Ireland
-
How appropriate at Samhain to turn to some ghouls. A spectre is haunting Ireland, the spectre of Fascism. The Far Right cannot get one of their own onto the ballot paper, but they have managed to make themselves into the story, with the compliance of the Liberal Right more keen to report on empty ballots…
-
The headline of the election of the new Uachtarán na hÉireann is of course, the extraordinary election of Catherine Connolly herself. Her pretty flawless campaign demonstrated not only her principles but also an unexpected and astonishing ability to keep a ball in the air. We have maintained the tradition, now more than thirty years of…
-
I Do not listen to those who say that this shambolic Presidential campaign is reminiscent of the last time there was a Fianna Fáil implosion during such a campaign, with Brian Lenihan in 1990; in fact the last time there was a Fianna Fáil implosion during a Presidential election was with Seán Gallagher in 2011.…
-
I Perhaps your correspondent was just awaiting a piece of good news in order to pick up his poison pen once again. The English State, once capable of sustained judicial conspiracies against Irish people, has proven that it cannot now even get a showtrial right, and has had to dissolve its case against Mo Chara.…
-
Lest anyone doubt the craven nature of the Partitionist elite, the West Brit Times ran an article (unseen by the present writer, who preserves his sanity by avoiding the paper), but helpfully and inevitably summarised in its politics podcast (into which your correspondent dips only to gather material for his Letters). The man who may…
-
Amnesty International’s Occupied Ireland director gave a typical response: It is shameful that the authorities allowed this despicable display of hate to go ahead. What a shocking message to send to local migrant families. […] The authorities must treat this as a hate crime, conduct a full investigation and ensure those responsible are held to…
-
So in this terroristic townland, we find that a gross crime is committed every year: the bonfire for Eleventh Night, commemorating (better to say celebrating) a key battle in the invasion of Ireland. Stacks of material up to 60 meters high are lit on fire, constituting a multiple crime, being at once a threat to…
-
It is an Irish town with a clearly Irish name, though since it is almost entirely made up of settlers, they would deny that there is anything Irish about the place whatsoever; it is striking that the settlers refused to rename the places they invaded, speaking of course to the settler pathology, a desire not…
-
Martin forms an instructive contrast with the man with whom he job-shared as Taoiseach and Táiniste, Varadkar. The latter is an unprincipled chancer, and, as such, can see when something is obvious and then get behind it just in time, as he has recently done on Reunification; witness also his sudden interest a few years…
-
The morose Shared Island initiative that Martin has been promoting, which sits within the Department of the Taoiseach, costs money but is said to be a way to unlock Growth. The Shared Island Fund was announced in Budget 2021, with initial €500m in capital funding available between 2021-25, ring-fenced for investment in collaborative North/South projects.…