Should we re-roof the Rock of Cashel?
During the summer, I had occasion to travel to Portumna to collect some boating equipment with a family member. Our business done, I suggested that we should call into Portumna Castle. It would be my first visit for more than 20 years. The castle was a fortified residence of Richard Burke, Fourth Earl of Clanrickard and Lord […]
Britain’s asylum shake-up poses big problems for Ireland
The British home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood of 15 years, a barrister, a former secretary of state for justice and former lord chancellor. Her family background is Kashmiri Muslim, and her parents were migrants to the UK. She is regarded as being on the more conservative wing of the current Labour Party. She is […]
Ireland badly needs to face up to the minimum responsibilities entailed in our independence
Now that Catherine Connolly is our 10th president, her role under Article 13.4 of the Constitution as supreme command of the Defence Forces comes into sharper focus. Although she has been sceptical and critical in relation to increased defence spending by Nato states, the plain fact is that Ireland’s Defence Forces has been allowed to atrophy over the last 40 years […]
Why is Ireland a destination of choice for asylum seekers?
Distinctions between lawful migration, temporary immigration and residence, and asylum seeking are real and important. EU citizens have a right under EU law to migrate to other member states to engage in employment and economic activity, but not simply for long-term residence by choice. Nationals of both Ireland and the UK have freedom of migration and residence. Ireland also accords limited […]
This election wasn’t a lurch to the left, but a victory for Keep The Other Lot Out politics
Given that the vast majority of important decisions for Ireland’s future will continue to be made in Government Buildings, Leinster House, the White House, Capitol Hill, and the Berlaymont in Brussels (in no particular and quite changeable order) for the next four years, rather than in Áras an Uachtaráin, the outcome of last Friday’s election should be […]
What exactly does Vladimir Putin hold over the cowardly Donald Trump?
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, was subjected to a second brutal Trump ambush in the Oval Office last Friday. This time, the cameras were not allowed to witness the idiot king’s brutish behaviour. But the Financial Times broke the story, which was based on accounts of eyewitnesses, that Donald Trump engaged in a shouting match, swearing at Zelenskiy, throwing […]