Offaly TD Carol Nolan has said that NPHET is to recommend not extending the lockdown in Offaly and Laois after August 22. However, in response to a question from a constituent, she said that “Kildare may well remain in lockdown.” The recommendation still has to be signed off by the Government which is expected to announce […]
I do not recall hearing of any Bacchanalian scenes at the many sports events held over last weekend, but it would seem that the outrage expressed at such behaviour in the Berlin Bar on Dame Lane has been one of the factors in a notable tightening of restrictions connected to the Coronavirus panic. Of course, neither the […]
Just when it seemed that President Donald Trump was heading for an inevitable defeat to Joe Biden, there are signs that he may indeed be turning things around. The polls following the Democrat convention which began on Monday evening will be interesting, as will those in the week after the Republican convention next weekend. As […]
John McIntyre had an interesting piece in the Connacht Tribune on Thursday. He was comparing the packed beaches at Salthill during the brief heat wave to the restrictions placed on GAA and other sports. The reductio ad absurdum of all this was perhaps the Garda enforced prevention of people climbing Croagh Patrick on Reek Sunday […]
Having spent several days ignoring the violence in Balbriggan last weekend that included the burning of a house, Sinn Féin has been forced to respond to other people breaking the conspiracy of silence (that includes the national broadcaster) on the issue. Louise O’Reilly the Sinn Féin TD for Fingal has come under strong pressure from […]
Serious questions have been raised about a conference call between the First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill, and the Beijing Consul General Zhang Meifang, where it is alleged both politicians indicated support for the current repression of Hong Kong by the authoritarian government in China. The Consulate claimed that during the […]
Whittaker Chambers was one of the great hate figures of the American liberal left. His crime was to strip the veneer of self-righteousness from their treachery. Chambers joined the Communist Party of the United States of America in 1925 and was staff writer and editor for a time of Daily Worker and New Masses. He […]
It would seem that the good people of the counties of Kildare, Laois and Offaly are not pleased with what many regard as a panicked response to the increase in Coronavirus cases there. There have been over 200 cases of Covid in the last fortnight. This has led to the closure of all indoor public […]
A three day hunger strike of residents at the Cahirsiveen Direct Provision centre ended with Minister for Justice Helen McEntee promising that they would all be re-located, beginning this week. She has promised them “permanent accommodation” which seems a bit previous given that none of them have been granted a permanent right to stay in […]
For some strange reason the League of Ireland Professional Players Association has decided that all players will “take a knee,” before all games until the end of September. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they don’t do this during Amhrán na bhFiann.
The PFA’s statement said that this is to “mark the untimely death of George Floyd and stand in strong solidarity with fellow professionals, civil society and the world wide campaign for equality and fair treatment in life and sport.” Perhaps they should agree to have all games end in a draw so?
The annual Desmond Greaves summer school is normally held in late August or early September. It is probably unlikely to go ahead this year with the current restrictions in place, but it has been for long a key event in the calendar of the Irish left. One wonders what Greaves himself might have thought of […]
Tom Mitchell who died on July 22 just short of his 89th birthday was twice elected as a Westminster MP while a republican prisoner, which I believe is a unique distinction. Mitchell was born in Dublin in 1931 and joined the Dublin Brigade of the IRA in the early 1950s. He took part in a […]