When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was being drafted in the late 1940s, it was the Soviet Union and its allies who argued against freedom of speech on the grounds that it would open the door to ‘hateful propaganda’. What they had in mind of course was the undermining of government power by the […]
Last week, Facebook went wild over photos of Rod Stewart who was snapped while he placed flowers on the grave of Grace Gifford in Glasnevin Cemetery. The singer’s championing of the Jim McCann song Grace is a somewhat curious landmark for those who remember when not only was the Section 31 ban in force, but when any […]
A former Labour supporter, Tim Stanley, compares the party of Jeremy Corbyn with that of Attlee and Harold Wilson in the Telegraph, asking ‘Why does socialism have to go hand-in-hand with decriminalising abortion?’. Abortion was partially decriminalised by Harold Wilson’s government, in that the Liberal MP David Steel’s 1967 Abortion Act exempted doctors from prosecution […]
Since 2016, the Irish political and media establishment has clung to a single, unifying, and unshakeable theory about Brexit: It was a fluke result, fuelled by the confluence of several unique factors. A poor remain campaign. Lies by Brexiteers. A surge in anti-immigrant sentiment, or when they’re not being diplomatic, “racist bigotry”. Poor turnout by […]
In a move that will have critics and allies of RTÉ alike questioning the journalistic standards of the station Dr Peter Boylan has made the claim that Jon Williams, the managing director of RTE News, and presenter Claire Byrne made a pledge to him that he would be given a right of immediate response to […]
If there’s one thing that UN officials are good at, it’s wrapping their extreme, agenda-driven ideologies in an official-sounding guise. Last week, at the United Nation’s CERD19 convention in Geneva, Jamaican academic Verene Shepherd pressured the Irish government to rapidly implement new legislation to combat what she called “hate speech”. According to the Irish Centre […]
There was a real danger there, for a while, that Tubridy and Co would have to take significant pay cuts to account for the fact that not enough people are watching RTE, but thanks to the generosity of the Fine Gael government, on your behalf, crisis averted: RTÉ is set to receive €50 million in […]
“Housing”, we are told by the Irish left, “is a human right”. It’s an interesting statement, in that it is both ambitious, and hugely limiting. On the one hand, there clearly is a human right to shelter, and not to be left exposed to the elements. On the other hand, a “house” is not a […]
The Department of Justice’ public consultation on reviewing the legislation on hate speech comes to a close on Friday the 13th. (You can make a submission or answer a survey here) No more suitable day for the shambles of a process that it has been. In parallel, the Irish Human Rights Commissioner Emily Logan stated […]
France is experiencing a 6th day of strikes against upcoming pension reform initiated by President Emmanuel Macron. Over the last week, trains have been cancelled, metro lines shut down completely, and a third of schools in Paris closed. Yet, despite the disruption, the strikes have a high level of public support. People are upset because […]
One of the comfortable things about observing the British election is that whatever the outcome, the impacts on the life of the Irish viewer will be largely insignificant. If the Conservatives win a majority, a Brexit deal will pass which is acceptable to the Irish Government. If Mr. Corbyn ends up as Prime Minister, there […]
Picture the scene, if you will, five years from now, in the Dáil. Taoiseach Simon Harris is on his feet in the chamber, trying to defend his Government’s decision to end the rent freeze legislation introduced in 2019. For the past five years, rents have been frozen in place, giving, according to Harris, “valuable breathing […]