A tale of two countries. First, the United Kingdom: A FOUR-STAGE plan could see England’s coronavirus restrictions completely lifted by 21 June, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced. And now, the place that was once part of the United Kingdom, and where at least one writer for a website you are currently reading is […]
These are tough times for everybody in Ireland, and indeed, in many countries around the world. Many businesses are shuttered. Many people, having seen their jobs rendered too dangerous by covid legislation, are not working, and are on income supports. Governments themselves, in fact, are having a tough time of it: With the collapse in […]
Whatsapp groups have, for many people, been a vital social outlet during the long months of the Covid era. One of mine is quite eclectic: There’s a Corkonian, a Galwegian, a Cavanman, and various Dubs. So it was interesting to see the Cavan man – an avid walker – start a conversation over the weekend […]
There’s some consternation in the media this morning that the Taoiseach would make such an important and newsworthy announcement in an exclusive interview with, of all papers, the Irish Mirror. But while our friends in the Irish Times and the Independent might be a little sniffy that they didn’t get the scoop, my own view […]
A powerful interview on the steps of the criminal courts, yesterday afternoon, after former Terenure College Rugby Coach, John McClean, was sent to prison for eight years. Damien Hetherington, one of his victims, was in court to hear the verdict, and stepped in front of the cameras when it was all over. The whole thing […]
If this works out, then I’m looking forward to sending a personal bill to London for my share of the reparations owed for the famine, and other offences caused over the past 800 odd years. A west brit I may be, but I have my eye on getting a PlayStation five, and if reparations are […]
My colleague Gary Kavanagh popped this into our Gript group chat yesterday evening with a three word comment that bears repeating – “Hearts and Minds”: It’s okay not to attend a wake, funeral service, burial or cremation these days because only 10 mourners are allowed due to COVID-19 restrictions. There are other ways to sympathise […]
“Endless Russophobia”, she says, stalks the halls of the European Parliament in Brussels. More on that in a moment. But first, watch the whole thing, and pay close attention to what she says about Putin’s recently imprisoned political foe, Alexei Navalny: Is Navalny, as she says, a “vicious, anti-immigrant, racist”? Well, on the […]
A bit of a hangover from yesterday, which we didn’t get around to, but worth writing about anyway. Honestly, Mary, you’d be so much happier if you just left the Church and became a Protestant. Or a Muslim. Or a Hindu. Literally anything really. Why is she doing this to herself? The Catholic Church’s failure […]
If there is a word to sum up the political zeitgeist in Ireland over the past decade, it must surely be “compassion”. The 2010’s were the decade when official Ireland set out, flanked by an armada of well-funded NGO’s and supported by a media thirsty for change, to right the wrongs of the past. In […]
A fascinating clip from the United States, over the weekend, which should raise real questions about the management of Covid in Irish nursing homes: https://twitter.com/ZacBissonnette/status/1360982497769775104 In Florida, says that state’s Republican Governor (and, by the by, future Presidential candidate), Ron DeSantis, the medical experts told him that if he kept patients from nursing homes in […]
The job of An Garda Siochána, just like any other police force, is to maintain public order, and to investigate crime. The definition of a crime varies from country to country. In Ireland, for example, soliciting the services of a prostitute is illegal. In Ireland that’s a crime – in the Netherlands, by contrast, it’s […]