All examples welcome.
The Sunday Independent has the usual range of concerns exercising it:
Sam McBride offers this remarkably unthought through piece:
If a united Ireland came suddenly and loyalists went on a murderous rampage, what would happen? Based on the current Irish Defence Forces, the insurgents would be faced with something closer to Dad's Army than the British forces which struggled to contain 30 years of sectarian slaughter.
If it came suddenly. And loyalists went on a murderous rampage. What would happen? Except as he, and we, know it won't come 'suddenly'.
Eilis O'Hanlon extends a consideration that others might consider was apparently lacking with regard to other communities she's written about over the years.
The verbal sparring match that erupted last week around Kellie Harrington isn't really about immigration. It's about class.
pecifically, it's about the simmering disdain for the working class which lies just under the surface of polite, middle-class liberal discourse, ever ready to bubble self-righteously to the surface.
This from Paul Cullen in The Irish Times, an interview with Dr. Martin Feeley who disagreed with lockdowns. Feeley doesn't mention vaccines and seems remarkably certain about his own views, not least comparing a dose of Covid that he had in December 2021 (after the arrival of vaccines) with a bout of the swine flu. But it is Cullen who has to take responsibility for the following:
Back in 2020, Covid was considered about 10 times more lethal than the flu. With milder variants coming to dominate since and most people having some sort of immunity, some experts see little difference in their current impact, though others differ.
Milder variants haven't come to dominate - that's incorrect. Current variants are as or about as serious as the original version. But vaccines have blunted that impact massively for the better. Immunity has come around through mass vaccination. Experts do not see little difference between flu and Covid-19. Currently the death rates of Covid-19 are estimated to be, even with vaccination and immunity, significantly more than a bad influenza season.
Stephen Collins offers an old line.
Labour's brand of left-wing politics is very different from that of Sinn Féin which actually has more in common with the right-wing, ultranationalist parties of continental Europe than it does with social democracy. Sinn Féin's opposition to property tax, carbon taxes and water charges show up the hollowness of its left-wing posturing.
Rarely have politicians statements in this slot, but perhaps should, this from The Irish Times from the debate on the Labour no-confidence motion.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin is now closing he debate on behalf of the Government parties ahead of the vote. Like so many other Government speakers, the approach to his argument has been to describe the Labour Party as a once-responsible party which has now gone down the populist route, and also dismissing the 1 million houses claim made at the party conference.
"Just like other left parties it remains so terrified of Sinn Féin's troll army that it is unable to arrive at it now position on any issue," he claimed.
If he thinks that's the reason any of the 'left' parties adopted the positions they did on the eviction ban he is sorely mistaken.
Curious lack of attention to detail by Newton Emerson in the following:
A target date of November 2018 was set [regarding Stormont finances] but the request never came, mainly because Stormont was in a state of collapse or preoccupied by the pandemic. However, the issue was not forgotten. The 2020 New Decade, New Approach deal created an independent Fiscal Council to put Stormont's finances on a sustainable footing.
Preoccupied by what pandemic? New Decade New Approach was released on 9th January 2020 which predates the pandemic proper by a good month and more.
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