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AFTER Maggie Thatcher defeated the British coal miners back in the 1980s she went on to privatise the British transport system, with disastrous consequences for workers and consumers alike. The Fine Gael government, in concert with transport minister Shane Ross, appears to have hatched a similar plan involving the defeat of the transport unions and… Read more »

RUGBY FANS had plenty to cheer last weekend when Leinster advanced to the semi-finals of the European Champions Cup beating English premiership leaders Wasps. It was not such a good day for London-based Irish moneybags, Derek Richardson, who owns Wasps and has had to take a beating on and off the pitch. Leinster won comfortably… Read more »

THE NAME of zillionaire George Soros has been popping up in Ireland quite a lot in recent times, courtesy of his well endowed and influential US-based Open Society Foundation (OSF). It is clear that Soros is determined to influence changes to the Irish legislation and, indeed, the Constitution but despite his increasingly active role, the… Read more »

DID Shane Ross foment insurrection inside a section of the legal establishment, namely the Law Society, which has just plunged a dagger in the back of the judiciary and the Bar Council? The solicitors surprised everybody, including barristers and judges, by backing Ross’s judicial appointments bill — lay majority, lay chairperson and all. No, the… Read more »

NOW resident on the Court of Appeal following the interminable and costly Flood/Mahon Tribunal, Judge Alan Mahon was at the centre of an interesting appeal recently. Mahon sent former haulage contractor David Walsh back to Cork Prison recently, overturning a successful High Court appeal by Walsh against his fortnight’s jail sentence for contempt. Walsh had… Read more »

TO THE surprise of no one involved in organising the controversial Cork conference, International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Exceptionalism and Responsibility, the event passed off last weekend with no sign of those violent protests anticipated by UCC authorities when they sought to cancel the gabfest in January this year. Before the conference… Read more »

A REPORT in Trinity College’s student newspaper Trinity News has raised a few eyebrows about Provost Patrick Prendergast, whose perks of office include free accommodation in the magnificent Provost’s House. It seems the college head and his partner moved out of the plush environs of 1 Grafton Street before Christmas because of the all-night noise… Read more »

AN altercation in the Dáil between Green TD Eamon Ryan and Richard Boyd Barrett, People Before Profit, has unlocked a power play that helps to explain the absence of solidarity from our so-called EU allies for Irish citizen Ibrahim Halawa. Goldhawk has already drawn attention to the hundreds of millions of euros (€380m between 2014… Read more »