Mark Tarrant grew up in Hong Kong and practices as a lawyer in Sydney. He also represents pro bono (i.e., for free) Drew Pavlou, a student at the University of Queensland who has been expelled for his public criticism of the Chinese Communist Party, in his case against China’s Consul-General in Brisbane. He was interviewed by Massimo Introvigne […]
In the middle of Bristol, until yesterday, there was a statue of a man who bought Africans and sold them as slaves in America. You might think, having read that sentence, that the very bad people of Bristol were so enamoured of slavery that they decided to honour a slave trader with a statue, as […]
There is something about that phrase in the headline – “black crimes matter” – that makes you flinch, isn’t there? There is at least a part of you that thinks it is racist. We’re conditioned, as Irish people, and indeed as white people, to be on edge as soon as the word “crime” appears next […]
Assuming motives is a risky business, particularly when it comes to the hot-button issue of racism. By now, you’ve probably watched the horrible video of a white teenager being stabbed by a black teenager in Carrigaline, Co. Cork over the weekend. Although the media have so far been loathe to describe anyone involved, presumably because […]
Standing in the Irish Parliament on Wednesday morning, Minister for Arts and Culture, Josepha Madigan, led one minute’s silence to show, “our abhorrence of and rejection of,” all forms of racism. Nothing wrong with that, you might say, except Josepha Madigan is on record for aggressively and successfully forcing through a campaign to block the […]
I suspect this may come as somewhat of a surprise to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, but apparently the members of his force are guilty of engaging in systemic, daily acts of “micro-aggressions” against people of colour. It will certainly come as a surprise to The Garda National Diversity & Integration Unit, which forms part of […]
It would seem that some of those involved in last weekend’s protest opposing American racism would rather like to transform this “movement” comprising the rag tag and bobtail of the ultra-left into one focusing on alleged racism in Ireland. Since the protest – which has now been found to have breached social distancing regulations even though […]
The thing about President Higgins these days is that just when you think he can’t get any more absurd, he proves you wrong. Here he is now, suddenly fierce concerned about human rights abuses and conflict with peaceful protests: President Michael D. Higgins has expressed the “greatest heartbreak” at scenes of “military confrontation with peaceful […]
The first two casualties of the American Civil War were suffered at Fort Sumpter, South Carolina, on April 12th, 1861, when southern, pro-slavery forces fired on the garrison of the US Army. Daniel Hough was 36 years old, from Tipperary, and Edward Galloway, whose age has not been recorded, was from Cork. Both men had […]
A study published by prestigious peer-reviewed journal, the Lancet, which claimed that the use of hydroxychloroquine was dangerous and led to more deaths has been retracted after it was found that the data used in the study could not be verified. The retraction is a huge embarrassment for the scientific journal, and raises questions as […]
A woman has lost her bid to have her mother’s tombstone engraved with a saying written in Irish without translation in an English cemetery. BBC reports that Caroline Newey’s mother, Margaret Keane died two years ago and is buried in the cemetery at the Meadows in Ash Green, Coventry. Mrs Newey wanted her mother’s headstone […]
The study, published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal the Lancet, made headlines everywhere from the Irish Times to the Washington Post, especially in media platforms anxious to strike a blow against PresidentTrump, which, let’s face it, is almost all of them. Hydroxychloroquine – the drug hailed by President Trump as a ‘game-changer’ in the coronavirus […]