgery; Castlebar, ED; Kilkenny ED – and I would like to express my thanks for the absolutely excellent level of treatment and service that I received everywhere. An extremely high level of efficiency, and, most importantly, I was greeted and treated with kindness and empathy by everyone I met, from receptionists to porters, nurses to surgeons. As I regularly read reports of the failings of the Irish health service, I feel it is very important to share my extremely positive experience. – Yours, etc, SARAH IRONSIDE, Brussels, Belgium Discerning taste Sir, – Concerning the correspondence about people not taking the top paper of the pile but rummaging and taking the second or third paper ('Discerning taste', Letters, August 19th ). A long time ago the Death Notices were printed on the back page of The Irish Times. Many people would turn over the first paper of the pile and have a quick look at the notices without having to buy the paper. – Yours, etc, SEAMUS STEPHENSON, Clontarf, Dublin 3. Sir, – Guilty as charged, I must confess that I am one of those unscrupulous Irish Times readers berated by Tony Corcoran ('Discerning taste', Letters, August 19th ). I regularly take a sneak preview of the paper on the shelves, but I always fold it back neatly and replace it in the second or third position in the bundle. – Yours, etc, JOHN LEAHY, Wilton Road, Cork. Race for the Áras Sir, – Reading Kathy Sheridan's column (' Tony Holohan's reluctance to admit mistakes sits badly with the national mood ,' Opinion, August 19th), I worry as to the idea that one man, an accomplished doctor who helped lead the country through a difficult and unprecedented crisis, might be considered unelectable given a loud minority of conspiracy theorists and nutcases, whereas another man who recklessly and unapologetically mismanaged the State, allowing the boom to become even boomer until the economy collapsed leaving scars still palpable up and down the country, should see no impediment to election. I occasionally wonder at the leaders of certain major nations, thinking: of all the millions of people they have to choose from, is this the best they have? An exception was Ireland over the last two presidential mandates. I fear the exception may be about to end. – Yours, etc, JOHN F McELHONE, Eden Road, Rosbeg, Co Donegal. What's in a Norman name Sir, – Fintan O'Toole has, in a single article (' Sinn Féin may reject commemorating the Normans, but there are some suspiciously Saxon names in its ranks ,' Opinion, August 19th) successfully demolished this mythical concept of 'We Irish' as being descendants of the inhabitants of an ideal world in ancient times – a world of pure Gaelic Irishness. After waves of invasions (including that of the Vikings), we find the Normans arriving. While they directly came from Wales, they were in essence representing the French King Henry II, who ruled over most of France at the time. After each of these invasions, we learn that the invaders 'became more Irish than the Irish themselves'. Fast forward to the 20th century, and we see in our history books 'unusual' names of key figures who featured centrally in the struggle for Irish freedom – Hobson, Hyde, Griffith, Spring-Rice, Childers, Lemass, de Valera, Casement, Gonne, Gore-Booth etc. Now, we would not find such names among the Irish chieftains who were forced to submit to the Norman invaders. Rather, the families of these people came to Ireland in the centuries that followed, which demonstrates that as a people we have evolved over time to be the 'Irish' we are right now. The Normans form part of that evolution and. to borrow a familiar expression, they are 'part of what we are', whether some like it or not. – Yours, etc, EAMON O'FLYNN, Merrion Road, Dublin 4 Sir, – Fintan O'Toole (' Sinn Féin may reject commemorating the Normans, but there are some suspiciously Saxon names in its ranks ,' Opinion, August 19th) makes a common mistake as regards Irish surnames. In the 18th century in Ireland, many ordinary people did not have a surname, and, in order to give themselves a lift socially, they adopted the surname of the local landlord. In other words, there are many people in Ireland today, sporting particular surnames, who have no genetic connection whatsoever to those surnames. – Yours, etc, SÉAMAS de BARRA, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14. Sir, – Fintan O'Toole's recent article (' Sinn Féin may reject commemorating the Normans, but there are some suspiciously Saxon names in its ranks ,' Opinion, August 19th) reminded me of another piece in your paper a decade ago by John Grenham in the Irish Roots column on how our surnames were Anglicised. As that article concluded: 'As guides to ethnic origins, surnames in Ireland can be very treacherous indeed.' I suspect few supporters of Sinn Féin would deny the Anglo (Norman) roots of Wolfe Tone, Parnell or Pearse. Reasonable people cannot deny Mr O'Toole's conclusion that the Irish, like every nation, are 'a product of multiple invasions and migrations, colonisations and resistances, settlement and unsettlement'. Nonetheless, Mr O'Toole should be far more hesitant to take English-sounding names like Clarke, Sands and Hughes at face value. – Yours, etc, EOGAN HICKEY, Brussels, Belgium. Carbon credits and promises Sir, – The recent exchange between ActionAid Ireland and Verra's CEO in your newspaper (' A wolf in sheep's clothing, the false promise of carbon credits ,' Science & Climate, August 14th; Letters, August 20th) exposes the peculiar logic of carbon offsets: the more they fail, the louder their defenders claim they're indispensable. Karol Balfe rightly argues that carbon markets 'almost always fail to provide any real climate benefit' and amount to both a 'policy failure and a moral failure'. And the evidence is damning. Independent investigations – including by the Guardian and Die Zeit – found that over 90 per cent of rainforest offsets certified by Verra were essentially worthless. The reductions existed principally on paper. Meanwhile, offset schemes have been connected to land grabs, weakened community rights, and displacement in the Global South – hardly the marks of 'climate justice'. Even the projects described as success stories do not alter the basic arithmetic. A tonne of CO₂ released today is not retroactively cancelled by a promise that another tonne might, some day, be absorbed elsewhere. It is the climate policy equivalent of running up a credit-card bill and insisting one is solvent because next month's wages might cover it. Climate action cannot be reduced to accounting tricks. Offsets provide cover for delay – allowing companies and governments to declare progress while emissions keep climbing. This is similar to another sleight of hand recently under discussion: the 'temperature neutrality target', effectively freezing Ireland's emissions at current levels rather than driving them down. As Dr Colm Duffy of the University of Galway has warned, such an approach 'seriously jeopardises the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5 °C'. It is not climate leadership; it is climate bookkeeping. Every euro and ounce of political will invested in sustaining this offsets bubble is one not directed toward genuine decarbonisation: phasing out fossil fuels, enabling renewables, or supporting communities on the front line of climate change. Until we admit that offsets – and clever new accounting targets – are part of the problem, not the solution, we will continue congratulating ourselves for what is only creative bookkeeping as the climate unravels around us. – Yours, etc, PAUL O'SHEA, Planet before Profit CLG, Ballycorus Road, Shankill, Co Dublin. Ryanair and global warming Sir, – Celestine O'Reilly writes of her disbelief that Ryanair is set to increase the number of seats out of Ireland by 15.5 per cent this winter ( Letters, August 20th ) despite evidence of the impact of global warming. Ryanair, like all businesses, responds to customer demand which clearly favours travel over climate impact, especially at such low prices (I too am guilty). Therein lies the issue. People pay lip service to the concept of dealing with climate change as long as it doesn't impact them – 'somebody else should do something about it'. I don't profess to have a solution to the problem, but blaming companies is an overly simplistic argument. Ultimately, people drive demand and therefore change – and solutions must start there. – Yours, etc, SEÁN DOWLING, Timoleague, Co Cork. Sir, – Based on our ongoing enthusiasm for air travel, even in the face of catastrophic climate change, Ryanair are very confident that most of their extra winter seats will be booked and paid for (' Ryanair adds 600,000 seats to Irish winter schedule ,' Business, August 16th). Maximising profits is their primary aim. Why should we expect them to care about climate change, unless and until it affects their bottom line? Michael O'Leary has ample evidence that Ryanair does not need to 'keep passengers happy', or to act responsibly in the face of climate change. Why bother, as long as they operate within the law and the money keeps rolling in, in ever-increasing quantities? Celestine O'Reilly ( Letters, August 20th ) refers to the 'insanity' of pumping out increasing amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. I agree with her, but we must accept that whenever we choose to fly with Ryanair, or any other airline for that matter, we are among the many millions who are putting their hands to that pump. – Yours, etc, KATHERINE QUIRKE, Dún Laoghaire Co Dublin. Shannon pipeline and MetroLink Sir, – Is there any chance that Michael O'Leary has a twin brother? A brother who has access to a white horse, who realises that Uisce Éireann's proposed Shannon pipeline project needs to be scrapped? The similarities between the MetroLink and Shannon pipeline projects are interesting to say the least. The Greater Dublin Water Supply study was started by Dublin City Council in 1996, nearly 30 years ago. A feasibility study was commissioned in 2004 and the results was the 'silver bullet' that was to be the Shannon pipeline. The initial estimate for the project was €700 million. This increased to €1.6 billion by 2016, and in June 2024, the major projects advisory group recommended that an estimated cost of €10.4 billion would be needed – €10.4 billion no less, and no one has batted an eyelid. Some €67.6 million has been spent on the project between 2014 and 2024, and not a pipe laid. Serious consideration was not given to alternative solutions. For instance, the rivers in the East – the Liffey, Slaney, Boyne and Barrow – have a combined flow three-quarters that of the Shannon and the incremental development of these, together with the proper utilisation of the Poulaphouca reservoir (Blessington Lakes), would provide the same solution at a fraction of the cost. Existing investment is being ignored and existing resources are being underutilised. The Irish taxpayer has already paid for the construction of a 22kmsq reservoir (Poulaphouca) at the Blessington Lakes for this specific purpose, to store water for summer supply when the rivers are low. So why is Poulaphouca not being used as a long-term solution? Poulaphouca holds 190 billion litres of water and is one of the biggest reservoirs in these islands. Poulaphouca was originally intended for water supply primarily. The greater amount of the reservoir is devoted to electricity generation, a minuscule amount of electricity in the context of the overall electricity generation of the country. This must change and water supply be given priority. Cost would be almost zero. Thames Water in England are proposing to build a facility smaller than Poulaphouca (150 billion litres) and say it is needed to secure the supply for 15 million Londoners. Fifteen million no less! Poulaphouca is the centre of any possible solution in any instance, so why build a pipeline? Just optimise beneficial use of the reservoir together with the rivers of the east and save the country several billion euro. – Yours, etc, KAY MULLANE, River Shannon Protection Alliance, Ballina, Co Tipperary.
