Ciarán O’Connor’s Iranian Bots: Time for Irish Media to Register ISD as Foreign Agents
The Irish Times op-ed pages have long enjoyed the rare distinction of irritating both left and right, largely through its habit of quietly importing the anxieties of British securocrats and repackaging them as native concerns. From ritualised scoldings about Ireland’s...
National Sabotage? Blame Green Mania Not Truckers for Fuel Unrest
The fuel protests now entering their fourth day are being treated by the 26-County government as a law-and-order headache, a public-order nuisance and, in Micheál Martin’s words, an act of “national sabotage”. That line is not just arrogant. It is...
Murphy Versus Molnárfi: Has Fuel Protests Broken Back of Left Populism
Dublin enters its third day of partial blockade and slow moving motorcades from hauliers and farmers alike as the government ponders the deployment of the Defence Forces to clear vital arteries. Responding to price spike in the wake of the...
Ireland and Iran: The Price of Pax Americana?
The most immediate impact of the war on Iran for Ireland is not ideological or diplomatic. It is economic. It is measured in the price of petrol, diesel, and home heating oil. As the conflict escalates, energy markets have responded...
His Grace’s Hills: Lismore and the Scandal of Absentee Ownership
The dispute in Lismore, County Waterford, has rightly provoked anger. Hill farmers, some of whose families have worked the same ground for generations, are facing proposed rent increases that in some cases rise to around €5,200. Farmers have described these...
The Irish Right’s Cart-Before-the-Horse Problem: A Reply to Cormac Lucey
The Irish Right has, in recent years, developed a curious habit. It has begun writing manifestos for a movement that does not yet exist. Policy papers are drafted. Platforms are proposed. Solutions are offered - often thoughtful, often detailed, sometimes...
When Reason Faltered: Ireland Six Years After COVID
We’re approaching the sixth anniversary of a veritable “crime against humanity”. Previously, individuals, communities, or races had been targets of crimes; in March 2020, a crime was perpetrated against the entire human race, excluding, of course, the accursed perpetrators. And...
Ellen Coyne’s Fringe: Women’s Coalition on Immigration Leaves IT Flummoxed
If Ellen Coyne was trying hard not to sound startled this week then it clearly isn’t working. The Joe.ie turned Irish Times corridor whisperer took to print and podcast to passively aggressively condemn the launch of Women's Coalition on Immigration...
“The Split”: Explaining Petty Factionalism in Irish Politics
A feature of Irish politics is the propensity of political parties to have splits usually resulting in resignations or expulsions. This is a feature of the Irish tendency towards hierarchy and collectivism. In order to function a political party requires...
Getting Life Back into Dundalk IT: Jake Fitzsimons for DKITSU President
DKIT is entering an exciting new chapter in its history with this year seeing the initiation of University College status under Queens University Belfast, an unprecedented expansion of cross border institutional relations. And no doubt the Students Union will play...