Articles in the Comment Category

Comment It seems superfluous to add more words of heat to the furnace of outrage stoked by the fallout from what the media with unimaginative but inevitable bleak wit has branded Golfgate. but it does seem necessary to reflect upon the mood in the country that the unfortunate episode and the reaction to it seems to disclose. at a crucial time in the nation’s combat with Covid-19, when many but not all important sections of the economy are finding a way to function again in the midst of the pandemic restrictions, ...

Comment With the cast list of both Government and Opposition now finalised, it is clear that Oireachtas representatives from Cavan/Monaghan, and some from other bailiwicks who have significant links with the constituency, will be significant players in the political drama beginning to unfold on the national stage at a defining moment for both the Irish economy and Irish society. The roles they will play in both the formulation and forensics of policy in the months ahead will bear significantly on how well the nation manages the challenging fiscal and societal recovery ...

Comment The task ahead of the new Government formed at Saturday’s historic assembly of Dáil Éireann at the National Convention Centre is extremely daunting, but it is initially at least a rather straightforward one. Before many of the worthy objectives in the Programme for Government agreed between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party and endorsed by its memberships can even begin to be addressed, the profound economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic must be assessed and managed. The full extent of the cost of Covid-19 is becoming more evident ...

Comment Our country finds itself on the cusp of uncertainty. In a few days’ time we could have political stability in the form of a new majority Government, or heightened instability as parties scramble around for alternatives to the second General Election of the year. On Monday next, another significant phase in the Roadmap to Recovery from the strictures and deprivations of the Covid-19 medical emergency will be embarked upon with heightened freedoms of movement and association and further reopening of important dimensions of the economy. But the steps will be ...

Comment Why is racism such an apparently widespread problem when virtually everyone in society would act with anger and outrage if it were suggested that they were racist? Questions like these are constantly debated but every so often something happens which brings the problem at their core to the forefront of public attention and discussion. Such an event occurred in Minnesota in the USA on May 25 when a 46-year-old African American man, George Floyd, died while being arrested. His alleged offence was the nonviolent one of tendering counterfeit money when ...

COMMENT The sense of our country and our communities emerging from the enforced hibernation of social distancing and stay-at-home practices deemed necessary to curb the spread of the Coronavirus will accentuate on Monday next if, as widely expected, the Government okays the move to the next phase of its recovery roadmap. Already, the return of some freedoms of movement and association, and the recommencement of economic activity in some spheres, is inducing a widespread sense that the worst might have passed. Inevitably this is tempered by a wariness that even the ...

Comment The tentative beginnings of a return to social and economic activity signalled by the first phase of the Government’s recovery roadmap to take the country out of the virtual lockdown situation imposed by Covid-19 has brought with it a distinct agitation for the pace of progress to be quickened. Different sectors of business unhappy with their place in the recovery queue have been engaged in intense lobbying and various forms of friendly and not-sofriendly persuasion to try to get closer to the starting line. And some members of our caretaker ...

Comment Covid-19 may have supplanted Brexit as the predominant news preoccupation of the times but it appears that the ramifications of the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union are about to re-emerge as a topic of major interest and contention. Brexit has been bubbling under the surface of media attention and scrutiny in recent weeks as troubling dispatches from the UK’s trade deal discussions with the EU began to emerge and key areas of concern such as harmonisation of standards and competition appeared mired in deadlock. As we went to ...

The patent wisdom and good sense of the Stay At Home message being imparted by the Gardaí’s Operation Fanacht campaign to prevent breaches of the prevailing Covid-19 travel restrictions this Bank Holiday weekend should not really need re-emphasis. But we are compelled to editorially reinforce it nonetheless in a local and national climate which over the past week has been clouded by visible signs of public discomfort and impatience with the measures introduced to keep the reach of the pandemic we are currently grappling with within parameters with which our ...

Comment Martial language has inevitably intruded into the reportage and commentary generated by the ubiquitous Covid-19 pandemic. Those providing medical care and manning essential services are described as being on the front line, while many of the messages from the Government and State agencies urging the population to adhere to the strictures and practices deemed mandatory to stemming the Coronavirus tide carry a subliminal message evocative of the iconic World War I ‘Your Country Needs You’ recruitment poster in which the pointing finger of Lord Kitchener prodded many an onlooker into ...