Ireland S Helping Hand To Europe

Post-war Marshall Plan aid to Europe and indeed Ireland is well documented, but practically nothing is known about simultaneous Irish aid to Europe. This book provides a full record of the aid – mainly food but also clothes, blankets, medicines, etc. – that Ireland donated to continental Europe, including France, the Netherlands, Hungary, the Balkans, Italy, and zones of occupied Germany. Starting with Ireland’s neutral wartime record, often wrongly presented as pro-German when Ireland in fact unofficially favoured the western Allies, Jerome aan de Wiel explains why Éamon de Valera’s government sent humanitarian aid to the devastated continent. His book analyses the logistics of collection and distribution of supplies sent abroad as far as the Greek islands. Despite some alleged Cold-War hijacking of Irish relief – and this humanitarianism was not above the politics of that East-West confrontation – it became mostly a story of hope, generosity and European Christian solidarity. Rich archival records from Ireland and the European beneficiary countries, as well as contemporary local and national newspapers across Europe, allow the author to measure and describe not only the official but also the popular response to Irish relief schemes. This work is illustrated with contemporary photographs and some key graphs and tables that show the extent of the aid programme.

Post-war Marshall Plan aid to Europe and indeed Ireland is well documented, but practically nothing is known about simultaneous Irish aid to Europe. This book provides a full record of the aid – mainly food but also clothes, blankets, medicines, etc. – that Ireland donated to continental Europe, including France, the Netherlands, Hungary, the Balkans, Italy, and zones of occupied Germany. Starting with Ireland's neutral wartime record, often wrongly presented as pro-German when Ireland in fact unofficially favoured the western Allies, Jerome aan de Wiel explains why Éamon de Valera's government sent humanitarian aid to the devastated continent. His book analyses the logistics of collection and distribution of supplies sent abroad as far as the Greek islands. Despite some alleged Cold-War hijacking of Irish relief – and this humanitarianism was not above the politics of that East-West confrontation – it became mostly a story of hope, generosity and European Christian solidarity. Rich archival records from Ireland and the European beneficiary countries, as well as contemporary local and national newspapers across Europe, allow the author to measure and describe not only the official but also the popular response to Irish relief schemes. This work is illustrated with contemporary photographs and some key graphs and tables that show the extent of the aid programme.

A timely account of the Euro crisis that challenges our assumptions about debt and economic recovery Originally conceived as part of a unifying vision for Europe, the euro is now viewed as a millstone around the neck of a continent crippled by vast debts, sluggish economies, and growing populist dissent. In Europe's Orphan, leading economic commentator Martin Sandbu presents a compelling defense of the euro. He argues that rather than blaming the euro for the political and economic failures in Europe since the global financial crisis, the responsibility lies firmly on the authorities of the eurozone and its member countries. The eurozone's self-inflicted financial calamities and economic decline resulted from a toxic cocktail of unforced policy errors by bankers, politicians, and bureaucrats; the unhealthy coziness between finance and governments; and, above all, an extreme unwillingness to restructure debt. Sandbu traces the origins of monetary union back to the desire for greater European unity after the Second World War. But the euro’s creation coincided with a credit bubble that governments chose not to rein in. Once the crisis hit, a battle of both ideas and interests led to the failure to aggressively restructure sovereign and bank debt. Ideologically informed choices set in motion dynamics that encouraged more economic mistakes and heightened political tensions within the eurozone. Sandbu concludes that the prevailing view that monetary union can only work with fiscal and political union is wrong and dangerous—and risks sending the continent into further political paralysis and economic stagnation. Contending that the euro has been wrongfully scapegoated for the eurozone’s troubles, Europe’s Orphan charts what actually must be done for the continent to achieve an economic and political recovery. This revised edition contains a new preface addressing the economic and political implications of Brexit, as well as updated text throughout. Europe’s Orphan charts what actually must be done for the continent to achieve a full recovery.

Negotiations are underway to agree the details of the European Union budget for the period of 2007 to 2013 (known as the Financial Perspective), covering the newly enlarged EU of 25 member states. Further enlargement is likely, with Bulgaria and Romania due to join in 2007 and the possible accession of Croatia and Turkey being considered. The Committee's report considers a range of issues in relation to the current budget debate, including the merits of the Commission's proposals within the framework of recent and future EU enlargement; the Common Agricultural Policy; Structural and Cohesion Funds; the Lisbon Agenda; other spending categories; the functioning of the 'Own Resources' and a EU tax; UK abatement and the Commission's proposal for a Generalised Corrective Mechanism. Conclusions reached include support for the UK Government's insistence that the UK rebate is non-negotiable, given the inadequate reforms of the CAP; however, if real reform of the budget was offered, then the UK Government should be prepared to negotiate. Structural funds should be focused on the 10 new member states, as well as the two applicant countries of Romania and Bulgaria, with the phasing out of EU regional development funds for all 'old' member states with the exception of Greece and Portugal.

The Celts have always been seen to walk between the world of the living and a world driven by magic, passion, and fantasy. To those who want to venture down the rabbit hole, Alastar MacTire takes us on a walk through the history of the Celtic Nations starting with the struggling, passionate, magical Irish. All through history, Ireland is portrayed as one of the most fantasy-driven cultures known to man. A people that hold tight to not only their Christian beliefs but also the unspoken idea that sometimes, when nobody is looking, a world of myth and fantasy exists beyond the realms of humanity. A realm of gods, demons, fairies, and leprechauns.

The gradual legal and political evolution of the European Union has not, thus far, been accompanied by the articulation or embrace of any substantive ideal of justice going beyond the founders' intent or the economic objectives of the market integration project. This absence arguably compromises the foundations of the EU legal and political system since the relationship between law and justice-a crucial question within any constitutional system-remains largely unaddressed. This edited volume brings together a number of concise contributions by leading academics and young scholars whose work addresses both legal and philosophical aspects of justice in the European context. The aim of the volume is to appraise the existence and nature of this deficit, its implications for Europe's future, and to begin a critical discussion about how it might be addressed. There have been many accounts of the EU as a story of constitutional evolution and a system of transnational governance, but few which pay sustained attention to the implications for justice. The EU today has moved beyond its initial and primary emphasis on the establishment of an Internal Market, as the growing importance of EU citizenship and social rights suggests. Yet, most legal analyses of the EU treaties and of EU case-law remain premised broadly on the assumption that EU law still largely serves the purpose of perfecting what is fundamentally a system of economic integration. The place to be occupied by the underlying substantive ideal of justice remains significantly underspecified or even vacant, creating a tension between the market-oriented foundation of the Union and the contemporary essence of its constitutional system. The relationship of law to justice is a core dimension of constitutional systems around the world, and the EU is arguably no different in this respect. The critical assessment of justice in the EU provided by the contributions to this book will help to create a fuller picture of the justice deficit in the EU, and at the same time open up an important new avenue of legal research of immediate importance.

Since the 2004 enlargement of the European Union over half a million Polish migrants have registered to work in the United Kingdom, constituting one of the largest migration movements in contemporary Europe. Drawing on research undertaken across a wide range of disciplines - history, economics, sociology, anthropology, film studies and discourse analysis - and focusing on both the Polish and British aspects of this phenomenon - both emigration and immigration - this edited collection investigates what is actually new about this migration flow, what its causes and consequences are, and how these migrants' lives have changed by moving to the United Kingdom. As the first book to deal with Polish migration to the United Kingdom, Polish Migration to the UK in the 'New' European Union will appeal to scholars across a range of social sciences, whose work concerns migration and the migration process.