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 […]
Gerry Adams’ announcement that he is retiring from politics brings to an end one of the most significant public lives of the past century. He is without doubt a major historical figure whose influence on events in Ireland was hugely significant. I cannot claim to have known him well. I did know him but I […]
In Dostoyevsky’s great novel The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan Karamazov asserts that if there is no God, then anything is permitted. Reading what is known so far of the details of the horrific murder of the 17 year-old whose body parts were found in different parts of Dublin this week, we must certainly be conscious that […]
A Bill published by Westminster will, if passed, mean that a poll on a United Ireland would be almost guaranteed to fail. The Referendums Criteria Bill [HL] 2019-20 is currently before the House of Lords and states that 60% or more of those voting in any border poll within Northern Ireland would have to approve of any proposal for Irish unity. A […]
Roger Scruton who died on January 12 was a remarkable person. He grew up in Ancoats, a part of Manchester captured in L.S Lowry’s distinctive paintings. The son of a socialist school teacher Scruton became perhaps the most eloquent of modern thinkers to reject socialism and all its works. Unlike many of the déclassé left […]