While Sinn Féin continue to attempt to portray themselves as opponents of the ham-fisted ongoing restrictions in the Republic, it would appear that where they have actual control that their approach will be somewhat different. In the wake of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s statement that almost all restrictions on masks and gatherings will […]
Last week, Ireland’s Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, announced that he would be opening discussions with the hospitality sector to introduce a system for restricting indoor hospitality to customers who have been vaccinated against Covid. There was no public outcry. The government was not widely condemned for proposing to oblige restaurants to engage in systematic […]
On Thursday, the good people of one of Ireland’s wealthiest constituencies, and one of its most liberal, will go to the polls to select a replacement TD, after Fine Gael’s Eoghan Murphy decided – quite rationally – that he had just about had enough of the carry on in Leinster House. In a constituency that […]
There is an interesting snippet of Irish republican history available on You Tube. It is part of Belfast IRA volunteer Jimmy Drumm’s oration in 1969 at the reinternment of Peter Barnes and James McCormack who had been executed in England in February 1940. The speech was a significant gambit in the simmering split within the […]
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has expressed his “disappointment” and “discomfort” with the way in which members of the public have been critical of NPHET online. When they say they’re “all in this together,” they aren’t joking. Speaking in the Dáil last week, Donnelly went to bat for everyone’s favourite unelected body of government advisors. […]
Over the weekend, 140,000 fans poured into the Red Bull Ring, in Spielberg, Austria, to watch the Formula One Austrian Grand Prix. Tens of thousands watched England defeat Ukraine in Rome, in the European Championships. Across the continent, crowds poured into bars, restaurants, and sporting events. Meanwhile, in Ireland: A pilot music festival is taking […]
On Wednesday evening, Professor Philip Nolan, the NPHET scientist responsible for NPHET’s statistical model which predicted 700,000 cases of Covid-19’s Delta Variant in the event that the Government proceeded to re-open the economy as planned, composed a twitter thread outlining the figures. Amidst that thread, he included one of the most incredible statements made by […]
The last time I was involved in a car accident, it was November of 2015, and the main cause of the accident was that I left my wallet in my office and had to run back inside to get it. My now-wife and I were due, that evening, to have dinner in a nice restaurant. […]
Credit where it is due, Michael McDowell has never feared being unpopular. Which is just as well, because his article for the Irish Times yesterday asks some questions that will be unpopular with the Government: Practically no one has articulated the reservation that it may not make sense for Ireland to be in the frontline […]
While the Government decision to “postpone” re-opening of the hospitality sector was the talk of the country, where was the main “opposition” party? That would be Sinn Féin, in numbers at least. But the party whose press office is a veritable incontinent atm of statements on everything from how much people ought to stake on […]
Credit to TDs for extracting this fairly revealing statement from Ireland’s benevolent dictator. But let us face facts: When Holohan says “September or beyond”, he means “or beyond”: NPHET would have recommended keeping pubs and restaurants closed for indoor dining until the “end of September or beyond” had they not proposed a vaccine pass, the […]
Mandatory Hotel Quarantine was introduced in Ireland at the start of 2021 as part of a Government strategy to help get the country back to normal. Six months on, the policy has completely failed, because Ireland remains the most restricted country in Europe. The policy was introduced, let us not forget, on the basis of […]