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International Leaders

World leaders turned toadies as Trump dismantles international law and pollutes the discourse, without concerted opposition.

Massive Zack Attack

Six months ago Zack Polanski was a lively London Assembly member known mainly for his theatre background and a tabloid humiliation involving “hypnoboobs”.

PEAK TRUMP

By February 2026, the idea that Donald Trump represents an endlessly renewable force of disruption moved from hard to stomach to hard to sustain.

From pastifism to pacifism

As the government prepares to jettison the triple lock, clear thinking could make Ireland a power for peace

Joycean Blooms: Altman again

A new way of reading ‘Ulysses’ may be found, which will harmonise all its symbols and references to external reality

The ascent of Man-child nerds

In an age of limitless distractions, adulthood is now just one lifestyle option among

Beware of Pity

Lessons for those who are too civilised for tormented times from Stefan Zweig, friend of Joyce, technology sceptic and the greatest storyteller of the last 100 years

Review: Patrick Healy’s ‘Beyond the Pale’

Recreating an entire universe: Brendan O’Byrne reviews ‘Beyond the Pale’ by Patrick Healy

RTÉ’s signal lost

RTÉ needs security so it can do the stuff other broadcasters can’t but it should modernise including by focusing on its player, social platforms, podcasts, video, and archives; and leveraging trust

The Living Skeleton: Irish Famine Poems

Kevin Kiely reviews ‘The Living Skeleton: Irish Famine Poems’, edited by Pamela Mary Brown with an Introduction by Dr Kevin Kiely

Open Letter to the Press Council of Ireland

Press council of Ireland. Office of the press Ombudsman

AI: five synonyms for slop

Journalism needs trust not algorithm-based truthiness and pervasive hallucination

False non-prophets

Behind the compassion, Ireland’s non-proﬁt ts are machines to outsource responsibility for a State that relies on nonproﬁt t failure as much as nonproﬁt t success

Overboard band

Ireland now has rural ﬁbre but the NBP remains a monument to bad planning, political avoidance and a settlement pattern that makes every infrastructure project cost more than it should

Speaking power to truth

As a student, I’d hammered on the doors of the BBC’s Natural History Unit, insisting there was a major gap in its coverage.

The main problem with Irish media

The main problem with Irish media isn’t newspaper closures it’s lack of investigation, narrow-ranged reporting, big tech, and feebleness

Dublin City Council’s cynic offices

Michael McDowell’s recent opinion piece in The Irish Times rehearses, with characteristic conﬁdence, a series of amateur claims about Wood Quay that do not withstand scrutiny.

Lessons for Ireland from China’s housing machine

Ireland’s housing debate is strangely insular. We compare ourselves obsessively with the UK, Vienna and the Nordics, while ignoring the most provocative counterpoint on the planet: China.

The Jury on Trial

Juries: redundant lawyers’ bauble or the last bastion — Starmer’s Labour doesn’t seem to know

Expert Evidence on Trial

Lucy Letby case suggests need for: legal aid for equal expert evidence for defence; code for experts; and facilitation of joint reports.

Law Unto Itself: legal digest

Increased sentence was appropriate for false imprisonment of former partner

Rental breakdown

Ireland’s rental regime forces tenants into a permanent state of precarity, the threat of homelessness functions as an unofﬁcial instrument of policy.

Broken Archangel is basement Casement

Reviewing Roland Philipps’ unoriginal but hyped biography of Roger Casement and his podcasts.

Collision of Abundance with Accountability

A critical examination of John Collison’s imported ‘abundance’ narrative shaping Ireland’s housing debate.

Pat Solutions, Irish Times political editor

The Irish Times’ Pat Leahy is the establishment’s favourite storyteller

PsyOp2026

Understanding the MI6-NATO carrot and stick PsyOp against Irish neutrality

My Spectator legal action

UK Press Standards body (IPSO) abdicated duty to assess truth about Irish antisemitism.

Immigration policy shifts

February-March 2026 PBBy Aoife LungrenIreland has quietly transformed its migration and asylum regime over the past year in at least these ten ways.

The Manager who broke Donegal’s planning system

OBITCHUARY: Michael McLoone who broke Donegal’s planning and ethics systems.

Frank Fitzpatrick joined GERRY ADAMS for a partisan ramble

February-March 2026 15Frank Fitzpatrick joined GERRY ADAMS for a partisan rambleReflections on friendship with Martin McGuinness, their place in history, war, peace and Ian Paisley

Whistleblownout

Dympna Waldron still reels more than twenty years after she blew the whistle on opioids in Irish hospitals.

Village refuses to ‘return’ bank statements and tells Bus Éireann it is abusing court process

The controversy over the ﬁnances of the School Transport Scheme has taken a dramatic turn following a court action by Bus Éireann to prevent the further circulation of information recently published in Village.

Co-opted but not co-operative

Post-Troubles leaders in Northern Ireland are bad-tempered and a bit second-rate.

Scott free, Martin does nothing on garda medal to wife-abuser

Domestic abuse by gardaí is in the news with the shocking case of former garda Margaret Loftus whose complaints against her husband, detective garda Derek Bolger, ultimately given a suspended 3-year sentence for a lesser charge of assault, were not treated seriously by the force.

Villager News Miscellany

There’s a bang of the Apocalypse about everything, under Trump and his gang, with raging climate change and incoming fascism though, compoundingly, they are widely denied. Anyway, hello 2026 from Villager.