The trouble with writing about Ireland at the moment is that it is increasingly difficult to convey to the reader the full scale of the insanity that is going on, while not ending up sounding like a hysteric yourself. But nonetheless, it is important, too, to record things that are true, and here’s a statement […]
If you were scouring the Sunday Newspapers yesterday for a word of criticism of the Government’s plan to give an amnesty, and path to citizenship, to thousands of illegal immigrants, you will have been disappointed. Pieces like that do not tend to make the Irish newspapers. Part of it, of course, is the fear that […]
At about two o’clock yesterday afternoon, RTE’s “liveline” programme erupted into one of those classic “liveline” debates that makes the country tick. The subject, of course, was the announcement by the Department of Education that from yesterday forth, all new toilets in Irish schools, as well as all renovations of existing toilets in Irish schools, […]
Photo Credit: Sinn Féin Flickr (CC attribution) Over the last week, Sinn Fein and its legion of online activists have gone to war with the Irish Independent’s Philip Ryan, who has diligently and thoroughly reported on the party’s “Abú” voter contact logging system. The story has divided people: If you’re a Sinn Fein supporter, then […]
An extraordinary video here, and one which really puts into context the difficulty which lockdown proponents are having in explaining the success of Texas, and Mississippi, two US states which abandoned lockdown over forty days ago, and are seeing some of the lowest Covid case totals in the US, and indeed, in the western world, […]
Be warned, this is going to be a long article, because it’s an important article. If you’re looking for a breezy two minute read, this one ain’t going to be for you. We’ll still try to make it as quick as possible, though. There might be no more important question after all, in the context […]
Rarely, my friends, has there been a better or more comprehensive advert for not paying one’s licence fee than this tweet from Managing Director of RTÉ News, Jon Williams: Agree- it’s terrific. Love to do something similar @rtenews. All it needs is for everyone who is supposed to pay TV licence to do so. Then […]
Dulce et Decorum est, Pro Patria Mori, wrote the Roman Poet Horace, at around about the time of Christ’s birth. It’s a famous Latin phrase, which translates to English as “it is sweet and honourable to die for one’s country”. In its time, the phrase was designed to encapsulate the highest form of patriotism, and […]
The good news here, you might say, is that at least Paschal Donohoe seems to envisage Ireland being fully out of lockdown by 2023. He’s going to get into hot water with the Zero Covid people, who markedly do not share that assumption. But that’s sort of where the good news ends: Paschal Donohoe said […]
In recent weeks, as we’ve covered the effect of Texas lifting its facemask mandate, and all Covid lockdown restrictions, some people who are cautious about the results have said “but what if Texas is just an outlier”? It’s forty days now since the facemask mandate was lifted. Cases remain…. Stunningly low: But it’s not just […]
What’s ironic about this, of course, is that the apology is for the killing of Lord Mountbatten, who, as Lord High Admiral and First Sea Lord, was probably a legitimate military target, if you subscribe to the view that the IRA was fighting a war, as McDonald presumably does. Where’s the apology for killing Nicholas […]
Here is one of the most extraordinary stories to come out of Ireland since the beginning of the pandemic, and one, you can be sure, that won’t get much media attention anywhere else. In fact, it’s buried three quarters of the way through this Irish Times article: The court also heard evidence from Dr Darina […]