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http://www.thejournal.ie/parties-to-be-told-run-more-women-or-lose-state-funding-144871-May2011/?voted=1

IRELAND'S POLITICAL PARTIES could soon see their State funding cut by up to 50 per cent if they do not provide a certain proportion of female candidates at future elections.

Environment minister Phil Hogan has confirmed he will soon bring legislation to cabinet that will force parties to ensure that at least 30 per cent of their candidate base are female – or see their central funding, a major source of income, depleted.

The minister told the Irish Times that the proposal was "a groundbreaking political opportunity for the country in terms of increasing particularly the participation rate of women in Irish politics".

"This is the carrot and the big stick approach. If you don't deliver you'll get your funding cut, and it's quite a serious penalty to be in breach of this particular proposal," he told Mary Minihan.

The confirmation follows reports to a similar extent from the Sunday Independent last week.

The news also comes as the Standards in Public Office Commission confirmed that the five largest political parties received a total of almost €13.5m in state funding in 2010 through party payments and Party Leaders' Allowances.

Fine Gael received the highest allocation under the Party Leaders' Allowance – taking up almost €3m of the €8m paid through those means – while Fianna Fáil, as the largest Oireachtas party at the time, took €2.3m of the €5.4m paid in party funding.

The total Party Leaders Allowance also includes payments to independent TDs and Senators in lieu of the support they would ordinarily receive from parties.

Independent TDs earn €41,152 in allowances per year, while independent Senators are paid €23,383 per annum. Last year independent parliamentarians receive €304,905 last year – a sum that will be dwarfed in 2011 given the larger numbers of independent TDs.




Very bad idea IMO, seriously hope this is not implemented. It is sexist, and promotes quantity over quality. Women need to show a greater interest at grass roots levels in putting themselves forward. Outside of political parties, highly interested and qualified women should put themselves forward as independents or make themselves available to political parties.

Just thought this map was facinating, have seen it before and just came across it again there. I find particularly interesting that at the time of the Roman Empire the Ainu still held 50% of modern day Japan. They Yamato (Japanese) only in control of the southern half.



The Sassanids are particularly interesting people too, try as they might the Roman's could not break them. They had an ingenious mix of heavily armoured horse cavalry and Steppe style mounted bowmen. The mail worn my their horses and jockey (is that the correct word) was not seen again until medievel Europe and not until the French Caverly much later. The Sassanids have a lightly armoured bowman riding reverse rider style shooting back when the ran away from the initial hard heavy calvery attack. The Romans lost several legions and stupidly returned on several occasions without altering their tactics.

In deep South Wexford for centuries Yola, was the linga-franca, not Irish, not English, not Norman-French, not Welsh, not Norse, not French, not Frisian and most certainly not Ulster-Scots/Ullans.

Seems the language is closest to Dutch and Frisian, with Irish, Norse, French and English influences.

A Yola Song

Fade teil thee zo lournagh, co Joane, zo knaggee?
Th' weithest all curcagh, wafur, an cornee.
Lidge w'ouse an a milagh, tis gaay an louthee:
Huck nigher; y'art scuddeen; fartoo zo hachee?

Well, gosp, c'hull be zeid; mot thee fartoo, an fade;
Ha deight ouse var gabble, tell ee zin go t'glade.
Ch'am a stouk, an a donel; wou'll leigh out ee dey.
Th' valler w'speen here, th' lass ee chourch-hey.

Yerstey w'had a baree, gist ing oor hoane,
Aar gentrize ware bibbern, aamzil cou no stoane.
Yith Muzleare had ba hole, t'was mee Tommeen,
At by mizluck was ee-pit t'drive in.

Joud an moud vrem earchee ete was ee Lough.
Zitch vaperreen, an shimmereen, fan ee-daf ee aar scoth!
Zitch blakeen, an blayeen, fan ee ball was ee-drowe!
Chote well aar aim was t'yie ouz n'eer a blowe.

Mot w'all aar boust, hi soon was ee-teight
At aar errone was var ameing 'ar 'ngish ee-height.
Zitch vezzeen, tarvizzeen, 'tell than w'ne'er zey.
Nore zichel ne'er well, nowe, nore ne'er mey.

Just listening to this song and thought this gotta be the song of choice if Kerry win Sam this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgb3Gsyf_H0

What songs would be a good or funny one for any of the 32+2 counties that compete in either the race for Sam or Liam?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13185185

What a mess, Syria, Israel, Iran, Gaza Strip armed forces all need a good spanking, but its not going to happen.

I was just wondering how far us Irish Nationalists would go to have our United Ireland? I was also wondering how many options would be acceptable to our Unionist countrymen?

Please vote for any option that you would accept, including those even only acceptable as a last resort.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0405/breaking4.html

Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 16:20
Gbagbo negotiates Ivory Coast exit

Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo was negotiating the terms of his departure from power today following a fierce assault by forces loyal to his presidential rival backed by UN and French helicopter airstrikes.

France said it expected a swift exit by Mr Gbagbo, who had clung to power since refusing to concede he lost last November's presidential election to Alassane Ouattara, plunging the world's top cocoa-growing nation into renewed civil war.

"We are on the brink of convincing him to leave power," French foreign minister Alain Juppe told parliament in Paris.

A Gbagbo spokesman said the incumbent was negotiating the terms of his departure based on the recognition of Mr Ouattara as president. The spokesman said the negotiations covered security guarantees for Mr Gbagbo and his relatives. "If everything goes well, we will have a declaration soon," he said.

Mr Gbagbo was said to be in Abidjan, with some media reports saying he was in a bunker below his residence. His forces called for a ceasefire after being comprehensively outgunned, and French defence minister Gerard Longuet said the West African country's crisis could soon be over.

"We are in a situation where everything could be resolved in the next few hours," Mr Longuet told a news conference.

US president Barack Obama called on Mr Gbagbo to stand down immediately and order his fighters to lay down their arms.

The United Nations mission in the country said Mr Gbagbo's army chiefs had asked their men surrender their arms to UN forces and seek protection.

Over the past week, forces loyal to Mr Ouattara had launched a major assault on Mr Gbagbo's last strongholds in Abidjan, driving home their campaign to oust him.

Calm had returned to the area surrounding the presidential palace after days of fierce machinegun and heavy weapons fire.

The UN peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast, supported by the French military, had targeted Mr Gbagbo's heavy weapons capabilities yesterday with attack helicopters after civilians were killed in shelling.

In the north of Abidjan, bullet-riddled bodies lay by the side of the main motorway near the largely pro-Gbagbo neighbourhood of Yopougon, evidence of recent fighting. An armoured personnel carrier was pushed across the roadway, still in flames, and residents who had emerged from their houses to find water said they had heard machinegun and heavy weapons fire through the night.

The United Nations human rights office in Geneva today expressed concern over the killings of dozens of civilians in Abidjan, amid reports of heavy weapons used in populated areas.

Mr Gbagbo has defied international pressure to give up the presidency after an election last November that UN-certified results showed Mr Ouattara won, rejecting the results as fraudulent and accusing the United Nations of bias.

More than 1,500 people are reported to have died in the standoff that has rekindled the country's 2002-3 civil war, though the real toll is likely much higher.

Suppose Prince Albert II will be visiting Newport. The Crown Prince of Monaco is visiting Ireland in April.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8407047/Libyan-rebel-commander-admits-his-fighters-have-al-Qaeda-links.html

Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links
Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

Mr al-Hasidi admitted he had earlier fought against 'the foreign invasion' in Afghanistan Photo: AFP By Praveen Swami, Nick Squires and Duncan Gardham 5:00PM GMT 25 Mar 2011
In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited "around 25" men from the Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some of them, he said, are "today are on the front lines in Adjabiya".

Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters "are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists," but added that the "members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader".

His revelations came even as Idriss Deby Itno, Chad's president, said al-Qaeda had managed to pillage military arsenals in the Libyan rebel zone and acquired arms, "including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries".

Mr al-Hasidi admitted he had earlier fought against "the foreign invasion" in Afghanistan, before being "captured in 2002 in Peshwar, in Pakistan". He was later handed over to the US, and then held in Libya before being released in 2008.

US and British government sources said Mr al-Hasidi was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, which killed dozens of Libyan troops in guerrilla attacks around Derna and Benghazi in 1995 and 1996.

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Even though the LIFG is not part of the al-Qaeda organisation, the United States military's West Point academy has said the two share an "increasingly co-operative relationship". In 2007, documents captured by allied forces from the town of Sinjar, showed LIFG emmbers made up the second-largest cohort of foreign fighters in Iraq, after Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this month, al-Qaeda issued a call for supporters to back the Libyan rebellion, which it said would lead to the imposition of "the stage of Islam" in the country.

British Islamists have also backed the rebellion, with the former head of the banned al-Muhajiroun proclaiming that the call for "Islam, the Shariah and jihad from Libya" had "shaken the enemies of Islam and the Muslims more than the tsunami that Allah sent against their friends, the Japanese".

Red C Poll out tomorrow lads, should be released by twitter before the end of the day.

My lapotop is plagued by a Rogue Anti-Virus called System Defender. Does anyone know how to get rid of it. It fcking now sending pop-ups of false system warnings and virus/trojan/worm risks every 60-90 seconds. Its driving me crazy, as I have to work on-line @ the moment.

I think I was left open to it by another Rogue Anti-Virus on my laptop which I had been ignoring, (it only appeared every 20 minutes) called Personal Internet Security. Its driving me crazy. Would be great if anyone knew how to get rid of this one too.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2011/0324/1224292954844.html

An Irishman's Diary
McNALLY

A History of Ireland in 100 Euphemisms:

1. Soft day, thank God.

2. Sorry for your troubles.

3. I'm grand, thanks.

4. An bhfuil cead agam dul amach?

5. The first official language.

6. The Soldiers of Destiny.

7. The night before Larry was stretched.

8. The Kilmainham Minuet.

9. The harp that once in Tara's halls.

10. Our gallant allies in Europe.

11. Public house.

12. I must have had a bad pint last night.

13. He's fond of a drop.

14. He's a great man for the drink.

15. Under the influence.

16. While at the wheel of a mechanically propelled vehicle.

17. I knew him when he didn't have an arse in his trousers.

18. That'll soften his cough.

19. There's a great roaring in the west, and it's worse it'll be getting when the tide's turned to the wind.

20. I have to see a man about a dog.

21. He digs with the other foot.

22. Sally O'Brien and the way she might look at you.

23. Himself.

24. Herself.

25. The Quare Fella.

26. A belt of the crozier.

27. Foul play is not suspected.

28. Gardaí are pursuing a definite line of inquiry.

29. Heated exchanges in the Dáil yesterday.

30. Certain sections of the media.

31. The nerves are at her.

32. He's a bit touched.

33. She's away with the fairies.

34. Did you shift last night?

35. He's a bit failed.

36. He's shook.

37. He's bet.

38. They've sent for the priest.

39. He's gone to a better place.

40. A bit of a shemozzle on the edge of the square.

41. It was a fair shoulder, ref.

42. A robust challenge there by Páidi Ó Sé.

43. The dead man was known to gardaí.

44. They were engaged in an altercation outside the pub.

45. A man is helping gardaí with their inquiries.

46. The national question.

47. He's sound (on the national question).

48. Our fetters rent in twain.

49. The Wild Geese.

50. The Year of the French.

51. The Races of Castlebar.

52. Black 47.

53. The Black Diaries.

54. Black and Tans.

55. The Black Maria.

56. They don't sow potatoes nor barley nor wheat, but there's gangs of them digging for gold in the street.

57. It's so lonely round the fields of Athenry.

58. The Troubles.

59. The Emergency.

60. The dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone.

61. We will not stand (idly) by.

62. The Provisionals.

63. P O'Neill.

64. The North.

65. The Wee North.

66. The black north.

67. The northern part of this island.

68. The Two Communities.

69. The Six Counties.

70. These islands.

71. Stroke City.

72. The Fourth Green Field.

73. The Heavy Gang.

74. "No doubt many of you are familiar with an expression in some parts of the country where an outsider is described as a 'blow-in'. Some of these are blow-ins. Now as far

as we're concerned, they can blow out, or blow up."

75. A thundering disgrace.

76. The Border Fox.

77. On mature recollection.

78. Exercising our right to

walk the queen's highway.

79. Traditional route to church.

80. They haven't gone away, you know.

81. A revolutionary new training regime designed by her husband Erik de Bruin.

82. A complex but legitimate business arrangement with Ben Dunne.

83. "There's a little something for you." "Thanks, big fella."

84. Deceptively spacious two-bedroom house in

upcoming area. Some refurbishment needed. Guide price €1.2 million.

85. The Galway Tent.

86. Up every tree in North Dublin.

87. Dig-out.

88. Whip-around.

89. Light-touch regulation.

90. Losing the run of ourselves.

91. The economic fundamentals are sound.

92. Soft landing.

93. Sub-prime.

94. Biffo.

95. Fully funded until into the middle of next year.

96. We have turned the corner.

97. We are where we are.

98. Nasal congestion.

99. We have not asked the IMF for a facility.

100. Ireland is open for business.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12795971

19 March 2011 Last updated at 16:43 GMT
French military jets over LibyaLatest
Live

French military jets are preventing forces loyal to Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi from attacking the rebel-held city of Benghazi, French President Nicolas Sarkozy says.

It is believed to be the first act of intervention since the UN voted on Thursday for a no-fly zone over Libya.

Western and Arab leaders have been meeting in Paris to agree a course of action to confront Col Gaddafi.

"Our air force will oppose any aggression," Mr Sarkozy said.

Hours earlier, pro-Gaddafi forces launched an assault on the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi, a BBC journalist witnessed.

However, the Libyan government has denied it is attacking.

'Stop the bombardment'
Continue reading the main story
Analysis

Caroline Wyatt

Defence correspondent
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
French reconnaissance jets are clearly scoping out targets in Libya. I would assume there have been special forces on the ground as well, assessing potential targets.

The planning parts of enforcing this UN resolution have been very complex - we may be talking about 100 planes involved - so once you begin enforcing that no-fly zone, you need to think about enforcing it 24 hours a day to ensure no Libyan jets get up in the air, dividing up the tasks and the bases that are going to be used.

British jets will be performing a range of tasks, with RAF Tornadoes aiming at targets on the ground, Typhoons performing air-to-air sorties, and Awacs planes and Sentinel R1s helping with mapping the ground and reconnaissance.

The supposition is that an awful lot of the operation will be based in southern Italy and the Mediterranean.
French aircraft have also flown over "all Libyan territory" on reconnaissance missions, French military sources said earlier.

The French Rafale jets took off from their base at Saint-Dizier in eastern France, a source told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

The planes encountered no problems during the first few hours of their mission, the source said, and the flights would continue for the next several hours.

The US would use its "unique capabilities" to reinforce the no-fly zone, said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, warning that further delays would put more civilians at risk. However, Mrs Clinton said again that the US would not deploy ground troops in Libya.

A naval blockade is also being put in place, said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In other developments:

Italy has offered the use of seven of its military bases which already house US, Nato and Italian forces
Canada says its fighter jets have now reached the region but will need two days to prepare for any missions
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said he believes British, French and Canadian aircraft will launch the first airstrikes, which could come within hours
The new UN resolution authorises "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan civilians.

The international community was intervening to stop the "murderous madness" of Col Gaddafi, Mr Sarkozy said.

"In Libya, the civilian population, which is demanding nothing more than the right to choose their own destiny, is in mortal danger," he warned. "It is our duty to respond to their anguished appeal."

The rebels' leader had earlier appealed to the international community to stop the bombardment by pro-Gaddafi forces.

A jet also appears to have been shot down over Benghazi. A rebel spokesman was quoted as saying the downed jet was a rebel plane which had been shot down by pro-government forces.

AdvertisementIan Pannell in Benghazi: "The fighter jet... span out of control and plummeted to the ground"
Reports from Benghazi suggest hundreds of cars packed with people were fleeing eastwards as fighting spread.

The United Nations refugee agency says it is preparing to receive 200,000 people fleeing the fighting, amid reports of hundreds of cars full of people heading for the Egyptian border, while others are attempting to flee on foot.

The first families had arrived at the Egyptian border, extremely frightened and traumatised, saying some of their homes have been completely flattened said UNHCR spokeswoman Elizabeth Tan.

However, the BBC's Ben Brown, who is at the border, says so far there are a handful of families, in addition to the migrant workers who have been there since the crisis started.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said the world must "speak with one voice" on Libya.

I for one think Luke will make a positive contribution to the 31'st Dáil, he probably will find himself in support of the new government on many an occassions and a thorn in its side in many others.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0626/1224273343794.html

From Ming the Merciless to Ming the Mayor
Mayor Ming: Cllr Luke Flanagan of Castlerea.Photograph: Mick McCormackIn this section »


Roscommon councillors will make Luke 'Ming the Merciless' Flanagan mayor of the county on a platform of health reform rather than his usual campaign to legalise cannabis

HE HAS BEEN described as a shaven-headed Charles Stewart Parnell and the epitome of persistence, and on Monday he will become mayor of his native county (in effect, Cathaoirleach of Roscommon County Council). "Barring hiccups, of course – you know anything can happen in politics," says Luke "Ming the Merciless" Flanagan.

And the independent Roscommon councillor, who is best known for his shaven head, beard and sideburns, and his Flash Gordon comic-strip character middle name, has already ensured that anything can happen during his 13-year political career in the west.

Written off many times as a Monster Raving Loony Party-style eccentric, Flanagan has a commitment to social justice extending beyond his long-running campaign to legalise cannabis.

As he points out, it was a health issue that led to the effort to elect him Roscommon town's first citizen. An alliance of Fine Gael, Sinn Féin and independent councillors vehemently opposes the downgrading of Roscommon County Hospital. "Fianna Fáil has had the rug pulled from under them on this one," Flanagan says. A pact agreed by the alliance means he should hold the mayoral chain this year, with Fine Gael taking it for the next three.

Flanagan freely admits that "personal experience" provides much of his political focus. When his late mother, Lily, was diagnosed with cancer he had a taste of the health services – and didn't like what he saw. "At the same time, my father-in-law would not be alive today if it wasn't for the treatment he got in Roscommon," he adds.

In 1997 his experience with the law drove him to run in the general election, on a ticket urging the legalisation of cannabis and as a protest candidate against his landlord, Fianna Fáil TD Frank Fahey. Flanagan got 548 votes.

Early in 1998 he presented himself at Mill Street Garda Station in Galway, having been convicted for possessing cannabis and having refused to pay the £150 fine. To his chagrin he learned his father, Luke, had paid the fine. "My mother put him up to it," Flanagan says, remembering his mother's quote in this newspaper that "I wouldn't like my son to go to prison." His father was dubbed Ming the Merciful from then on.

Luke jnr had his way later that year, however, when he served nine days of a 15-day sentence in Loughan House open prison, in Co Cavan, for refusing to pay a fine imposed for breach of the Litter Pollution Act.

He ran in the 1999 European elections, polling a respectable 5,000 votes in Connacht-Ulster, and in 2001 he made headlines again when he sent 200 cannabis cigarettes to members of the Oireachtas, as part of his campaign to legalise cannabis.

In the 2004 local elections he topped the poll in Roscommon, and was re-elected on the first count last June.

Now the father of two children,aged five and seven, he has spoken out about the influence of the drinks lobby, about cuts to a teenage health initiative in his area and, most recently, about the rights of turf-cutters affected by the EU-led ban on harvesting in 32 raised bogs.

Again, this is an issue that touches him personally. "My grand-uncle Harry Fleming cut the same area of bog for 67 years, and my father after him, and now me," he said. "When we didn't have much money at home it was the turf that my father took in on his Ferguson tractor that kept us in clothes and insured the Hillman Hunter." He believes that if the EU and the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, are interested in protecting raised bogs, they would first "repair the damage done by Bord na Móna".

Flanagan intends to run for the Dáil again, and, like his comic-book hero, he doesn't give up easily. "And watch out for my T-shirt at the Connacht senior final," he says. "It's something to do with Nama."

http://www.thejournal.ie/pope-benedict-to-visit-ireland-in-2012-2011-03/

Pope Benedict expected to visit Ireland in 2012
Pope Benedict XVIImage: AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito

THE POPE IS expected to visit Ireland in June next year according to a report today.

The Vatican has not confirmed the report in today's Irish Independent, but Pope Benedict XVI is expected to be the chief celebrant at an open air mass to mark the end of a week-long International Eucharistic Congress on 17 June at Dublin's Croke Park.

It would be only the second visit by a pontiff to the Republic and the first since Pope John Paul II visited Ireland in 1979.

A confirmation of the papal visit by the Vatican would not be likely until early next year.

However preparations for the Eucharistic Congress are ongoing with a programme of events to be launched at a press conference in Dublin today.

The Belfast Telegraph reports that it is also hoped the Pope will make a visit to Northern Ireland for the first time as part of the trip.

There were plans for the last Pope to visit the North as part of the 1979 trip, but Provisional IRA violence resulted in the arrangements being cancelled.

" FF flyer drop this evening "Keep Sinn Féin Out!" "


http://www.politics.ie/elections/153896-fianna-fail-flyer-drop-evening-keep-sinn-fein-out.html

Surely a few more preferences and transfers for S.F.

It seems like Gaddafi has been shot. Unconfirmed.