Pedestrianising streets is easy part of change
The recent opinion piece by Richard Herriott on urban planning (Irish Times, Monday June 7th ) makes a compelling case for a radical rethink of how we plan and build our cities. He argues that SDH tower blocks are not the answer to our housing crisis and that comprehensive redevelopment of inner suburbs is […]
Tulsa racial pogrom resonates 100 years later
While we remember events 100 years ago which led to an independent Irish state, and while we are preparing to commemorate the disastrous civil war which followed, it is worthwhile to remember events which took place 100 years ago this week in Oklahoma in the United States. What is now known as the Tulsa massacre […]
Respect for truth is being hacked to pieces
I am reading the recently published Surviving Katyn by Jane Rogoyska, a riveting account of the lead up to and aftermath of the liquidation by Josef Stalin and Lavrenti Beria of 22,000 Polish officers captured by the Soviet Union in the 1939 carve-up of Poland with the Nazis. As is well known, some of their […]
Time to re-open our democracy
Now that building sites are reopened and retail is returning to normal, the question arises as to how our democratic institutions have performed and will perform in the wake of the pandemic. Assuming that the Indian variant does not derail reopening our social and economic lives, we must examine how our democracy has functioned during […]
Atrocities require us to look forward, not back
The British ambassador, Paul Johnston, wrote here yesterday that he agreed in one part with last Saturday’s editorial criticising indications from Downing Street of an intention to halt prosecutions in respect of crown forces involvement in historic killings during the Troubles as “a distressing and irresponsible move”. Specifically the ambassador agreed with the editorial’s proposition […]
North needs conciliation, not a referendum
There is an old, perhaps somewhat cynical definition of the referendum – “a process by which you get an answer you didn’t expect to a question you didn’t ask”. The kernel of truth here is that any referendum will be decided on the issue as understood by the voter – not necessarily as it was […]