Boris Johnson’s two chief scientific advisors, Professors Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance, were in front of the media yesterday to face a grilling on Johnson’s plans to fully re-open the UK next week. The assembled media (doing their job, to be fair) were very eager to poke holes in the plan, and extract quotes about […]
Some people, including many readers, will be downcast by this, or angry, or feel that their suspicions have been validated. Personally, though, it is not something that overly concerns me, for reasons set out below. If it is necessary, then sign me up: Pfizer says it plans to meet with top U.S. health officials Monday […]
It would not really be accurate to say that Mayo played Leitrim in a Connaught Championship game yesterday afternoon. It would be more accurate to say that Mayo held a training session, while 15 Leitrim men stood on the pitch, and admired them. At half time, the score was Mayo 3-11, Leitrim four points. Sport […]
You cannot blame those in Fianna Fáil – led by serial rebel Marc MacSharry – who have, at the twenty-ninth hour, decided that the time has come for a change in leadership. There is nothing else, after all, left to try. The party’s performance in the Dublin Bay South bye-election was so abysmal, so humiliating, […]
Right, cards on the table, and feel free to boo at the screen if you are so minded: This writer is backing England on Sunday. Not quite to the extent of wearing an England shirt (in the part of Monaghan were I grew up, that would invite a bullet, and to the kneecap only if […]
Yesterday the Irish Government made a truly extraordinary announcement: under plans they propose to put into legislation, indoor hospitality will return in Ireland on July 26th. But only for those who have been fully vaccinated. If you are vaccinated, like me, then you will be able to sit indoors in a restaurant or a pub. […]
There is good news here, and bad news. The good news is now that we are a rogue state, the chances of the Americans deciding to launch a pre-emptive strike and liberate us from the tyranny of NPHET or whoever have increased dramatically. The bad news is that it is unlikely that many serious people […]
It is not hard to feel sympathy for the organisers of the Dublin Marathon. Speaking to Kieran Cuddihy on Newstalk’s Hard Shoulder last evening (an item in which yours truly also featured), lead organiser Jim Aughney said that the cancellation was not because the organisers lacked faith in the vaccine programme, or personally believed in […]
The point of the media – the reason it exists – is to report the news to the public. Our job, as journalists, is to pull together relevant information about the things that are happening in the world, and present it to you, the public, in a way that is accessible, understandable, and accurate. When […]
Una Mullally’s savage, over the top, and downright nasty attack on Fine Gael by-election candidate James Geoghegan in this week’s Irish Times should be a wakeup call for the party, but it will not be. For most of the last decade, Fine Gael has sought to win the respect, admiration, and votes, of people like […]
A fascinating insight, here, into how difficult it is going to be for Governments to open up fully. The UK Government announced last night that from July 19th, facemasks would no longer be mandatory in England. A cause for celebration, you might think? Not so fast: The majority of Britons say face masks should continue […]
On Thursday, the good people of one of Ireland’s wealthiest constituencies, and one of its most liberal, will go to the polls to select a replacement TD, after Fine Gael’s Eoghan Murphy decided – quite rationally – that he had just about had enough of the carry on in Leinster House. In a constituency that […]