Ireland's political and cultural magazine
Quality-of-life indicators guarantee good policies and, crucially, implementation that can save Eamon Ryan from allegations of unrealism. By Michael Smith. The danger: farce When Napoleon III, nephew of the dictator Napoleon Bonaparte became dictator of France himself in 1851, Karl Marx wrote: Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, […]
The Assistant Editor of the Irish Times distorted the truth about the Arms Crisis. He was a friend of both the chief of staff of the Official IRA and the Taoiseach, ‘Honest’ Jack Lynch. The Official IRA had a vested interest in manipulating the story. Over time, the journalist portrayed Lynch as the hapless victim […]
Proposals to cover up the past breach elementary human rights and received wisdom built up over a generation. By Christopher Stanley. Through the pall of a pandemic Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Programme Director for Amnesty International UK, wrote in the Belfast Telegraph (19 April 2020), on the current crisis wrought by the coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic and […]
By Dr Peter Doran, Katherine Trebeck and Dr Tony Shannon. WELLBEING ECONOMY AGENDA FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET “Country marks a commons of earth and elements: a shared ecology of lands and waters”. (Richard Kearney and Sheila Gallagher, 2017) The Green Party may be lining up as relatively junior partners in the new government formation but […]
Named one of Time’s ‘100 Most Influential People’ in both 2004 and 2015, Irish-American Samantha Power served as US President Obama’s human rights advisor for four years and a further four as US UN Ambassador. She is famed for her achievements but also for her conscience. By Caroline Hurley. Samantha Power was born in 1970 to […]
Two recent hearings of the Independent Investigation Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in London heard arguments for and against abandoning its investigation into the allegation of sexual abuse made against the late Greville Janner. Now the Chair of the IICSA has determined that this module will go ahead but that the majority of its evidence will […]
An Indian woman’s experience of isolation downs and ups on Irish shores. By Mehar Luthra I was about to leave and take the bus to the university when I got a call from one of my classmates. An older Irishwoman, she asked me if I needed her help with anything and implored me to give her […]
Séamas Ó Tuathail was the first journalist to discover details of what was to become known as the Arms Crisis but chose not to report it. Unbeknownst to him, some of the information he dug up was relayed to a British journalist by a talkative senior member of the IRA. The resulting British newspaper article […]
The Smithwick Tribunal concealed its relationship with Freddie Scappaticci whom it treated as a credible source of information while the Kenova Inquiry is investigating him for multiple murders. The Smithwick Tribunal found Garda collusion in murder of RUC officers, but couldn’t name the colluder. This was partly because it allowed a motley band of FRU operatives, […]
As of a few weeks ago Kourtney has quit Keeping Up With The Kardashians. I do not keep up with the Kardashians but could not avoid the news. I’m embarrassed to say it. I couldn’t escape her fame. Fame, then. Norah FitzMaurice in Anne Enright’s latest novel Actress (Jonathan Cape), is not a media celebrity […]
By Peter Emerson Democracy The word ‘democracy’ is used with abandon, even to describe that from which it has long since been abandoned. Take for example the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. They have elections, but it’s all “Candidate X, yes-or-no?” And with turnouts of 100%, the answer is always ‘yes’. What a nonsense. There should be lots of candidates, and […]
By Michael Smith. Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has set out a ‘Green New Deal’ and 17 questions in a six-page letter sent to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on Wednesday in response to their framework coalition document The 17 “questions” are: Will you commit to an average annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of […]
By Bryan Wall. Ireland does not export heavy armaments or guns. Beyond that there seems to be extraordinary flexibility and naivety as to the military significance of exports that are neither heavy armaments nor guns but nevertheless can wreak devastation. In May last year the Sunday Business Post revealed that Irish employees of Google in Dublin were working on […]
Those who predicted swamped ICUs, scandalous shortages of equipment and overflowing morgues in Ireland were utterly wrong. If you haven’t realised that, you’re not following. The Irish Times, Irish Independent, RTE and other media in Ireland have failed their democratic duty to keep the public aware of the significance of the evolving pattern of Coronavirus cases in […]
By David Burke Fifty years ago this month armed members of the Special Branch dropped a ring of steel around Dublin Airport as part of a plan to seize a consignment of arms which was due to land from the Continent. This marked the start of the Arms Crisis. Within a few weeks, ministers Charles […]
31 January Metaphorically, if not yet literally, coronavirus is on everybody’s lips in John Cabot, an American university in Rome where I teach. Most of our conversations revolve around the autocratic might shown by the Chinese government in shutting down an entire city of 11 million people, two and a half times the population of the Republic of Ireland, […]
One would have to have to be stonehearted not to have pity for any author releasing a book this year and, in particular, one which deals with the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, now bogged down in disputes as to how to handle coronavirus with justice. Events have rapidly overtaken Colum McCann’s latest novel, ‘Apeirogon’ (Bloomsbury), which he […]
CHAPTER 14: THE CASE OF JAMES MOLYNEAUX JAMES MOLYNEAUX, LEADER OF THE OFFICIAL UNIONIST PARTY. 1979 – 1995 James Molyneaux MP was one of the most significant figures in Unionist politics during the Troubles. He was first elected as a Westminster MP in 1970 for the then dominant Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and served as […]
CHAPTER 11: PETER WRIGHT, MI5’S BLACKMAILER SUPREME WRIGHT COULD ADMIT TO MURDER BUT THERE WERE OTHER CRIMES THAT EVEN HE COULD NOT BRING HIMSELF TO ACKNOWLEDGE. THE RAPE OF CHILDREN IN IRELAND MUST HAVE BEEN ONE SUCH SECRET. Peter Wright CBE of MI5 was Britain’s most accomplished blackmailer. He was central to the surveillance and […]
CHAPTER 4: RICHARD KERR, THE ABUSE VICTIM WHO JOINS ALL THE DOTS THE KINCORA SURVIVOR Richard Kerr is the key figure in a full appreciation of the magnitude of the scandal. His horrific experience joins the dots between all of the key figures and developments involved in it. One of the important points to arise […]
