Cork - Event Notice
Thursday January 01 1970

Solidarity Books Talk: by Dr Conor McCabe - 'Who Benefits from Austerity?' Cork launch of the Irish Left Review Journal

cork | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice

Tuesday January 29, 2013 10:20

by Eric

solidaritybooks at gmail dot com

Solidarity Books, 43 Douglas Street (opp. Fionnbarras), Cork

0857567988

On Thursday, 7th February at 7:30pm Solidarity Books will host the Cork launch of the Irish Left Review Journal.

The event will include a talk from Dr. Conor McCabe, the author of the acclaimed book, 'Sins of the Father', which analyses the development of the Irish economy throughout the 20th Century right up to the current crisis, without resorting to just pointing fingers at 'a few morally bankrupt individuals' in an otherwise sound system.

Conor McCabe, who currently teaches at the UCD School of Social Justice, and is a regular contributor to Irish Left Review, will pose the question of 'Who Benefits from Austerity?' While popular disgust with TD's, bankers and other elites' privileges is rampant, austerity programmes are still justified on the basis that we all must pay for a crisis that we apparently all helped to create. What do we make of this state of affairs?

This will be Conor McCabe's third visit to Solidarity Books in the last two years since the release of his book, and like the previous events, this promises to be an evening of animated discussion.

Entry is free and all are welcome.

Related links:
http://www.solidaritybooks.org/events/conor-mccabe-who-...erity

Dr. McCabe contact details:
Email: conormccabeis@gmail.com
Phone: 01 716 7310
Mobile: 087 219 1587

Solidarity Book Contact for comments/further information/photos: Liam 0857567988
solidaritybooks@gmail.com

Conor McCabe blogs here:
http://dublinopinion.com/author/ben/

In a review of "Sins of the Father: Tracing the Decisions that Shaped the Irish Economy (2011)" for the Irish Examiner, the economist and academic Dr. Tom O’Connor said that “the breadth and compass of the book is breath-taking. It is head and shoulders above the other books and is a tour de force as a critical economic history of Ireland.” The broadcaster Vincent Browne described Sins of the Father as ‘a remarkable book.’

The Irish Left Review is an online magazine; this event marks its first venture as a published journal. The magazine features original essays, articles and columns each written to help all those on the Left, whether they call themselves socialists, social democrats, trade unionists, Republicans or Greens, to find a common ground and to develop the arguments that could be used in a political context to act against the hegemony of the right in Irish politics. It is geared towards a broad left – those who want to make Left politics work and to increase the overall vote for the left, so that political alliances can be formed and significant policies implemented.

http://www.irishleftreview.org/

cmccabe-feb2013-solidarity_thumb.jpg

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Comments (1 of 1)

Quote: David McWilliams: "a German Europe, rather than the feel of a European Germany'

by Comyn - 'Diversity in Unity'

Wed Jan 30, 2013 15:51

Who benefits from Austerity? We on the Island of Ireland should know the answer to this but if we do, we are being hampered greatly by a Troika that is using us as a guinea pig to expedite a solution to the Euro crisis. It is nice and neat to call us exemplary but then to penalise us and not waiver debt/bailout costs is surely unacceptable. An 80 year old billionaire has written an essay featured in the New York Review of Books about the tragedy of the European Union and how to resolve it. Expertise and experience of men like George Soros is worth exploring.

David McWilliams today writes an article in the Independent which every concerned Irish citizen on the Island of Ireland ought to read to re-activate the thinking process that is needed to survive this economic crisis. Title: 'As we forge deeper ties in Europe we are forgetting our closest ally'.

McWilliams hits the heart today. The Irish and Britain. 1950's Ireland destitute from the concept of 'self sufficiency, DeValera and FF provided the education that exported our doctors and nurses to the UK along with those who built Britain, the construction workers. McWilliams talks about the newest wave of emigrants that London welcomes that takes me back to the late 1980's Ireland and no work here and the opportunity of work in the UK. When you add to this Ryanair and cheap fares this forged an economic growth that is often ignored.

The ties that bind us according to Williams: 'whether our top civil servants and politicians like it or not, is Britain, and neither Germany nor France, will remain the natural home for Iriish products investment and people. Why? McWilliams states the most interesting facts for consideration:

9.8 million people in 2011 flew between the Republic and Britain ie 186,000 per week (note Ryanairs profits this year). Apparently only 400,000 travelled from Germany.

Euro and Sterling - 30 years down the road with part of Ireland in Sterling and the rest aligned to Euro, the fact is we still cannot equal the trade we have with Britain which is Ireland's second largest export partner. We send £14.265bn of goods / £15,052bn worth of services per year to the UK. According to McWilliams article, Ireland imports more from Britain than from the whole of Europe combined. What does this say? For me it explains that sense of void when one enters EU House on Dawson Street and get that feeling that inspite of all the data/publications provided by the EU gravy train bureaucracy, nobody is really interested that much in Europe because they know Britain albeit via colonialism and 700 years.

Bord Bia states that the UK is Ireland's key export partner for food. Irish beef accounts for 60% of the British market. The UK has a food deficit which Ireland can supply (what has changed!). Ireland uses and contributes greatly to the UK ports. Then there is the fact that 40% Northern Ireland exports go south of the border.

1973 and our entry to the EEC opened up opportunities for our small Island but we must take account of why the EEC considered our entry with a degree of favour. It is and still remains the fact that Island status surrounded by sea gives a certain geo-political status. Exploration oil and gas are too the fore again as resources.

Too add to this, we now can add that there is a huge potential in the area of energy between our two countries. Renewable energy is on the way with an East-West Interconnector.

The challenge is ours. Cameron is paving the way to give the British people the option at Referendum of an EU Exit. We need to ask what this would really mean for Ireland? Does this mean that if Britain holds a referendum, that we will follow suit? We speak English, in the US - they speak English. The upwardly mobile Chinese seek education in the US and the UK, the law is Common Law.

Ireland should not be cowed down for its small size and for the fear of being a precedent to other PIIGs, Troika, have some honour when making decisions about our future and our young generation.

Comyn

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Solidarity Books Talk: by Dr Conor McCabe - 'Who Benefits from Austerity?' Cork launch of the Irish Left Review Journal

Comments (1 of 1)