Profound issues at stake over free speech and Islam
Our Constitution guarantees freedom of religious belief to all citizens and provides that the State will not endow any particular religion. In the 1960s our Supreme Court developed a theory that the Constitution guaranteed unenumerated rights to citizens in addition to those rights explicitly mentioned in the 1937 text. The court held that these unenumerated […]
We must check if this Covid-19 lockdown is really necessary
When the March lockdown started, planning was done to augment Ireland’s hospital capacity. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Health Minister Simon Harris and HSE CEO Paul Reid held a press conference on 1st April in the huge auditorium at Citywest. Posing with newly installed beds, they announced 450 stepdown beds in the arena and 1, 000 further […]
What exactly is the price of accepting this Nphet advice?
I had intended writing this week about the decapitation of Samuel Paty and asking whether in a republic such as ours, constitutional, charitable and legal status and protection should be afforded to any religion which does not condemn outright the killing or punishment of apostates and heretics by state or non-state actors wherever in the […]
Six months wasted since last lockdown
Dr David Nabarro of the World Health Organisation ( WHO ) has stated that governments should not regard lockdowns as the primary means of controlling Covid 19. The only justification for lockdowns, he said, is for “buying time” to reorganise your health service and resources. He also pointed out the massive damage by lockdowns globally […]
Policy monopoly conferred on NPHET and the HSE was hardwired to fail us on non-Covid public health matters
It was inevitable, in some respects, that the relationship between NPHET and the Government would reach a point of crisis. It was inexcusable for the Government and the nation to learn on the Sunday evening 9.00 news that the move to level 5 was being mooted for the following day. It was, no matter how […]
Powers of state are exercised with little or no democratic accountability
Every year in Ireland about 30,000 of us die. That is about 2,500 people every month. Of those people, approximately 30% (770 monthly) are attributed to cancer and another 30% (about 750 per month) are attributed to heart disease. In the last month for which official data is available, there were 25 Covid-related deaths. The […]