Category: Politics
The Shadow of the Gunman and the Demise of Fianna Fáil
Whether it was Varadkar’s exchanges with Doherty in the Dáil or reading McCullough’s biography on De Valera, I decided to revisit my decision to leave Fianna Fáil some months ago. Having been a member of the party for several years,...
The Rush to Introduce Abortion Shows it Was Always About Politics
As the introduction of widespread abortion looms ever closer, the journey towards becoming this brave new Ireland suddenly appears to be fraught with difficulties. Before the referendum in May, Government politicians and pro-choice activists went to great lengths to accentuate...
Ireland is Wasting Time Tackling Climate Change
There’s been a lot of talk about climate change recently, this time spawned by the COP24 summit. However, despite this resurgence, we’ve heard nothing new. Reduce this, disaster that, “think of the coral reefs!” etc etc. According to this recent...
Does Peadar Tóibín’s New Movement Stand a Chance?
New parties have not fared well in Ireland historically. All of the leading parties were established by 1933, and the impact of newcomers has tended to be slight and short-lasting. Contrast this with France, where the En Marche movement captured...
The Abortion Bill and Conscientious Objection
The abortion Bill presented by Minister Simon Harris is now before the Oireachtas where numerous amendments have been tabled. Some deal specifically with the issue of conscientious objection and want to offer it better protection. The Bill envisages that doctors...
Can Irish Journalism Save Itself?
With its pre-budget calls for VAT reductions on newspapers and taxpayer funded schemes, the recent NewsBrands Ireland #JournalismMatters campaign sounds more like a plaintive SOS than a viable plan for the future of the Irish newspaper industry. The scale of...
Democracy isn’t All it’s Cracked Up to Be
Professor David Thunder is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Navarra’s Institute for Culture and Society in Pamplona, Spain. He is author of Citizenship and the Pursuit of the Worthy Life (Cambridge University Press, 2014). Twitter: @davidjthunder As Europe, the United...
Houses as Cars and the State of Dublin Planning
If you want to sell a car in the European Union, your offering has to meet quite a lot of very specific standards. For example, Commission Regulation 1008/2010, a six-thousand-word epic: “… concerning type-approval requirements for windscreen wiper and washer...
Love Éire, Keep Blasphemy, Vote No – But Not For Why You Think
Ireland is changing. Ireland is changing from what used to be a nation of small, rural communities into something akin to a satellite nation of the United States and the greater anglosphere, with all the trinkets and trappings of American...
Why Didn’t the Irish Rebel? Explaining Post-Crash Inertia
The question of how the Irish elite avoided being overthrown, if not publicly hanged, in the aftermath of the Great Recession must surreptitiously linger in the minds of those in the corridors of power to this day. Despite the recent...