September, 2025

  Temporarily indisposed, Pat McArt has left me to fly solo on this one. So – Charlie Kirk was a 31-year-old Trump campaigner, who was shot dead in Utah during a speech (ironically) about guns. Death is always a tragedy – but what about Charlie’s life? Peter Mandelson has been fired as Britain’s US ambassador, […]

The Meaning of Life: a book by James Bailey By Joe McVeigh   In a recently published book The Meaning of Life-Letters from Extraordinary People by James Bailey which was reviewed in the Guardian the author includes the replies of some people who were asked to contribute to the book. This is the response from Kathryn Mannix , a […]

So. The headlines from RTÉ say that the station will not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest next year, If Israel is a participant. No shit, guys. You’ve finally found your cojones.  Mind you, by the time Eurovision Song Contest 2026 rolls around, there’ll probably no longer be a Gaza genocide attempt by Israel. They […]

Perhaps we all occasionally exploit tragedy for our own ends, but Donald Trump turns it into performance art. The way he pounced on Charlie Kirk’s assassination was grotesque even by political standards. Trump practically sprinted to the nearest podium to turn Kirk’s coffin into a campaign stage, solemnly explaining how the dead man was a […]

First , a confession. I’d never heard of Charlie Kirk before his fatal shooting yesterday.The photographs of him present a neat, good-looking conventional 31-year-old, with that wide-eyed look you sometimes see coming from evangelist Christian.That doesn’t mean he was totally caught up in spiritual matters. On the contrary – he married a former Miss Arizona […]

PAT AND I TALK TO PAUL GOSLING, FINANCIAL JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR OF ‘A NEW IRELAND: A 10-YEAR PLAN’

  Gavin Robinson’s recent claim that Michelle O’Neill is not “a First Minister for all” is not merely wrong—it is deliberately blind to her proven record of reconciliation and symbol-shattering leadership. In May 2023, O’Neill attended King Charles III’s coronation and made plain why, stating: “We live in changing times and it was the respectful […]

There is a debate being conducted (a very polite debate, since it’s in the Irish Times) about the provision of apartment balconies, particularly in Dublin.The argument for them is that they give you access to outdoors without having to go down ten storeys.  The argument for not (necessarily) having them is that they add up […]

Trump the Peacemaker: An Irish perspective Whilst we can’t say for certain of course, it seems likely, that if Donald Trump had not been elected President in his first term (2017-2021), the war in Afghanistan would still be raging away. Either way, Trump’s decision to make peace with the Taliban, even allowing for those final shambolic […]

Trump the Peacemaker: An Irish perspective Whilst we can’t say for certain of course, it seems likely, that if Donald Trump had not been elected President in his first term (2017-2021), the war in Afghanistan would still be raging away. Either way, Trump’s decision to make peace with the Taliban, even allowing for those final shambolic […]