Two of the best known writers of the 1950s in the United States were Whitaker Chambers, the exposer of Communist Party/Soviet penetration of the American administration and author of Witness; and Ayn Rand who wrote the bestselling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Both remain betes noir of the left, but they had little in […]
Irish politicians have long been amongst the worst sufferers in the world of that great political pandemic: do-something-itis. When ever there is a crisis, something must swiftly be done, to demonstrate to the public that the politicians understand the crisis, and have a plan. Last night, just days after the public outrage about investment funds […]
Every time we report one of these polls, the comments on Facebook and Twitter and other social media platforms are the same: “fake poll”, or “they didn’t poll me”, or words to that effect. And that is understandable, nobody likes to be in the minority, or feel the country is against them. Least of all, […]
We will put this in the category of “darkly amusing”: https://twitter.com/CloHiggins/status/1391083611860967426 You might wonder why a “wheelchair friendly” park bench is something that anybody would bother to invent. After all, people in wheelchairs – not through choice, of course – are not lacking for somewhere to sit down. Life has forced them to take a […]
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There was, across much of the media, and politics, widespread condemnation in recent days of the news that a global property firm, Round Hill Capital, was set to purchase most of the homes in a new 170-home development in Kildare. The frustration amongst a lot of people on hearing this news was perfectly understandable, if […]
When former Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy came out in support of “co-living” apartment developments, he was not surprisingly subjected to widespread criticism. The notion that people would be paying high rents and not even be guaranteed their own cooking and bathroom facilities invited comparisons to older, but cheaper, tenement accommodation. The backlash convinced his successor […]
If the country ever wakes up from its Covid induced coma, like Rip Van Winkle, it shall open its eyes to a radically altered society. First-time buyers or families looking to buy homes in Dublin, are up against investment funds who are bulk-buying whole housing developments in order to rent them out. This is a […]
Residential property prices have risen 3% across the Republic of Ireland in the year leading up to February, with homes outside of Dublin rising by almost 5%. According to the latest CSO figures, house prices in Dublin rose by 1.2%, while Dublin apartments rose by just under 1%. In south Dublin, costs increased by as […]
The latest work permits statistics from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment once again indicate that the importation of employees from outside of the European Union and European Economic Area continues at only a slightly reduced scale compared to other years. A further 1,046 permits were issued in March, a fall of just 176 […]
A Report being launched today by Green Party TD and Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development, Joe O’Brien, is to recommend a radical transformation of how local authorities assess and prioritise housing applications from non-Irish minorities and members of the Traveller community. The Minority Groups and Housing Services: Barriers […]
If you’ve never seen it, then bear with me, but one of the most striking scenes in David Lean’s dramatization of Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago is when the title character arrives back in Moscow from the war, and discovers that the local reds have taken over his home and are busily stealing everything in it. Even […]