There are very few people in life who have not, at some point or other, made a terrible mistake. When you take a vow of marriage, you pledge solemnly, either before God, or before the whole community, represented by the State, that you will bind your life to that of your spouse for eternity. For […]
And so, at last, the silliest day in Irish politics has dawned again. Across the country this afternoon, candidates and canvassers will be making a final push for votes. Partisans on the internet will be wearing out their keyboards, furiously tweeting out last minute arguments designed ostensibly to persuade others, but in reality, to keep […]
Sinn Fein in Government would allow children under the age of 16 to take their parents to court in order to change their legal gender without the parents consent, Sinn Fein’s LGBTI spokesman has said at a pre-election hustings. Senator Fintan Warfield was speaking at a hustings organised by “BelongTo”, which is a taxpayer funded […]
Last night’s leaders debate between the three people vying to be the next Taoiseach has earned high praise from some of the UK journalists visiting our shores to find out how Ireland conducts its politics. For all that Irish people might think that our politicians are sub-standard, at least some of those observing from abroad […]
You might not have noticed, but this was supposed to be the Climate election. It was all decided relatively far in advance of the thing, with most of the narratives pre-scripted. Young voters, emboldened and inspired by Greta Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion, and Saoirse McHugh, were supposed to rise up and push Ireland to the international […]
There’s understandably been grave concern in Fine Gael over the last week at the direction of the General Election campaign. Their party is third in the polls. Their star feminist candidate called the Taoiseach autistic. Their best photoshoot involved Simon Coveney eating a sausage roll. Nobody cares about Brexit. Sinn Fein are on the march. […]
The good news in this election campaign, if you’re an undecided voter, is that every problem the country has can be easily solved if you just vote the right way. If you want a tax cut, you’re going to get one. If you’re concerned about your pension, don’t worry – that will be fixed. If […]
Brexit day is a hugely important day for Fine Gael in the context of this general election campaign, because in many ways it’s a day of genuine triumph for the Government. Whether the fears of societal collapse and economic catastrophe on foot of Brexit were ever based in fact, or whether they were exaggerated, the […]
In some ways, you have to feel very sorry for Fianna Fáil’s MEP Billy Kelleher. When he voted, as a TD, to abolish the offence of blasphemy, he probably thought he was increasing his own freedom of speech. What he didn’t realise was that the offence of blasphemy in Ireland was only abolished for mocking […]
There are plenty of voters and citizens who might feel that they have few reasons to shed any tears over the downfall of Fine Gael Senator Catherine Noone. The Senator, who imploded her own political career two days ago by making extraordinarily offensive and false remarks about her own party leader, has racked up a […]
If you were to distil Ireland’s emergent culture wars down to their purest, most unadulterated essence, you probably couldn’t come up with a better few lines than this response to a questionnaire on cycling by the Chairman of Renua Ireland: TheJournal's first Election Q&A is up. We asked each party their policies on cycling in […]
If you were the kind of person who bets, and if you had the chance to lay odds on which political party would produce the single dumbest policy of the General Election, you’d never go far wrong betting on Solidarity/People Before Profit. And if you’d made that bet, then today you would have won. A […]