Dublin Opinion

BEN GAZZARA, 1930-2012

Conor McCabe — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 02:50:25 +0000

BLUESTACK ENERGY AND THE ATLANTIC MARGIN LICENSING ROUND

Conor McCabe — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:36:28 +0000

The positive outcome of the 2011 Atlantic Margin Licensing Round will help bring a new momentum to the level of exploration activity in our offshore. Ireland must continue to communicate the message to international exploration companies that Ireland is open for business and that the Irish offshore has real potential.”

So said Pat Rabbitte, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, at the announcement of the results of the Atlantic Margin Licensing Round in October 2011.

One of the winners of the license options on offer was Bluestack Energy Limited, a company that was only registered on 16 May 2011 - that is, two weeks before the application deadline of 12 Noon, 31 May 2011.

Bluestack Energy’s address in Ireland is C/O Conlan Crotty Murray & Co, a firm of chartered accountants and registered auditors which operates from the Leopardstown Office Park complex in Sandyford.

The director of Bluestack Energy is Donal O’Driscoll.

His address is given as, 37 Hill Rise, Rickmansworth, Herts, Wd3 7ny, Uk.

This is also the address of Springhill Upstream Consultants Ltd, of which Donal is also director.

Springhill upstream Consultants Ltd does not have a website - neither does Bluestack Energy by the way - and in the register of companies its business is listed as ‘other’.

Just to restate, Bluestack Energy WON the competition for a license option in the Porcupine Basin and was given the option on blocks 35/25(ep), 35/30, 36/21, 36/26, 44/5(p), 45/1.

Bluestack Energy does not have to explore anything during this period. The license it won is a license on an option on a 15-yr license to explore the blocks.

Frontier Exploration Licences arising from Licensing Options granted under this round will be granted for up to a maximum of 75% of the area covered by the Licensing Option and will be for a period of 15 years, with a first phase of 3 years, followed by three phases of 4 years each. (2011 Atlantic Margin Licensing Round)

Bluestack Energy, remember, does NOT need to explore anything at this stage.

It only needs to come up with a plan of such detail as to convince the Irish government/State that it is serious about exploration in order to win the (potentially-lucrative) 15-yr exploration license.

Ireland is open for business alright.

Here is Bluestack Energy’s registration record from the Companies Registration Office.

Enjoy.

Irish agrarian radicals, 1850–1930, National Library of Ireland

Conor McCabe — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:45:48 +0000

This conference will take place on Thursday 22 and Friday 23 March 2012 in the seminar room of the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. The cost to attend is €15 for the two days, which is payable on the day at registration. Those interested in attending, please contact Brian Casey: briancasey03@gmail.com in order to register.

10.15–10.45 Registration
10.45-11.00 Welcome

Session One: 11.00–12.30

Pádraic Ó Máille, Dr. Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh
John Fiztgibbon of Castlerea, John Bligh

‘A bilious face and splenetic manners’: T. W. Russell and the Irish land question, Dr. Patrick Cosgrove (NUI Maynooth)

12.30-13.30 Lunch

Session two: 13.30–15.00

Daniel Desmond (DD) Sheehan (1873–1948) and the rural labour question in Cork, 1898–1910, John O’Donovan (University College Cork)

William Upton, fenianism and rural labourers in late nineteenth-century Ireland, Dr. Fintan Lane

A voice from the other side: Henry Villiers Stuart (1827–95) and the cause of the Irish agricultural labourers. Dr. Ian d’Alton

Coffee: 15.00–15.15

Session three: 15.15–16.45

James Daly, Dr Gerard Moran, (NUI Maynooth)

Thomas Stanislaus Cleary, (1851–98), Oisin Moran, (NUI Galway)

Matt Harris and the Ballinasloe Tenant Defence Association Brian Casey (St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra)

Friday 23 March 2012

Session four: 10.00–11.30

Radical agrarianism and regionalism: the case of county Kerry in the late 19th century, Dr Donnacha Seán Lucey (Trinity College Dublin)

‘The League is spreading like wild fire’: the paid organisers of the United Irish League, Dr Carla King (St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra)

Redressing historical imbalance: the role of grassroots leaders Richard Hodnett and Henry O’Mahony in the Land League revolution 1879-82, Frank Rynne, (Trinity College, Dublin)

11.30–11.45: Coffee

Session five 11.45–13.15

William Connor, Dr William A. Smyth (NUI Maynooth)

Resistance to evictions on the Glinsk Creggs estate of Allan Pollok, Pauline Scott (NUI Galway)
Canon Keller of Cork, Felix M. Larkin

13.15–14.15: Lunch

Session six: 14.15–15.15

‘An incendiary environment’: Lancashire, the IRB and the Land League, Shane Faherty, (University College Cork)

Reading the Chartist Land Plan: The “English Question” and Ireland, Dr Timothy Keane, (NUI Galway)

15.15–16.00 Concluding remarks and conference close

UNLOCK NAMA WALLCHART

Conor McCabe — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:11:58 +0000

This is a drawing of the wallchart I used during the talk I gave at yesterday’s Unlock Nama demonstration.

THE JOYS OF HAVING THE IFSC AND GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS ON YOUR DOORSTEP…

Conor McCabe — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:29:35 +0000

For more, see the CSO report here.

BELFAST TALK, 1 FEB @7.30PM: THE IRISH ECONOMY AND THE CAPITALIST AUSTERITY

Conor McCabe — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:56:42 +0000

I’m giving a talk this Wednesday (1 February), the venue is the Fresh Claim Cafe, 48 King Street, Belfast.

It starts at 7.30pm and Socialist Democracy are the organizers of the event.

VACANT HOUSING IN IRELAND AND SOCIAL HOUSING NEEDS - A COMPARISON

Conor McCabe — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:43:51 +0000

This is a comparison between the number of vacant housing units uncovered by last year’s census, compared with the social housing needs of the state on a county-by-county basis, as provided by the Dept. of the Environment.

The excel file of this information is here.

Below is a graph of the ratio of vacant housing to social housing needs:

(more…)

“A BOMB WILL GO OFF IN DUBLIN, NOT IN FRANKFURT, BECAUSE OF THE REASONS I’VE OUTLINED”

Conor McCabe — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:50:16 +0000

For more, see here.

NAMA WINE LAKE : JUST ANOTHER RIGHT-WING NUTTER

Conor McCabe — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 23:14:27 +0000

So the next time politicians poo-poo the notion of a second bailout, perhaps we can remind them of the politically difficult but beneficial reforms the IMF has effected in this country, not to mention the rock-bottom interest rates charged on the bailout. The reforms however are far from complete, so a second bailout and further oversight from our friends at the IMF, might just be in the interests of the country as a whole.”

You can read more of this nonsense over here on journal.ie

GERY LAWLESS, 1936-2012

Conor McCabe — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:58:09 +0000

I will not yield
I will not fall
I will eat dynamite
and one day I will explode like a volcano