For the second time in less than a year, a civil servant may be facing criminal charges for allegedly supplying fraudulent documents to foreign-nationals seeking Irish passports. This has been described to news outlets as a “significant national security breach”, and reportedly has the potential to damage Ireland’s international relations if illegal passports are used […]
The term International Child Abduction is generally used to describe situations where one parent (the abducting parent) removes a child from the state where the child usually lives to another state without the consent of the child’s other parent or in breach of a court order. It is a phenomenon that afflicts families right across […]
President Putin moves to support traditional marriage by adding it to the Russian constitution and, predictably, the UK’s ‘impartial public service broadcaster’ paints it in as negative a light as possible. Apparently unable to accept that another country might hold different values from their own, the BBC insist it cannot be to do ‘with reflecting current values […]
A professor of economics at the University of Exeter, England, has been accused of transphobia after tweeting that “only female people menstruate”. The conflict began when Dr. Poen responded to a tweet which said: “Not everyone who menstruates is female. Not everyone who is female menstruates. Let’s shift our language.” Dr. Poen replied by saying: […]
In Australia, as elsewhere in the developed world, doctors and parents are perplexed about an epidemic of young people, mostly teenage girls, who want to change gender. Back in August the Federal Health Minister, Greg Hunt, asked the The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) for advice on how to treat gender dysphoria in children […]
When it became clear that the novel coronavirus coming out of China was destined to be a pandemic, international concern quickly zeroed in on how countries with weak health systems, most of which are in Africa, would be affected. It was feared that they would be quickly overwhelmed by the virus and left reeling. The […]
A High Court judge has been criticised by protesters after they alleged that she threatened to involve “outside agencies” relating to their children during a hearing into a housing case. The case involved a building firm which has taken a High Court proceeding against protestors involved with the ongoing “House the Irish First” demonstration in […]
Last week I asked “What next for the Soldiers of Destiny?” and since then, at near break neck pace, the path to government has become clearer. The Leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have agreed to enter detailed negotiations, as equal partners. The ongoing national emergency posed by COVID-19 has provided the political fig […]
It used to be called being ‘sent to Coventry’. It meant social ostracization, being ignored and snubbed in company – a well established form of passive aggression which has taken multiple forms in today’s world. We know it as no-platforming, blocking, muting, unfriending or cancelling. Some forms are more exclusionary than others of course. If […]
When I was in my mid-twenties, journalist Justine McCarthy wrote a vicious article attacking me in the Irish Independent. Actually there were two articles, over two consecutive weeks, both a big splash covering the front page of what was then the weekend section of the paper. I was reminded of that hatchet-job, and of winning […]
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Spain has appointed its first ever demography minister, a move which follows the appointment of the first Commissioner for Demography by the European Union. A large part of their respective roles will be to attempt to manage widespread depopulation. The European Union’s free movement policy has resulted in some member states struggling to fill their […]