Ireland's political and cultural magazine
The Report and Final Stage debates on the Gender Recognition Bill 2014 have now concluded in Seanad Eireann. The Bill will now proceed to the Dáil in March. The Minister responsible for this legislation, Labour’s Kevin Humphreys, only accepted two significant amendments in the Seanad. The first amendment is that the Bill will contain a […]
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Last year the prosecutions of Anglo Irish bank bosses fizzled out in community service for Pat Whelan and William McAteer, guilty of 10 counts of providing illegal loans to the group of investors known as the Maple 10 to prop up the Anglo share price. Sean FitzPatrick, the bank’s former chairman, was acquitted of engaging […]
By Lorna Gold. Academics, policymakers and NGOs met in early April at the Royal Irish Academy to examine how Ireland’s new foreign policy, ‘Global Island’, can be put into practice. The striking thing about this policy is an extraordinary clash between the two key sections: that on ‘Our Values’ which establishes a framework of values […]
By Domhnall Casey. Most people now see homosexuality as ‘normal’, a big improvement on the recent past when to be gay was a criminal offence. The Government’s proposal to hold a Constitutional referendum aimed at changing the law on equal marriage for the homosexual community has, apparently, been greeted so far with almost universal approval. […]
By Niall Crowley. Political and media outrage is strangely hard to direct and seemingly impossible to sustain. There was a lot of it about, though, when ‘Prime Time’ did its exposé of Aras Attracta in Mayo and the inhumane treatment of people with intellectual disabilities there. The Taoiseach led the way with: ‘This was frightening, […]
By Ken Phelan. Amal Alamuddin-Clooney: by night wife of heartthrob espresso addict George Clooney, by day eminent barrister specialising in international law and human rights, is finding that with the tinsel comes an edge. She has experienced several descents from the rarefied elevation of the international bar, as not just her wardrobe but her politics […]
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By Sorley McCaughey. Tax policy poses options to prioritise one sector of society over another. As with all choices, there are inevitably winners and losers. Professor Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, has firmly linked tax policy with human rights. He has posed this challenge squarely in the Irish context. […]
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By Gerard Cunningham. Late last year, the Irish Times reported exclusively on secret courts set up by justice minister Frances Fitzgerald to regulate requests for Irish data from the UK’s GCHQ. The courts were set up after files released by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that GCHQ was illegally tapping data on the internet pipes […]