What about the homeless? I’ve always had an issue with whataboutery. Urbandictionary.com defines “whataboutism”, or whataboutery, as “when you deflect criticism by pointing out flaws in your opponent, specifically using the phrase "what about x?" This is an attempt to excuse you from changing your behavior by painting your opponent as a hypocrite.” It’s annoying, a [...]
It’s easy to blame Church and State for all the ills that have blighted Irish society. Warehousing the poor in workhouses; separating children from their parents in industrial schools for the crime of poverty; enslaving women in Magdalene laundries for the crime of pregnancy. But those whose ancestors incarcerated women with the temerity to bear children [...]
The Facebook post from a cafe wondering why their milk delivery is being intercepted every morning. The complaints from out-of-town shoppers that they no longer like to visit the city, because they are accosted by beggars on every street. The queues outside rental agencies when a new property goes up on their website. The children who [...]
Last Friday I spoke off the air to a landlord who lets out short stay apartments, purchased and renovated last year for this purpose. He's been housing three homeless families, funded by Community Welfare Officers at a rate of €100 per family per night, since they were all asked to leave hotel rooms over the October [...]
We've always celebrated Nollaig na mBan in my family. Whether it was the influence of my Limerick-born granny or my Clare-raised mother, we spent every 6th of January of my childhood in Ennis, having lunch with my Granny, her lovely neighbours who were such good friends to her and like grandaunts to me, and my aunt and [...]
If you’re the kind of soft-hearted - or rigidly moral - person who has always given to charity, the Rehab and CRC revelations a few years ago will have shaken your faith in the sector, but probably not weakened your resolve to do what you felt is right. Both of those, however, could be understood under [...]
My enthusiasm for women and feminism is lifted every year by the sense of solidarity on two dates - Women's Christmas, and International Women's Day. This year I spent Women's Christmas speaking with Cork Simon's Colette O'Brien and Karen Songhurst at the Cork Simon Women's Christmas Lunch. And in time-honoured tradition my mother and sister-in-law [...]
https://www.facebook.com/619175434780049/photos/pb.619175434780049.-2207520000.1451932805./1011948528836069/?type=3&theater I write this from the comfort of my couch, warmed by the fire, and utterly aware that this is a privilege. Last Wednesday on the Opinion Line, we spoke to Stephanie McCarthy, a mother of five from Gurranebraher who faces eviction on Christmas Eve. If or when the McCarthy family are forced to [...]
It’s not news to anyone by now that there is a housing crisis. There is a homeless crisis. There is a rental crisis. There are 1500 men, women and children in Ireland homeless who need our help, today. After the death of Jonathan Corrie before Christmas last year, we were told the Government understood there was [...]
UPDATE 09.03.15 I just spoke to Ian, whom I've met a couple of times since writing this. He has got a part-time job and is saving for a deposit on somewhere to live! I've never been happier for anyone. *** It's a while since I've written a blog post that wasn't published somewhere, but without the [...]
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