Editorial

November 2022

Editorial Opinion Mid-terms a victory for democracy as pro-Trump election deniers defeated

In the post-truth era, it is more important than ever to mark victories when they come. So the good news is that many of the most aggressive election deniers have been decisively defeated in the US mid-terms.

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Editorial Opinion All that is required is that the politicians go to work

Politics is supposed to be dynamic and continuous. Should it be deliberately slowed down or disrupted, democracy either gets derailed or is shunted into the sidings.

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Editorial Opinion Platitudes won’t deflect the ravages of climate change

There is an old saying that we should listen twice and speak once. The climate change conversation has gone on for far too long with far too few paying any heed to it.

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Opinion

Republican mid-term victory will pave the way for Donald Trump’s return

Today the mid-term elections in the US take place and they will be dominated by someone whose name is not on any ballot.

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Editorial Opinion Amid the inevitable discord that will arise at COP27, smaller nations can show moral leadership

For almost three decades the United Nations has called together the leaders of near enough every nation on Earth to discuss the growing realisation that our planet is literally burning and we are all on borrowed time.

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Women are now the Catholic church’s last hope

A church must reflect the world in which it lives in order to thrive. In the Ireland of the past, that wasn’t a problem for the Catholic church. It shaped Irish society in its own image. These days that is not how things work.

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Sacking Twitter staff at the click of a mouse is shameful

If a week is a long time in politics, it seems an aeon in the tech world.

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Editorial Opinion President Biden’s warning against losing hold of democracy applies to us all

“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate... Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.”

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As climate warning signs get bleaker, we must act before it is to late

With the curtain about to go up on the United Nations’ COP27 climate talks in Egypt, there comes news that Europe has warmed more than twice as much as the rest of the world over the past 30 years. As Alpine glaciers disappear at unprecedented rates and the waters of the Mediterranean heated up this summer, we should scarcely be surprised.

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Editorial Opinion This time of great difficulty will strengthen our collective resolve

You know the state of the world is sub-optimal when it becomes necessary to invent a new word to describe what we are going through. Ten years ago, for example, we were living through an ‘omnishambles’, according to the Collins English Dictionary.

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Editorial Opinion As the threat of a return to violence in Northern Ireland ramps up, authority must be exerted to protect peace

Martin Luther King wrote of humanity being caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.

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October 2022

A time to remember and honour those who have gone before us

At Halloween, it was believed that, as a new year began, the boundary between the natural and supernatural world opened and yielded movement between those two worlds. That belief, and others associated with the pre-Christian feast of Samhain, remind us this time of year has long been one when we commemorate our dead.

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Editorial Opinion Sinn Féin’s ill-advised hunt for civil-servant scalps

In June last year, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) issued a report that recommended the State had the capacity to “prudently” borrow up to €7bn a year to provide extra funding to build thousands of additional social homes. The political significance of the analysis at the time was that it chimed with Sinn Féin housing policy, as outlined by spokesman Eoin Ó Broin.

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Editorial Opinion Respect for all views is the only fix for North’s issues

Worry is said to be interest paid on trouble before it comes due, yet anyone who isn’t anxious about the disintegration of Northern Ireland’s political infrastructure clearly is not paying attention.

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Editorial Opinion Northern Ireland protocol can be fixed but the DUP is playing a dangerous game

This weekend the clock goes back one hour, so why is it that it feels like it is being turned back 25 years in the North? Arguably, because it’s as if the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), which is nearly a quarter of a century old, has been set aside.

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Editorial Opinion There is no excuse for not doing all we can to support Ukraine

Vladimir Putin began the week accusing Kyiv of planning to detonate a radioactive dirty bomb. He followed this up by overseeing drills by Russia’s strategic nuclear forces, using multiple practice launches of ballistic and cruise missiles. Small wonder 55,000 Ukrainians have sought sanctuary in Ireland.

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Editorial Opinion Rishi Sunak must seize chance to sort out Northern Ireland’s future

A distinction, often lost in translation, exists between hope and expectation.

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Editorial Opinion New British prime minister Rishi Sunak needs to be a safe pair of hands in this time of crisis

Rishi Sunak’s appointment can hopefully end the cycle of turmoil that has led to him becoming Britain’s third prime minister in just seven weeks.

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Editorial Opinion Tory pantomime will have an impact on events here

Another week begins in which Ireland will be heavily impacted by events in the adjoining political jurisdictions. One more stark deadline looms for Northern Ireland as political and economic chaos reigns in Britain, and both situations are bad news for people across the island of Ireland.

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Editorial Opinion Rishi Sunak as prime minister is best hope for political stability in the UK

Political events in the United Kingdom over the past two weeks have been extraordinary by any standard, but surely the time has come for the restoration of some form of normality there. The resignation last week of prime minister Liz Truss, who held office for 45 days, represents the culmination of six years of various political crises in the UK, mostly related to the decision to leave the European Union. There is little doubt that the primary source of political upheaval since 2016 has been Brexit, a decision that divided the country and the Conservative Party — now in office for 12 years — down the middle.

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Editorial Opinion Keep the light on for Ukrainian refugees as darkness grows in their homeland

“A refugee crisis unlike anything we have seen before” was how Tánaiste Leo Varadkar described it. But turning people away is “not an option”.

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Liz Truss delivered chaos as British prime minister – and now the toiling Tories are tainted

Normally, by the time the officer on the bridge who gives the order to abandon ship is blowing bubbles the message has got through.

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Editorial Opinion Uncomfortable guesswork as to how far Putin will go

An aggregation of the terrible trade-offs compelled by the destruction of any war makes contemplation of an ending feel like a betrayal.

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Editorial Opinion Ban on evictions shows the mess our housing sector is in

The good news in terms of housing strategy and the “somebody somewhere must definitely do something about this” approach is the coalition has shaken off its torpor.

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Editorial Opinion A negotiated deal is the only way forward for Northern Ireland Protocol

A parallel universe, we know is an adjacent dimension, with an alternate reality. It is a self-contained plane of existence, co-existing with one’s own, or so the boffins assure us.

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Editorial Opinion Caution should be the watchword for us as UK and Liz Truss teeter on the brink

The worlds of business and politics often interrelate rather poorly, and sometimes they do not connect much at all. Business people and politicians approach the world from decidedly different perspectives, with business folk driven by pragmatism and profit, while the politicos must factor in a good deal of gut atavism and popular identity.

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Editorial Opinion Hurt caused by IRA campaign still runs deep

The response of Ireland women’s football manager Vera Pauw to the controversy caused by her team’s celebrations following their qualification for the World Cup finals was heartfelt and appropriate. Pauw rooted the team’s apology for the genuine hurt caused to many people in the dominant ethos of respect she has instilled in the squad’s preparations and successful mindset.

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Editorial Opinion Truss may have sealed her fate as chaos reigns in UK

The ground is crumbling beneath the feet of British prime minister Liz Truss, opening a yawning credibility chasm. A disastrous mini-budget has brought unprecedented chaos to the financial markets. She has been forced to shred her economic strategy and jettison finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng in a desperate attempt to save her premiership.

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Editorial Opinion Exasperation does not give people homes, Taoiseach

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has again expressed frustration at the slow pace of the planning and building process and failure of the system to respond swiftly to innovation.

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Editorial Opinion Ireland women’s World Cup victory over Scotland hopefully will not be tainted by stupid mistake

When it comes to the World Cup, there is only one truth: You are either in or you are out. Thanks to goalscorer Amber Barrett, her teammates and their incomparable manager Vera Pauw, Ireland have a golden ticket to the tournament of dreams.