Time to wake up and smell the coffee over Sinn Féin

“13 gone but not forgotten: we got 18 and Mountbatten”. This was painted up across Northern Ireland by IRA/Sinn Fein members in the aftermath of the Mullaghmore and Warrenpoint killings on August 27 1979. Their tit for tat arithmetic omitted Doreen Brabourne, her son Nicholas aged 14 and Paul Maxwell aged 15, who were blown […]
Dublin City needs planned and aesthetically pleasing redevelopment

One of the least debated and perhaps most important issues confronting Ireland in the 21st century is that of planning our built environment. For the last century and a half, our urban areas and in particular our built up city areas have been allowed to develop in a haphazard, often ugly,and unplanned way. When you […]
Stolen election narrative will sustain Republicans in opposition

“If Donald Trump carries the banner of my party, I think it taints conservativism for generations to come. I think his campaign is opportunistic, race baiting, religious bigotry, xenophobia. Other than that he’d be a good nominee.” Those are the words of Senator Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, spoken in 2016. He commented that choosing […]
It’s much too soon to dance on Trump’s grave

I don’t intend dancing on Donald Trump’s grave. The simple reason is that he is not dead politically and remains in office. There is absolutely no reason to believe that an egotist of his proportions is minded to accept the verdict of the American people so clearly expressed in the popular vote and in the […]
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 […]