Archivo etiqueta «Irlanda»
By Thomas Cahill, the author of How the Irish Saved Civilization (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 17/03/10):
Why should we celebrate the Irish?
No doubt, several reasons could be proffered. But for me one answer stands out. Long, long ago the Irish pulled off a remarkable feat: They saved the books of the Western world and left them as gifts for all humanity.
True enough, the Irish were unlikely candidates for the job. Upon their entrance into Western history in the fifth century, they were the most barbaric of barbarians, practitioners of human sacrifice, cattle rustlers, traders in human beings (the… Seguir leyendo
By Keith Chappell, based at the Las Casas Institute on Ethics, Goverannce and Social Responsibility at, Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University and is a specialist on Christian social thought (THE GUARDIAN, 22/01/10):
I was asked to write this article as a Catholic: as a Catholic the reality that a pope has to summon bishops from any part of the world to discuss child abuse in which Catholic clergy have been involved is distressing. As a European citizen the fact that the horrors that have been uncovered in Ireland are so significant in number, so long term in nature, and so shocking… Seguir leyendo
Por Roger Jiménez, periodista (EL PERIÓDICO, 02/10/09):
El clima que envuelve el segundo referendo sobre el Tratado de Lisboa, que se votará hoy en la verde república, parece salido del reparto de una comedia irlandesa clásica, hecha de ingenio, chismorreo, sátira, peleas domésticas y orgullo familiar. Los europeos miran ansiosos a los irlandeses, y los irlandeses ven la televisión con una pinta de Guinness al alcance de la mano, pendientes de las reformas económicas que se avecinan y que bucearán más, si cabe, en sus esquilmados bolsillos.
El futuro del taoiseach (primer ministro), Brian Cowen, y de su Gobierno de… Seguir leyendo
By Elizabeth Monaghan, a lecturer in politics and the University of Hull, and a member of the university’s Centre for European Union Studies (CEUS) (THE GUARDIAN, 01/10/09):
Tomorrow Irish voters will be asked whether they want their parliament to change the constitution in order to allow for the ratification of the EU’s Lisbon treaty, the majority of those who voted having said no to the same question 15 months earlier. The Irish government’s decision to hold a second referendum has been criticised, particularly – but not only – by those opposed to the treaty, for not accepting that no means… Seguir leyendo
Por John O’Brennan, profesor de Política y Sociedad Europeas en la Universidad Nacional de Irlanda Maynooth y miembro fundador del Centro para el Estudio de una Europa Mayor © Project Syndicate, 2009. Traducido por Carlos Manzano (EL PAÍS, 30/09/09):
El 2 de octubre, los votantes irlandeses acudirán por segunda vez a las urnas para decidir si aprueban el Tratado de Lisboa. En las capitales europeas cunde el nerviosismo a medida que se acerca el día de la votación: el futuro de la Unión Europea está de nuevo en manos de unos votantes imprevisibles. En dos de las tres últimas ocasiones… Seguir leyendo
Por Irene Boada, filóloga y periodista (EL PERIÓDICO, 30/09/09):
Mary Robinson, icono internacional en la defensa de los derechos humanos, recientemente condecorada por Obama con la Medalla de la Libertad, marcó un antes y un después en su país. Esta profesora de Derecho, miembro del Partido Laborista, de origen católico y casada con un protestante, fue la primera mujer en acceder a la presidencia de Irlanda en 1990. La independencia de Eire, el nombre de Irlanda en gaélico, en 1922, fue un largo sueño para muchos. Ya en el siglo XVIII, el protestante Wolfe Tone, uno de los padres del… Seguir leyendo
By Declan Ganley, a businessman and the founder and leader of Libertas (THE GUARDIAN, 25/09/09):
Being Irish, it’s hard to imagine how it must appear to an outsider looking at our second referendum on the Lisbon treaty. At least somebody out there reading this must be jealous – we get to vote twice and you don’t get to vote at all. Perhaps the most interesting thing about our re-vote is the way in which it was regarded as a certainty after the original referendum. The votes were literally not counted before some Irish media personalities, and EU leaders, were speculating… Seguir leyendo
By Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Féin, member of the Legislative Assembly of Northern Ireland for West Belfast and abstentionist MP for West Belfast at Westminster (THE GUARDIAN, 15/07/09):
The single most important issue facing the people of Ireland and Britain is the achievement of Irish unity and the construction of a new relationship between Ireland and Britain based on equality.
Economic crises, however severe, will come and go. Governments will come and go, but for more centuries than any of us care to contemplate Britain’s involvement in Ireland has been the source of conflict; partition, discord and division; and… Seguir leyendo
Por Fernando Savater, catedrático de Filosofía de la Universidad Complutense (EL PAÍS, 120/06/09):
A Urban Sea le pasó lo que a muchas hembras de una especie que nos resulta más familiar: su físico vulgar y poco atractivo hizo que los superficiales no reconociesen su enorme valía. Tampoco tuvo suerte en sus salidas a la pista, en Francia, Inglaterra, Hong Kong, Japón o Canadá: siempre algo se torcía en la carrera, la montaban mal o le cortaban el paso en el momento decisivo, cosas así. Sólo su preparador Jean Lesbordes mantuvo invariable su fe en ella, hasta que se vio recompensado… Seguir leyendo
Por Irene Boada, periodista y filóloga (EL PERIÓDICO, 03/06/09):
Irlanda logró la independencia en 1922, pero ello no comportó demasiadas mejoras para el país. Habiendo quedado al margen de la industrialización, era una sociedad totalmente agrícola y con una población en constante huida de la pobreza hacia Inglaterra, paradójicamente la antigua colonizadora, o Norteamérica. El historiador Joe Lee ha llegado a afirmar que después de la independencia la situación económica empeoró más si cabe. No existía una burguesía que invirtiera en industria y había poco sentido de innovación cultural o social. En cambio, lo que se daba era un peligroso… Seguir leyendo
By Libby Purbes (THE TIMES, 25/05/09):
Understandably distracted by our own little crisis of trust, we have perhaps not taken in the apocalyptic import of a bigger one across the Irish Sea.
Perhaps it is a vague sense that we knew it all; perhaps reluctance to engage with the horrid details of the Ryan report into child abuse by Irish clerics. Perhaps some think it is old history, a 1950s horror. Maybe there is even a decorous sense that — as a new Archbishop of Westminster is enthroned here — it is tasteless to dwell on the wickedness deliberately concealed… Seguir leyendo
By John Banville, the author, most recently, of the novel The Sea (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 23/05/09):
Everyone knew. When the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse issued its report this week, after nine years of investigation, the Irish collectively threw up their hands in horror, asking that question we have heard so often, from so many parts of the world, throughout the past century: How could it happen?
Surely the systematic cruelty visited upon hundreds of thousands of children incarcerated in state institutions in this country from 1914 to 2000, the period covered by the inquiry, but particularly from… Seguir leyendo
By Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics and a columnist for the New York Times, where this article first appeared (THE GUARDIAN, 21/04/09):
‘What,” asked my interlocutor, “is the worst-case outlook for the world economy?” It wasn’t until the next day that I came up with the right answer: America could turn Irish.
What’s so bad about that? Well, the Irish government now predicts that this year GDP will fall more than 10% from its peak, crossing the line that is sometimes used to distinguish between a recession and a depression. But there’s more to… Seguir leyendo
By John Banville, the author of the novels Eclipse, The Untouchable, The Sea and The Book of Evidence (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 16/10/08):
In the ravening years of the Celtic Tiger we had a dinner-party competition to define the figure most representative of the suddenly prosperous Ireland we so bafflingly found ourselves in. Someone came up with “a non-tax-paying businessman’s trophy wife.” This seemed right, and as time went on we added more and more details; at last count we had arrived at “a non-tax-paying businessman’s trophy wife driving her 14-year-old daughter to her drug rehabilitation session in an S.U.V.… Seguir leyendo
By Fintan O’Toole, assistant editor of the Irish Times (THE GUARDIAN, 14/06/08):
A voter in County Clare, not content with putting an X beside the no option on the simple ballot paper in the Irish referendum on the Lisbon treaty, included a long letter of protest. Its message to the Irish government, which had campaigned desperately for a yes vote, was: “You forgot us in Shannon.” The anonymous voter was using the opportunity of a vote on the structural reform of the European Union to protest against the withdrawal by the newly privatised state airline Aer Lingus of its regular… Seguir leyendo