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The politics of paralysis and where we might go from here
With every change within the margin of error, today’s Red –C poll appears to be “business as usual”. But the problem is that business is not at all usual. Today’s slight flicker in poll ratings has happened in the context of continuing uncertainty about Brexit, and of the Apple €13bn controversy, and of the NAMA […]
It will take a crowbar to get Enda out of office – but his Fine Gael pretenders are only carrying feather dusters
On St Patrick’s Day, 1931, Stanley Baldwin, the British Prime Minister, speaking in the closing days of a vital by-election campaign, rounded on the press barons, Lords Rothermere and Beaverbrook, who were using their power in an attempt to topple him, and coined the memorable phrase to describe their bullying role: “Power without responsibility – […]
No sudden post-Brexit clamour for unification in the North
As someone who is by conviction a republican and aspires to live in a united Ireland, I have to say that I have found the sudden outbreak of “unification” chatter in the aftermath of Brexit a bit far-fetched and, alas, counter-productive. There is absolutely nothing apart from the grossest wishful thinking to suggest that the […]
Islamic extremism is incompatible with our liberal society
The cruel murder by ISIS adherents of a defenceless, elderly Catholic priest celebrating Mass in a small Normandy church is by no means the first of its kind. Jihadists waging “holy war” have been doing similar cowardly acts to Christian clergy and lay-people here and there across the Maghreb, the Middle East and in Saharan […]
Citizens’ Assembly is a phony piece of window dressing
The Citizens’ Assembly which the Government has decided to convene is, in my view, a somewhat ridiculous idea. That is why I spoke and voted against it in the Seanad. The media have, in general, left the public largely in the dark about its purpose and its composition. Anyone that I have spoken to believes […]