Fine Gael’s election campaign seems to have been derailed in part by the understandable anger felt by voters at the mess the government has made of the pensions issue. The issue has arisen because private sector workers retire at 65 but since 2014 they have not been entitled to access the State pension until 66 […]
Gerry Adams’ announcement that he is retiring from politics brings to an end one of the most significant public lives of the past century. He is without doubt a major historical figure whose influence on events in Ireland was hugely significant. I cannot claim to have known him well. I did know him but I […]
“The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members” Dear politicians, candidates and political parties, As I sit down to write this, the general election here in Ireland is only 3 weeks away. My reasons for writing this open letter to all of you is two-fold: 1) […]
Several stories in recent weeks have brought a new focus on what equality activists call ‘covert racism’. The opposite of overt racism. Meghan Markle was certainly subjected to overt, racial slurs on social media but according to some of her defenders it was the covert racism from mainline media and broadcasting that made life impossible […]
Ryan admits that not only did he fly to December’s climate summit in Madrid, but he remains at the steering wheel of his 2.5 litre van, loves his meat and dairy diet, and has no plans to change.
This Wednesday night, Pat Kenny will moderate a debate between two men who agree with each other on almost everything. Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin have, for all intents and purposes, been in Government together for the past four years. Nothing that Mr. Varadkar’s Government has done has been done without Mr. Martin’s approval. Anything […]
Abortion supporters have long insisted that preborn babies can’t feel pain – but scientists, including a ‘pro-choice’ pain expert, now say new evidence shows some babies could suffer pain as they are aborted. The medical researchers say that while it had been argued previously that pain could not be experienced before 24 weeks, “it is now […]
The election is upon us, and this year’s election will be fought on the three H’s. Housing, Homelessness and Health. The latter is the one which affects each and every one of us, and one which has dominated the headlines for all the wrong reasons into the New Year. Fine Gael came into power ten […]
In Dostoyevsky’s great novel The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan Karamazov asserts that if there is no God, then anything is permitted. Reading what is known so far of the details of the horrific murder of the 17 year-old whose body parts were found in different parts of Dublin this week, we must certainly be conscious that […]
This is the kind of thing now that Mary Lou McDonald would be hopping mad about, if it was said by someone in any other party, but because it was a Sinn Fein Councillor, she’ll stay nice and quiet. One rule for the likes of you, another for party members in good standing, like Councillor […]
The news headlines this morning are breath-taking in their awfulness. A homeless man maimed for life because Dublin City Council thought his tent was unsightly and removed it with a digger while he was still inside. A teenager killed and chopped up (no word yet on whether he was alive or dead when the latter […]
It’s officially election time, which means that it’s officially time for the airwaves to be filled with people complaining about election posters, and officially time for some candidate who doesn’t need election posters to announce that he or she will not actually use election posters. First out of the blocks in 2020 is a former […]