Ian O’Doherty is an opinion columnist and writer for the Irish Independent.
For once, the Irish government has actually done something it promised. The problem is that it’s precisely the wrong thing, at precisely the wrong time. On Wednesday, Ireland, along with Norway and Spain, committed to recognising a Palestinian state. Ireland will formally ratify this on 28 May. It’s a bizarre and utterly counterproductive move which
‘We will not be used as a loophole in another country’s immigration challenges.’ Those were the angry words of Irish Taoiseach Simon Harris over the weekend, a further escalation in the war of words between Dublin and Downing Street which have seen diplomatic relations between the two nations reach their lowest point since the darkest
When the Irish foreign minister Micheal Martin recently stood up and announced to the Dail that Ireland would officially recognise a Palestinian state ‘within a matter of weeks’, there were no sharp intakes of breath or fits of fainting in the chamber. Irish political parties have long been relatively united in their calls for full
Genuinely shocking political announcements are relatively rare in the Republic. It’s a small country, with an even smaller political and media base who all know and frequently socialise with each other. This means that the whisper-streams between politicos and hacks usually ensure that what may come as a surprise to the general population is usually
At 1.30 p.m. last Thursday, a horrific knife attack was perpetrated outside a school on Parnell Street in Dublin’s north inner city. Three children and an adult female were viciously stabbed by the attacker who has now been confirmed to be an Algerian male who acquired Irish citizenship and has been living in the country
There have been diplomatic tensions between Ireland and Israel almost since the latter was founded. Ireland only established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1975, and it took until for 1996 for it to open an embassy in Tel Aviv. In recent years, the frosty relations between the two countries had been improving, largely thanks to mutual investment
It’s a widely known secret within Israeli diplomatic circles that Ireland is seen as something of a lost cause. While the Irish left is quick to react with fury to any accusations of anti-Semitism, insisting instead that they are merely opposed to Zionism and the Israeli government’s policies, sometimes that seems a distinction without a
You have to hand it to the green movement. When it comes to their increasingly farcical and delusional race towards the illusory target of net zero, they’re never short of ideas. Bad ideas, that is. E-bikes and E-scooters that have an unfortunate tendency to explode in the middle of the night. Electric cars which take
These are certainly interesting times in Ireland. Like every other European country, there’s a cost of living crisis. Mortgages are going up. Inflation is wiping out savings and the ruinous impact of our strict lockdowns is still killing jobs. We’ve even spent recent days convulsed in a bizarre national uproar over RTE’s highest paid star being
‘Cead Mile Failte’, which means ‘a hundred thousand welcomes’, is a sentiment the Irish have long held dear. We pride ourselves on our welcoming nature, our music, our famous pub culture and the fact that the average tourist will be almost overwhelmingly love-bombed by locals who are happy to see a new face and will
