A recent Irish Times/MRBI pre-election poll (20/1/20) has indicated that an overwhelming majority of Irish voters – no less than 75% – now want a change of government. Significantly, over one in three voters believe “it is time for a radical change of direction for the country.” Given the abysmal failures of judgment and leadership […]
When Sinn Féin released their 2020 election manifesto, many were surprised to find that controlling immigration featured as a part of their platform. In a twist that will shock anybody who has actually been listening to them for the last few years, they wrote: “Sinn Féin does not want open borders. We believe that all […]
It would appear that Peadar Tóibín’s reference to the manner in which Sinn Féin operates has opened up an entire can of worms. It is no secret now regarding the manner in which pro-life republicans were forced out of Sinn Féin. The reason for that was the belief that the party needed to be seen […]
We hear much about threats to democracy from ‘fake news’ and tech manipulation, but the veneer of free and fair elections seems very thin when one scratches under the surface of how our elected elite have already stacked this particular deck in their favour.
Sinn Féín TDs have “zero” influence over the party’s policy decisions, according to a former representative, and TDs are told what to do by unelected party staff. In fact, Peadar Tóibín says, Sinn Féin’s TDs are not even allowed to chose their own parliamentary assistants and must represent the party rather than the people who elected them. The Aontú […]
Fine Gael’s election campaign seems to have been derailed in part by the understandable anger felt by voters at the mess the government has made of the pensions issue. The issue has arisen because private sector workers retire at 65 but since 2014 they have not been entitled to access the State pension until 66 […]
A Bill published by Westminster will, if passed, mean that a poll on a United Ireland would be almost guaranteed to fail. The Referendums Criteria Bill [HL] 2019-20 is currently before the House of Lords and states that 60% or more of those voting in any border poll within Northern Ireland would have to approve of any proposal for Irish unity. A […]
Perhaps the most ironic section of the new deal between the DUP and Sinn Fein to run the British part of Ireland is the following: 25.The parties affirm the need to respect the freedom of all persons in Northern Ireland to choose, affirm, maintain and develop their national and cultural identity I would imagine that getting […]
In his 1845 book The Condition of the Working Class in England, Friedrich Engels excoriated those wealthy philanthropists who placed themselves “before the world as mighty benefactors of humanity when they give back to the plundered victims the hundredth part of what belongs to them.” Back then charity was the preserve of austere Victorians and […]
A Christmas card featuring Karl Marx might have raised a few cheap laughs for Sinn Féin’s Fintan Warfield, but there was very little of good cheer about the father of socialism. Even apart from the fact that Marx was a militant atheist who hated both his own Jewish heritage – which he stereotyped much as […]
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 […]
Voters in the Derry constituency of Foyle are preparing to choose, on Thursday, their new MP. A solidly nationalist seat, the winner is predicted to come from one of the two large nationalist parties, incumbent MP Elisha McCallion for Sinn Fein, and the leader of the SDLP, Colum Eastwood. Peadar Toibin’s Aontu is running councillor […]