The second 9/11

COLMAN CASSIDY * Fire in the Morning: The story of the Irish and the Twin Towers on September 11. By Niall O’Dowd. Brandon, 236 pp. €14.99 Published in 2002 A particular strength of this book is that it confines itself to the micro-picture.  O’Dowd does not attempt to present the reader with naive analysis that…
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A convert to democracy

James Hogan: Revolutionary, Historian and Political Scientist. Edited by Donnchadh Ó Corráin. Four Courts Press. 249 pp. Published October 2001 By Colman Cassidy The synoptic approach adopted in this book makes James Hogan – the Cumann na nGaedheal intellectual and frustrated “puppet-master” who sought to mould the neo-fascist Blueshirt leader Eoin O’Duffy in the national…
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The Gateaux Closure

Colman Cassidy, Evening Press Industrial Correspondent, 25 September 1990 The final shutdown of the 41-year old Gateaux plant last Tuesday is an indictment of the way we are. The Gateaux saga is a classic example in its way of working class inertia turned to fury in the face of market forces – a belief that…
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Divorce in Ireland

By Colman Cassidy ABSTRACT Divorce as a constitutional issue, has played a major role in the shaping of modern Irish politics – focusing attention on the dynamics of the referendum as a mechanism for change.   This essay, which is in two parts, looks at the two referendums on divorce that led to the seminal…
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Glass Ceiling

[This article was written prior to the election in May 2000 for the vice-presidency of Ireland’s largest trade union, SIPTU.] Two part-time union officials – both women – are competing for one of the top three posts at the top of the SIPTU trade union management pyramid. Colman Cassidy assesses their difficulties Nuala Keher has…
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