summer breeze

Once again the Galway Arts Festival is underway and there's a pleasant summer's breeze with dappled sunshine across the city - all in stark contrast to the hovering clouds of the Bord Snip Nua report that many are still digesting. For those on contracts up for renewal the "Employment Control Framework" is also adding to the uncertainty - peer-reviewed high-impact journal papers, patents and research grants one month, dole the next - not exactly the knowledge economy we were all promised. But then things could be worse...

Or will the soothing rays on the beaches of Europe (or the gentle rain of Donegal?) ease away the pain and inspire more creative responses that dare to imagine an Ireland in recovery, a country with the fleetness of foot, social cohesion and sense of common purpose that all small nations have the potential to possess? Let's see what mood our political leadership is in when it returns from its long holidays while the rest of us keep things ticking over in their absence.