Quietly, this is one of the most significant stories in global politics today, but (probably understandably) it’s not going to make headlines in most Irish media outlets: China’s military executed a coordinated test launch of its top anti-ship ballistic missile into the South China Sea last August to send an “unmistakable message,” the head of […]
“I don’t think we’re going to be completely normal a year from now,” Fauci said.
In 1983, US President Ronald Reagan was recorded as first using the phrase “Evil Empire” to describe the USSR. In doing so, the Cold War Warrior focused the minds of America and the West on defeating the totalitarian regime in Moscow. This phrase was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union, rolling back […]
Nigeria has a problem. A big problem. For many years now, a radical Islamist insurgency has roiled its northeast. Boko Haram (literally “books are forbidden”), a terrorist group affiliated with ISIS, and several other actors in its mould, have brutalised the residents of these regions, particularly Christians, taking many lives and displacing millions. The defeat […]
Balance has been restored. Irish politicians have fallen over themselves to pay obsequious homage to the new leader of what’s left of the Free World in 2021. Our Taoiseach is preparing to stare danger in the face by engaging in non-essential international travel to meet him, while when asked if he was happy to see […]
In many ways, this is the perfect first thing for a newly inaugurated Democratic President to do: It can be done at the stroke of a pen; it pleases all his own supporters; it sends the right signals internationally, especially in Europe; and it will have next to no practical impact whatsoever: President Biden: "We're […]
The Report of the Commission into Mother and Baby homes has opened boxes of memories right across the country and beyond. Pandora’s boxes perhaps. People who carry these painful memories are everywhere among us, silently re-living the sadness of their family stories, sometimes feeling their unique and individual experience is being appropriated by a grand narrative […]
In many ways, this is completely remarkable: NEW @ABC Wash Post poll: 54% say Pres Trump should be charged criminally with inciting a riot for having encouraged his supporters to march on the Capitol. He’s leaving office with a 38% job approval rating; 60% disapproval More from @LangerResearch https://t.co/nSVXCDI1bs — Karen Travers (@karentravers) January 15, […]
A novel argument for chipping away at legalised abortion in the United States is catching on amongst the judiciary: abortion should not be used for eugenic purposes. Last week the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit struck down Arkansas Acts 493 and 619. The first attempted to ban abortions after 18 weeks because it is […]
Lisa Montgomery was born with permanent brain damage, because of her mother’s drinking during pregnancy. When little Lisa was three years old, her stepfather slipped into the room she shared with her eight year old half-sister, Diane. Lisa, according to evidence presented years later, held her sister’s hand while the older girl was raped by […]
Watching the highly disturbing footage from Washington DC, last night, my mind kept going back to the autumn of 2018. On October 4th, of that year, the US Senate was engaged in a confirmation hearing for now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh of the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh had been accused, you’ll recall, of sexually assaulting a high school […]
Some of you may be familiar with the internet phenomenon of recent years whereby people, seeking to make some form of political point, choose to put hilariously implausible words in the mouths of their small children. Usually, in these stories, the children are implausibly eloquent, extraordinarily concerned about political issues, and coincidentally, hold the exact […]