ON THIS DAY: 25TH MARCH 1846: Birth of Michael Davitt, One of the Leaders in the Land League and activist in the ‘Land Wars’ He was born in Mayo the second of five children in an Irish speaking family. They were evicted from their home in 1850 due to rent arrears and the family emigrated […]
As I sit down to write a post for this demography blog tonight, it is hard to think of anything but New Zealand’s announcement today that we should be in full lockdown in our homes as soon as possible, and at the latest by midnight this Wednesday. It is hard to get my head around the […]
An Argentine court has upheld the criminal conviction of a gynaecologist who refused to abort the child of a rape victim in 2017. Dr Leandro Rodriguez Lastra was sentenced to a 14-month suspended jail term, plus 28 months of disqualification from holding public office. Dr Rodriguez Lastro will appeal. The victim was a 19-year-old in her fifth […]
In the days following Leo Varadkar’s address to the Nation on St Patrick’s Day, there was a flurry of chatter online as journalists, politicos and those outside the bubble shared their thoughts and reactions. Most of the coverage was undoubtedly positive, much of the public seemingly reassured that the Government and the Taoiseach are making […]
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson garbled his government’s coronavirus strategy. The media reported that the UK (and the Netherlands) were adopting a “herd immunity” approach to combatting the disease. The chief scientific adviser to the government, Patrick Vallance, suggested that the UK would allow millions of Britons to be infected, boosting eventual herd immunity. “Our aim is […]
You’ve had a baby, it’s great! You look to the future with promise and hope, and trust that those around you will be as positive as they were throughout the last nine months. Not long after those short-lived congrats for your pregnancy, you were probably swamped with statements such as ‘oh the mayhem never stops…your […]
Over the past couple of years, the world’s media has been agog at Sarco (short for sarcophagus), the elegant suicide pod developed by Dr Philip Nitschke. Just close the lid, turn on the nitrogen, and you will die. The pod can also be used as a coffin, thereby saving relatives of the deceased time and money. For […]
A new book from Ross Douthat argues that it is. A few days it was my birthday. I am 35 now and so am feeling proper-old. Not elderly, but like a proper grown-up. I suppose three children, a house, a mortgage, a job and an aching knee should be enough to remind me of my […]
This week marked the centenary of the killing of Tomás MacCurtáin, Mayor of Cork, who was shot dead by the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) on March 20th, 1920. MacCurtain had been elected the first Republican Mayor of Cork City, and was assassinated in front of his family in a premeditated attack planned by the RIC with the […]
On Wednesday night, while 90 percent of the world was coming to grips with the impact of the coronavirus on their lives, a majority in the New Zealand Parliament voted into law one of the most extreme abortion regimes on the planet. That’s right. Just when emergency measures are being rolled out by the day to […]
The right to privacy is something that any democratic government should respect and defend, rather than ignore or even destroy, as the government of China appears to be doing.
There is now a total of 769 confirmed cases of Covid-19 north and south of Ireland, and tragically there have been 4 deaths so far. Many of these infections could have been prevented in my view. Many of these people are likely to have contracted the illness when flights were still arriving from northern Italy into […]