Person: Brendan Cafferty

A COMPREHENSIVE SERIES OF ARTICLES ON THIS TOPIC

columnists

Rude attitude to Taoiseach Kenny

Your political editor, Paul O’Brien, was insulting and rude to Taoiseach Enda Kenny after the press conference outside Government Buildings on Jun 1 after the yes side victory in the vote.

Céad míle fáilte to a figurehead queen

Has media-loving Mary something big in mind?

Corrib row investigator unduly critical of the gardaí

YOUR ISSUE of April 27 quoted a report from the Frontline organisation on the Corrib gas project and related matters.

Wed, 05 May, 2010

FAIR play to Green party leader and Environment Minister John Gormley. Speaking at his party conference in Waterford recently he said Fine Gael should stop abusing the planning process and stop accepting corporate donations.

Wed, 07 Apr, 2010

Diversionary tactics of McGuinness’s critics

IT SEEMS from the letters of Eamon Reilly and Brendan Cafferty (March 19) there’s a new policy that “if you can’t stop the message getting out, try to undermine it by attacking the messenger”.

Wed, 31 Mar, 2010

Ex-IRA man’s ‘sickening’ stance

WHAT can be more sickening than the call by Martin McGuinness from the USA for Cardinal Brady to consider his position, ie, resign.

Fri, 19 Mar, 2010

Tell us more, Willie

WILLIE O’Dea said he knew a minister who did worse than he did – yet remained in office, with his backing (February 19).

Sat, 27 Feb, 2010

Sport question fouled up by learned gentlemen

ON Sunday morning last on Newstalk I heard David Norris interview the distinguished Prof Art Cosgrove of UCD.

Thu, 04 Feb, 2010

Nixon’s ghost hanging over banks inquiry?

THE proposed inquiry into what went wrong with banking (up only to September, 2008) reminds me a bit of Richard Nixon’s famous early declaration on Watergate: “We must get to the bottom of this.

Tue, 26 Jan, 2010

One more for John B

I HAVE no doubt John B Keane is putting the final touches to his latest drama on the Listowel affair in his great theatre in the sky. And why did the gardaí allow these approaches to a convicted man in custody ?

Sat, 19 Dec, 2009

Cork’s bloody secret still not fully revealed

BRENDAN CAFFERTY must have seen a different programme than the Cork “bloody secret” I saw on RTÉ. He says “it is commendable to see a light being shone into such a dark corner of our history” (Letters, October 8) . That is precisely what was not done.

Fri, 16 Oct, 2009

Shining a light on a dark and bloody past

RTÉ has done a great service to us all and to the historical record by its screening of CSÍ: Cork ’s Bloody Secrets on October 5 on the massacre of innocent Protestants in the Bandon valley in 1922 at a time when hostilities were supposed to have ceased between Ireland and Britain, and before the civil war began.

Thu, 08 Oct, 2009

Ganley returns to a changed landscape

DECLAN Ganley’s grand re-entry into the Lisbon Treaty referendum campaign should be a positive for the Yes side.

Mon, 28 Sep, 2009

President’s flying visit defended

IN the Dáil on June 17, Fine Gael deputy Michael Ring made an allegation about “an office-holder” using a helicopter to attend the Connacht football final in Castlebar on July 13 last year.

Sat, 20 Jun, 2009

President McAleese doing the wrong job?

I SEE President Mary McAleese was in the US leading a trade delegation last week.

Tue, 02 Jun, 2009

Ryan's Irish solution to an Irish problem

MINISTER Eamon Ryan is learning the tricks of his trade very fast, maybe from his senior partner in government.

Tue, 31 Mar, 2009

Levying the judges: professor gets it is wrong

IN his letter (March 6), Prof David Gwynn Morgan states that the Government’s contention regarding the constitutionality of a public service levy on judicial salaries is “just plain wrong”. He cites the judgment of Kingsmill Moore in O’Byrne v Minister for Finance (1959) for this proposition.

Thu, 12 Mar, 2009

In the swim

MARTIN CULLEN’S fortunate escape from a faulty helicopter over Killarney brings to mind another politician’s remark in similar circumstances.

Sat, 07 Mar, 2009

Government can subject judges’ salaries to the same levy that applies to public sector workers

MAY I say how much I agree with the letter from Brendan Cafferty headlined ‘Judges should agree to take a cut in salary’ (March 3).

Sat, 07 Mar, 2009

Don’t blame it all on Cromwell

TRANSPORT Minister Noel Dempsey made a great speech to his party’s árd fheis last weekend. Like those hard-hitting Meath footballers of some years back his tackle is a bit behind the referee’s back, though.

Fri, 06 Mar, 2009

Judges should agree to take a cut in salary

IN the new pensions levies act all public servants — even those on very low wages — will be subject to this new levy, which is in essence a pay cut.

Tue, 03 Mar, 2009

Bolting the stable door after horse has gone?

I SEE the offices of Anglo Irish Bank have been “raided” by fraud investigators. Can I assume there is very little left to find with the loot all gone?

Fri, 27 Feb, 2009

‘Banksters’ roll dice in game of fantasy finance

REGARDING the recent “transfer” of money between Irish Life and Permanent and Anglo Irish Bank, how come we are always told there is nothing illegal about this kind of carry-on between consenting moneychangers?

Fri, 20 Feb, 2009

Between the lines

PERHAPS Brian Lenihan might, on mature recollection, tell us that in fact he had read that crucial section of the report on the transfer of ‘B&B money’ from ILP to Anglo Irish Bank.

Tue, 17 Feb, 2009

Dell follows bottom line — not the political line

IN his letter headlined ‘Was anti-Americanism part of Dell’s problem?’ (January 15), Brendan Cafferty shows he is either very poorly informed or just likes to throw mud at causes he doesn’t like regardless of facts.

Tue, 27 Jan, 2009

Man of the people

IN his letter (January 10), Brendan Cafferty questions the protocol of the Taoiseach and Government ministers attending the funeral of Tony Gregory TD and not that of Dr Conor Cruise O’Brien.

Sat, 17 Jan, 2009

Was anti-Americanism part of Dell’s problem?

OF course the wages factor is very important, but I wonder if the rampant anti-American deluge we have here for the past few years — Shannon airport and so on — had anything to do with the departure of Dell from Limerick?

Thu, 15 Jan, 2009

Political funerals raise a protocol issue

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen, along with his predecessor Bertie Ahern and other FF office-holders, attended Tony Gregory’s funeral this week. No doubt, from their point of view, this a very proper thing to do.

Sat, 10 Jan, 2009

Andrews passes buck?

CHILDREN’S Minister Barry Andrews said when he was given the report on the sex abuse scandal in Cloyne diocese he did not read it — just passed it on to the HSE.

Wed, 24 Dec, 2008

The man who exposed Provos and Haughey

THE death of Dr Conor Cruise O’Brien robs us of one of the best and brightest we have had in the past century in Irish politics.

Tue, 23 Dec, 2008

Cowen out of tune as pork crisis erupted

LAST Sunday, in the midst of the pork scandal, I was aghast to see TV footage of our Taoiseach in Mullingar unveiling a statue to Joe Dolan.

Thu, 11 Dec, 2008

New U-turn needed

ONE of the most disturbing things to emerge from the recent budget mess is the decision to stop block grants to Protestant schools. This will result in many of those mainly rural second-level schools having to close in isolated areas where they are very few in number.

Tue, 11 Nov, 2008

Ireland’s slow march towards maturity

THERE they go again — Jack Lane and Tom Cooper banging the old drum of nationalism and Stalinism (Letters, October 20).

Mon, 27 Oct, 2008

Corrib gas project brings 800 jobs and buzz of prosperity to the region

IN their letters (September 13), Seán Ó Riain and Fergal Scully identify to some degree the problems we have here with the Corrib gas project where people from afar tells us what is good for us.

Sat, 20 Sep, 2008

Taoiseach out of tune with state of the nation

AM I the only one who was mortified to hear Taoiseach Brian Cowen singing (or the nearest thing to singing) Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore on Ceilí House and repeated on RTÉ radio on Saturday morning (August 30).

Mon, 08 Sep, 2008

RTÉ elite kowtowing to the great and the good

LETTERS by Brendan Cafferty and Thomas Studley (August 28) gave us a different perspective on the attitude of RTÉ to recently-retired Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

Wed, 03 Sep, 2008

Red card for RTÉ

THE coat-tailing of Bertie Ahern by RTÉ continues apace with last week’s edition of The Road to Croker.

Thu, 28 Aug, 2008

Racist abuse incident serves as wake-up call

THE recent award of €20,000 to ‘Mr C’ for non-stop discrimination in his workplace should serve as a wake-up call. This was no ordinary workplace banter, but taunts about this man’s British nationality, his soccer team (probably by louts who support British teams themselves) and the singing of rebel songs of an IRA variety.

Sat, 16 Aug, 2008