But that poses a problem for journalists, because unlike the scientists, the journalists are sure. They’re sure a disaster is coming, and they need you to act.
You know, if you want to convince people to do something for you, it’s typically a bad idea to insult them, intentionally go out of your way to infuriate them, and figuratively tell them to kiss your ass. Apparently French President Emmanuel Macron missed that tip in media training. With the French presidential election just […]
In these circumstances, the decision to let the virus rip, so to speak, is unambiguously the correct one.
Hold on now; I know you’re planning a party with friends, but before you reach for that alcoholic beverage, isn’t there someone you forgot to ask first? Namely, Micheál Martin? Where is your permission slip, boyo? If you’ve tried to buy drink at all in the last few days, you probably will have noticed the […]
Selling Ireland has Cromwellian echoes
One of the great temptations when you write about policy and politics for a living is to surrender to your prior prejudices when covering any story. It is fair to say that my prior prejudices about recent Irish policy are as follows: That harmonising our corporate taxation rates was a grievous error, likely to drive […]
Collateral damage?
A phenomenon which I encounter more and more often, these days, is the case of the secret Gript reader. The secret Gript reader comes to you via Whatsapp, or a twitter direct message, or sometimes, an encounter at a social event. They always say the same thing, more or less, and it goes something like […]
No matter what’s happening as regards Covid in Ireland, the government has one answer and one answer alone: Panic. When deaths are up even slightly, they panic. When hospitalisations are up even slightly, they panic. When deaths and hospitalisations are down, they prepare for an imagined incoming new wave (which may or may not come […]
One has to ask – if scenes of vicious police violence towards unarmed protesters had been witnessed at, say, a Black Lives Matter event, would we ever hear the end of it? Would it not roundly be condemned by every media outlet and politician in the Western world as a heinous breach of human rights, […]
It has not been much remarked upon, in the early days of the new year, that there is one political certainty in 2022: The year begins with Micheál Martin as Taoiseach. It will end with somebody else in the job. Mr. Martin made a deal to take power, and at the centre of that deal […]
Cappagh Hospital in Dublin is not an acute hospital. It is the national orthopaedic hospital, with 159 beds, and seven state of the art operating theatres. It is where you go when you need an operation on your bones, or muscles. It does not accept, and is not equipped to handle, Covid patients. However, at […]