Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
From the end of 2022 to the middle of 2023, Big Tech employers laid off 300,000 workers globally. Between January and May 2023 alone, there were approximately 2,300 redundancies in the Irish tech sector, including at companies like Google, Meta (Facebook), Stripe, Salesforce, Microsoft, X (formerly Twitter) and Zendesk. For […]
The ink is barely dry on the report on Micheál Martin’s shambolic consultative forum where a rogues’ gallery of defence industry-funded “experts” decried the backwardness of the Irish public for having an “emotive attachment in some quarters to the concept of neutrality as part of our national identity.”[1] Martin, not […]
What is the nature of those elements now aligned to the anti-immigrant, anti-trans, “nationalistic” and conspiratorial movements seen in Ireland recently? Do such movements mobilise from within particular and consistent segments of the class structure? Are such mobilisations evidence of a risk of far-right elements moving towards mass influence? What […]
The exposé of Russell Brand this month by the Channel 4 documentary “Dispatches,” and the on-line vitriol that followed, was a stark reminder of the continued dangers of standing up to abusers in a post-MeToo society. A number of women and former colleagues were interviewed on their experiences with the […]
The 15th summit of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) was held in South Africa in August under the slogan “Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development, and Inclusive Multilateralism.” More than sixty countries from around the world participated in this summit, which made the momentous decision to […]
The high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, Josef Borrell, visited Cuba on 25–27 May to represent the EU at the third Joint Council of the EU-Cuba Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA), which was set up in 2018. This process, established with the full […]
On 22 June, RTE announced that it had overpaid Ryan Tubridy of the “Late Late Show” by a figure of €345,000. This was done through secretive deals and barter accounts, and resulted in Tubridy earning more than €500,000 each year. The following weeks saw wall-to-wall coverage of the scandal in […]
If you don’t work in tech, most probably you have heard of ChatGPT, and thought that it’s amazing. Actually many who do work in tech would share your amazement—a system that can mimic humans to the extent that, many argue, it can pass the Turing test, the gold standard for […]
The big item of conversation within the farming and rural community is the “Nature Restoration Law,” which is the EU Commission’s plan to restore more than a fifth of the EU member-states’ land and sea area by 2030. This is the first biodiversity law since the “Habitats Directives” in 1992; […]
The recent events of June involving the death of five rich men dominated the media. As all eyes were on the Atlantic, in the Mediterranean those fleeing war, poverty and climate change were ignored as they drowned in the seas crossing to Europe. According to the EU commissioner for home […]
During May a small but nevertheless significant gathering of peace groups took place in Brussels. The forum was hosted by MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, drawing activists from eleven countries. Both these MEPs have been the most outspoken against the war in Ukraine, both in condemning Russia’s invasion and […]
On 15 May 2023, an interview with the French ambassador in Ireland titled “Ireland must ‘pull its weight’ on increasing defence” was published in The Irish Examiner. Most of the interview focuses on the perceived need for the European Union to reduce its industrial and energy dependence on other global […]
Simon Coveney, the Dublin TD, and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, was interviewed on RTÉ Radio 1 in late May about the loss of jobs at Meta, Facebook’s parent company, over the last few months. True to form, tongue in cheek, he regretted the job losses and vowed to […]
There’s nothing like the craic on the street during election campaigning. Memorable quotes are born like: “we want real change not loose change”. But mostly there is a carnivalesque atmosphere around canvassing and people can appear to become interested in what the candidates are saying. You are told wonderful stories […]
Last month’s local government election results were even more significant than simply the storming performance by Sinn Féin. The outcome has underlined an inexorable direction of travel that points to the decline not just of unionist political hegemony, but of the very union itself. Not only is unionism losing out […]
We could waste a lot of time speculating on the real purpose behind the Biden visit. Nevertheless it is worth reflecting on the nature and impact of his trip to Ireland and especially how the Irish establishment reacted to it. Ostensibly the US president was coming here to celebrate the […]