Happy New Year, everyone! It has been a thundery, sweltering start to 2021 down here in Auckland. We have been experiencing humid, hot days with intense downpours followed by clear skies and burning sunshine (the latter is normal down here unfortunately, thanks to the depleted ozone layer). Understandably then, the beaches have been very popular, […]
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 […]
The happiest man in America today? Joe Biden. At the time of writing, only one of the two US Senate Elections in the state of Georgia has been officially called, with Democrat Raphael Warnock unseating Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler. The other race, featuring Democrat John Ossoff against Republican Senator David Purdue, has not been officially […]
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 […]
Some of you may be familiar with the internet phenomenon of recent years whereby people, seeking to make some form of political point, choose to put hilariously implausible words in the mouths of their small children. Usually, in these stories, the children are implausibly eloquent, extraordinarily concerned about political issues, and coincidentally, hold the exact […]
Coronation Street star Kerri Quinn has told the Belfast Telegraph of her “pride at representing the pro-life community” in an upcoming TV drama from the BBC. The Belfast actor, best known for her role as Vicky Jefferies on Coronation Street, will be seen in the role of a committed pro-life activist in the drama The […]
One of the unforeseen consequences of the closure of the midland peat-burning power stations is the threat to thousands of jobs in the horticulture sector because of the sudden shortage of horticultural peat. Last year, Bord na Mona suspended all peat harvesting on its bogs, and peat-burning power stations were closed down ahead of schedule, causing “significant shock” to […]
We have incitement to hatred legislation in Ireland. If what has happened in the past few days is not incitement to hatred, then what is? When you tell a community that they are victims of institutional racism, without any evidence; when you tell a community that one of their members was murdered, without any evidence; […]
Interesting fact of the day, for those of you who don’t think so much about the words you use: “Amen”, which christian people customarily say at the end of a prayer, doesn’t actually have anything to do with men. It’s derived from Ancient Hebrew, the language of the jewish people at the time of the […]