One of the main issues in the recent election was housing. We live in a state where even those who can afford to in many cases cannot buy or rent a place to live. That is a major fail on any level. It is going to be exacerbated by the state’s plan to increase the […]
The Cork senior hurlers and footballers will wear a black jersey for their next national league games to commemorate two former Cork City mayors who died in 1920. The first of those was Lord Mayor Tomás Mac Curtain who was murdered by the Royal Irish Constabulary (who Minister Charles Flanagan sought to commemorate) at his house […]
My grandmother, Esther Hannon, had two heroes other than Mattie my namesake granddad who was from Tipperary and whose own history remains a mystery. We are not closely related to the most famous Treacy who was from the football part of the county. She was a Dub going back generations, although her own mother, a […]
Sinn Féin members have been told that they need to maintain “maximum unity and cohesion” as they enter post-election talks aimed at forming a government. They have named a public negotiation team, but members have been told that others of the “core group” of the party are involved. The final election results present an interesting […]
It would not be an exaggeration to describe this general election as one of the most extraordinary in the history of the state. The only comparable one I can think of is the 1948 election which led to the participation of Clann na Phoblacta in government but their advance was nothing compared to that of […]
The reaction of the liberal left to the Senate’s rejection of the Democratic attempt to impeach President Trump has bordered on hysteria. The claims that it contained misogyny and racism are absurd. The liberal twitter interpreting of what he said belong in the realm of the deconstructionist nonsense with which they have infected academia. One […]
There are two main aspects to the climate change phenomenon. The first is the political movement variously represented by Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion and factions of the Green and left parties. The second is how governments exploit the fear of a threatened global catastrophe to impose new taxes and other restrictions on their citizens. […]
West Wing it was not, although one person in the background looked quite like Carol the perpetually smiling and nonspeaking press assistant to Martin Sheen’s President. Donald Trump is clearly not the kind of President that the creators of West Wing would have chosen. The headlines were Trump’s apparent refusal to shake the hand […]
Many people are aware of what happened to Paudie Gahon who was a Louth teenager raped by a member of one of the elite Belfast Brigade IRA families, the Marleys. Séamus Marley is the son of Larry who organised the H Block escape in 1983. Someone else now claims to have been the mastermind, but […]
Stockholm Syndrome. It is the psychological description of a state in which a captive comes to identify with their captor. On the day on which our nearest neighbour has formally departed the European Union, perhaps it is apt to reflect on this state’s relationship to that entity. There are many factors influencing the reaction of […]
I lived in Navan in 1982. I worked on an archaeology site of all things at Randalstown near where the mines had their dumps. It had been part of the Everard estate which grew tobacco but much longer ago had been a village on the Boyne. So in digging down into our past you might find […]
It would appear that Peadar Tóibín’s reference to the manner in which Sinn Féin operates has opened up an entire can of worms. It is no secret now regarding the manner in which pro-life republicans were forced out of Sinn Féin. The reason for that was the belief that the party needed to be seen […]