Canada’s House of Commons has passed a revised bill which expands access to euthanasia, eventually including people suffering solely from mental illnesses. The bill is intended to amend the current law so that it will comply with a 2019 Quebec Superior Court ruling which struck down a provision that allows assisted dying only for intolerably suffering individuals […]
One year on, close to our national holiday, how’s Ireland doing? Not good. We remain on course for the longest and potentially most fiscally and socially damaging lockdown in Europe – and we have some stiff competition there. A lot done; more to do. Last autumn, to justify requesting our second lockdown, NPHET modellers predicted […]
St Patricks Day: GPO Dublin, Gardai enforce Lockdown
St Patrick is now one of the world’s best known Catholic figures but the earliest known celebration of the saint is believed to have been held on March 17, 1631, marking the anniversary of his death in the 5th century. In that year, bubonic plague raged across parts of Europe, especially impacting Italy where the epidemic […]
“Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s day the first day of the session The landlord’s marshal has decreed the rope will finish me” It may have romantic connotations of a rapier wielding highwayman, but the term “Raparee” is actually an Anglicisation of the Irish word Rópaire, and it refers to the end that usually awaited […]
An Australian surrogacy lobby has called for commercial surrogacy to be legalised in Australia. It is currently banned in all of the country’s states. However, in 2019-20 275 babies born overseas to surrogate mothers were granted Australian citizenship, the highest number on record. Thailand and India, formerly popular destinations, no longer allow foreigners to employ surrogate mothers, […]
Let me begin by making a statement of the obvious. If you are a third level student from a disadvantaged background, then the chances of you having to work part time and during your holidays are significantly higher than if you were a student from one of the more economically privileged social groups. Of […]
A scandalous event is set to shake South Africa in the near future: A former president of this country could soon be in prison. The country’s deputy chief justice, Justice Raymond Zondo, has called on the Constitutional Court to find former president Jacob Zuma in contempt of court and requested the “Apex Court” to sentence […]
“Who’s your sexy Taoiseach?” is a non-quote regularly and hilariously attributed to former Taoiseach Enda Kenny by Oliver Callan on his politician-lampooning radio show, Callan’s Kicks. Conjuring images of a Mr September some people never knew they wanted, the slogan caricatures Enda’s supposed 10-pints-in-each-hand machoness and magnetism by juxtaposing it against his familiar, austere, Weshthrun […]
In 1630, the Puritan colonist of the Massachusetts Bay colony, John Winthorp, used the image of the “City on a vision of purpose and destiny – which he believed would fail or thrive before the eyes of the world. “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes […]
Credit: Brian Doyle #gript
Britain’s Salt Act of 1882 prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt, a staple in their diet. Indian citizens were forced to buy the vital mineral from their British rulers, who, in addition to exercising a monopoly over the manufacture and sale of salt, also charged a heavy salt tax. Though it affected everyone, it […]