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McGurk, Tom
Irish poet, journalist and broadcaster.
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4 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Confusion reigns in Ireland on EU treaty
According to the Sunday Business Post's latest monthly tracking poll, support for the Lisbon Treaty has fallen in Ireland from 43% in February to 35% today among people entitled to vote in the referendum (June 12th). Tom McGurk laments the sheer complexity of the treaty. "Here we go again: it's European déja vu time. Once more, we are facing into a monumental political decision that will define our democracy for generations to come. ... Once more, we are being asked to trust those who apparently know better than us: the political classes and the 'Eurotocracy'. In the meantime, as the argument rages on and on, don't for God's sake let anyone mention the European Constitution…. Lisbon represents the final confused consensus of over 20 governments all seeking simultaneously to do two opposite things: to create a new governing structure for Europe, while at the same time covering their political backs. ... Is it any wonder how it tastes, given the number of cooks of this broth?"
» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » EU Constitution, » Ireland, » Europe
Irish immigration debate stifled
The business weekly asks why there isn't more debate on immigration, considering the impact it is having on life in the country. "Forty years on, immigration is now threatening to become a concern in Ireland. In just one decade, this country has experienced its greatest increase in population in recent history. Opinion polls in Britain consistently show that the real concerns are not xenophobic or based on racism, but are about the strain on the services and social network that mass immigration creates. ... Remarkably, given the numbers who have come and given the changes those numbers have brought about, there has been little debate on the subject in the Dáil [Irish Parliament]. Is there any difference of opinion in any of our political parties in relation to the question? If there isn't, why isn't there? The answer of course is that public representatives are terrified of being branded racists."
» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » Migration, » Integration, » Ireland
Aer Lingus leaves Irish feeling betrayed
Aer Lingus, Ireland's national airline, has recently taken its key flights out of Shannon, in eastern Ireland, transferring the slots to the Belfast international airport. Tom McGurk, poet and journalist, is appalled. "It's interesting to examine just how much of this week's saga refers to what Aer Lingus used to mean to us. As an island race and a people devastated over countless generations by exile and emigration, travel has always been about more than just going from one place to another.... Aer Lingus was never just another airline. In many ways, it was part of our response to this enormous cultural and historical baggage, our 20th century attempt to ameliorate the past. ... So the confusion, the anger and the deep sense of betrayal being felt in the southwest this week are both understandable and to be expected. Poignantly, it seems the people still have to learn that Aer Lingus [formerly public, until 2005] is no longer 'ours', ... Their concern is solely to look after the investments of their shareholders."
» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » Infrastructure / Travel and Transport, » Ireland
Tom McGurk on how voters get to know what they want
With general elections due to be held in Ireland no later than July 2007, Tom McGurk, Irish journalist, broadcaster and poet, considers the efficacy of focus groups, opinion surveys and constant polling as a means of informing politicians of what to propose within a society highly influenced by the media. "The problem ... is the notion of 'what the electorate wants'. Democratic choice assumes democratic information: the oxygen of the democratic system is the ability of the citizen to know what is happening in society. But what is increasingly happening is that this knowledge is being mediated through a media that is, in itself, no more than an integral part of the profit and loss system, and merely another form of marketing. Has infotainment replaced information to the detriment of democracy ? Have we reached a point of democratic nemesis where, instead of the press reacting to politics, politics merely reacts to the press ?"
» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Audiovisual Media, » Print media, » Media policy, » Ireland, » Global
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