Will Trump call to the Áras for an icy courtesy visit with Catherine Connolly?
It is almost impossible to follow, let alone describe, American foreign policy. The armed conflict with Iran which Donald Trump, for legal reasons, refuses to describe as a war, even though his self-styled secretary for war is nominally in charge, has become ridiculous. With numerous claims of victory, equally numerous claims that the Iranians are desperate to negotiate, […]
Trump’s most loyal supporters – white working-class men – are becoming disillusioned
Reports from Washington suggest the Republican Party has at last become concerned about Donald Trump’s deepening unpopularity and the party’s prospects in November’s midterm elections. It has taken a long time for them to wake up and smell the coffee. Opinion polls suggest near-record levels of unpopularity for Trump’s presidency and growing dissatisfaction among voters with the administration’s […]
Ireland will remain dependent on gas unless we embrace nuclear
Imagine a world in which all vehicles – bar a very few – were electric. If electric vehicles were relatively cheap to buy and to run, would there be good reason to see two-car households as a bad thing? Would there be a need to control the number of car parking spaces in new apartment developments in […]
If 166 brothels can operate openly in Ireland, the ban on paying for sex is not working
Gardaí visited 166 brothels and interviewed more than 250 people described as “sex workers” as part of an international crackdown on sex trafficking, according to a recent report in The Irish Times. The report quoted gardaí as stating that they had detected no victims of sex trafficking during the operation. But they nonetheless appealed for anyone with relevant […]
MetroLink: Are we are setting in motion another financial runaway train?
We still have no clarity as to what Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien meant when he informed media that the 19km MetroLink project (12km to 14km underground) might now be built in two phases, the first of which would run from Swords to an unidentified point in the city centre. There has been media speculation that the two-phased approach […]
Hints about a two-phase MetroLink should ring alarm bells
Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien recently commented that the €12 billion-€20 billion MetroLink project was on track to proceed with excavation of certain sites starting some time in 2027. But he added that it was now possible that the underground railway would be built and opened on a “phased basis”. He suggested the system could be made […]