Leo Varadkar, or so the polls tell us, is the darling of the nation. He saved us all from Covid and can do no wrong. Polls show that 88% of Irish people believe the government did a good job of handling the Covid crisis – while an almost unprecedented 72% expressed satisfication with the government. […]
This is getting remarkably little scrutiny, after Irish Times scoop-getter general Fiach Kelly reported it last night: The Greens have widened the eligibility for members who can vote by telephone on the PfG. Was previously only allowed for those outside the country. Now members who have not received ballot paper can vote by phone. https://t.co/UKsBU23wJG […]
Marriage continues to change and decline in Ireland as the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show. Fewer marriages are taking place, fewer are taking place in churches, more are taking place between people who were married before and are now divorced, and couples are older when they marry. Same-sex marriage is now permitted. In 2019, […]
Yesterday morning the former Minister for Justice Alan Shatter sent out a tweet calling on several political parties and organisations, including the Irish Catholic Bishops development agency, Trócaire, to publicly comment on what he has termed “a despicable attack by Hamas thugs on an 85-year-old woman in Gaza.” Part of the reason Mr Shatter specifically […]
The global soul-searching over the issue of racism, contemporary and historic, that has taken place since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on 25 May has not escaped Ireland. It has taken many forms, some instructive, others less so. One of the most commented-on has been an investigation of the ways in which the […]
By making Sinn Fein the de facto opposition, the leaders of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green party have cemented their own demise. Upon watching the iconoclastic mania sweep the United Kingdom, I was reminded of the final scene in Franklin Schaffner’s Planet of the Apes: “You finally really did it. You maniacs, you blew it up! God damn you […]
There are some things that are inarguably true about the policies of the Green Party, and their priorities in Government, but that rarely get mentioned. It’s important to catalogue them, every now and again. For example: It is true that if Ireland was to cease to exist, and produce no emissions at all, it would […]
If you happen to be a disinterested observer of Ireland’s decades-long abortion debate, you could be forgiven for thinking that things unfolded something like this. First, Catholic Ireland implemented the oppressive 8th Amendment, designed to inflict moral dogmas on a helpless population. Then, despite many horrifying happenings in between, the last vanguard of the patriarchy […]
Many Western countries looked on with a hint of dread as Chinese authorities clamped down their populations in January in the hopes of containing the spread of Covid-19. But that dread gave way to palpable fear and gnawing anxiety when the novel coronavirus touched down in Europe in March and April of this year. Fear […]
At a time when some appear intent on creating a mythological past for the Irish people, physical remembrances of our history have come under threat. Moore Street, site of the last armed confrontation of the 1916 Rising was once a vibrant street in the heart of the city where a large proportion of Dubs did their […]
Remember back in October of last year when Fianna Fail TD’s Timmy Dooley, Niall Collins and Lisa Chambers were all exposed as having repeatedly engaged in voting ‘irregularities’ in the Dáil? To be sure, it all seems like a lifetime ago now. But at the time, the scandal was given significant coverage and it even […]
OH NO IT’S NOT happening, says Green Dun Laoghaire TD Ossian Smyth: Green Party's Ossian Smyth TD says M20 will not happen within the next five years, says it is not in favour of increasing capacity between Cork and Limerick #iestaff — Daniel McConnell (@McConnellDaniel) June 18, 2020 OH YES IT IS, says Fine Gael […]