In recent days, it has been widely reported in other media that the Irish taxpayer funds An Taisce to the tune of €3m per year. It has been widely reported, because An Taisce is leading the campaign against a new cheese factory in the South East of the country, potentially costing the region hundreds of […]
The GAA, according to rule 1.11 of its constitution and rules, is a non-party political organisation. That means, in short, that it does not get involved in, or take sides in, matters of political controversy. The rule has some leeway built into it, as nearly every rule in Ireland does: Non party political does not […]
It is an extraordinary thing, in a modern western democracy, to hear a mainstream politician openly suggesting a complete ban on all immigration. Such calls, after all, are usually reserved to the fringes of the political fringe. Even Donald Trump, the most openly anti-immigration world leader of recent times, never went so far as to […]
There are many things one could say about Donald Trump and his successor, Joe Biden, but perhaps the only thing one might say that would unite critics and fans of both is this: Trump was vastly more riveting telly, whether you considered him the hero, or the villain. And with him gone, the TV network […]
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 – […]