Obviously, he’s not literally a Protestant. You’d hope they’d have noticed that when they interviewed him for the job. But judging by this interview he gave to the Irish Times last week, he’s more a Henry VIII loyalist than a Thomas More man: Dublin’s Catholic archbishop-elect Dermot Farrell has said he would like to see […]
As reported here last month, the number of applications for “international protection” for asylum seekers to Ireland has fallen due to the Covid restrictions, but not to the extent to which it might have been expected given that overall international travel had fallen more sharply than the numbers of people arriving here to apply for […]
This is now the fourth draft of this article. It is the fourth draft, because in the first three drafts, I had to be very careful what I said. That is because, in this new world that’s emerged over the weekend, you have to be very conscious, on the right, that you’re arguing with one […]
Paul Murphy TD has been remarkably consistent in demanding more and more Covid restrictions. So much so, in fact, that on Saturday, he approvingly retweeted an Irish Times article which described him as “the Dáil’s most consistent advocate of a zero covid strategy”. Here he is, basking in the acclaim, and criticising the Government for […]
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 […]