Musk-Trump effect has the capacity to destabilise Irish democracy
I imagine that many people in Ireland are quietly hoping that some of the more pessimistic forecasts of what the Trump presidency could mean for this country prove to be wrong and that somehow the old adage that politicians campaign in poetry but govern in prose will turn out in practice to mitigate those forecasts. […]
Ireland in the 1980s was backward, poor and stagnant. Some politicians want to bring us back there
From the beginning of January 1973, Ireland was a member state of the EEC. But for the following decade we were in the throes of despair. By the mid-1980s, Ireland was being crippled by political violence, mass emigration, mass unemployment, political paralysis and a sense of hopelessness. Sometimes it is worthwhile recalling the failed structure of the Irish economy […]
Israel has accused Irish politicians of anti-Semitism before
It should come as no surprise that the Israeli foreign minister should accuse the Irish Taoiseach of antisemitism. After all, the spokesman for the same Minister’s department of foreign affairs levelled the exact same charge against the members of the Seanad who voted in the majority to pass the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) […]
Living in rural locations should be a feasible choice
If you look at large-scale maps of Ireland 100 years ago, you will see little black rectangles representing homes occupied by rural dwellers scattered across the landscape in varying degrees of concentration. The population was not as concentrated geographically or as urbanised then as it is today. Of course, that reflects a very different society, […]
Where was the ‘parity of esteem’ talk when Fine Gael was riding high in the polls?
A novel feature of the post-election political landscape is that the new government’s life will coincide very closely with the five-year cycle for the local and European Parliament elections. This probably means that there will be few opportunities for voters to express their views or for new names to prove themselves on the political stage before the next general election which […]
We are heading for an election result replete with uncertainty
In the last few weeks, I have written here about Friday’s election on three occasions. I make no apology for what I have written. The first piece was about the real reasons to be wary of Sinn Féin, the second about the dangers of a phoney competition between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, who the majority of people want to govern together in coalition, and the […]