Normally, we don’t cover the usual blather from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs here at Gript for the simple reason that it is all rather predictable: You will get condemnations of anything Israel does, bland statements about how great the European Union is, and complete and utter silence on anything unpleasant done in any […]
How seriously, you might ask, should we take this? https://twitter.com/RepKevinBoyle/status/1391746352888025090 The answer, alas, is not very seriously at all. Which is exactly, of course, what someone would say if they were a person in the media who had been compromised by UK intelligence. You will just have to take my word on it that nothing […]
My colleague Gary Kavanagh made an observation last night which will stick with me for some time: The great trick of Irish policymakers, he said, has been to convince people that the consequences of their decisions are in fact the consequences of Covid, and that there was never any other way. No matter what happens, […]
We will put this in the category of “darkly amusing”: https://twitter.com/CloHiggins/status/1391083611860967426 You might wonder why a “wheelchair friendly” park bench is something that anybody would bother to invent. After all, people in wheelchairs – not through choice, of course – are not lacking for somewhere to sit down. Life has forced them to take a […]
Nicholas Wade, if you have never heard of him, is not just some random journalist. For 30 years, he was the Science Editor at the New York Times. Before that, he was Editor of Science, one of the most important Scientific journals in the world. So, when he publishes an exhaustive argument setting out the […]
Photo credit: Houses of the Oireachtas There are, perhaps, few better jobs in Ireland than being a member of Seanad Eireann. It’s true, of course, that the salary (basic pay of €69,474) is not quite at the level of a TD (basic pay of €98,113), but that ignores quite a few other advantages. For example, […]
One of the rites of passage for American Children, as any person who has watched an American coming-of-age movie will know, is heading off to what they call “summer camp”, which is sort of a convenient way for parents to get rid of their children over the summer holidays. There were, of course, no such […]
Long standing, and highly respected ex-RTE political editor David Davin Power had a one-word response to this video, yesterday afternoon: “Remarkable”. #China has completed greatest poverty reduction programme in human history, while #Homelessness in the West is at record levels. In last 40 years China bombed nobody or isn't Sanctioning any countries to death – […]
As an instinctive authoritarian with a healthy degree of scepticism about “the youth”, let me just say this: Is it time for a second look at the Social Democrats? A Dublin councillor says a change to drinking laws, and curfews on younger people, could be a solution to anti-social behaviour. Social Democrats councillor for Howth […]
According to the taxpayer funded lobby group which came up with the idea, “Minimum Unit Pricing” for alcohol is a simple enough idea. Here is what they say: “Minimum unit pricing (MUP) is a “floor price” beneath which alcohol cannot legally be sold and is based on the amount of alcohol in a product, measured […]
There was, across much of the media, and politics, widespread condemnation in recent days of the news that a global property firm, Round Hill Capital, was set to purchase most of the homes in a new 170-home development in Kildare. The frustration amongst a lot of people on hearing this news was perfectly understandable, if […]
Many rank and file Gardai are deeply upset and frustrated with the role that the Garda organisation has been asked to play during the Coronavirus lockdown, according to three members of the force who spoke with Gript. Last week, Gript was approached by a Garda Sergeant based in Dublin who provided an extensive list of […]