The coronavirus in Ireland has claimed the lives of 1,650 people, a large majority of whom were those confined in nursing homes and unceremoniously left to meet their fate. For the rest of us, the last several months have been about making unprecedented personal and collective sacrifices in order to save as many lives as […]
In recent nights, long-standing tensions between America’s black community and America’s police force have finally erupted into a full blown conflict across the United States. The death of George Floyd, a 46 year old black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police last week, was the spark that ignited the flames. Though the background to […]
Judging by the headlines of all the major papers and news websites this morning, there is mounting fear and anger in the country at the prospect that schools – primary schools in particular – may not be able to re-open as normal in September. On the face of it, the anger and confusion is justified. […]
In most other western countries, the release of this HSE memo by former Simon Harris appointee Dr. Marcus De Brun would be leading the news everywhere. Not in Ireland, though, where the top story everywhere is about schools re-opening in September, which is almost four months away. And poor Dr. De Brun’s tweet of the […]
It’s one thing, you know, for politicians to lie to you and me. We’re used to it. We don’t expect any better. We’re so used to it that we can actually translate them automatically. For example, “well Miriam, I’m glad you asked me that” means “I am now going to answer a totally different question”. […]
Here’s the Chinese Embassy in Ireland, reporting on today’s events in China, where the Government is proceding with its efforts to crush democracy in Hong Kong: “China’s parliament has overwhelmingly approved directly imposing national security legislation on Hong Kong to tackle secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference in the city. The National People’s Congress voted […]
A stunning report from Pat Leahy in the Irish Times this morning: “The future of a proposed ban on the importation of Israeli goods produced in Palestinian territories has emerged as a sticking point in the talks on government formation. The Occupied Territories Bill 2018, proposed by Independent Senator Frances Black and supported by Fianna […]
On the face of it, the idea that an abortion might be “reversible” is a hard thing for people to get their heads around, and that’s probably because it’s not really a very accurate phrase. It is, of course, impossible to reverse an abortion once one has happened. You cannot recreate a life that has […]
You may remember, last week, that the Chinese Embassy in Ireland took out a full page advert in the Irish Independent on the issue of the Coronavirus, to tell us all how splendid China is, and how magnificent their response to the Coronavirus has been. A member of the public made contact with the Standards […]
The lady standing at the podium was the second most senior civil servant in the Department of the Taoiseach, Elizabeth Canavan. She was there to deliver an important update on the Government’s advice to the public on the first day of the easing of the restrictions which had kept most of the country housebound for […]
There are probably two things one might say about Mary Lou McDonald’s claim to the Sunday Independent that given the chance, she’d have been in the IRA, armed to the teeth and taking potshots at lads from Bolton who were unlucky enough to get posted to Northern Ireland. If you’re the anti-SF type, there’s the […]
When this emerged last night, there was at least the possibility that the public was being tricked by old footage from a pre-Covid summer, and that the Taoiseach was not, in fact, out yucking it up in the Phoenix Park yesterday while thousands have died in nursing homes and their families banned from attending the […]