Selling Ireland has Cromwellian echoes
One of the great temptations when you write about policy and politics for a living is to surrender to your prior prejudices when covering any story. It is fair to say that my prior prejudices about recent Irish policy are as follows: That harmonising our corporate taxation rates was a grievous error, likely to drive […]
Collateral damage?
A phenomenon which I encounter more and more often, these days, is the case of the secret Gript reader. The secret Gript reader comes to you via Whatsapp, or a twitter direct message, or sometimes, an encounter at a social event. They always say the same thing, more or less, and it goes something like […]
No matter what’s happening as regards Covid in Ireland, the government has one answer and one answer alone: Panic. When deaths are up even slightly, they panic. When hospitalisations are up even slightly, they panic. When deaths and hospitalisations are down, they prepare for an imagined incoming new wave (which may or may not come […]
Herd immunity?
It has not been much remarked upon, in the early days of the new year, that there is one political certainty in 2022: The year begins with Micheál Martin as Taoiseach. It will end with somebody else in the job. Mr. Martin made a deal to take power, and at the centre of that deal […]
Cappagh Hospital in Dublin is not an acute hospital. It is the national orthopaedic hospital, with 159 beds, and seven state of the art operating theatres. It is where you go when you need an operation on your bones, or muscles. It does not accept, and is not equipped to handle, Covid patients. However, at […]
Dull but safe?
2021 was the year of the great Irish vaccine culture war. And, in a sane world, 2021 is where that great vaccine culture war would stay. We now know the facts about the Covid 19 vaccines, and what they do, and do not, do. We know, for example, that the vaccines confer some important benefits. […]
And a Lesson from History
Shocker