Is the Wood Quay monstrosity finally going to be demolished?

Dublin City Council is reported to be about to buy into the semi-developed Camden Yard building site on Upper Kevin Street in Dublin. Other reports suggest it could relocate there from its ghastly campus on Wood Quay, and that new civic offices would be built on the Camden Yard site, along with 300 public homes. This news might […]

Should the super rich get to opt out of paying taxes in the country that enriched them?

Every so often, we read reports concerning the distribution of wealth among private individuals, nationally and globally. These reports often show that a tiny proportion of the population appears to own and control a massively disproportionate fraction of the wealth of our State, and sometimes it appears that this imbalance is worsening at the expense of […]

Trump’s disturbing National Security Strategy should be required reading

Because European governments and, to a greater or lesser extent European mainstream media, are playing a rather supine diplomatic game with the Trump administration, the raw import of the Trump administration’s recently promulgated National Security Strategy document has probably passed most European citizens by. But it is available online in all its crudity and menace […]

Trump isn’t a peace maker, he’s a piece taker

When the Netflix bid for part of Warner Bros business hit the headlines, I wondered why Donald Trump warned of problems with the takeover bid. On Monday, it emerged that Paramount Studios was launching a competing hostile bid financed by a consortium of various parties, sourced in the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Trump’s […]

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 […]