Alcohol Action Ireland has a name that makes you think it’s run by, and operated by, concerned citizens who are worried about the public health risks of too much drinking. When it appears in the media, as it did yesterday, you, the ordinary person, are supposed to think that you’re hearing from a group of […]
The burdens of high office are great indeed. Yesterday, as the UK media were salivating over a hard-hitting report in the Sunday Times into mistakes made by Boris Johnson’s Government, Ireland’s flagship Sunday Newspaper was publishing this interview with Simon Harris. Behold, the standard of questioning Irish politicians can expect to face, these days: Two […]
In the week before Easter, Life Institute (for which I am a spokeswoman) launched a campaign seeking to ensure older people would not be denied life-saving care in this crisis, because decisions regarding the allocation of critical care should never be based solely on age. Events since then have given fresh urgency to the initiative. Disturbing […]
As of 17th April, 302 people have died from the virus in community care settings, which is 62% of all Covid-19 deaths, with 253 of those in nursing homes. Each day, we read on the news about how many cases and deaths there have been, how the curve is flattening, and whether we can ease […]
As Irish politicians scramble to help every group and organisation on earth other than its own citizens, you’d be forgiven for wondering who they actually represent. Simon Coveney, Fine Gael Minister for Foreign Affairs, courted controversy on Thursday when he announced that Ireland would be quadrupling its contribution to the World Health Organisation. #Ireland strongly […]
While the Sex Pistols, led by John Lydon (Rotten) whose mother was from Cork whose father was from Galway, are recalled by many as an ephemeral almost circus act – and that is how they ended up after Lydon left – there was a lot more to them. Lydon, unlike most leading punks – or […]
The book of Leviticus might seem to have little to offer by way of guidance to 21st century life. But there is one particular prohibition which might make us re-consider its relevance at this particular time. In Leviticus,Chapter 11, there is a long list of winged creatures that are described as ‘unclean and not to eat’ […]
I remember reading headlines not too long ago, around the beginning of this year, that some virus had broken out in China and they were in the process of building a hospital to deal with the outbreak, and they built that hospital in three days! I remember being in awe at the thoughts of it, […]
The fresh produce company Keelings has been at the centre of controversy on social media for more than 24 hours after it emerged that 189 fruit pickers from Bulgaria had arrived on a Ryanair flight yesterday chartered by the company. https://twitter.com/FF_Grassroots/status/1251052199276355584 Keelings said that “a very important part of our workforce for many years has […]
The two most powerful tools that we have in the fight against Covid -19 are lockdown and testing. Locking the country down is extremely costly in human and financial terms. Each month of lockdown costs the state billions of Euro in direct welfare supports and each week of lockdown sends more and more businesses into […]
Covid-19 is raising new moral issues for us to consider. What once were unlikely dilemmas in moral philosophy textbooks are now matters of urgent practical concern. Two matters seem to stand out: what we owe poorer countries in the context of a lethal viral pandemic where life-saving resources are scarce, and what we owe our […]
An Irish Examiner story, for the record, not one of ours. We have higher standards, you see. Anyway, here’s what they wrote. It went super-viral online, as you might expect: “A number of TDs have raised the question of new allowances to allow them to purchase office equipment while they work from home during the […]