Sinn Féin’s housing policy effectively serves notice to quit on private landlords

Clarity is beginning to emerge about what Sinn Féin wants to do even if there is little transparency about who really runs the party. The party has focused on housing policy, we are told. But the small print on its plans is only becoming decipherable now. If they get into power after the next election […]
Why on earth would we need a constitutional referendum on the right to housing?

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is now seeking to co-operate with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). He had previously entered into a political and economic co-operation agreement with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Russia has reverted to its traditional status of an imperial autocracy, with Putin exercising absolute personal power in succession […]
Be wary of crocodile tears of politicians over exit of private landlords

It was an entirely predictable outcome of recent changes to landlord and tenant law that many single-property landlords would decide that the changes tilted things so badly against them that they would exit the rental market by selling their properties and for that purpose seek vacant possession. Not merely was it predictable; it was very […]
Sabina Higgins was wrong to write that letter

The President has reiterated his condemnation of the Russian war of invasion in Ukraine as immoral and unjustified aggression. That raises the question as to whether it was in any way acceptable for his spouse to publish or post on the Áras website the text of a letter to this paper calling for a ceasefire […]
QAnon well on its way to becoming America’s new religion

What is it about the Americans? A recent picture of ecstatic young male Trump supporters, one clad in a “Trump Won” T-shirt, posed a question for me: did he really believe that and on what evidence? Or is it a question of wishful thinking? For a society that steadfastly refuses to “establish” any religion, even […]
Trans rights a question of reasonableness and common sense

I have nothing but complete empathy for any person who finds themselves having to confront a deep-seated conviction that their ostensible physical sex does not correspond with their gender. That self-understanding or conviction is not a matter of sexual orientation – conveniently divided by some into heterosexual, bisexual and homosexual. Orientation or attraction varies among […]