Friday, November 18th, 2022 Peace came in the door and sat down beside me and said how glad it was to see me, genuinely, and to finally meet my wife, I knew I must take its hand though I did not know who I would be in the absence of all I had built its belligerent opposite into.   Peace came in the door. I did not know its face my high wall against it had served longer than anyone in Long Kesh – twenty seven years – and bore much graffiti but I knew the name it told me was true and I had to take its hand.   A much smaller man than I remember and so, I realised, now was I the day ..read more

  By J Vivian Cooke. The Planning and Development and Foreshore (Amendment) Bill 2022 is currently — precipitously — accelerating through the Houses of the Oireachtas. In part, it will facilitate the appointment of Oonagh Buckley as interim head of An Bord Pleanála (ABP). Village has expressed grave and detailed concerns about this process.   From July until the end of November, the Government took quite a relaxed attitude to the operation of ABP as its Chair and Deputy Chairperson resigned in turn. It is only in recent weeks that a sense of urgency has been injected into the Departm ..read more

BORD PLEANÁLA:  O’BRIEN REVERTS TO RAY BURKE ERA LEGISLATIVE ETHOS Media ignore Department of Housing’s disarray over how to appoint a new Chairperson to guide discredited planning appeals body By J Vivian Cooke and Michael Smith Ireland’s crisis-raddled planning appeals board, An Bord Pleanála (ABP), is an independent, statutory, quasi-judicial body that deals with appeals from local authorities and, at first instance, with some large planning applications. Its board members were directly appointed by the relevant Minister until 1983 when the system was reformed following unease with app ..read more

There was that nervous anticipation as we sat down in the Point. It’s Bob Dylan after all. And at 81 he is still challenging. There’s none of that reverence that bordered on the mawkish that greeted Leonard Cohen. But Leonard had almost become a legacy act. While Bob was still pushing boundaries leaving an audience always unsure of what to expect. The only one criticism one could have about Dylan over the past 20 years is that he is no longer creating soundscapes. He is not creating wild mercurial sounds like he did in his Blonde on Blonde heyday. No, these days Dylan curates more than creates ..read more

Langwallner whistleblower (1) The post Whistleblew in the face. By David Langwallner. appeared first on Village Magazine ..read more

The Man in Room Fourteen In one crucial respect, is like everyone else. He’s a working diagnosis about whom we know both far too much and nothing like enough The man in room fourteen spends twenty four hours either going to the toilet or not going at all; is never a happy medium for happy mediums don’t inhabit rooms like room fourteen His wife brings him a small brown Teddy bear made (naturally) in China, which he immediately names for the Minister For Finance. The man in room fourteen likely has somewhere between two years and a matter of months. While other possibilities stalk elite laborato ..read more

sipo village nov 2022 The post What SIPO wants, if anyone cares anymore. By Michael Smith. appeared first on Village Magazine ..read more

Mr Cogito Considers The Side Effects after Dr. Janusz Crawczyk   Baldness and shortness of breath a sudden urge to vomit on coats your own and other people’s. Drymouth, brittle nails, a tendency to be not very good at driving fork-lift trucks and to become even worse at pole vaulting than you already were. Explosive watery, diarrhoea and fecal impaction / sometimes both simultaneously for the human body likes nothing better than a good argument with itself. Infertility, anaemia, thrombocytopenia, / & Life, Life, Life, Life itself are all possible side effects of drugs such as the ..read more

Muchnick GIbney The post Those who’re letting mass-abuser George Gibney off the hook need accountability – not excitable podcasts, and not even justice appeared first on Village Magazine ..read more

rory turner The post Rory O’Sullivan reviews Turner at the National Gallery of Ireland appeared first on Village Magazine ..read more