Fair-haired Roma children and hysterical racism in Ireland

How bizarre it all is.

A friend of a friend works as a social worker, and was recently complaining about how difficult it is to obtain a court order to take at-risk children into protective care.  

She also spoke of the hostile attitude of some judges towards social workers, and was greatly stressed by her knowledge of children who were suffering abuse/neglect and were being effectively ignored by the state authorities.

Which makes the recent shameful fiasco surrounding the taking into custody of Roma children with light-coloured hair all the more appalling.

Think about this.  We have some racist bigot making groundless "tip-offs" on Facebook, which are then passed onto the police via a journalist.   We are then treated to the spectacle of the fuzz raiding the homes of two Roma families, one in Athlone and one in Tallaght, before taking away one child from each family,  on the grounds that their hair is fair and their complexions are pale.

The gardai, of course, claimed their actions were because the children were "at risk".   Strange then, that they left the other dark-haired children at home with their parents while running away with the fair-haired siblings under their arms.

Keystone Cops doesn't even describe it –  only it is no laughing matter that racist hysteria has once more found embarrassing expression in Ireland. 

Meanwhile we have a government that is busy  taking medical cards away from sick and dying children – plainly putting them in a geniune "at risk" category.

"Bizarre" doesn't really do it justice;  and nor do the gardai.


Back to Gombeen Nation main page

An Coimisinéir Teanga

Two of the three founding pillars of our wonderful bullshit banana repubic were the Catholic Church and the "Irish language".    The other one was their sporting wing, the GAA.  

The nuns and priests are on the run, cassocks and habits a-flapping.  

The other two are definitely still with us.   It might take another 100 years or so, but the De Irish Peeple, who voted to keep the Senate politicians in jobs,  will eventually get it and give them the bum's rush.  They're very sophisticated, you see. 

How about this, from a reader who works in the Civil Service?   

My  workplace Big Brick Building normally houses 400 – but in this recession this has gone down to 200. Our safety committee had dwindled but had re-convened: and decided to  do up the  internal safety signage of our Big Brick Building.

 Other signage throughout the building was also done up - since it had been drawn before the 2004 language act. However as internal offices changed rooms at times, not every office Had a sign ( eg Accounts office) on the door – most did not. 

So as well as safety notices, for example  "exit this way", they mostly contented themselves with putting new signs on each floor opposite the lifts - bilingually. 

I have no problems with this- even though office is squarely in central Dublin- and the public only use the ground floor...  therefore anyone getting to the remaining 5 floors are all Dublin-based English speakers.  However these signs duly went  up and some pointed out a "fada" in the wrong place on "Cead". 

What amazed me was when our admin staff came into my office and told us to take my home-made typed notice off the door: 

Parts of my Dept are re-organising  – and I am in one of the little set-up offices overseeing   the changes - a completely new office- so  to aid visitors  and service staff I put  up a notice:  "The ****** Transition Office’.   I was told to take it down as it  was English only.  The Irish Language Auditors were to be in the next day.  Of course they told me it was  OK to put it back up after they had gone!

So, better- NO Sign – in central Dublin - than one in English!

Compare the zeal of the Irish Language Auditors (!!!) - Nazis checking our Green stars are on - with the safety inspectors at Dublin city council.  Those who let Priory Hall pass due to ‘safety self-certification’- and it it took a suicide to force a solution. two Years Later……..

Of course the Irish language Nazis could also quickly fine us for any English only signs….. 

OK I don't know how often they issue fines- but the zeal of public officials doing a pointless job -  when safety in Priory Hall was never an issue...

If that poor man hadn't committed suicide he could have died instead in a fire there....

But  what  does all that matter?  Let's concentrate on matters important to Official Ireland and its career bureaucrats. Never mind the real issues, including many other Priory Halls that remain covered up or ignored.

Developers and builders are not subject, it seems, to regulations such as those described below.

Complaints & Investigations An Coimisinéir Teanga (The Irish Language Kommisar)

The Act provides for the imposition of a fine not exceeding €2,000 and/or imprisonment for a term of up to 6 months on a person convicted in court of refusing or failing to cooperate with or obstructing an investigation.

What''s "safety self-certification" in Gaelic, I wonder?

Developers can relax::  knowing they may remain less bothered about the placement of viable fire exits in their buildings than the Civil Service has to be with "fadas" on its internal signage.

Back to Gombeen Nation Main page

. 

Liam Kelly half-way line goal against Sweden - a welcome distraction from the Republic of Ireland seniors.

You would have to wonder about the future of football in this country.   By "football", I mean "football' as understood by most of the world.   Not bogball, not rugger-buggery and not, even worse, the North American variety of the latter, which is played in armour. 

I refer, of course, to the beautiful game, Association Football – or "soccer". 

Despite the odds, this country has produced some wonderful footballers.  Johnny Giles, Paul McGrath, Liam Brady, Dave O'Leary, Packie Bonner, Frank Stapleton and, though I hate to say it, Roy Keane are all examples.

But decent players haven't been coming through in recent years, just headbangers like Stephen Ireland with more belief than ability and a bad attitude to boot.  I think things will get even worse in the coming years with so many young lads being lost to the dark arts of the GAA and the rugby lot.    

All aided and abetted by the utter ineptitude of the Football Association of Ireland.   Which means we will never again grace the World Cup finals or the European Championships' final stages.  

A work colleague of mine described how his kids have been lost to football thanks to the FA placing too much emphasis on competion at and up to under-12 level.

Basically, if a kid does not make the team he is out on his arse, or stood shivering on the sidelines watching his mates play.   I've some memories of this, having partaken in the Home Farm Mini Leagues as a kid, in the capacity described above. 

Kids don't need to be told they are no good - they are at the start of their football lives and even Europe's top leagues are well endowed with players who developed late on.   

There  is some glimmer of hope, as the FAI have belatedly appointed someone who plans to shake up kids' football in Ireland, with three-a-side non-competitive matches played with small goals and designed to give young players as many touches of the ball as possible. 

Ruud Dokter, a Dutchman, might sound like a Carry On character, but he could be just the thing Irish football needs to ensure some kind of future.

Mind you, with a few more goals like the one below by Reading's Liam Kelly – scored against the Swedish under 19s – things might not be as glum as we think.









Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Seanad stays - Irish democracy elects to keep undemocratic house

De Peeple  have spoken. 

The “upper house” of elitism and privilege will stay.  The chamber whose members are selected by 1% of the population and by political cronyism  – otherwise known as “appointments” (See Irish Times graphic above).  

A chamber full of dead wood and dross – graced now and in the past by heavyweights such as Ivor Callely, Donie Cassidy, Jimmy Harte, Bertie Ahern, and Michael McDowell – rejected at the polls in his last general election outing.

Most of  De Peeple I am acquainted with never stop banging on about our corrupt and useless political class, yet when given a gold-plated opportunity to put a few of them out on their waffling arses arrives,  De Peeple elect – the only such input they have ever had into the Seanad – to keep these wafflers in jobs.

Amazing.

The Dublin chattering classes have much to answer for.  Even so-called “left wing” commentators such as Fintan O’Toole called for a “no” to abolition of the anachronistic upper house.   For once, the culchies led the way by voting "yes"  – from this perspective anyhow – as a clear urban/rural divide saw the city slickers vote “no’ decisively.

Irish democracy has thrown a fundamentally undemocratic institution an unexpected lifeline.

It gets curiouser and curiouser.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Ireland is dying? Pacific Standard article.

Our "republic", readers will know, has always specialised in exporting its people - mainly because it's always been such a rotten kip.

Some reading this live abroad now, having voted with their feet (or because their parents did); some have lived abroad in the past, and made the mistake of coming back; some will undoubtedly evacuate in the near future.

It's so ironic, when you consider that so-called "confidence" of the bubble years...

B-B-Bertie Ahern was holding lectures on how to run economies.   Vested-interests economists were explaining how the Irish "boom" was "different" and how we were "catching up"...and it made perfect sense that a semi-d in the arsehole of nowhere was worth as much as a swanky apartment in Berlin.   Paddy and Mary were topping up their mortgages to plonk a new S-Class in their driveway every new reg-plate year.   

And the gobshites - many of the "blameless" Irish peeple Michael D so adores, the property tax-break politicians (many of whom had/have investment properties), the bankers, the media, the economists and the estate agents were manically dropping yet more incendiaries on the disastrous Ponzi-scheme conflagration.

And now the aftermath.  At least some of us can say we were never surprised.

The following, from the Pacific Standard, was sent in by a reader.  Well worth a read.

*********************************************

Ireland Is Dying

Why so many people—an average of 10 every hour—are fleeing the Emerald Isle.

Remains of the 12th-century Trim Castle in County Meath, the largest Norman castle in Ireland. (PHOTO:ANDREW PARNELL/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

August 30, 2013 • By Jim Russell • 129 Comments

Rest in peace, Seamus Heaney. The latest exodus from the Emerald Isle has reached hyperbolic speed. The Financial Times titillating its readers with data porn:

Ireland’s rate of emigration is continuing to increase and at one stage one person was leaving the country to live abroad every six minutes – the highest number since modern records began in the late 1980s.

New figures published on Thursday show 397,500 people have emigrated since Ireland’s financial crisis began in 2008, with most travelling to the UK, Australia and Canada in search of work.

During the same period 277,400 people have returned or moved to Ireland, giving a net outward migration figure of 120,100. In a 12-month period from April last year, 10 people left every hour.

Using the same cited data for the same 12-month period, more than 20 people moved to Ireland every hour. Of course, that also means over 30 people emigrated from Ireland every hour. The centerfold shot:

Almost a third of 15 to 24-year-olds, who grew up during an era when highly paid jobs were plentiful, are now out of work and even those with jobs have seen their wages slashed. More than a third of people leaving the country in the 12-month period to the end of April were between 15 and 24 years of age. Some 50,900 of the 89,000 people who emigrated were Irish citizens while the rest were nationals from other countries.

Yes, throw some dirt on dear old Dublin. The Celtic Tiger can no longer hunt. Time to put her down.

Two variables explain much of outmigration, age and educational attainment. I’ve posted quite a bit about ties between a college education and geographic mobility. Concerning age, the younger you are (as an adult), the more likely you are to leave. Relatively speaking, Ireland’s population is young:

In contrast to general European trends, the birth rate in Ireland is soaring. According to the Economic and Social Research Institute’s latest Perinatal Statistics Report, Ireland’s birth rate increased nearly 30 percent over the past 10 years, equating to about 17,000 more births in 2010 than 10 years before. The island boasts the highest birth rate of any European Union member.

Galway, a small college city on the Irish west coast, likes to tout itself as the “youngest city in Europe.” In 2001, 40 percent of Ireland was under the age of 25. When the going gets tough, the young and college educated get going. Everywhere, not just in Ireland. All those babies will grow up and go to college.  Then they will move away like all the other twentysomethings around the world.

*********************************************

******

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Maire Geoghegan-Quinn on Seanad abolition – Sunday Times article

It's not that often you get to vote on something that really matters to you, is it?  

I mean, as far as general elections go, you might as well subscribe to international anarchist Emma Goldman's maxim "If voting changed anything they would make it illegal'.




And it's so true.  When it comes to voting my only interest is getting the ones I like least at any given time out of government, though usually it means they simply cross to the other side of the floor for four years and keep their jobs in the meantime.

The great thing about voting to abolish the Seanad (Gaelic for "Senate" - no wonder so many Irish people can't spell properly) would mean that a whole chamber of wasters, shysters, failed TDs and waffling gobshites - with the exception of Bacik perhaps - will be out of a job.  Or one of their jobs, anyway.   

McDowell will have to go back to being a barrister, where the sincerity of ones argument is secondary to its eloquence.  So he should be at home there.  The rest of them will have to devote themselves to their other earners, or coffee mornings and the like.

You hear Irish people complaining about politicians every day.  Let's see what they – a famously conservative constituency – do when they get the chance to actually vote some of them out.

The following article by Brenda Power is well worth a read.


Seanad fat cats should be left to Their Wounds
BRENDA POWER, Sunday Times, 22nd September, 2013

In what parallel universe does Maire Geoghegan-Quinn imagine that her enthusiasm for the Seanad’s retention will have any other effect than to hasten its demise? 

Rarified ast he atmosphere in the VIP section of Dublin airport must be, which Mrs GQ enjoys at a cost to taxpayers of thousands of euros per year, it cannot have removed her from reality to the extent that she believes her support for the upper house will influence voters next month. In fact, one more such endorsement- from, say, that paragon of parliamentary propriety Bertie Ahem-and the electorate won’t
just stop at abolishing the Seanad but may well burn the whole place to the ground. Geoghegan-Quinn revealed she “cut her teeth” as a minister in Seanad debates in the late 1970s, and it taught her everything she knew about politics and legislation. 

Evidently, she believes this will convince an awed populace to race to the polling stations on OCtober 4 to support the Seanad’s existence, berating ourselves for ever having considered voting Yes. The institution that taught an archetypal Fianna Fail grandee, now a featherbedded Eurocrat with a €250,000 salary plus expenses, everything she knows about politics? More of that, please. The chamber that instilled in Geoghegan-Quinn such disdain for the hard-pressed taxpayer that she clung to her €104,000 ministerial and Dail pensions, on top of her EU salary, until it was wre.sted away by dint of shame and public outcry? 

The Seanad that taught her how to bat off queries about enthusiastic use of the airport VIP lounge (in the last six months of 2012 it cost us €5,654 to have GQ pampered between flights to Brussels) by pointing out it was a long-standing privilege for persons of her elevated status- how could we contemplate its abolition? 

There is an argument to be made for a reformed, more democratically elected seanad; Geoghegan-Quinn, however fondly she fancies herself, isn’t it. When the Oireachtas resumed last week, it took two efforts to raise a quorum in the Sean ad because not enough members turned up for the debate. The week before, we learned senator Terry Leyden had made an “honest mistake” when abusing Oireachtas postal privileges to send out €300 worth of invites to a private event. The Seanad could have been reformed years ago had any such impetus come from the people elected to it. But since the senators themselves have shown such cavalier contempt for the chamber which they purport to value, how on earth can they expect the voters to respect it? 

Everything about this unedifying saga - from the taoiseach’s initial journey from reform to abolition while Fianna Fail passed him on the road in the opposite direction, to the cynical posturing of the political debate - embodies those elements of Irish public life the electorate will almost certainly reject on October 4.

Meaningless promises, blatant self-interest, ovenweening arrogance, breathtaking condescension, abundant hot air and vastly inflated expense claims are all dressed up as a vital service to a thankless riffraff. 

Most hilarious of all is that the government’s advertisement campaign is predicated on a gleeful
 reminder that we don’t trust a single one of them. “Fewer politicians!” their posters shriek. 

An even more effective billboard would feature a giant image of Maire Geoghegan -Quinn, a vision of bloated self-irnportance in an executive airline lounge, with the slogan:

“Keep the Seanad – it got me where I am today!”


Back to Gombeen Nation main page

World Parks Day, Dublin. Craggy Island isn't in it.

Was walking through the Phoenix Park today when I came upon the spectacle you see above.  

A "Gathering" event called World Parks Day which put me in mind of the "Funland" Father Ted episode.  

The footage is short as I was so embarrassed by it all, to be honest, I wanted to get away as quickly as possible.  

Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan had their fingers on the pulse, it seems.


Back to Gombeen Nation main page

A donut shop and a fight on Talbot Street - no prizes for guessing where the coppers are.

It’s been said before on the blog that Ireland doesn’t really do entrepreneurs. I mean, there was a time when opening a pub was seen as the height of go-for-it vigour in Ireland, and even the likes of Michael O’Leary just copied a business model that existed elsewhere.

There’s no Irish Steve Jobs, nor Bill Gates, nor Alan Sugar. The Irish Dragon’s Den is filled with people who hire tuxedos, worked in construction or sell coffee for goodness sake.

Traditionally, Ireland has only attracted jobs by shamelessly splattering its collective sphincter with Vaseline and bending over for a good shafting by US multinationals, who are only here for a bit of tax "relief"  in this jurisdiction and others.

But there is someone out there who really has their head screwed-on when it comes to spotting a business opportunity – step forward the person who opened the doughnut shop on Talbot Street, just around the corner from Store Street Garda Station.

I walk down this street - or part of it - regularly enough, and it is one of the few thoroughfares where you might see a lesser-spotted Boy or Girl in Blue now and again. Not to deal with crime, or the countless skangers, scumbags and druggies roaming the area; but waddling their ample blue-serge arses in and out of said doughnut shop. I kid you not! 

Apart from those lunch-break sightings, these rare creatures are only to be found within the cosy confines of the station, even when stuff like this is going on a hundred metres away.





Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Bleat Surrender

Thanks for trying...




Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Feeling sheepish in Wicklow

It takes all kinds, I suppose  -  even those who have a paraphilia with zoophilia. 

In other words, humans who are sexually attracted to (other) animals. 

They don't just exist in Ireland, Wales, Scotland, New Zealand and Yorkshire either - here's a case from the Netherlands, and here's another from London.

Then there's this one from a couple of years back which I'd forgotten about...

Irish Woman Dies after Sex with Dog  (8th July 2011, Pets.ie)

A Limerick woman died after suffering an allergic reaction to dog’s semen according to the Irish Daily Star.  The 43-year old mother of four willingly engaged in intercourse with an Alsatian in 2008, after arranging the tryst on an online bestiality chatroom.

The owner of the dog, Sean McDonnell, 57, is being charged with the woman’s death and could face life in prison if found guilty. 

Tests show that following sex acts with the Alsatian, she suffered a reaction similar to that of someone with peanut allergies. The woman fell ill at 7.30 on October 7th and
died just half an hour later. The Alsatian has been kept in quarantine ever since the incident.



Bloody hell... the world can be a scary place.  Especially if you are a sheep (or a dog).

And whatever you think about this off-beat post, let me assure you that I'm only joking in the video above.

I go driving in Wicklow soley for the roads, mutton else.




Back to Gombeen Nation home page

Top Gear v Fifth Gear. A triumph of nonsense over substance.

This post has nothing to do with Ireland or life in it, but we all need a break now and then.  Even me.

  It's about quality and public taste, and how the two are very often diametrically opposed – often helped by marketing people, all too keen and ready to exploit public dim-wittedness.

This is an international phenomenon.   History is littered with dubious, but successful,  products that eclipsed far better rivals. 

During World War Two, for instance,  the Luftwaffe had the Messerschmitt 109 – an aircraft inferior in most important respects to the Focke Wulf 190.   The later FW 190s were even a match for the mighty North American Mustang, yet the aircraft played second fiddle to the older BF109 throughout the war. The Messerschmitt was a bugger to fly and many of them were written off in take-off and landing accidents due to the wheels being too close together, a consequence of their weak wings.

Back in the 80s there was the VHS video system.  It was poorer than its rival Betamax, but that didn't stop VHS becoming the standard whilst Betamax was consigned to the cassette bin.   A triumph of slippery marketing types in large-framed Elvis Costello glasses and speckled suits.   You have to wonder how these people have made our lives worse than they could have been, with their cliche-crammed bullshit and bollocksology.

Then there is Top Gear and Fifth Gear.   Sweet suffering Christ, what an utter crock of shite Top Gear is, but that hasn't stopped it becoming one of the most popular TV series in the world, along with an execrable live touring show.    I stopped looking at it years ago, after they thought it would be a fabulous wheeze to take the wheels off a Jaguar XJS and put train ones on in their place.  They then drove the car on a track... a railway one.   Madcap stuff indeed, and quite possibly hilarious if you are three years old or are a public schoolboy.  

The only vehicle that features on the show these days is the one that carries the massive egos of its three journalist presenters, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. By contrast Fifth Gear, which of late has been on Discovery, boasts at least three ex-racing drivers who know their stuff and actually review motor cars... sometimes even motorbikes.  

Despite all this, Top Gear can count its viewers in multiple millions; Fifth Gear, on the other hand, is relatively cult viewing.   

I suppose it all comes down to popular taste, which tends to favour the lightweight – but the power of the Beeb and slick marketing must play a part too.

"Marketing" remarked Edwin Land "is something you do when your product is no good".

Ouch.


Back to Gombeen Nation main page

€35,000 booze donation from Shell to gardai?

Multinational conglomerates like Shell are well used to operating in godforsaken Third World countries.   They know how things work, how to keep corrupt authorities sweet.   How to oil the cogs of power to keep them turning in the right direction.

Last Sunday’s Observer – and it would be a British, rather than an Irish media organ – claimed that a company contracted to Shell donated the Belmullet plod €35,000 worth of booze, after some particularly dedicated work against Corrib gas protestors.

See follow-up in today's IT, below.

You needn't expect much from  the "investigation" into gardai, by gardai, on the matter. 

They'll probably just clutch their heads and say they don't remember anything about it.

Senior garda examining claims alcohol was delivered to Mayo station

Lorna Siggins  Irish Times, Tuesday 13th August 2013

An Garda Síochána has appointed a senior officer to examine claims a company contracted to Shell E&P Ireland delivered large quantities of alcohol to Belmullet Garda station in Mayo. The Garda Press Office confirmed to The Irish Times last night that “a superintendent has been appointed to examine the matter”.

It is understood Supt Thomas Murphy of Swinford Garda station has been instructed to contact the contractor, OSSL, in relation to a number of allegations against the force.

The “examination” has been underway for more than a month, and is subsequent to inquiries previously conducted by the gardaí following “allegations” made to the district officer at Belmullet Garda station on December 7th, 2011, that “alcohol was distributed to members of An Garda Síochána on behalf of Shell E&P”.

Inquiries conducted in relation to the December 2011 allegations had “found no evidence of alcohol being distributed to members of An Garda Síochána by, or on behalf of, Shell E&P”, gardaí have said.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Racist man in NTL jacket on Brighton train

Years ago, during a nine-year stint in London as an economic migrant, I was sitting in a pub looking at Leeds United v Someone-or-other in a match of no consequence to anyone in the pub but me (it was an Irish pub called Mulligans, in Stratford, East London) when a black man walked in.

He was a little the worse for wear, but wasn't really bothering anyone as such - unlike the witless, ignorant gobshite you will see in the video above.   

Anyway, one hero in the pub descended from his regular pew beside the bar, and ejected the reveler.   He came back dusting his hands proudly before declaring in a strong Irish accent (as is mine, by the way) "just because he's black doesn't mean he has to be stupid",  seemingly oblivious to similar bigoted attitudes towards he and his fellows in that pub and elsewhere in the UK.

I left in embarrassment.

Have a look at the video.  It needs no further comment from me.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Corrupt "elite" in Ireland don't go to jail

We live in a tin-pot shithole of a country where 272 people were jailed in 2012 for not paying their RTE licence fee (some inaccurately refer to it as a TV licence).  

If you are a corrupt planner, senior civil servant or politician – I'd better be careful here, as they might sue me – you can abuse your public position for personal gain, safe in the knowledge that your establishment  fellow-travellers in the judiciary will let you off. 

The following piece by Fintan O'Toole in today's Irish Times - with more examples - is well worth a read...

Ten things you can do in Ireland that almost certainly won’t land you in jail

Fintan O'Toole, Irish Times, Tuesday, July 30, 2013, 12:54

Beata Schmid has been told to turn up in the High Court in Dublin today packed for a trip to prison. An Garda Síochána has been told to make sure there are officers in court “with a view to conveying Ms Schmid to prison”.

Ms Schmid worked for a division of IBM Ireland and sees herself as a whistleblower. She told the court in her last appearance before Judge George Birmingham that she had discovered and reported “severe discrepancies” in sales records. She downloaded the data on to a memory stick which she took home. IBM then went to court and secured an order requiring her to hand over her laptop and the memory stick, which she did.

IBM then went back to court demanding the return of a second memory stick on to which it believes she made at least a partial copy of the data. She insists she does not have a second memory stick. The judge ordered her to produce it nonetheless and told her that she will go to prison today if she does not comply.

I make no comment on the rights and wrongs of this case. I don’t doubt at all that the court will apply the existing law fairly and with integrity. I merely draw attention to a certain poignancy – Beata Schmid, who rightly or wrongly sees herself as a corporate whistleblower, may well go to prison just days after the collapse of the trial of those accused of corrupting the planning process in Dublin.

Here are 10 things for which we can say with confidence that Beata Schmid almost certainly would not go to jail.

1 Systematically paying workers a significant portion of their wages “under the counter”, without deducting tax and insurance. And regularly sourcing the cash for these from local banks using fraudulent cheques made out to nonexisten 
individuals. (Goodman beef processors, as concluded by the beef tribunal.)

2 Undermining the integrity of a key State commercial competition by exerting an “insidious and perverse” and “pervasive and abusive” influence on the process. (Michael Lowry, Moriarty tribunal report.)

3 Acting in a manner that was “profoundly corrupt to a degree that was nothing short of breathtaking”. (Lowry and Ben Dunne, in relation to attempts to influence arbitration of rental payments to Dunne, Moriarty report.)

4 Making corruption “both systemic and endemic” at every level of Irish political life. (The Mahon tribunal)

5 Stealing money raised for a friend’s life-saving operation. The Moriarty tribunal found that Charles Haughey stole a  “sizeable proportion” of Brian Lenihan’s medical fund.

6 Committing perjury. Charles Haughey lied to the McCracken tribunal, claiming that he had not received money from Ben Dunne but later conceding he had done so. The Bailey brothers “hindered and obstructed” the Flood tribunal in a number of ways, including making untrue statements under oath. Not only did Mick and Tom Bailey each give false evidence under oath, but the tribunal found that they had colluded to concoct that evidence.

7 Insider trading. Both the Supreme Court and the Director of Corporate Enforcement concluded that businessman Jim Flavin had improperly used inside information in dealing in the shares of Fyffe’s. But a High Court inspector found that this was okay because “Mr Flavin genuinely believed that he was not in possession of price-sensitive information.” Perhaps uniquely in the developed world, insider trading in Ireland is not about objective facts but about one’s state of mind.

8 Covering up and repeatedly facilitating sexual attacks on children by known predatory paedophiles. (Several Irish bishops, the Murphy report.)

9 Operating a massive and systematic tax fraud against the State. In 1993, the then huge sum of £2 billion was held in nonresidential accounts the banks knew to be fraudulent. Allied Irish Bank alone had 88,000 “non-resident” accounts – thepractice was highly organised throughout virtually all Irish banks. The public accounts committee found it to be “an industrywide phenomenon”.

10 Manufacturing a therapeutic substance without a licence, not informing women that you knew had been infected withhepatitis C and not informing the Department of Health of the infection as you were obliged to do by law. (Senior management of the Blood Transfusion Service Board, Finlay report).

These are some of the socially destructive things you can do in Ireland, confident that there is a tiny chance you will beprosecuted, a tinier chance you will be convicted and a chance of going to jail that recedes towards vanishing point.

And this is not about the dark past: in the three years after the bank collapse, 2008, 2009 and 2010, the conviction rate for white-collar offences fell dramatically. In 2004, there were 467 convictions for white-collar crimes; in 2010, there were just 178. This is in spite of the fact that the number of recorded white-collar offences rose by 33 per cent in the same
period.

A country that can’t enforce its own laws against acts that cause immense damage to citizens is not merely not a republic – it’s not even a functioning State. And only a dysfunctional State would be refusing to talk about the catastrophic failure of its
legal system.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page