Quidditch falls to earth with a show of intolerance
It being the festive season and goodwill abounding, I have decided to skate out on thin ice and to raise the alarming news that the powers that be in the sport of Quidditch have apparently decided to consider re-naming their game in an attempt to distance themselves from what they consider to be transphobic utterances […]
We cannot afford to drift into another lockdown
The United Kingdom has given 14 million of its population a booster jab. It isn’t at all clear how many Irish people have received a booster jab at this point. Anecdotal evidence suggests that a considerable number of older people have not received their boosters. By the same token, I have heard of people who […]
Parliamentary oversight needed if Covid powers to be extended
I think I am not alone in experiencing a good deal of Covid news fatigue. The problem is that we feel collectively helpless as the infection rates defy predictions made 6 weeks ago by our experts. The present spike in daily projections will have hospitalisation consequences, ICU consequences, and, sadly mortality and long-Covid consequences. The […]
With challenges of conflict, climate and Covid, these are dangerous times
As someone who is firmly of the opinion that it would be a catastrophe if, by any chance, Donald Trump were to be re-elected in three years’ time, I feel that the current trend of US politics gives one the horrible sense of watching a proverbial car-crash in slow motion. Trump appears to retain a […]
Adams lets the mask slip
Buoyed up by greatly increased opinion poll support, the Sinn Féin hierarchy has let the mask slip a little. Gerry Adams recorded a video Christmas card which was simply revolting. It wasn’t satirical. It wasn’t funny – even by the lowest standard of wit – the kind that features an elected Sinn Féin MLA posing […]
State’s energy policy generated by pie-in-the-sky politics
It has been “bleedin’ obvious” that Ireland would need to bridge the electricity generating gap with gas-powered generation for the foreseeable future. When I was a member of the Oireachtas committee dealing with energy during the last Dáil, I repeatedly sought acceptance of that fact –and its implications – by departmental and state agency witnesses […]