Remembering Willy McDowell and the futility of the so-called Great War
On the day that’s in it, much will be written about the futility of the so-called Great War, and the struggle between the great European imperial powers to survive and dominate each other. Much also will be written about the senseless slaughter of those who joined the colours, particularly here in Ireland and lost their […]
Northern Ireland’s best hope economically lies in continuing membership of the EU and continuing membership of an all-island economy.
The time may have come to radically re-think Ireland and to consider a few options which might offer a way forward for this island. A confluence of events has suddenly accelerated the pace of potential change on this island. The fact that a majority of the people on each side of the Irish border is […]
By equivocating on the cruel fate of Jamal Khashoggi, Washington is effectively dipping its hands in his blood
Last week I wrote here about the horrible fate of Jamal Khashoggi. I ventured to suggest that these events, horrific as they are, could be the beginning of the end of the grotesque and arbitrary character of what passes these days for US foreign policy under Donald Trump. Nothing in the last week has diminished […]
The fate of Jamal Khasshogi may begin the unravelling of Trump’s amoral, dangerous and Darwinian policies
Jamal Khasshogi was until this month a Saudi citizen resident in the US and a regular contributor to the Washington Post – a paper quite critical of Donald Trump. He was living in self-imposed exile because he wanted to be able to write about Saudi and Middle Eastern affairs entirely free from the control of […]
Culture of learned helplessness has failed us in the housing and homelessness crisis
We have just been told that the requirement for departmental approval for social housing projects with a value of more than 2 million euro is to be eased to 7 million euro to encourage local authorities to start building them. If the cap fixed by the Department of Housing Planning and Local Government for local […]
Unjudicial Kavanaugh is “damaged goods”; his ratification will weaken the Supreme Court
When I first heard the allegation that Brett Kavanaugh had sexually molested a fellow mid-teenager at an up-market, under-age, booze fest house-party the best part of forty years ago, I asked myself how such an allegation, if true, could constitute good grounds for rejecting his nomination to the US Supreme Court given that he had […]