At nearly every protest in every western country, the attendees can be broadly divided into two groups of people. One group is the people who are there because they feel very strongly about the particular issue being protested. Some of them may never have protested before, and may never protest again. They may be there […]
I have a profoundly deaf child. My son is 11 years old and has bilateral cochlear implants, he received his first implant at age 4 and second at 5 and half. He was diagnosed late, even by the standards at the time, he was almost 2 and a half. Late diagnosis can have life long […]
A Private Members’ Bill seeking to permit assisted suicide will be debated in the Dáil soon. It is proposed by Solidarity-People Before Profit TD, Gino Kenny. The last time when this issue was discussed in Leinster House, three years ago, some of the strongest opposition came from the members of the medical profession and disability […]
My husband’s grandmother took her life yesterday in a Victorian nursing home. After 87 years of a life well-lived, she swallowed state-sanctioned poison to end her life. The “health” professionals here called it medication, but the aim of taking medicine is to improve one’s health, not destroy it. Use all the Orwellian double-speak you like […]
The re-opening of schools has brought the illusion of normality to our country. After all, what’s better and more normal than seeing little ones and older children return to the business of books and school bags, lunches and learning, drop-offs and pick-ups. Families are the hinge of a healthy society, the pivot of a robust […]
Last week, Taoiseach Michael Martin said he expects Ireland to be living with coronavirus restrictions until late 2021 or early 2022. Deep breaths everyone, remember it’s all only temporary… but let’s backtrack a few months, shall we? Back in March, what seems to have been another life, we were put on lockdown for two weeks. Nobody […]
Last month, hundreds of thousands of people signed a petition asking Netflix to cancel a movie, Cuties, after a poster advertising the film showed young girls in sexually suggestive poses, leading critics to say it “promoted paedophilia”. Last night, Netflix uploaded ‘Cuties’. It’s not as bad as people thought it would be: it’s worse. This […]
Now that Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, has picked the new Irish commissioner it seems that all is well once again in the aftermath of that embarrassing interlude widely known as golfgate. Von der Leyen got her woman and it seems that another step has been taken on the long road […]
At the very beginning of the Covid 19 panic, Anthony Fauci, the chief scientist in the American anti virus programme, speculated that Americans might never shake hands with one another again. It is not yet illegal to shake hands but it is certainly frowned upon. Which might be regarded as a victory by the person […]
Whereas Trump appears at ease confronting the much-vaunted industrial-military complex, Biden’s record would suggest a tolerance for war that should disquiet those who would pay most for yet more destruction.
Two cases of “what was he thinking??”, here: First, what was he thinking when he actually downplayed the risks of Coronavirus? Even if you’re a big Covid sceptic, surely the low-risk play back in March was to go all out and warn people that the virus was potentially deadly, and to stay at home and […]
Democracy, as some of you will know, is a Greek word which means “rule by the people”. “Irish Democracy”, on the other hand, is an English phrase which means “rule by the right sort of people”: Quotas for young people in politics, similar to gender quotas, and lowering the voting age to 16, were among […]