I’m voting No-No as reckless amendments will only cause uncertainty
Last week Minister Roderic O’Gorman had an extensive and searching interview with Hugh O’Connell in these pages in which he blandly asserted that critics of his referendums were wrong. As I read the piece, it became increasingly clear that it’s the referendums that are “wrong” – not their critics. We are being asked by two […]
Government says that referendums are important but nothing will change
I do not always agree with the political views of Una Mullaly as expounded in these pages. But I am in definite agreement with her suggestion that the referendums on 8th March should be occasions when citizens exercise their sovereign right under our constitution to decide if their basic law should be amended in the […]
Referendum is a recipe for chaos and uncertainty
There are still two weeks to go before the citizens of Ireland decide whether to amend our constitution by the 39th and 40th amendments. Posters have appeared on lampposts carrying the inane message “Family and Care Yes”. Ministers and some lazy-minded commentators keep using the wholly untrue and intentionally misleading claim that the Constitution states […]
No true republican should wish for the failure of Northern Ireland
Like the majority of people in this State, I believe in republican government. And I favour an Ireland in which all Irish people — North and South — are happy to share their sovereignty within the European Union rather than have the island divided between the Republic and the United Kingdom. Similarly, opinion polls in […]
Yes vote on family referendum is a vote for an avoidable mess
Dr Tom Hickey of Trinity College’s School of Law and Government in two recent letters published here on the Family referendum correctly points out that the courts, including the Supreme Court, will usually defer to the Oireachtas to a considerable degree in matters of policy when adjudicating on whether laws are incompatible with the Constitution. […]
Referendum debate should not be based on misinformation
Now that the two referendums have been fixed for March 8th – International Women’s Day – it becomes all the more important that public debate on the proposed amendments to the Constitution should not be based on misinformation. There is not just one legal or interpretative meaning for these amendments. Given that they were guillotined through the […]