Let’s face it: In one, very limited respect, this isn’t the worst idea in the world. January is everyone’s least favourite month, right? Maybe if we move Christmas, we can retain all the festive cheer of December, but keep the mince pies and mulled wine and Mariah Carey singing inappropriate lines about Santa Claus until […]
In the week since American voters went to the polls, most things about the result have become clear, and a few things remain outstanding. Joe Biden has been declared, by the media, Democrats, and more than a few Republicans, to be the President-Elect. He has spent the last few days beginning to assemble an administration, […]
It is very unusual for the Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil to make any interventions whatever in political matters, given that the chair is generally sworn to neutrality. Which makes this one, then, all the more notable: Ceann Comhairle Sean Ó Fearghaíl said he was refusing to allow debates on an “inordinate number of complaints […]
The figures in relation to elder abuse, released yesterday by the HSE, are simply astonishing. Here’s Newstalk with a summary: The health service’s National Safeguarding Office received almost 12,000 ‘concerns’ of abuse of vulnerable people last year. Some 3,337 related to adults over 65-years-of-age – a 9% increase on the year before. One third (33%) […]
The publication, last evening, of letters between the Chief Justice, Frank Clarke, and Mr. Justice Seamus Woulfe, in which Clarke tells Woulfe that, in his opinion, Woulfe should resign, have caused a major political headache for the Government. On the one hand, the politics of this situation are fairly straightforward: Woulfe is a villain, who […]
To be fair, they didn’t say the first bit. But it’s hard to argue that politics didn’t influence the timing, for reasons we’ll come to shortly. But first, the news: As I type these words, stock markets are surging globally. And why wouldn’t they? A 90% effective Coronavirus vaccine means, well, the end of the […]
Nothing congeals in Ireland quite so quickly as conventional wisdom, and in the days since Joe Biden was declared President Elect by the US media, the conventional wisdom in Ireland has hardened like concrete: He’s going to shaft the British on Brexit and plant his flag firmly in the old sod of Ballina – take […]
Let’s face it: they’re not wrong. If ever there was going to be a time to legalise drugs, it’s now, right? We can all forget about this blasted pandemic and get high: Drugs could be decriminalised under the current government if all parties work together to help those with addiction issues, Labour said. Aodhán Ó […]
A stark image here, via Gavan Reilly: pic.twitter.com/QxyaTuWiLy — Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) November 7, 2020 This is, of course, an absolutely terrible development, but most people seem incapable of understanding why. That’s largely because attitudes to Trump fall into two camps, and they are almost irreconcilable. The first camp includes almost every Irish journalist, and […]
An interesting, but ultimately certain to be futile, move: NEW: Sinn Féin have put down a motion of no confidence in Leo Varadkar over the leak controversy. Will be debated next week — Seán Defoe (@SeanDefoe) November 6, 2020 With all the noise around the US election, the Varadkar/Maitiu O’Tuathail scandal has sort of faded […]
Last night, President Trump took to the podium at the White House to claim that the US Election was being stolen from him by voter fraud in several key states. Online, several theories have been floating around as to how this theft might be happening. It is worth, therefore, looking at the evidence for each […]
On November 3rd, 2004, as the votes were counted across America, the picture became very clear: George W. Bush had won Florida, and had a 200,000 vote lead in crucial Ohio. In Boston, where a crowd was waiting hopefully to hear from John Kerry, his vice Presidential candidate, John Edwards, took to the stage. There […]