Paddy Power, or to be exact Paddy Power punters thought that Biden won the first debate. Odds on him were shortened to 4/6 in the immediate aftermath. Hey, it’s as good a predictor as any as to what is likely to happen although they were completely wrong in 2016 when PP paid out on Hilary […]
On Saturday evening, U.S. President Trump named Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. Although her nomination had been widely predicted, and was greeted enthusiastically by the President’s supporters and by the Pro Life movement, it also sparked another outpouring of rage, abuse and […]
The deliberate setting on fire of the Moria migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos has led to a renewed campaign by European Pollyannas to pressurise EU member states to take in more people. Leftists in the European Parliament, including the GUE/NGL of which Sinn Féin is a member have demanded that all 12,500 […]
Fifty years ago, on September 26 1970 to be exact, a huge fire destroyed over 100,000 acres of woodland in northern California, destroying a property known as the Spahn Movie Ranch: “As the ranch hands tried to save the horses, the Manson girls, their faces illuminated by the light of the conflagration, danced and clapped […]
Three Nigerian men resident in Ireland were charged in the Dublin District Court last Friday as part of Garda Operation Engulf which targeted online fraud including what are known as ‘romance scams’. One of the charges relates to a woman who was defrauded of money by a person who she had made contact with through […]
On Saturday, the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI) decided at a meeting of its national executive to ballot its members on strike action. Although part of this concerns the on-going and legitimate concern over the status and pay grades of some teachers, it is evident that the main issue is the re-opening of […]
The recent passing of yet more “emergency” legislation under the Covid-19 exemption has led to some criticism with regard to the implications that it might have for those in danger of home repossession if their mortgage has been sold to one or other of the ubiquitous vulture funds. Many billions of such debt has already […]
Trotskyist TD and soi disant, and indeed physically distanced, “anti fascist” Paul Murphy has introduced yet another private members bill to ban hare coursing by muzzled dogs. He described it as “cruel, barbaric and outdated.” A bit like socialism you might say. Of course his concern for small furry chaps might be taken with more […]
At the very beginning of the Covid 19 panic, Anthony Fauci, the chief scientist in the American anti virus programme, speculated that Americans might never shake hands with one another again. It is not yet illegal to shake hands but it is certainly frowned upon. Which might be regarded as a victory by the person […]
Even with the current Covid panic, the issue of homelessness continues to exercise many. The current estimate stands at around 10,000 people homeless in Ireland, of whom almost half are in Dublin. The exact criteria for such a determination is somewhat vague, but even so, many people are finding it difficult to get a home […]
If there was an award for “brass hypocrisy”, to borrow Mattie McGrath’s term, then Sinn Féin would be short odds favourite to land the spoils. McGrath was referring to the party’s call to move Dáil proceedings back to Leinster House – after they had previously refused to support him at a Business Committee meeting where […]
Albert Camus, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957, was an early left critic of Marxist totalitarianism. He had been a member of the Communist Party of France and the Communist Party of Algeria in the1930s but rejected both the philosophy and reality of what Communism meant when it became the state ideology […]