Last October, the Dáil voted to initiate legislation to legalise assisted suicide and normalise euthanasia in Ireland. Shorn of language that might spook many TDs and cause voters to recoil, the Private Members Bill was sponsored by the radical left-wing People Before Profit/Solidary alliance. The vote was taken late in the evening, mid-week, and amidst […]
The Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Péter Skjiilstra, visits Dublin today for discussions with his counterpart Simon Coveney, and with Tánaiste, Leo Varadker. The visit is part of the lead into to Hungary’s Presidency of the European Council, which begins at the end of the month. It comes at a time of epochal […]
Every person committed to upholding Constitutional freedoms and every person of faith should opposed the Goverment’s draconian and provocative Regulation ( SI 171 of 2021) as an assault on religious freedom. Archbishop Eamon Martin has done a great service not alone to his flock but to democracy in pushing back strongly against this disingenuous and […]
The Government have succeeded in keeping our Churches – not their Churches but our Churches – closed during Holy Week: a week on which our whole Christian faith pivots. It cannot be said too often that there was no medical reason to do so. It has been a repressive policy; and the misinformation and fear-mongering […]
It is no surprise that Ulster Bank is finally winding down and exiting the Irish market. The Bank has shown great commitment to Ireland and to maintaining an active presence in the Irish banking market, especially over the last decade. It has invested serious capital in writing-off losses, in technology and in corporate restructuring. The […]
Politicians in Belfast and Brussels – and Dublin and London – are understandably preoccupied by the fallout from the EU’s invoking of Article 16 and their rapid change of mind after the damage was done. It has temporarily deflected attention from the recent, albeit premature, talk of a ‘Border Poll’ on reunification, sparked by George […]
The EU blinked. There’s no point in attempting to put a gloss on it. You know the kind of thing: “This is not a time for triumphalism…” On the contrary, yes, it is. Europe should celebrate the Free Trade Agreement negotiated by Boris Johnson because it is a vindication of what democracy is about, and […]
The EU’s pre- Christmas Summit, on 10/11th December, is just over a week away. Brexit looms, of course, but the make or break issue on the table is the EU’s €1.8 trillion fiscal response to impact of the Covid-19 endemic. This pivotal initiative has been in stasis for almost six months. The reason is a […]
The 2020/ 2021 Budget is not behind us. It’s what we’re facing into, in its impact on our society, our politics – now irrevocably changed – and our world. The world seems very close, pressing in on us, spooked by uncertainties and fear. Economic fears, certainly. But also deeper fears that, somehow, what is happening […]
The country is at yet another crossroads. There is a build-up of traffic. Brexit beckons. The economy is comatose. The credibility of the Government’s COVID-19 strategy is under serious pressure. And Ireland’s new secularism is leading to an oppression of fundamental rights and freedoms. Trust – that most precious civic commodity – is always a […]
Earlier this year, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Ratzinger, travelled back to his home in Bavaria to visit his ailing older brother, shortly before the latter died. It was an onerous and poignant journey and he contacted shingles on his return. While intellectually alert, at 93 years of age, he is inevitably frail. Indeed, […]
The re-opening of schools has brought the illusion of normality to our country. After all, what’s better and more normal than seeing little ones and older children return to the business of books and school bags, lunches and learning, drop-offs and pick-ups. Families are the hinge of a healthy society, the pivot of a robust […]