EU asylum pact is in danger of being rushed through without scrutiny
There is a massive black hole in Ireland’s legislative relationship with the European Union. Our parliamentary committees do not effectively monitor EU legislative developments in advance of their enactment at EU level. Nor do our parliamentary committees effectively oversee the transposition or non-transposition of EU decisions into domestic law by regulation. A Seanad oversight committee […]
Escalation of Gaza conflict may be exactly what Netanyahu wants
As things stand, the Binyamin Netanyahu war cabinet plans to launch a major ground offensive on Rafah in the coming weeks. The stated purposes are to free the surviving hostages taken by Hamas in its cross-border atrocity raid in October and to destroy Hamas itself. Whether it would be possible to accomplish both by a ground offensive is uncertain. […]
Vocation of true republicans must be reconciliation based on respect
Not many people read our Constitution, and for many it might prove a difficult casual read. Perhaps every school leaver should have been given a module as part of his or her secondary education on its provisions and receive a personal copy as part of that module. Article 9.3 provides as follows: “Fidelity to the […]
Sinn Féin remains the best resourced political party on this island
I was at the multiparty talks convened by the leaders of the British and Irish governments, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, at Weston Park, a mansion on the borders of Shropshire and Staffordshire, in July 2001. Three years earlier, the Belfast Agreement had been published after talks in Stormont, but progress in implementing the agreement was tortuous and slow. Decommissioning of paramilitary […]
Each day of Netanyahu in office prolongs suffering of 2 million people
What is happening in Gaza is entirely predictable. It was not inevitable, however. As far back as 11th October last, I wrote here of the need to avoid the destruction of Gaza and its people. The dangers of letting Netanyahu pursue his unforgiveable plan to match the Hamas-led atrocities of 7th October with his own […]
We must fulfil duties if any of us are to have rights
When I was studying for my Arts degree in Economics and Politics at UCD in the early 1970s, we had a choice whether to take either Statistics or else Roman Law and Jurisprudence as the third leg of our degree. One look at the Statistics course materials convinced me to take the other option. And […]