This morning, the Taoiseach and his Government announced a national shutdown of Schools and other public places for an initial period of two weeks, along with a nationwide programme of social distancing. It was the right call. But it’s worth asking: How long could this shutdown actually last? Does the Government have some benchmarks for […]
There are days, watching the Irish Government’s response to Coronavirus, where you start to feel relatively confident in it for a while. Then something like this happens: Department of Health has said that general visiting restrictions that some hospitals & nursing homes have introduced, should be lifted. The National Public Health Emergency Team has not […]
It’s very easy to write about how the Irish Government is bungling the Coronavirus crisis (for it is, now, a crisis) by not moving quickly enough to restrict public gatherings and enforce strict containment measures, and to list the many ways in which it is failing to do so. Primarily, it’s easy to write because […]
Next Monday, the Global Alcohol Policy Convention will hold its annual conference in Dublin Castle, organised in partnership with the Department of Health. Over 1,000 people are expected to attend, from all parts of the world, including areas that are struggling and failing to contain the COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak. The Department of Health are, at […]
There are, at the time of writing, 150 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Italy. Three people have died to date. The numbers are likely to rise, as well. It is estimated that the Coronavirus has an incubation period of at least two weeks – that is to say, you could be walking around feeling in […]
With all the talk of centenaries recently, it might be hard to imagine that this decade will feature a centenary much more important than the war against the Black and Tans, or the civil war, though it will be much less commemorated. In 1926, the flu – yes, the flu – killed 100,000 people in […]
The news headlines this morning are breath-taking in their awfulness. A homeless man maimed for life because Dublin City Council thought his tent was unsightly and removed it with a digger while he was still inside. A teenager killed and chopped up (no word yet on whether he was alive or dead when the latter […]
Over at TheJournal.ie, they’re running one of their regular reader polls, just like Gript, and many other news websites do. Today, it’s on the subject of vaping, and whether so called “sweet flavoured” vaping juices should be banned. Predictably, support for banning the stuff vastly outweighs support for letting people do what they want, 63% […]
It was a glorious day at Crumlin Children’s Hospital recently, when staff and patients were honoured by an impromptu visit from Her Serene Highness the Princess Rathgar herself: “A high-profile Government TD has admitted she was embarrassed to witness the overflowing A&E in Crumlin Children’s Hospital when she attended at the weekend with her sick […]
The Government has appointed Martina Fitzgerald, the former RTE political editor, to the National Screening Advisory Committee, according to the Irish Times. Ms. Fitzgerald left RTE after a bitter and public dispute over her role with the broadcaster, which wished to replace her, and advertised the role internally. She becomes the latest in a long […]
Former head of the GPs Association, Dr Maitiú Ó Tuathail, predicted that it was going to be a “bad winter”, because Emergency Departments and ICUs in Irish hospitals were already at capacity.
As George Hook said the other day, here he is again, trying to run the country by twitter: Harris today said that social media platforms should ban certain accounts and consider giving “badges” to accounts that are reputable and provide authentic information about vaccinations. “These are matters that I want to discuss with them, but […]