Bewildering, silly, inexcusable – the process of government formation since #GE16
It shows very little self-confidence for Fianna Fáil to refuse, on moral principle, to enter a partnership government in which they would be treated as equals with Fine Gael. But it does display a “cute hoor” mind-set that suggests that FF expects any new government to have to take hard decisions to govern properly for […]
Democracy, for all its difficulties, is in need of being cherished
The savage slaying of Jo Cox, by all accounts a really great emerging politician, at the hands of a deranged loner came at a time when the Brexit referendum campaign was about to reach its climactic last weekend. And the awfulness of her death led to a temporary cessation of hostilities in that campaign. Terrible […]
Polls, wallops and political messaging as Brexit campaign reaches the home straight
The Brexit campaign, in horse racing terms, has rounded the last turn and is on the run in to the winning post. It is a two horse race. “Stay” and “Leave” are matching each other stride for stride, if the polls are to be believed. Which horse has the greater reserves of energy and which […]
Five myths about the Rising
The centenary of the Easter Rising is surrounded by myth, moral ambiguity, historical revisionism, and by political re-interpretation and re-invention. For those, like myself, who unambiguously value and cherish the establishment of an independent, sovereign Irish republic, 1916 is the starting point of its existence, albeit that it was not brought to fruition for years afterwards. It is […]
No public appetite for general election re-run
It seems clear that some members of Fianna Fáil may have their “tails up” because of the very significant improvement in seat numbers and in their share of the General Election vote. This positive feeling which they have about themselves contrasts with the sense that Fianna Fáil was a toxic political brand from 2009 onwards. […]
Why the rise of Trump is a global issue
It is truly an irony that many sophisticated European liberals now look back at the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H Bush Senior as periods when the western world’s fate lay in safe hands. But the continuing degradation of rational politics in the US by the modern Republican party is creating a nostalgia even for figures whose […]