Ireland’s diplomatic agenda is now very tricky but at least we have time and space to build on this week’s outcome
When I wrote here last week that things were going to get tougher for Leo Varadkar this week and signalled problems for the DUP if there was to be any question of an East-West customs border within the EU, I frankly admit that I did not envisage the utter omni-shambles that was to follow when […]
Donald Tusk’s early Christmas present to Leo Varadkar is a mixed blessing
It’s been a very tough week for Leo Varadkar. And it’s just got tougher. When Donald Tusk gave Leo a seemingly unlimited discretion to determine whether the UK had made a sufficient commitment on the Irish border question to permit the Brexit talks to proceed to the second stage on 14th December, it was a […]
A general election will do nothing to resolve the current political dispute
As a starting point in any general election campaign, a Taoiseach whose party has lost two percentage points and has just over one quarter of voters’ support, is in a very poor place indeed. Still more worrying is a poll finding that you are within one percent (or the margin of error) of the support […]
The gulf between Britain and Ireland in relation to Brexit is no laughing matter
Boris Johnson’s quick stop visit to Dublin on Friday demonstrated, as if that were necessary, that the Irish government should take nothing for granted when dealing with the hardline Brexiteers in Theresa May’s cabinet. Although some of the proceedings at Iveagh House seemed light-hearted, the underlying gulf between Britain and Ireland in relation to Brexit […]
We should be worried about the American-Israeli–Saudi grand plan against Iran
Over the last fortnight, Saudi crown prince Salman has conducted a purge or power grab, under the guise of an anti-corruption drive, concentrating all power in his hands. With a carefully orchestrated PR campaign featuring “liberal” reforms, such as allowing Saudi women to drive in the near future and a reduction in the powers and […]
The squalid conditions in RTE’s Nightmare to Let don’t need a public inquiry,but for those responsible to just do their jobs
The words “shocking”, “shameful” and “scandalous” are so often thrown about in public discourse that they sometimes lose their true meaning. But all three apply to the facts uncovered by the Primetime Investigates programme broadcast by RTE on Thursday in relation to the behaviour of some landlords and all local authorities as regards the squalid, […]