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DOZENS OF WIND farms have been opened to the public to mark Global Wind Day.
Several events, coordinated by the Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA), allow all members of the public to access these sites at designated times.
Figures obtained from EirGrid.ie show that power from wind energy has met an average of 21.5% of the electricity demands in Ireland in the first half of this year, up just over 2.1% from the same period in 2013.
It met over half the total system demand, which varied from 1750MW to 4462MW, roughly 4% of the time.
The majority of these periods were during the night when system demand is at its lowest
For example, a peak of 65.7% was achieved at just after 5am on one morning in February.
An extra 350MW of capacity is expected to be added to the grid this year.
“Clear focus and momentum”
Kenneth Matthews, CEO of the IWEA, said good progress has been made with wind energy so far this year, “but we cannot take this for granted and must ensure that the clear focus and momentum remains on achieving our 2020 targets and planning towards 2030 and beyond”.
“In over 20 years as an industry in Ireland we have always encouraged open and honest discussion and providing access to wind farms right around the country is an open invitation to those interested in learning more about the benefits of sustainable local energy to come along and see it for themselves,” Matthews added.
Fuel imports
Earlier this week, Wind Aware called into question figures published by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland which stated Ireland had saved €177 million in fuel imports due to wind energy.
“Iin order to prop up this uneconomical and unsustainable form of power and peat the consumer is now to pay €328 million through subsidisation,” a statement from the group said.
“It doesn’t take a maths genius to work out that this is a net loss to Irish society of €151 million,” they added.
The total capacity of all wind farms in Ireland stood at 2011MW at the start of this year.
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She hated her own people as well.. Especially working class miners.
And kids drinking milk at school as well.
All of her economic successes were based on north sea oil.
She made a mess of the north, privatisation was a disaster, most notably the trains(her policies actually caused crashes years after she resigned) and she was best friends with a war criminal. Anyone who would defend her needs their head examined.
Who wanted to keep digging coal regardless of economic cost. Britain was controlled by unions at that time. They focused on bullying tactics rather than developing a dialogue and different economic model for mining districts and alienated both government and people (Thatcher kept winning elections!)
The reality is she defended this state from Sinn Fein/IRA types at that time and prevented civil war in NI. Privatisation on the whole has worked. Labour removed Clause 4 requiring re-nationalisation of those industries. War criminal. Aren’t they all that friend? Ronald Reagan was feted in Ireland in 1984.
@ Luke’s stalker
John Major privatised the trains – Thatcher knew it would be a mistake and avoided doing so
Thatcher’s (and Reagan’s) policies of privatisation, breaking trade union power, elevating the concept of capital, and the so-called trickle-down effect has led all nations who followed suit to a society today which is inherently unhappy today – due to the huge gap between rich and poor. The top 1% hold more share of the wealth than at any time since feudalism 1000 years ago.
There is a reason that Americans refer to the 1950′s as their golden age (despite the threat of nuclear war, rampant racism and facism, and lack of civil rights for many) – the 1950′s was the time when there was the smallest gap between rich and poor, yet the country was at it’s wealthiest compared to other nations. Yet many were made to believe that Thatcher’s/Reagan’s neo-liberal policies would make us all happier and wealthier.
Yeah but Alan – the top 1% has become so greedy that the normal State securities such as a police force are no longer affordable – they have isolated themselves and that which is isolated is weak …
Or to put it another way – 10,000 Gardaí against 100,000 protestors means the rich loose – eventually !
But we all know fine well that many of the state led services are a total and utter union dominated shambles piss*ng money left left and left again of centre. You might not of liked her, but she certainly was no coward, and she was damned right to stick up to the IRA.
But you can see the state of Britain now, social deprivation,poor education massive social economic imbalances all because of her policies.
Sour flaps
Pray tell Ruth, why was she damn right to stand up against the IRA other than in defence of her people (as the IRA were also doing).I’m interested to hear do you know something no one else does or are you rewriting history like the majority of the rest of the ‘Irish’ people??
They did not speak in my name, I being one “their” people.
Still, it was nice of them to bury her with her butt sticking out of the ground, for Martin McGuinness to park his bicycle.
In fairness to her lol it was edward Heath
I’d say you’re more your own person than an Irish person to be honest
and Kennedy started the Vietnam War
She was a war criminal
The Argentine govt were war criminals
That b*tch really had a problem with Ireland didn’t she? Seems she held most of us with utter contempt.
She was the right leader at the right time for Britain…she took on the IRA with both barrels without batting an eyelid….A formidable woman.
The joke is on her because culturally we have been running the place for a while. Watching comedy awards the other night it was hilarious to watch the British comedians grimace as the Irish won award after award.
Are you living in the real world mate? Sky One and BBC commissioned Chris O’Dowd and BOC to create those comedies. More like Ireland has been subsumed into the UK.
That’s exactly what I was referring to….. The fact that the Irish who moved to Britain are running the place now.
Pity she went to the bathroom that night…
You using the word mate proves that.
She was on the phone in the bathroom ordering takeaway for Bobby Sands.
Cuppantae yours is a great narrative except for the outcomes…so take your hand off it
Luke’s stalker. ‘The *fact* that the Irish who moved to Britain are *running the place now*’. This, based on us doing quite well at the last comedy awards? Lose perspective much??
Culturally Lloyd….. but that’s alright never let what someone actually said get in the way of a cheap put down.
It’s not a put-down Luke’s stalker and I do understand you meant ‘culturally’. I’m sorry but it still stands that to say the Irish are ‘running’ British culture based on a few wins at the recent comedy awards and that the joke is now on Thatcher because of it is a tad far-fetched and requires perspective.
We didnt like the ould b*tch either. It was mutual hatred…
Who ruined Britain
Were you even born then?
Really ? I think you’ll find she made things worse for Northern Ireland. She also made things worse for her own people.
Ding Dong the witch is dead.
Did you see what she just did, two different types of “moves” compared to each other, the mother of neo-cons
And may god forgive me but never in the history of mankind was the world so blessed by the passing of a human being…at least the Austrian house painter didn’t pretend.
C U Next Tuesday.
Its ironic that British people are now quite happy to move to Ireland to get away from Britain. The amount of British people living in Cork and especially West Cork for example is amazing. They love the pace of life, the ease with how they get on with their neighbours and the general way of how we do things here. Perhaps if historically their forefathers adopted a policy of integration rather than subjugation things would have been different.
If they had done that it would have bucked the trend of practically every powerful entity to have existed from the dawn of time right down to the 20th century. The Brits did nothing that the Romans, the Greeks, the Mongols, the Chinese or anybody else that came before them had not already done .
If they had done that it would have bucked the trend of practically every powerful entity to have existed from the dawn of time right down to the 20th century. The Brits did nothing that the Romans, the Greeks, the Mongols, the Chinese or anybody else that came before them had not already done
British tourists have enjoyed Ireland for decades.. no irony there..
It’s amazing how many Irish people became like her in the Celtic tiger loads of money, free market no regulation of the banking systems. Greed rules.
Windom Earle, Nail on the head! However as bad as many of those in this country were that succumbed to mindless greed, it’s perhaps still not comparable to Thatcher who’s policies directly killed people in many countries.
Margaret Thatcher would have never Guaranteed the banks bond holders. She believed that the state shouldn’t interfere with private companies.
“Thatcher ruled what she called a “repartition” to change the dynamics in the north”.
What does that mean?
Give some counties of the north back to us
I think it should say ‘ruled out’ that would make more sense.
It’s an odd thing for her to have suggested in the longer term – Fermanagh and Tyrone were always majority nationalist, but during the partition talks the Unionist side badly wanted them to make the the NI economy more viable – through agriculture and that.
If Thatcher had have negotiated to keep only the 4 unionist-leaning counties, the NI economy of the day would’ve been ever more dependent on the UK exchequer. Times have changed since with the developing service/IT sector and that, but still NI is nowhere near economically self-sustaining as a six-county state.
(sorry, may have misunderstood – she “ruled” = “ruled out”?)
In that case the Irish position was logical – they wanted repartition to undermine the economic viability of NI, and hasten the pace of its integration with the Republic.
But she was utterly wrong comparing NI with the Sudeten Germans and the Croats – the Balkans have been scared for decades since the violent break-up of Yugoslavia.
From minutes and notes at the Treaty negotiations, it seems it was Lloyd George and Collins’ intention for the Boundary Commission to restore large amounts of the North to the Free State, and leave the rest until it decided to come back into the fold.
They hadn’t anticipated the Civil War, and by the time law and order had been restored to the country, the border was fairly set in stone as it was, while southern Unionists had largely moved North. South Armagh, large parts of Tyrone and Fermanagh may have been given to the Free State had the Boundary Commission started work immediately, but it is difficult to know exactly what would have been given to who.
After the Civil War the Boundary Commission’s Report suggested that parts of the North move South, while parts of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan were to move North. The Free State government were very unhappy with that so they did a deal with London – NI got to keep the defacto border and Dublin got excused from its obligation to pay any of the UK’s public debt. Ironic, eh?
No way mate. I’m from roi and now live in NI and never never will I go back and live in roi. It’s a rotten rotten place.why Wld u want ni counties back? Why roi went bust with 26 biggest bust in world. UK had to hand out 6 billion stg to help the misery
Defining the border along county lines never made sense. Derry is the best example – it’s the second biggest city in NI, it’s in a county with a unionist majority, yet the city itself has always had a huge nationalist majority and it sits right on the existing border. If there was any redrawing of the border, Derry City would surely have gone into the Republic (or Free State as it was then), probably along with parts of Tyrone, Armagh and Fermanagh, rather than those whole counties. Meanwhile, parts of Donegal and Cavan might have gone the other way. Not sure it would have achieved anything anyway, partition was a horrendously bad idea.
You may find that the residents of current NI hAve the say in what happens on a vote to say in NI or join Roi. The C and P split is approx 48/52. What % of Catholics would u say would vote to leave UK and join bust Roi?
@Bazza: The electorate on both sides of the border will have the say; a majority poll of both. Which isn’t the question being discussed here – Thatcher’s remarks pre-dated the current political dispensation in NI and on the island as a whole. You’re taking this thread off on a tangent.
Why wld roi have a say in a different jurisdiction? That would have no precedent in law. The point is that MT stood for the principal of majority rule in NI 6 counties is what counts. Your idea that the island of Ireland is what’s counts is a non runner. England has absorbed roi unemployed for hundreds of years. What MT said was very true. Most Catholics I know in NI have British passports and def don’t want to be part of roi. Why should NI residents be forced by a vote of residents in a 26 vote to leave NI? Makes no sense.
@Bazza: You live in NI and yet you’re more poorly informed than any of its Parties!
The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 is an international legal agreement which clearly states that NI’s constitutional status will only be changed by a democratic majority, via the ballot box.
Here’s the relevant para:
“[The Parties] recognise that it is for the people of the island of Ireland alone, by agreement between the two parts respectively and without external impediment, to exercise their right of self-determination on the basis of consent, freely and concurrently given, North and South, to bring about a united Ireland, if that is their wish, accepting that this right must be achieved and exercised with and subject to the agreement and consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland”
Note the “concurrently given, North and South”. So if the Northern Secretary calls a poll, then Dublin is bound by international law to hold a referendum, and London and Dublin are obliged to cooperate on this. Hence, an all-island vote will take place when the Northern Secretary believes there is an appetite in NI for a united Ireland, but NI can’t be forced into one, and ROI cannot be forced to accept one.
As for the religious divide in NI, the 2016 predictions are C: 45.8%, P: 45.9% Other: 8.2%. Not that NI politics is remotely that simple, or that a bare majority would be a satisfactory barometer for durable constitutional change.
Good research, remember that wording could only have been written to allow NI the right to decide its future alone and also with ROI had to give up its territorial claim outside its jurisdiction. There seems to me to be a view held in ROI that there is a wish by all Catholics NI residents to be ruled by ROI and that simply is not true. A vote or poll may never take place if the stats and polls never point towards a wish to leave NI. Why would NI leave UK? ROI is far from the promised land, better stay with the devil you know.
@Bazza: Not so much research, as very recent Irish history. Also not sure what your point is in the first part of your reply.
A vote will take place; its a political imperative – the DUP called for one just last year. It’s also a demographic inevitability – population stats show that Protestants are moving in large numbers to GB for college and career. Their parents are then following them over help raise the grandkids. This trend is not replicated amongst nationalists.
Whilst it’s true that constitutional politics in NI do necessarily reflect religion (I doubt many people in ROI are eccentric enough to believe that it does; though many in GB do), your last last remark is a sweeping generalisation. I’m impressed that you still adhere to it after living in NI.
*do NOT necessarily reflect religion
What about the 20000 odd unionists that reside in Derry city?
@Anteim: What about them?
It was suggested earlier in the thread that Derry city could have joined the free state/Republic. Derry isn’t solely nationalist, there’s a lot of Unionists there too.
She was a joke, her era in Britain was a joke, all of which is coming to light now with its endless scandal and apologies
@Antrim: The point he was making was that the Boundary Commission was intended to make the border fairer for 1920s Ireland. It looked at moving portions of Ulster (down even to townland level I think) to the “more appropriate” side of the border. The poster above was citing Derry City as an example of one in the 20s that would’ve been more “fairly” on the Free State side. *If* it had been moved to the Free State back then, it’s highly unlikely that there would be m/any Unionists residing there in the present day.
Hence my question as to what your point was.
It still would have meant shifting people from their homes back then. It was suggested at various times throughout the conflict too, not just in the 20′s.
When u see state organised corruption pervade roi society u can forgive me for staying out of Roi. There may have been some drift element of Protestants to UK mainland but was it any greater that the Catholics that moved, I doubt it. MT statement then is as true today and Whitehall know it. The official reason why UK gave 6 billion stg to roi directly during roi meltdown was to prevent the superior UK welfare system been over run roi residents. Very little changes in roi with the “permenant government” in the UK based civil service being the real outmoded mind set running roi society. The option for roi to vote to re join UK should surely be available in the future.
Nothing wrong with Ireland or the Irish people, just the criminals who run the place
Dylan, in all reality, would they want ro come and join what is a failed e onamy. I don’t think so. They get sooooo much from the uk government that they would not get from Dublin.
Woyld you vote to have to pay to go to a Dr when tjey get it free? I ouldnt. Woyld you pay for higher road tax? No, me neither.
I agree with your ideals, and I am an English man. But, I can’t see ir working, unless you want a second civil war.
Is roi sustainable as an economy? Went bust and had to get 175 billion euro and 6 billion stg from UK/NI plus the eu pays for most roads etc, pumping sewage into rivers n sea! Paying to go to a doctor, lowest ratios of speech therapist etc in eu. No gas no oil, just wind. Sustainable!
I from roi but live in NI and spent 10 yrs in England and had 3 children in England and had 1st hand experience of the bus plus all other system. Property tax etc. the system is what makes the place tick. Roi can’t do systems look at who is collecting lpt! The revenue. Roi has no land and property agency, no register of properties, until recently no register of properties that were sold to get data, 50 % of sales are cash and cash sales r excluded from data collection on property prices increase. A few tweets r required to ensure the systems run leaner but in principal the system is good and roi can never match it due to lack of a social conscience and greed.
30% of the NI workforce is directly employed by the public service and the nett cost of NI to the UK Treasury (after taxes are collected) is approximately £12b per annum. A one off £6b to your fourth largest trading partner to help keep that market open to you is small beans in comparison.
From the Independent paper in the UK
“In a peace-building summit between the then Prime Minister and Ireland’s premier Garret FitzGerald in 1984, Mrs Thatcher said she failed to understand why nationalists were calling for reforms in policing, justice, equality and power-sharing.
During talks in the run-up to the 1984 Anglo-Irish Agreement, the Tory leader warned Mr FitzGerald that “if these things were done, the next question would be what comes next? Were the Sikhs in Southall to be allowed to fly their own flag?”” http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/margaret-thatcher-expressed-fears-of-asian-rising-at-angloirish-summit-in-1984-9945904.html
Basically she was worried that if the Paddies started getting what they wanted (in their own country) then the wogs would be getting uppity in Britannia! Good God man! That could mean the end of the Empire! We can’t have that Oh no,no,no,no,NO!
The revelation from Peter Mandelson that Thatcher told him the Irish are “all liars” just about sums up the witch’s attitude to the Irish
ahem…
A c@nt of the highest order. More hated in the UK than even here
Easy to see why independence took 700 years, the forelock tuggers are alive and well in 21st century Ireland, with every bump in the road they start singing from the west Brit hymn book
@ Boganity
Can we have this again from you. This time in the Irish language. In your own time now…….
Sure you wouldn’t understand Irish if he replied by the sound of you
Were you in the IRA then yourself?
she was a bitter twisted woman sure it shows the make of her she didn’t stop working or show any emotion when her own son went missing so that says it all , she wasn’t called the Iron Lady (cow) for nothing …
She couldn’t show emotion seeing that she probably gave her blessing to Mark to organize a coup d’etat in the Central African Republic (I think).
@Paul Fanshawe
The coup was planned to overthrow the dictator of Equitorial Guinea. By the way, Margaret Thatcher had been out of politics for years at the time of Mark’s arrest.
Her great great Granny was from Ireland..
325,000 British people from Britain live in Ireland including myself. It works both ways. She was a silly old C ow disliked by the majority.
Well said Mike. She hated the fact that an Irishman made a tidy profit on clearing the Falklands of war junk too. A horrible woman. Ding dong jelly and ice cream.
There isn’t really any parallel between Irish emigration to Britain and vice versa.
About a quarter of the UK-born people in Ireland (ie in the Republic) were born in NI, and I suspect most of them consider themselves to be Irish, not British. I would also guess that a lot of those born in Britain are of Irish descent, and again they would mostly consider themselves Irish rather than British. In many cases, they are children of the Irish people in Britain that Thatcher was referring to 30 years ago – quite a few of them came back, and obviously brought their kids with them when they did.
I still hate Thatcher.
So the Irish move to Britain.
And where does her son Mark live?
The USA.
That’s before he lived in South Africa.
The point?
ahh Jimmy Savilles Bff how many keys did she supply him with I wonder..
Apparently everybody in Ireland is exactly the same person who thinks and acts exactly the same. Such generalist thinking was thatchers biggest fault.
A wise man said ( ok, it was me)
The only thing you can generalise about is People who generalise are generally idiots
Hundreds of thousands of Irish people who were deemed surplus to requirements in this state went to Thatcher’s UK in the 1980s. Many came back. Many stayed. All benefitted from the UK’s turnaround at that time.
Not worse than some of the comments posted here about immigrants in the past.
Still doesn’t make it right though.
The only person whose head I’d would love to stamp on….
shop.royalmail.com/prime-ministers/margaret-thatcher-6-first-class-stamps/invt/20141030
Here you go, knock yourself out!
I wouldn’t live in Britain if it was the last kip on earth, she was some hag., not missed by many either
You may not want to but millions do, including the 1 million Irish born nationals.
Thousands of Irish went to Britain to work for their family’s -Thousands of British came to work in -( Northern )- Ireland with guns during the 70s 80s etc-the British army worked Ireland all right-
Wonder how she’s getting on on the big burny fire..
Plenty of blood on her grubby hands she let all them hunger strikers die
I hope they buried her broom with her
The Hungerstrikers sadly ended their own life, Thatcher tried for a deal but Sinn Fein wouldn’t have it. FACTS.
Look up your history books she condemned them to hell and that’s wer I hope she is
They were happy to come to Ireland also .
I ran a pub in yorkshire and mrs thatcher came in one day. We had a few drinks and sang danny boy. A wonderful lady.
Trifluoperazine is obviously not working of you…there are other options
The Woolpack had Maggie in it – I missed that episode Amos – did she pay by cheque and did you frame it as a testament to your idolatory of false Gods ?
She was some bitch.
She was a horrible old boiler
A boiler has some use!
Jelly and ice cream. Ding dong! What a disgusting human.
She introduced interment in NI or better put arrest catholics without charge. She was happy for the army to shoot to kill Al last Gibraltar. She was hated in the UK but the loads a money Essex boy and girl I just bought my ouse for a fiver kept her in power.
She also went to war to remain in power. She is now gone. Not missed.
I was on holidays in England in the eighties with my family and EVERY person we met said they hated her. You’d go into public toilets and the walls would be plastered with nasty comments about her
My aunty said the elections were rigged. It was the only thing she could think up to explain how Thatcher kept getting in
Internment was introduced in 1971, Thatcher never took office to 1979.
The Iron Lady, may she rust in peace
To be fair she is was no more of a racist, when talking about migrants than thousands of the Irish I have the misfortune to listen to!
@Joe Hill.
Sad but true. In fairness though there are many of us unlike that too.
Funny that discussing MT and the unions in UK , you might want to look at similar strategies for putting manners on a another large body in ROI
Would those people who despise Thatcher (not that she cared about what they thought of her anyway) have preferred that Britain had been taken over by communists?
Taken over by communists? You may as well say taken over by Martians!
One was about as likely as the other ffx.
Before you mention the unions I suggest that you read about the plans there were to put down any escalation of industrial unrest using the military, the suspension of parliament, and the installation of Louis Mountbatten as an interim ‘leader’.
@gumbridge
There was no chance of the planned coup getting off the ground.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/columnists/article-380175/The-coup-got-ground.html
“Stirling and a ragbag of other nuts. If we regarded the prospect of a military coup as laughable, it was because it was just that: Laughable.
The Army would not have supported it, or the police or anyone else worth a damn.”
Charlie boy was only man for her
What an absolute cont
Seems pointless to add me tuppence worth as I delighted in agreement with 98% of the comments but I will because I consider her to be the most despicable leader in any democratic country in the 20th century. Together with brainless ‘Ray Gun’ she ushered in a contemptible era of selfishness and ‘because-I’m-worth-it’s’ that we later saw in the Bush-Blair era and the destruction of so many systems. Thanks to this horror of a woman, democKracy is close to being dead. She was a vile travesty of a ‘leader’. Her infamous outpouring at the arrival of her first grandchild summed her snobby ignorant self up when she said with eyelids flapping like the clappers: “WE are a grandmother”.
Evil bitch, no wonder fine gael and their supporters adore her.
Hopefully she will be joined soon by Kenny and burton in the flames of hell .
None of you have mentioned poor Dennis what a life he must have with that cow,
How did he manage to get the leg over,
She was a cu^t
This from the woman who murdered 200 argentine teenagers on the belgrano the devil was waiting for her
A battleship sunk during a war. Hardly shocking now is it.
FitzGearld thought it was “too rational” in the way talks were going??? Sums it all up there doesn’t it…
If someone suggested a new idea to Fitz, his reply was always
“Sounds great but will it work in theory”
Hated that evil b!tch almost as much as I hate Enda Kenny. Put a smile on my face the day I heard she had died and can only assume she went to hell to meet her maker.
So, you believe in fairy tales then?
I heard she met Paisley down under .
Only the Grimm fairytale where the evil witch dies a horrible but deserved death
Now then now then, owz about that then.
Thatchers great great grand mother was an O Sullivan from Kerry….also according to Sky this morning they are planning to erect a statue to her on the Falklands….I wonder if they did the same thing in Kerry….how long would it last…..an evil cow,,,,,,,
Rot. Vile hound of satan.
Nay, t’was free of charge mr ryan.
shop.royalmail.com/prime-ministers/margaret-thatcher-6-first-class-stamps/invt/20141030
Here you go, knock yourself out!
Funny that in away – seeing as the Royal mail is no longer “Royal” having been privatised at a share value and big preferential share awards that cost the British State billions inside 24 hours !
Who cares about them, Thatcher is now in the limelight due to the belief now that her cabinet had pedos in it and she might have turned a blind eye to that. If true then no one should bother with that woman ever.
Rip Margaret :-)
Margaret R.I.P.
Rot in Perpetuity
The ‘Iron Lady’, you just have to love her to bits.
Thatcher = 1, SF/IRA = -10
Maggie you legend :D
crime is crime is crime – brilliant :D
The ‘IRON LADY’, don’t you just got to love her.
she saved the tax payer a fortune on food in the maze :D
have your say