Ireland cannot play an observer role in Brexit matters
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
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
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 […]
A government in office but not in power attracts disastrous outcomes
With typical hype, the pendulum of lazy journalism and that class of corridor-prowlers who feed regular doses of nonsense to silly journalists has swung into action yet again. This time, we are told, that Angela Merkel is “now the leader of the free world”. Assuming that Ireland still remains part of “the free world”, is […]
Time for the West to atone for the damage it has caused in Syria
As the siege of Aleppo enters its final stages, and the reins of power in Washington are transferred to Trump, it is very likely that the Syrian conflict will result in Bashar Al Assad remaining President of the Syrian state under some negotiated “peace” deal at some point in the future. Western opinion has not […]
Renzi’s reckless promises sealed his fate
Whatever the outcomes in today’s Italian referendum and the Austrian election for president, there is a sense of restlessness and unease abroad in the western democracies. It can be argued that the Italian referendum is not of any inherent international significance save for the fact that Matteo Renzi, the master of silly political gestures, indicated […]