Affairs of the Nation Archives

AFFAIRS OF THE NATION

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S HOUSING SCAPEGOATS

October 2, 2025

CONSIDER THE recent astonishing sequence of events in Brussels, Strasbourg, Ireland and New York, which will have a potentially multibillion-euro effect on housing... Read more »

SANCTUARY’S ROUGH RIDE

October 2, 2025

THERE WAS plenty of media interest last month in the colourful spat between international showjumper Michelle Kenny and her business partner, the wonderfully... Read more »

ZAPPER’S ZIGZAGS

October 2, 2025

FORMER MINISTER, TD and senator Katherine Zappone is one of the most accomplished operators that ever climbed the greasy pole into Cabinet. The... Read more »

BEN GILROY V GOOGLE

October 2, 2025

GOLDHAWK SPIES more legal proceedings issued by the colourful Ben Gilroy – anti-eviction campaigner and founder of right-wing political party Liberty Republic (which... Read more »

O’DONOVAN’S BUM NOTES

October 2, 2025

THERE HAVE been late additions to the list of recipients for the Grassroots Music Venues Support Scheme, which was unveiled earlier this year... Read more »

THE CULLEN-VELDONS DEPART

October 2, 2025

THERE HAVE been four managing directors at the Irish Times in the last five years and the departure of the latest MD, Deirdre... Read more »

CHARLIE V GARRET: NO SMOKING GUN

October 2, 2025

IN 2007, Michael McDowell – the then tánaiste, justice minister and leader of the Progressive Democrats – told Dáil Éireann that gardaí knew... Read more »

SIMON HARRIS AND THE ARMS TRADE

October 2, 2025

The recent Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) biennial defence and security trade exhibition in London indicates how militarisation is becoming an issue... Read more »

AMNEST’S FINANCES

October 2, 2025

GIVEN THE current state of play in the Middle East, it is not surprising that Amnesty International Ireland (AII) has been issuing statements... Read more »

JOHN MAGNIER’S CREDIBILITY PROBLEM

September 18, 2025

JOHN MAGNIER is having a dreadful year in the Four Goldmines, with not just one but two High Court judges getting stuck into... Read more »

BLOODY SUNDAY: THE REAL STORY

September 18, 2025
Anyone hoping that the full truth about Bloody Sunday will emerge from the trial of Soldier F is likely to be disappointed. The official... Read more »

ALAN HAUGH’S SETBACK

September 18, 2025

POPULAR BARRISTER Alan Haugh BL got plenty of support from the media for his criticisms of the decision by Peter Burke’s Department of... Read more »

NETFLIX AND BILL

September 18, 2025

EARLIER THIS year, culture and communications minister Patrick O’Donovan appeared to nix an attempt to introduce a levy on the giant streaming companies,... Read more »

MICHAEL GOVE V KINGSPAN

September 18, 2025

IT’S BEEN a year since former judge Martin Moore-Bick issued his report on the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower tragedy and Kingspan boss... Read more »

GARETH SHERIDAN’S SUPPORTERS

September 18, 2025

GARETH SHERIDAN’S presidential nomination campaign brought together unlikely allies. Fresh from winning a 18-14 nomination from Kerry County Council on September 15, the... Read more »

PSNI’S ABSENT OMBUDSMAN

September 18, 2025

AS IF the doubts about British PM Keir Starmer’s willingness to reform Britain’s Legacy Act were not alarming enough, the “temporary leave of... Read more »

PAT FINUCANE: COLLUSION INQUIRY

September 18, 2025

SIR GARY HICKINBOTTOM, chair of the Finucane Inquiry, is in consultation with northern secretary Hilary Benn to agree his terms of reference. The... Read more »

WILLING TAOISEACH

September 18, 2025

WHEN OUR willing Taoiseach Micheál Martin strides across the world stage, as he recently did with a message to the Coalition of the... Read more »

BILLY KELLEHER’S ATTEMPTED PUTSCH

September 4, 2025
THE SIGHS of relief from Fianna Fáil’s Mount Street HQ could be heard all the way to Cork this week, where Billy Kelleher’s rebel... Read more »

COURAGEOUS CIARA KELLY

September 4, 2025

NEWSTALK PRESENTER Ciara Kelly last week promised Independent readers that her column that day defending U2’s disingenuous statement on Gaza would be “OUTRAGEOUS”... Read more »

RYAN’S NEW POST

September 4, 2025
FORMER ENVIRONMENT minister Eamon Ryan’s new grace-and-favour gig as EU “housing tsar” kicks off in earnest this month in apparently straight-faced celebration of the... Read more »

ALAN ‘AK47’ KELLY MISFIRES

September 4, 2025

THE SPECTACLE of Alan Kelly being brought to heel by Labour leader Ivana Bacik, not to mention the brazen, public defiance by him... Read more »

GAVIN’S MEDIA FANS

September 4, 2025

THE DIFFERENCE between the Indo and Irish Times’s coverage of Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin v Billy Kelleher presidential contest was startling in its... Read more »

SINN FÉIN TO SUPPORT CONNOLLY?

September 4, 2025
AFTER MUCH agonising and ideological debate about downgrading the central demand for a united Ireland, Sinn Féin’s ard chomhairle (AC) is likely to endorse... Read more »

REDRESS FOR CATHOLICS ONLY

September 4, 2025

AN INTERESTING article in the Belfast News Letter in June by a Church of Ireland cleric, Canon Ian Ellis, has been brought to... Read more »

GENERALISSIMO SEÁN CLANCY

September 4, 2025

MOMENTUM BEHIND the militarisation of the EU has not abated. While there has been some comment in Ireland’s media about removal of the... Read more »

BURYING MI5 TRUTH

September 4, 2025

Kincora’s Lost Boys: The Truth MI5 Buried (KLB), written by an anonymous author, went on sale via Amazon a few months ago. It... Read more »

MEDIA SETS HEATHER BLAZING

August 21, 2025
THE PUNISHMENT meted out to presidential candidates and the relentless pursuit of any of their flaws and misdemeanours has become a media trope, but... Read more »

SALLY ROONEY’S IRISH TARGET

August 21, 2025
WHILE ARTISTS here and elsewhere have sensed the changing temperature around the Gaza genocide and started to speak up – even Bono and Bob... Read more »

MICHAEL D’S ALBUMS

August 21, 2025

WHILE PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins may be annoyed at the Irish Times for its hit job last month – when the paper highlighted... Read more »

JOHN BYRNE’S HOTEL GUESTS

August 21, 2025

THE LATEST list of food hygiene infringers produced by the Irish Food Safety Authority (IFSA) got a fair degree of attention last week... Read more »

DUALTA MOORE’S LESSON

August 21, 2025

WHILE Dualta Moore’s exciting online learning platform, GoConqr, looked set to become a superstar business, judging by the hype surrounding its launch a... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S REBELS

August 21, 2025

DISCONTENT IN Fianna Fáil’s parliamentary party about Micheál Martin’s failure to put forward a presidential candidate has seen an alarmingly high majority of... Read more »

PETER MANDELSON’S GOLDEN TOUCH

August 21, 2025

CANADIAN company Dalradian, which is behind a proposed gold mine near Omagh, Co Tyrone, has upped the ante on its planning application that... Read more »

MAKING LAOIS GREAT AGAIN

August 21, 2025

ENORMOUS HYPE surrounded the recent Make Europe Great Again (Mega) conference in Warsaw. It was claimed that attendees came from over 40 countries... Read more »

MI5’S STELLA RIMINGTON

August 21, 2025

MI5 director-general (1992-96) Dame Stella Rimington, who passed away this month, worked in all three branches of MI5 – counter-espionage, counter-subversion and counter-terrorism... Read more »