The 51st (Free) State
Our own beloved Republic seems to have lately become quite the fashionable destination for political debating overspill from other jurisdictions, especially the United States. A cynic might remark that given our spineless Government's virtual ceding of sovereign territory to the Bush Administration, our latest tourist wave perhaps realises something we don't (yet).
This week alone, we have 'Gorgeous George' Galloway showing up tonight at The Helix in DCU at 8pm; Robert Fisk, Fintan O'Toole and Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed duking it out over the GWOT GSAVE with Brit ambassador Stewart Eldon, 'Republican Abroad' James Young (we'll hazard a guess that he's this same ORI contributor) and A.N. Other in TCD's Hist at 7.30pm on Wednesday; and RTE's Charlie Bird and Richard Downes as well as Patrick Cockburn, Charlie Wolf, the National Review's Cliff May, Tim Llewellyn, and Craig Murray at the Phil on Thursday at 7.30 also. Phew (we wonder if they've set up WiFi in the GMB yet?).
As if all this wasn't enough, joint DUP/Loyalist hatefest "Love Ulster" have reportedly claimed to have been asked to hold a rally in Dublin (our money's on this shower being responsible) and Chomsky's coming to Dublin in January. Such largesse for Irish political junkies in these heady times - we swear that the Irish Times letters page won't be back to its normal obsession with issues such as correct grammar for weeks, if not months.
(More from Best of Both Worlds here and here. We reckon that P. O'Neill's proposed motion at that last particular link is a particularly fine topic for skewering debating the NRO representative on. Perhaps some intrepid soul at the Phil debate can make a point of order on it...?)
This week alone, we have 'Gorgeous George' Galloway showing up tonight at The Helix in DCU at 8pm; Robert Fisk, Fintan O'Toole and Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed duking it out over the GWOT GSAVE with Brit ambassador Stewart Eldon, 'Republican Abroad' James Young (we'll hazard a guess that he's this same ORI contributor) and A.N. Other in TCD's Hist at 7.30pm on Wednesday; and RTE's Charlie Bird and Richard Downes as well as Patrick Cockburn, Charlie Wolf, the National Review's Cliff May, Tim Llewellyn, and Craig Murray at the Phil on Thursday at 7.30 also. Phew (we wonder if they've set up WiFi in the GMB yet?).
As if all this wasn't enough, joint DUP/Loyalist hatefest "Love Ulster" have reportedly claimed to have been asked to hold a rally in Dublin (our money's on this shower being responsible) and Chomsky's coming to Dublin in January. Such largesse for Irish political junkies in these heady times - we swear that the Irish Times letters page won't be back to its normal obsession with issues such as correct grammar for weeks, if not months.
(More from Best of Both Worlds here and here. We reckon that P. O'Neill's proposed motion at that last particular link is a particularly fine topic for skewering debating the NRO representative on. Perhaps some intrepid soul at the Phil debate can make a point of order on it...?)
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