Imagine a situation where some country – let us say China, since they’re not historically averse to training Olympic athletes from childhood – was found to have provided masses of testosterone to its female weightlifters from the ages of 12 to 25 while training them to enter the Olympic weightlifting competition later in life. In […]
Amidst all the tiresome controversy around the proposed ethos of the new national maternity hospital, which is now slated to cost, naturally, some €800m, one thing has been forgotten: The Sisters of Charity, in an act of timeless folly, volunteered for this public whipping. After all, they are choosing to donate the land on which […]
The findings of the latest Irish Times/MRBI poll on Covid attitudes – covered by Ben on Friday here – are genuinely extraordinary. Overall, a slight majority – 51% – want to open the country up more quickly than the Government is presently doing. But it is very close – 46% actually think the country is […]
What was the justification for exterminating a family of wild boar that was discovered in county Kerry? Well, the answer, as usual, is based on agriculture: The notion that if this “invasive species” was allowed to take hold in Ireland, it might pass diseases on to our poor domestic pigs, and, in the final analysis, […]
Straightforward question, really, and one worth talking about a little bit. Fans of football will have tuned in, last night, to the European Championship clash between Denmark and Belgium in Copenhagen, and seen the host nation lose 2-1. They will also have seen a live, in person, outdoor attendance of some 40,000 football fans. Why, […]
Watch the whole video here, so you can be sure that we’re not being unfair to Aodhán O’Riordáin, Labour TD, and, apparently, staunch opponent of owning your own home: During today's debate @AodhanORiordain raised the issue of changing the way we view housing and put a bigger emphasis on creating diverse communities creating a better […]
Giving Tony Holohan the Freedom of the City of Dublin is significant in one way: At least one person, now, has freedom in Dublin: CHIEF Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has officially accepted the Freedom of the City of Dublin. Dr Holohan met with Lord Mayor Hazel Chu at the Mansion House in Dublin on […]
The Labour Party’s new policy is a new policy, technically speaking. But it is not a new idea. It is, in fact, almost 50 years old and was first proposed in the Kenny Report of 1973. The report is so old, in fact, that its author, Justice John Kenny, has been dead since 1987. The […]
Paying taxes is a deeply unpleasant business. The Government, by force of law, comes and takes up to half your income, in order to give it to other people. Often times, that money is overtly, and flagrantly, wasted. Other times, it is given to people and organisations and causes which do not deserve it. Most […]
The data is in, and it is overwhelmingly positive: NEWS — Our new analysis shows for the first time that two doses of the #COVID19 #vaccines are highly effective against hospitalisation from the #Delta (B.1.61.2) #variant. Read more: https://t.co/6z67CW85Zw pic.twitter.com/oyRFghHpXw — UK Health Security Agency (@UKHSA) June 14, 2021 Pfizer and Moderna – the MRNA […]
One of the subjects that is consistently absent from real debate in Ireland is the question of civil liberties, and the limits that should be placed on the power of the state. Yesterday, the Irish Government announced that it intends to make it an offence to refuse to provide the Gardai with the password to […]
If you happen to have been reading, oh, literally any other Irish media outlet, except perhaps the Sunday Times, over the last week, you will have encountered one perspective, and one only, on the question of footballers “taking the knee” before the kick-off of their European Championship matches. It is, you have been endlessly told, […]