Affairs, 9 July 2021

IS ‘WOKENESS’ set to become “the biggest dividing line” between voters in the UK? Once more Finn Redmond in the Irish Times asks readers to consider this topic. Research conducted by pollsters YouGov just weeks ago revealed that a majority of Brits, (59%), do not know what the term means, including 30% who have never… Read more »

Affairs, 9 July 2021

IN WHAT DELICATE terms is American defeat in Afghanistan framed in media reports. The posture in the Irish press as elsewhere is simply to shake one’s head at what has been a tragic twenty years of waste. At this remove we are a long way from the certainty of chest beating writers like Eoghan Harris,… Read more »

Affairs, 9 July 2021

THE STROPPY sisterhood have been put in their place as “stakeholders”, which apparently does not include women with concerns about the proposed National Maternity Hospital. Doctors, government politicians and elements of the media have all warned that the awkward questions posed by feminists, rather than the substantive issues of ownership itself, threaten to scuttle the… Read more »

Affairs, 8 July 2021

ALL’S WELL that ends well for Arlene Foster with a new gig as chair of the shiny new Castlereagh Foundation. Arising from DUP demands as part of the New Decade New Approach (NDNA) agreement, the foundation, it is hoped, will put some intellectual gloss on the case for continued partition. In selling the deal last… Read more »

Affairs, 7 July 2021

FEAR STALKS the Fine Gael heartlands of Dublin Bay South as polling day looms and with it the unthinkable prospect of losing ‘their’ seat in Sir Garret Fitzgerald’s old constituency. With so much else in Irish politics overturned in recent years, the deficit of confidence inside Leo Varadkar’s party remains one of the most enduring… Read more »

Affairs, 6 July 2021

GOLDHAWK COULD not help but be moved by the words of old pal Ed Brophy as he marked the end of his role as a ministerial advisor. The former senior associate with Arthur Cox began his time in the corridors of power working for Joan Burton, and, while many banished Labour Party staffers fled to… Read more »

Affairs, 2 July 2021

THE CHINESE Communist Party will surely tremble in the face of its Irish critics. MEP Mick Wallace has come in for criticism following reports of an interview he gave to an official party newspaper last month. The former TD for Wexford has been the subject of controversy for his views in the past, some of… Read more »

Affairs, 2 July 2021

PUPILS AND teachers alike will have been reassured to hear Norma Foley make a return to public view this week. History students in particular may have noticed some interesting revisions in the Education Minister’s performance on the RTÉ News at One. When Bryan Dobson put it to Foley that 330,000 students in Britain are currently… Read more »

Affairs, 30 June 2021

WHILE THE hospitality trade reels from being “marched back down the hill” once more it is difficult to follow the shifting positions advocated by some lobbyists. The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA), Vintners’ Federation (VFI) and Restaurants Association (RAI) have come out strongly against the suggestion that indoor might go ahead but only for the fully… Read more »

Affairs, 30 June 2021

WITH A letter signed by 42 doctors in the Irish Times on Monday, this most powerful section of the medical profession has explicitly made its view known in a debate raging now for several years. Consultants of the National Maternity Hospital say that they are “concerned by the potential for misinformation and misunderstanding to delay… Read more »

Affairs, 30 June 2021

RUMOURS OF the Government getting its act together may have been greatly exaggerated. Marking one year since the new regime took office, the uneasy coalition was subject to extensive media review over the weekend. The fact they remain in power at all seems to emerge as the biggest achievement to date. A lengthy report from… Read more »

Affairs, 25 June 2021

GOLDHAWK IS intrigued to see a number of familiar faces feature in High Court proceedings lodged this morning. It is a case of a battle of the think tanks, with businessman Chay Bowes of Health Reform Ireland taking on Gary Kavanagh of the Edmund Burke Institute and Gript Editor, John McGuirk. An article authored by… Read more »

Affairs, 25 June 2021

GOLDHAWK WAS cheered to see Stephen Collins suggest that it might be time for older generations to recognise the difficulties facing the nation’s youth. Has the former Irish Times political editor been moved by the inequity in the housing market, the avaricious rent increases, the return of emigration or stagnant wages, if one is fortunate… Read more »

Affairs, 23 June 2021

IRELAND’S LARGEST wind farm is among those set to expand under draft plans published by Galway County Council. Predominantly located west of the city around Moycullen, the Conamara developments provide a microcosm of the progression, tension and contradictions in the state’s renewable policy. Galway already contributes a disproportionately large share of the country’s renewable energy…. Read more »

Affairs, 23 June 2021

NEWS THAT a man has pleaded guilty to assault during a demonstration outside Leinster House last September may come as a surprise to anyone who followed reporting in the aftermath. 29 year old Michael Quinn of Malone Flats, Market Street, Ardee will go for sentencing later in the year. Images of well-known activist Izzy Kamikaze… Read more »

Affairs, 23 June 2021

LEO VARADKAR’S ambitions for a united Ireland demonstrated both his aptitude for shrewd political calculation and a devotion to style over substance. The Fine Gael leader would have been well aware that his remarks on reunification would cause consternation among allies, but those chastising the Tánaiste have little to fear. Vlad was made to answer… Read more »

Affairs, 23 June 2021

GOLDHAWK IS amused to detect what could be described as optimism among the Labour Party ranks. With hopes that Ivana Bacik will lead the revolution in Dublin Bay South, Alan Kelly is banking on memory loss among voters. For instance, in a statement last week, AK47 wisely shaved several years off the National Maternity Hospital… Read more »

Affairs, 23 June 2021

THE EXTENT TO which the so-called Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) has been elevated as a force in public debate should be alarming. This front for paramilitary organisations enjoys high level access to Northern Ireland secretaries and senior DUP figures, yet it remains extraordinary that the views of what are designated terrorist groups are put to… Read more »

Affairs, 23 June 2021

IS DREW Harris about have his desires nobbled by namby-pamby civil liberties? The headline grabbing aspect of the new Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill will see police granted powers to demand access to mobile phone and other passwords, a measure which if coming to pass will represent a big win for Garda Commissioner and big tech…. Read more »

Affairs, 16 June 2021

HE’S VICE-PRESIDENT of the Hairdressing Council of Ireland and has won awards for being a hair “visionary,” but did hairdresser Shaun Moriarty foresee his company being named on the latest tax defaulters’ list? Moriarty co-owns The Greene Room salons in Killaloe and Nenagh with fellow hairdresser Orla Gillen, and their company reached a settlement of… Read more »