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 […]
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 […]
Ireland should not be told by Brussels or Washington what to do about policing speech
We have to wise up to the drift of events across the European Continent. There are many in our establishment who make the argument that Ireland needs to be at the centre of EU affairs where we can aspire to “punch above our weight”. They argue that unless we are at that centre we will […]
Why I didn’t nominate Maria Steen for the presidency
I have been elected to Seanad Éireann on three occasions after standing as a liberal republican candidate. My record as a parliamentarian since 1987 has been consistently liberal on social and economic matters. I have taken the liberal side in successive referendums such as the divorce, marriage equality, Oireachtas powers and the Repeal the Eighth referendums. I […]
This is the age of Mad Hatter Tea Party politics featuring Donald Trump as the Queen of Hearts
When Ceann Comhairle, Verona Murphy, made introductory remarks at the first sitting of this session of Dáil Éireann, she drew attention to the use of social media to propagate anonymous falsehoods and anonymous abuse against elected public representatives. Few would disagree that the combination of anonymity with opportunities of mass publication transforms the context and […]
With luck, we’ll have a new drainage scheme for Dublin in just 25 years. Welcome to modern Ireland
The calamity of the Planning and Development Act 2024 is becoming clearer by the day. Most people are not aware that the Bill for the Act was rushed through the Houses of the Oireachtas using guillotine motions to prevent any real consideration of the measure as a whole or in detail. Many amendments were tendered […]