Current Events
Police Reform In Northern Ireland, Part Deux
Another take on police reform, this time focusing on the importance of community policing. https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/176195
Current Events
Police Reform in Northern Ireland
On “The Conversation,” my friend and colleague Donald Beaudette and I discuss the lessons that the United States can learn from the process of reforming the police in Northern Ireland. Read it here.
Current Events
Important High Court Decision Coming on Monday
According to the Irish Times, the High Court will rule on Monday on whether there is a “validly constituted Seanad” that can sit and pass laws. This is an interesting question dealing with Article 18 of Bunreacht na hÉireann, and pits members of the Seanad against the outgoing taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, Read more…
Current Events
Gemma O’Doherty Shows Her True Colors
And they’re not green, white, and orange. In an obscene tweet yesterday, Gemma cited a murder in South Africa and then claimed that “multiculturalism” is the problem. In many of Gemma’s racist tweets proclaiming that “Ireland belongs to the Irish,” she has been able to at least nominally pretend that Read more…
Current Events
Lyra McKee – Murder Weapon Found
At long last, investigators have located the gun that assholes from the so-called New IRA used to murder the journalist Lyra McKee over a year ago in Derry. Police reform is an urgent issue in the United States right now, and I hope that reformers might look to the PSNI Read more…
Current Events
Domestic Abuse in Lockdown
Domestic violence is a euphemism for assault, assault with a deadly weapon, and/or murder or one’s intimate partner. In Ireland, as around the world, cases of “domestic violence” have increased dramatically as the coronavirus pandemic forced people into lockdown. Today’s Irish Times is reporting that the gardaí are committed to Read more…
Current Events
Ireland is helping Native Americans Battle Coronavirus
This is one of the best stories I’ve seen recently. It is a bright spot in all of the darkness of quarantine, lockdown, sanitize, social distance. Native Americans helped the Irish during the Famine of the 1840s, and in 2020, Irish people are sending aid to Native Americans, who are Read more…
Current Events
Rape Conviction & an Appalling Headline
The Irish Times should be hanging its head in shame today after this disgusting headline: “Two Men Jailed for Raping ‘Blind Drunk’ student in Co Donegal.” Two men were convicted of raping a young woman, who is now in her 20s. The men, Boakye Osei (30), of Tooban, Burnfoot, and Read more…
Current Events
Dáil Éireann convenes to pass emergency bill
The Irish Times is reporting this morning that the Dáil is in session to pass the Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Bill in order to give the government authority to take drastic steps to contain the virus and save the lives of Irish Read more…
Current Events
The Taoiseach Hits a Homerun
I love using baseball metaphors when discussing politics in countries that have no interest in baseball. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar smashed it out of the park last night with his St. Patrick’s Day address to the nation. He spoke about the COVID-19 pandemic in a fashion that was direct, honest, and Read more…