Freedom Institute Liquidated

national | miscellaneous | other press Thursday February 22, 2007 14:32 by SlaineMacRoth

In the public interest (and for the amusement of many, for which there should be no copyright ) I publish the article below, from this weeks Pheonix, on the demise of the far-right think tank, the Freedom Institute.

FREEDOM INSTITUTE R.I.P.

IT IS with much sadness that Goldhawk reports the disbandment of the Freedom Institute, the right-wing, sorry, liberal think-tank that brought much amusement to Dublin media circles around 2003/04. The Institute has now liquidated itself but its members still push their world view in academia and in the media.

The Institute may have gone away, you know, but Richard Waghorne, the Insitute’s director, is now writing full-time for the Irish Daily Mail. A recent article listed Pat Rabbitte as the most dangerous man in Ireland while author and lecturer Rory Miller is fighting the good fight Richard elsewhere in the media.

Waghorne told Goldhawk that it was simply a matter of the band pursuing solo projects but conceded that the “creative energy” the group had in 2003 – when there was still a debate over the merits of George W Bush’s Iraqi plans – was gone by late 2006.

Eamon Delaney, editor of Magill magazine, was glad to provide it with a regular and wide platform initially, and Waghorne and John Lalor became constant contributors. Delaney, however, is eager to distance himself now from the Institute, which was eventually indulging in name-calling, cheap shots and, worst of all, predictability.

While Waghorne said the group was never as right-wing as it was portrayed, he admitted that “message management” was an issue. Indeed it was, although when you publish articles praising the merits of rendition flights, the folly of concern for global warming or referring to the minimum wage as “criminalising” work, the message obviously needed more than simple management.