Monthly Archives: May 2010

Ireland and the EU – Past, Present, Future

May 31, 2010
By Stephen
Ireland and the EU – Past, Present, Future

I have been meaning to post this for awhile but I didn’t know it had been posted on youtube yet. I saw this at the Alliance Francaise Symposium and I loved it and I hope you will too. Very informative! This video was created by the Irish delegation to the EU’s 60th Anniversary Celebrations of the Schuman Declaration held over the weekend of May 9th 2010. The first screening of the video was in Scy-Chazelles, Robert Schuman’s birthplace and...

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A European Divorce

May 31, 2010
By Stephen
A European Divorce

Tomorrow the European Parliaments Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs will hear about the state of play on the first use of the Enhanced Co-Operation Procedure. 12 member states are proposing new rules in regards to Divorce and when it is of a trans-national nature. To me this is a perfect use of the Enhanced Co-operation procedure as it can mean couples can choose the law that suits them most. For example a German married to Italian...

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Germany 2011

May 31, 2010
By Stephen
Germany 2011

On Saturday night, European Televoters and Juries voted Germany the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. This is the second time in the History of Eurovision that German of won the contest, see a history on escireland.com. It now falls to the German broadcaster ARD to host the contest next year. Throughout the voting on Saturday night many comments were passed about the fact that Europe was rewarding Germany for bailing them out and to the fact that...

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Eurovision Song Contest 2010: The Final

May 28, 2010
By Stephen
Eurovision Song Contest 2010: The Final

So I have blogged the running order and some general thoughts on the final over on ESC Ireland.com so I will just be adding colour here. The last time Ireland got to the Final from the Semi Final was back in 2006 when Brian Kennedy represented Ireland with “Every Song is A Cry for Love”. That finished 9th in the Semi and 10th in the final ensuring that Dervish started in the Final in 2007 (for all the luck...

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Eurovision: Semi 2 – Come on Niamh!

May 27, 2010
By Stephen
Eurovision: Semi 2 – Come on Niamh!

Image by adrian, acediscovery via Flickr Tonight sees the second of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Finals. Again 17 countries are competing for 10 places in the Grand Prix on Saturday. Tonight will also see Niamh Kavanagh represent Ireland for the second time. She is strongly tipped to qualify. Hopefully she will do us proud! Again ESCIreland.com will be hosting a liveblog on the website and also here. The running order for tonight can be found here and please...

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OpenFM

May 27, 2010
By Stephen
OpenFM

Yesterday I met with Sam Lyons and Emma Carroll of OpenFM a temporary station that will be broadcast in Dublin over the pride season and will also be online. The idea behind the station is to create an open space for discussion on LGBT issues, mental health issues and anything else. It wants to create a community space. It wants every one to be open. This is a laudable goal. They have managed to recruit 72 volunteers who have...

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Liveblogging the Eurovision!

May 25, 2010
By Stephen
Liveblogging the Eurovision!

Image via Wikipedia So the time is upon us! Tonight sees the first of the live Eurovision Song Contest shows on our TV screens. It is starting at 8pm (RTÉ 2 and BBC3). The running order for Semi-final 1 is here. ESCIreland.com will be running a live blog of the Semi and it should start around 7:30pm (Irish Time). Also take note to the changes to the voting this year! You can vote 20 times and voting starts with...

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A European Army??

May 24, 2010
By Stephen
A European Army??

Image via Wikipedia Last Tuesday I attended the Alliance Francaise de Cork/UCC European Symposium. In the afternoon we split into round-tables. I went along to the round-table entitled “The Question of the European Army”. This round-table was led by Quentin Perret of Atelier Europe, Nevin Power and Frank O’Callaghan. Quentin seemed to be on his own on the Pro-Army side. He based his arguments around four points. Security Influence Military Division Efficiencies from Commonalities On the other hand the...

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Explaining the European Union to Students

May 12, 2010
By Stephen
Explaining the European Union to Students

Image via Wikipedia Today I had the joy of joining members of the European Movement Ireland in part of their schools roadshow on the European Union. Today we visited Colaiste Mhuire in Crosshaven. Leading the show was Andrea Pappin, the Executive Director, and she was joined with by Billie Sparks, the Education and Advocacy Director. I stood quiet in the coner! We were dealing with transition year students. Andrea started off the workshop by explaining about the history of...

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The Con/Lib Agreement on Europe

May 12, 2010
By Stephen
The Con/Lib Agreement on Europe

Image via Wikipedia My last post had a quick look at what the Con/Lib Agreement said on Political Reform. Now look at what should be a what the Agreement says on the EU. As a Euroblogger I probably should have done this first! The UK will not join the Euro. No surprise there. They will try to limit the Working Time Directive in its application to the UK. The 1972 European Communities Act will be amended so that any...

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