A church that speaks out on Christian doctrine only when that doctrine happens to coincidentally serve the political needs of the state is, in this writer’s estimation, barely worthy of the name.
O’Gorman’s opinion as to what “represents as durable” is just that: His personal opinion.
Names have meaning and significance, and should be treated with the respect they deserve.
Our political class now appears to be in such a desperate state of panic that the apparent priority here was not to think matters through, but to rush the story into print.
Unless Iowa is an unprecedented outlier and freak result, Trump’s Republican opponents are wasting their time.
The Government now has two unpalatable options, and an unworkable one.
It will, as progressives have done in almost every campaign over the last century, be an effort to guilt the public into voting against the alleged sins of their grandparents and great-grandparents.
The last time a Government lost the co-operation and consent of the Irish people to govern them, it was largely as a result of policing tactics like these, and the injudicious use of its monopoly on the use of force.
It is very likely that over the coming months, the public are going to be confronted with the spectacle of dozens, if not hundreds, of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael candidates for the county council telling voters on the doorsteps and on the local airwaves that their national party leadership is entirely wrong on immigration.
A quick scan of Irish headlines in relation to the deposit return scheme, due to be introduced from February 1st, shows that the Irish media have, predictably, been utterly fawning:
In such circumstances, we must essentially trust twelve people on a jury to get it right
From the Union point of view, a Government is rarely weaker than when it is about to face the electorate.