Time is ticking for Europe, as it begins to take its demographic challenge seriously. The European Commission recently appointed Dubravka Šuica from Croatia to the position of Vice-President for Democracy and Demography. Her mission letter outlines her job for the next five years: “ensuring that Europe understands and responds to one of its deepest lying […]
On Tuesday an historic trial commences in Belgium. It will be the first time that doctors have faced criminal charges over euthanasia since it was legalised in 2002. Three of them have been charged with illegal poisoning. If convicted, they face stiff prison sentences. The deceased was a 38-year-old woman, Tine Nys, who died in 2010. Three doctors […]
Social media is causing anxiety amongst teenagers – and that effect is bigger for girls than it is for boys, a leading expert on child psychology has written. Dr. Leonard Sax, a psychologist and leading author on child psychology and learning, says “the bottom line is that the evidence is much stronger than I had […]
“The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members” Dear politicians, candidates and political parties, As I sit down to write this, the general election here in Ireland is only 3 weeks away. My reasons for writing this open letter to all of you is two-fold: 1) […]
The election is upon us, and this year’s election will be fought on the three H’s. Housing, Homelessness and Health. The latter is the one which affects each and every one of us, and one which has dominated the headlines for all the wrong reasons into the New Year. Fine Gael came into power ten […]
The 2020 Irish general election will be held on Saturday, 8 February 2020. What is the biggest issue for you in this election? #gript
In the opening passage of his latest book, How to be a Dictator, Dutch historian Frank Dikötter quotes British novelist William Thackeray’s caption of a satirical engraving depicting the Sun King Louis XIV in his unadorned, sickly body. “Thus do barbers and cobblers make the gods that we worship.” Dikötter’s book is the verbal equivalent of […]
The European Commission (the executive branch of the EU) for the next five years has recently taken office under the Presidency of Ursula von der Leyen. The 27 members of the Commission (one from each member state – the departing UK has not named a commissioner) form a cabinet government and together they propose legislation, […]
Thomas Ashe trained as a teacher and worked as a school principal in Lusk, Co. Dublin. He was a poet, piper and talented singer and having being reared in the Gaeltacht in Kerry, was an avid supporter of the Irish language. This brought him to the governing body of the Gaelic League, he was also […]
Not all abortions end an unwanted pregnancy, and that makes a difference to the women Does the termination of an unwanted pregnancy harm women’s mental health? No more than giving birth in such circumstances, according to mainstream social scientists and medical associations. Perhaps. But what about women who terminate a wanted pregnancy? A new study […]
In an article in the Irish Times in February 2014[1], Fintan O’Toole reviewed the marriage rates in Ireland on foot of a CSO annual report that had been recently published. He was motivated to write the article in response to a press release from the Iona Institute some months earlier which had ended with the […]
Tomorrow on TG 4 (Wednesday, Jan 8th), viewers of Irish Television, will get a rare opportunity to see a documentary that gives an honest assessment of our nation’s fishing industry. Little attention is ever given to the fact that our fisheries is our greatest natural resource. Since 1975, foreign boats netted over €240 Billion worth […]