Liberals must stop adopting lazy-minded, woke stances on complex issues
I recently listened to a fascinating The Irish Times podcast interview between Hugh Linehan and Ronan McCrea, a law professor in the University College London and sometimes contributor to this newspaper, in relation to his latest book, The End of the Gay Rights Revolution. This book is a must read for anyone who is seriously interested in the effects of LGBTQIA+ activism […]
Ireland should not be told by Brussels or Washington what to do about policing speech
We have to wise up to the drift of events across the European Continent. There are many in our establishment who make the argument that Ireland needs to be at the centre of EU affairs where we can aspire to “punch above our weight”. They argue that unless we are at that centre we will […]
Why I didn’t nominate Maria Steen for the presidency
I have been elected to Seanad Éireann on three occasions after standing as a liberal republican candidate. My record as a parliamentarian since 1987 has been consistently liberal on social and economic matters. I have taken the liberal side in successive referendums such as the divorce, marriage equality, Oireachtas powers and the Repeal the Eighth referendums. I […]
This is the age of Mad Hatter Tea Party politics featuring Donald Trump as the Queen of Hearts
When Ceann Comhairle, Verona Murphy, made introductory remarks at the first sitting of this session of Dáil Éireann, she drew attention to the use of social media to propagate anonymous falsehoods and anonymous abuse against elected public representatives. Few would disagree that the combination of anonymity with opportunities of mass publication transforms the context and […]
Grotesque charade of Trump’s UK visit is latest sign of a world in turmoil
The strangest side effect of Donald Trump’s foreign-policy-by-tariff methods was the participation by Indian military experts in the joint Russia-Belarus “Zapad” military exercises held in the last few days. These exercises – for which Vladimir Putin visited a firing range in western Russia to see Russian and Belarusian troops, tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft systems and warplanes defeat fictional foreign-backed insurgents […]
With luck, we’ll have a new drainage scheme for Dublin in just 25 years. Welcome to modern Ireland
The calamity of the Planning and Development Act 2024 is becoming clearer by the day. Most people are not aware that the Bill for the Act was rushed through the Houses of the Oireachtas using guillotine motions to prevent any real consideration of the measure as a whole or in detail. Many amendments were tendered […]