“It was a tumour on my head and they needed to get it out fast”: Peadar Tóibín on his cancer diagnosis, what it meant for his family, and why the government must open up access to healthcare.
Before it changed the title of one of its puzzled think pieces about the coronavirus’s inability to kill Africans in numbers predicted by doomsayers, the BBC speculated whether poverty could explain the mystery of Africa’s low death rate. When I read the headline, and the article that followed it, I imagined the author (Andrew Harding), throwing his hands up in exasperation as he dispatched […]
Important thing to note in this story: The word “controlled”: “Coronavirus should be let spread amongst people below 60 in a controlled way, the Dáil’s Covid-19 committee will be told on Wednesday. Sweden’s former chief epidemiologist Dr Johan Giesecke will recommend that the virus be let spread through the population alongside a programme that concentrates […]
10th of March 2020 – The Minister for Foreign Affairs appears on Morning Ireland. Gavin Jennings: “It looks like there are two choices – lock everything down before thousands become infected, or lock everything down after thousands become infected, like what’s happened in Italy. Why are we waiting to make more moves here? Simon Coveney: […]
Eight months into this pandemic, we sometimes seem to be no nearer to knowing what’s going on than we were at the beginning. Lockdowns vs. no lockdowns; masks vs. no masks; hydroxychloroquine vs. remdesivir; opening schools vs. closing schools, etc., etc. Every day, top-level experts express significantly divergent viewpoints on each of these questions. One […]
Days after the HSE forced a senior doctor who questioned the wisdom of the lockdown to resign, the Taoiseach confirmed on radio yesterday that the Government is trying to “marginalise” those who downplay the severity of the virus.
Malachy Steenson speaks about the erosion of free-speech and civil liberties during the covid-19 era. #gript
At first glance, these numbers might shock you. But there’s little reason to doubt them, for reasons we’ll come to in a moment: Research: 47% think the worst of the pandemic is ahead of us, the highest level reported since April 52% think there should be more restrictions, similar to the levels reported in March […]
HOW many Catholics were attending Mass before the pandemic began? How many have returned in the meantime? How many will come back when this is all over? These were some of the vital questions asked in a new Amarach Research poll commissioned by The Iona Institute. Here are the main findings: 27pc of Catholics were […]
On Saturday, the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI) decided at a meeting of its national executive to ballot its members on strike action. Although part of this concerns the on-going and legitimate concern over the status and pay grades of some teachers, it is evident that the main issue is the re-opening of […]
The first thing that any new British Prime Minister has to do, upon taking office, is to pen “the letter of last resort”. We have no idea what’s in it, but we know what it is: Instructions given, in a sealed envelope, to the commanders of Her Majesty’s nuclear submarines, only to be opened in […]
It was a big weekend in media land for lengthy pieces about the apparently dangerous “rise of the far right” in Ireland. The Journal, the Irish Times, the Irish Independent and the Examiner (to a lesser estent) featured couple-of-thousand-word plus pieces this weekend claiming to be detailed investigations into the phenomenon, and its apparent connection […]