Blogging
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And we’re back in the chicken shed
Posted by Maman Poulet on 21 Aug 2010 | Tagged as: Blogging, Irish Media, Irish Politics, Live Blogging, Marriage Equality, Religious Right Dressed up as research institutes, Same Sex Partnerships
I’ve taken a little blogging break here for the last ten days or so, but it’s not been completely quiet. You may have noted the post exploring the campaign for marriage and the change in how marriage is interpreted which I wrote earlier this week on The (Fabulous) AntiRoom.
I think some of the point of my post got a bit lost in some of the 77 (!) comments which followed but it’s probably one of the more interesting online debates on the rationale some have adopted in their campaign strategies and the perspectives of those who feel alienated.
I’ll be continuing the debate (or trying anyway) on Global Voices on Newstalk tonight with a representative from LGBT Noise.
Also this week I was invited to speak on a panel at a seminar held by Humanrights.ie and the Public Interest Law Alliance which marked the first anniversary of Humanrights.ie It was a very enjoyable afternoon where I was permitted to rant a little about human rights and medias. I believe there will be video and audio available in the next few weeks. Congratulations to Humanrights.ie for their first very successful year and continued good wishes for the future. (Note to other blogs – this crew had had a birthday cake and bubbly to mark their first birthday – lawyers do it in style!)
In other news
- Ivor, Ann, Labhras and Rónán all sent their excuse notes into the Seanad Members Interests committee, (note that Rónán’s name is separated from the other three in this RTE report.
– Ivor has been spotted brunching in Clontarf,
– Rónán Mullen and the Iona Institute have been moaning about Marriage Equality’s forthcoming conference on Children in Same Sex families and the EU funding that has been awarded for the conference. Where do Iona get their money again?
Fine Gael Heave Liveblog
Posted by Maman Poulet on 16 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Blogging, Irish Politics, Live Blogging
Since yesterday afternoon a liveblog capturing the latest news, pictures, video from the Fine Gael confidence motion in Enda Kenny has been in full swing.
It will be buzzing throughout tomorrow’s meeting and beyond. If like me you have been too busy (unfortunately) and snatching news here and there you can join in the fun by dipping in and out or clicking on the more button on this post.
The tag for twitter etc. is #fgheave and of course you don’t need to be on twitter to comment or read the liveblog.
Richard Bruton has a PR company handling his press (the FG Press team no doubt being loyal to the leader – some very loyal indeed if the tales of zealotry I’ve heard about are to be believed) and you can read Bruton’s press release sent out this evening here.
It won’t all be over tomorrow of course and some are even hoping that this stuff is catching and that we might see a FF heave soon enough but I’m not betting on it.
Guest Post – Universal Healthcare
Posted by Maman Poulet on 04 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Blogging, Equality, Irish Politics
Al writes about Universal Healthcare and the reasons behind a new Irish campaign on the subject
How many more TV or Radio programmes will we watch and listen to about the health services before we shout stop. Prime Time, Frontline, Pat Kenny, Joe Duffy and many other shows have featured heartbreaking stories about people waiting for days to be admitted from Emergency Departments, older people whose families cannot get the help they need to look after them, people waiting months for appointments for tests, to see a consultant, children who cannot live at home and have to go to a garda station each night to try and get a bed in a hostel, children in care who cannot get the services they need.
The list is endless and it goes on and on. Groundhog Day doesn’t begin to describe it. What is going on? Who is responsible? Is it the Minister? Is it the Department of Health? Is it the HSE? Where does the buck stop? Where does the money go? What is the budget of close to €15 billion spent on and how come in a country of just over 4 million people, with over 40% of it’s population covered by Private Health Insurance we are still going round in circles? How come? How come when so many people have written about the state of the health services, Susie Long, Rebecca O’ Malley, Maurice Nelligan, John Crown, Niamh Brennan, Fintan O’ Toole, Sarah Burke, Maeve-Ann Wren and many more we still seem to be in the same old place.
Well here’s the thing…….Prime Time, Frontline, Pat Kenny, Joe Duffy all bring in the HSE to account for what has gone wrong but they don’t mention, talk about or confront the elephants in the room.
The first one and it’s probably the biggest is how we finance our health services. We have a health system which is unfair, it is inequitable, it is a two tier system of public money and private health insurance with a “for profit part� element which is expanding – private for profit hospitals, co location of private hospitals, private finance to build primary care centres. Access is based not on need but on ability to pay. How many times do we need to say that before the penny drops and we seriously look and change how we finance the health services? The next one is closely linked to the first, those working in the health services work on the basis of being individual contractors, e.g. Consultants, GP’s, Radiographers, Speech & Language Therapists, Nurses, Psychologists, etc. They are aligned to their professional organisations, they care about their patients/clients but are they accountable?
Here’s the next one, the health services are made up of hospitals both public and voluntary (always thought that was a complete misnomer!) and social care agencies who are aligned to their own management boards. They get public funding but their main line of accountability is to their own Boards of Management. Here’s the next one, the HSE is not an executive, the definition of Executive is “A person or group having administrative or managerial authority in an organization� the HSE does not have authority be it administrative or managerial rather it is the Patsy for what is wrong with our health and social services. A Patsy is the fall guy who is blamed and ridiculed. Listen to the consultants, the doctors, the nurses, the social workers, the psychologists, the radiographers, etc they talk about “them� and who is “them� well of course it’s the HSE. But, they don’t work for the HSE, oh they get paid by the HSE, they have HSE terms and conditions of work but they don’t see themselves as being part of or working for the HSE. Read the papers, listen to the radio, watch the television and you will know that the only people working in the HSE are administrators and managers and sure we know there are too many of them! All the HSE does is cut budgets and close services! Here’s the last elephant, its successive governments who have continued to propagate and support the two tier system alongside protecting the medical led status quo.
Well enough is enough. We believe there is a chance to change things. We are coming up to a general election and between now and the election we want to build a coalition for change, a coalition that says loud and clear we no longer want a two tier health system, we want a fair and equitable health service which is open to people based on need. A health service which provides health and social services based on need and not on ability to pay. A health service which is able to harness the professional expertise, knowledge and practitioner base it needs to provide the totality of health and social services for its population without a divide between public and private. There will be no public and private, there will be one health service. This will not be easy, it will be a mountain to climb, it will mean confronting the elephants in the room. But, we believe it can be done and the time to begin is now. By building a strong coalition for change, a coalition for a Universal Health Service we will be calling on all the political parties to come to the electorate with a detailed plan of how they will put in place a Universal Health Service.
You can find out more, join our coalition, support us by logging on to http://universalhealthservice.wordpress.com/
Seeking Guest Posts
Posted by Maman Poulet on 20 May 2010 | Tagged as: Blogging
If you are a reader, blogger or organisation who would like to post about some issue or campaign that may be of interest to other readers on Maman Poulet let me know. It may be a way to introduce yourself to a few thousand new readers and get them to come and read your website!
I’m going on holidays soon and would like to offer the space for posts while I’m away. Email me at tips (@) mamanpoulet.com to find out more. The guest posts would need to be submitted by May 28th to be posted between May 30 and June 5.
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Henhouse links
Posted by Maman Poulet on 13 Apr 2010 | Tagged as: Blogging, LGBT, linkiness
The Dáil is on holiers and I am not. Excuse the lightness on the blogging as the day job keeps me occupied and tired.
- However you could peruse the programme for Stranger than Fiction – this is a documentary film festival taking place in the Irish Film Institute this weekend. Of note besides Pyjama Girls, is a film on Berlosconi’s hold on the television in Italy – Videocracy, and Oliver Stone’s take on South American Politics – South of the Border.
- The UK election campaign is a week old (already!) and if you are interested in women’s issues in this campaign you might have a look at the ‘What about Women?’ project that is being facilitated by the Fawcett Society.
- I’m doing some reading at the moment for a workshop on disability hate crime and disability rights and came across this article by Tom Shakespeare in the Guardian on hate crime. There have been a number of incidents in the UK in the past few months but it’s not an issue I remember spoken about much in Ireland?
- Mark Coughlan on some forgotten elements of the Terence Wheelock case – and bizarre but not unbelievable issues re the Gardai.
- Stand Up! if you have not come across it already is a awareness campaign creating positive understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people and their issues which is underway in youth services across the country (I even noted at weekend there is a photo exhibition in Letterkenny!) It’s organised by the consistently brilliant and ground breaking BeLonG To. (Psst. You could donate them some cash if you have some to spare – and no this mention has nowt to do with that letter in GCN this month – I don’t think the author really read the column I wrote.)
- You can find out more about the campaign here. There is a series of videos released during the week . Here’s one to be getting on with.
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Thanks
Posted by Maman Poulet on 29 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Blogging, Irish Blog Awards
I was delighted and honoured to win an Irish Blog Award (for Best News and Current Affairs) on Saturday night.  I was very happy to be in great company with the other finalists in the category. Many thanks to all the people who came up and said hello and I know I missed seeing lots of people on the night. Thanks again to the sponsors Dediserve and to those who nominated and voted for me.
I hope the videos shown appear online soon – particularly the one with Miriam O’Callaghan so I can get another look at the death of Irish blogging.
For the record from this particular hen house Irish Blogs are far from dead and as a judge (one of 120 this year) I was very impressed at the standards in the categories I judged in comparison to previous years. There are lots of new blogs and the content and effort that goes into them is a sign that things are far from decaying. Congratulations to the other non dead who also won awards.
Many congratulations to Beaut.ie the Grand Prix winner and to Kirstie, Aisling and Lynnie for all the hard work, enthusiasm and deserved success.
Normal service shall resume from this particular part of the fringe shortly (someone said something about blogs going mainstream the other night… save me from that particular river please.)
Finally thanks to Damien for putting up with an awful lot of absolute rubbish before, during and after the awards and throwing a party for us to come out from behind the computers and recognise the effort and dedication that goes into writing about whatever we want to because we can.
Lambs arrive in Dublin 1
Posted by Maman Poulet on 28 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Blogging
I bought a painting yesterday, yes I know for some people who know me that Art and Suzy are not usually good bedfellows. But I know what I like or something pithy like that and it’s my first ever purchase.
I’ve been watching Liam Daly paint live in his studio thanks to his Ustream feed. Liam has had an exhibition of paintings at the last two blog awards and I love the colours and variations of his work (Birds on a wire being a particular favourite of mine.) Last night I got in quick and picked a beautiful vibrant painting of lambs in a golden field and now the only thing for me to think about is where to put it and cheer up this part of Dublin 1.
Incidentally yesterday Markham Nolan released a video of Liam’s (Eolai) studio combining photos of the studio and words. It’s a lovely piece of work. Congrats to Liam on his blog award for best specialist blog – Bicyclistic.
Eolai from Markham Nolan on Vimeo.
Irish Blog Awards Finalists
Posted by Maman Poulet on 20 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Blogging
After 120 judges spent the past few weeks wading through over 900 nominated blogs the finalists for the Irish Blog Awards 2010 were announced last night. After being shortlisted for 3 awards (thank you for the nominations!) I chose to remain in the News and Current affairs category and am chuffed to have been picked as a finalist.
Many congratulations to the fellow finalists!
Thanks also to Dediserve who are sponsoring the category.
The best thing about the Blog Awards finalists? All the new blogs I found last night and in previous rounds of the competition. Second best thing is a good night out meeting them and others at the awards ceremony in Galway next weekend.
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Oireachtas Committee on Constitution goes for a wander
Posted by Maman Poulet on 02 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Blogging, Elections, Irish Politics, Live Blogging
Tonight in Trinity College Dublin a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution will take place to discuss electoral reform. It’s believed to be the first time that the committee will have met outside the Oireachtas to debate. Discussions at the meeting will include presentations by members of the public on electoral reform. (Yes I know the meeting is only down the road, but you never know what this may have started! The decentralisation of the Dáil and Seanad cannot be too far away!)
Tonights meeting will then be followed by a panel discussion chaired by John Bowman with participants including Noel Dempsey, Minister for Transport, Professor Ken Benoit, head of the Department of Political Science, Senator Ivana Bacik, Trinity Fellow, Sean Ardagh, Chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee, Jim O’Keeffe, Vice Chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee and The Hon. Mr. Justice Frank Clarke.
The event is hosted by TCD JS Irish Politics (3rd year) class and TCD Department of Political Science.
There will be a liveblog and webcast, more information can be found on TheStory.ie. I’ll be liveblogging at some stage hopefully if the wifi goddesses oblige! So please join in and we’ll try and get some points across from the viewing public!
The Civil Partnership Bill Second Stage Debate – It Continues
Posted by Maman Poulet on 25 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Blogging, Equality, Irish Politics, LGBT, Same Sex Partnerships
The Civil Partnership Bill Second Stage Debate will resume this Wednesday 27th January some time between 11.30 and 1.30pm. There are two other bills for debate during this time before contributions can be made. Who’s left to speak? Personally I’m still waiting for Lucinda.
You can watch it here and of course join in the liveblog here.