Brian O'Doherty's Blog  

I’m not an historian, but I’ve read a few books and I’m very impressed by the achievements of Irish emigrants down the centuries and their descendents in the Irish diaspora and I’d like to bring you a few facts about that now and again in this column. The diaspora has achieved great things- and please [...]

The rather poor road between the border at Aughnacloy and the city of Derry is to be upgraded into a dual carriageway, substantially at the expense of taxpayers in the Republic. My proposal is that this roadway should be named after Ireland’s greatest unsung hero Owen Roe O’Neill, (c. 1585 – 1649). (I’m sure John [...]

This is a post I sent to the IrishEconomy.ie blog today. The discussion followed a recent speech by CB Governor Paddy Honohan
”
When the Governor raised the matter of accounting practices, I thought he was going to tell us some good news. He said:
” I have already railed elsewhere against the backward-looking loan-loss provisioning practices encouraged [...]

This is a post I sent to IrishEconomy.ie blog today:
”
To all, and especially those who recently insisted that we could keep on issuing NAMA bonds….The situation is very clear:
It’s the ECB that wants a bail out!!
THEY, themselves, want to be “bailed out”, of the alleged obligation on them to keep on cashing NAMA bonds [...]

It seems that Chancellor Merkel has clarified her previous suggestions that bond holders must not rely on an EU bailout for Irish and other sovereign debt by saying her proposal only commences from 2013. All existing debt will therefore be free of all but EU sovereign risk to debt holders
That’s what it seems to me. [...]

If the Irish vote results in the Lisbon Treaty being ratified, then the leaders of the EU will get together in that back room and select a new President of Europe (or whatever he may be called–but that is what he will become). The likely candidate seems to be Tony Blair, the man from Donegal, [...]