Mick Rooney | Journalist & Broadcaster

UPDATE MAY 2023 Having announced in March 2023 that Annie’s case was to be upgraded to a murder enquiry, further revelations are broadcast in a May 8th RTE documentary - Missing: Beyond the Vanishing Triangle. This documentary introduces two new pieces of information. However, I’ve some serious concerns about the accuracy and relevance of this information against the known facts and timeline.     Documentary Review, Keeping with Reality - Missing: Beyond the Vanishing Triangle (Annie McCarrick Case)  

WOKE - a word we now hear so often used in ridicule of others on social media commentary. But like so many tropes used against others, its user - by the mere act of using it - clearly demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of its true meaning and origin. If anything, its usage, now defines more the user, than the intended reciprocate. And its not a new word by any stretch of 21st Century meaning. It dates back more than 80 years but has only in the past few years reignited its common and increasing usage in everyday English language. ORIGIN - THE WOKE It originally dates back to a comment from an African American United Mine Workers official in 1940 (USA), stating: "Let me tell you buddy. Waking up is a damn sight harder than going to sleep, but we'll stay woke up longer." Think of all the times in exchanges online (primarily social media) that you've been described as 'woke' in a derogatory way. Ask yourselves, have you noticed how often those throwing...

It remains uncertain when exactly peace talks will commence on the Belarus border between Ukraine and Russia, but make no mistake, while Ukraine resists, Russia continues to build up its forces and equipment around many cities. And whether it will ever happen. Putin isn't going to send his officials in to negotiate unless he believes he has the strongest hand. And having the strongest hand means holding several of the largest cities. He has, as of yet, not unleashed his greatest firepower for both an air and ground assault. While the step up in international sanctions will bite, be assured, this despot would have considered the implications weeks and months ago. The actual planning for this action didn't start a few weeks or months ago; it's been in the making since 2013. The course of history is defined by when we start to pay attention and when we lose it – when we act or react. There’s no physical battlefield for that place. Currently, mass media do what they always do: ...

Broadcaster and journalist Mick Rooney talks to Buythebook owner Rachel Drury for Radio Espial. Rachel graduated as an engineer in 2005 and worked for over 10 years In the renewable energy industry both in Ireland, Chile, Sweden and South Africa before relocating to Sydney, Australia in 2013. In 2018, Rachel returned back to Ireland and stopped working as an engineer due to illness. In 2020, Rachel decided to write a book, in the hope that it would help others through a difficult time in their life. The book is about about the lessons Rachel learned in her own life while living with a long-term illness (ulcerative colitis). After self-publishing her book, Rachel was keen to be part of an Irish Author community so she set up buythebook.ie so that Irish Authors had an Irish owned marketplace to sell their books but that they could also support each other while marketing and promoting their books. Today there are 50 authors listed on the platform and Rachel has plans to release a second...

This came from an archive piece from RTE TV (1971-Ireland). It's probably better to view the archive piece before reading this for context. The original RTE archive I can understand the arguments on both sides. I'll digress, if I may. Back in the mid-1980s, I worked for Premier Dairies in Rathfarnham. Places like Old Bawn, Springfield and the new Jobstown were our delivery areas (the odd local school and shops). Barely off the Tallaght by-pass, going up into those new estates was like visiting a mountaintop, a last outpost of civilisation. Every month we watched new housing estates being built - hundreds of houses, then thousands - the isolation and lack of very basic amenities for the communities was utterly shocking considering the massive building expansion. It was a stark contrast for many young parents who had grown up close to the inner city, used to local amenities on their doorsteps. In hindsight, so many of those new housing developments were sold/rented by the counc...

There is a well-thought out piece by Bel Mooney worth reading, below the main Daily Mail article on Jacintha Saldanha's death last week . Saldanha was the receptionist nurse who initially answered the prank call from Australian DJs Michael Christian and Melanie Greig, poorly impersonating Prince Philip and the Queen, and transferring them through to an on duty staff nurse at the King Edward VII Hospital. I won't link to the original Australian 2Day Radio clip. It can be easily found on YouTube. However, I would point out that the two DJs' interaction with Jacintha Saldanha lasts nothing more than about five seconds and the bulk of the prank call is conducted with the staff nurse in the ward where Kate Middleton was staying. The consequences for everybody involved – from the distressed royal couple, to the shocked and hounded Australian DJs, and most of all to the tragic nurse Jacintha Saldanha and her family – are a reminder that every thoughtless prank has a v...