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Statement from Village, 9 November 2020 The cardinal political sin is lying to Parliament. It is a resigning matter for a Minister to lie to the Dáil. Village submits evidence below that suggests the Dáil has been lied to on what is currently an important and topical issue. In his Statement and replies to questions in the Dáil […]
: Ruadhán Mac Aodháin, Solicitor, Prospect Law Re: Whether the Official Secrets Act applies to Ministers and TDs? Client: Ormond Quay Publishing Limited Date: 3rd November 2020 From: Diarmuid Rossa Phelan SC Thank you for your instructions of last night raising the above question to be answered by noon today. The short answer is that there is no exclusion in the […]
In advance of the Dáil debate on Tánaiste Leo Varadkar’s now-admitted leak of a confidential document last year, Village wants to express a hope that the debate will be forensic, not the usual populist, adjective-heavy grandstanding, that may let a culprit off a lazily-cast hook. To this end we suggest that TDs framing the debate about wrongdoing not […]
By Joseph de Burca. It is no exaggeration to say that Robert Fisk, who has passed away, was one of the finest journalists of the last half-century. He reported on the Troubles during the 1970s for The Times of London before it was taken over by Rupert Murdoch, produced a book on the 1974 Ulster […]
Biden is unexciting and past his best but not mad ‘Vote Joe’ For Village’s agenda of equality of outcome, sustainability and accountability, Bernie Sanders was the best champion. By comparison, his conservative Democrat vanquisher Joe Biden is ideologically vague, compromised, wedded to mid-twentieth-century agendas and lacking timely radicalism. Biden’s persona is attractively folksy grandfatherly – and Irish-American […]
Mr Varadkar’s statement provokes dramatically more questions than it answers. The Tánaiste’s statement says “the ambit of the [Official Secrets} Act is limited to persons holding a public office”. It is a grotesque and unbecoming misconstruction for the Tánaiste to so cynically and brazenly – presumably following days of legal advice – misinterpret the Official […]
Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar has come to be known as a leaker. The hashtag #leotheleak has trended on Twitter on several occasions after Varadkar was accused of publishing things he shouldn’t. That Leo leaks however hasn’t yet been proven—or become a political liability for the tánaiste. That may change with evidence from a healthcare whistleblower that Varadkar, while taoiseach, leaked a confidential document to a personal associate.