The time has come to speak a little “Truth to Power” – to Samantha Power

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“Is there nothing you will not lie about? Do you have no shame?” With these moving words passionately spoken, the US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power rounded on her Russian counterpart at the Security Council this week. Her outrage was genuine and compelling. Her words were flashed across the western world. As I watched […]

Trump is damaged goods and no ally of Irish interests

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Let me show a little of my politics on my sleeve. The night that Barack Obama was elected eight years ago, I watched American media through the night. When it became obvious that Obama was a sure thing in the early hours, I was watching alone when, to my utter surprise I started crying – […]

Ireland cannot play an observer role in Brexit matters

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Last week, Theresa May has set out her government’s wish-list for its Brexit deal with the EU. Her Lancaster House speech was aspirational rather than specific. The bottom line is that she envisages a post-Brexit relationship in which the UK is no longer part of the EU or of the EU’s single market but is […]

Mary Robinson’s Presidential Library and her legacy

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Is this Groundhog Day for the “new politics”? Today’s Sunday Business Post Red-C poll confirms my thesis that Irish politics have become stuck in a depressing rut of under-performance and futility. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil each enjoy the support of just a quarter of the jaded, cynical electorate. Neither of them has any fundamental […]

Growing worldwide alienation must be factored into the election of Trump

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When the dust settles over the election of Donald Trump and the furore dies down somewhat, those, like me, who spoke and wrote against his candidacy will have to examine the factors that lie behind his success. There is no single, simple explanation. I wrote here in the last few months about some of the […]