Naturally, the announcement prior to Christmas that the Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna Covid vaccines were good to go came as a great relief to people who at last could see an end to the “new normal.” However, as Gary Kavanagh pointed out on this platform here, the initial optimism has been tempered, with many questioning […]
With the economy in shreds and thousands of people forced into joblessness due to repeated covid lockdowns, the Irish government now wants to tax the pandemic unemployment payment and hand everyone a big fat tax bill to add insult to injury. As the Irish Times reports: “Thousands of workers to get Covid-19 tax bills next […]
The concerning thing here is not the number of people in hospital, actually. 1,100 patients is a lot, but a modern first world health service should be able to cope with that. No, the concerning thing is this graph: 151 admissions in the past 24 hours, and the rate increasing at more than 100 a […]
Who are the activists and the NGOs who have contributed to stirring up tensions in the past week, especially around the suggestion that bias might have motivated Garda actions leading to the death of George Nkencho? And why are so many of them funded by the hard-pressed Irish tax-payer? These people range from elected TDs […]
Freedom of expression, in a free society, is not unlimited but it should be allowed a very wide gate to run through. It is limited by other rights that belong to others – the right to a good name, to not be libelled as well as the right not to have violence incited against a […]
The National Museum of Ireland has removed General Michael Collins’ blood-stained cap from public display on the basis that it may upset or cause offence to descendants of the slain rebel leader. As the Irish Examiner’s article on the subject read: “The museum removed the cap which had been on display for decades for ethical […]
At approximately this time yesterday morning, the question of “what to do about the schools” was remarkably uncontroversial, as these things go. In the face of an explosion in the number of cases, hospital admissions, and ICU admissions on foot of covid, the country had basically made peace with the fact that schools would not […]
A member of the Policing Authority, an organisation tasked with overseeing the performance of the Gardai, recently shared tweets saying that Garda had “murdered” George Nkencho “with no remorse” and that Mr Nkencho had been “gunned down” by Garda, who “didn’t even try to detain him”. Dr Vicky Conway, a Professor of Law at DCU […]
Independent TD, Carol Nolan, has asked the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, to investigate revelations that the same insulation used in tower block in Grenfell is to be used in the construction of the new National Children’s Hospital. The Deputy for Laois Offaly said she had submitted a number of questions to the office of […]
Midway through the Iraq war in 2012, the then UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond declared, ‘I’d rather fire soldiers than send them to war with poor equipment.’ This statement followed years of complaints from senior members of the UK army; complaints that began in 2003 during the original Gulf War when they had […]
Current mood: Extreme jealousy: The latest addition to Britain’s array of 24-hour news channels is to begin recruiting more than 100 journalists after completing a £60m fundraising that it claims was significantly oversubscribed. GB News, which aims to launch later this year, said on Wednesday that Sir Paul Marshall, a prominent hedge fund manager, and […]
Barring some extraordinary reversal of the mood music in recent days, the Government will formally decide later today to close primary and secondary schools across Ireland until at least the end of January. The earliest possible date for school re-opening, then, is Monday February 1st. This would mean that three and a half weeks (including […]