Irish, EU & international politics & economics
By Veronica Ocvirk. The free trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur bloc of Latin American countries will benefit EU multinationals but pose serious disadvantages for local industries in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. “President, we have an agreement!” This WhatsApp audio message went viral in Argentina with […]
By Emma Clancy. The recession we are facing as a result of the coronavirus pandemic – together with the urgent need for climate transition – will require unprecedented public investment by the European Union (EU) and its member states. The EU’s absurd debt and deficit rules – combined with the […]
By Zack Breslin. Neoliberalism has been exposed as a failed doctrine, first by the financial crisis that erupted more than a decade ago and now by the Covid-19 pandemic. What replaces it? The seismic events of the financial crash of 2008 revealed the consequences of allowing rampant financial capitalism to […]
By Cian McMahon. After December’s Westminster general election, which returned a majority of nationalist MPs in the North for the first time ever, it’s clear that the entire Brexit debacle has dealt a potentially fatal blow to political unionism. As DUP MLA Edwin Poots commented, reflecting on the historic and […]
By Dave Lordan. On the same Easter Week of the 1916 rising, a Charlie Chaplin lookalike competition was held in Dublin. Chaplin, well-known to be a socialist as well as the world’s leading entertainer at the time, had a mass following among the Dublin working classes. Truth be told, among […]
By Lisbeth Latham. Neoliberalism is a term which has entered the left lexicon over the past three decades, although in different countries it can have other analogous terms. While it is a term that the left has embraced, the right, and the advocates of what is commonly referred to as […]
By Fergal Twomey. “The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living. And just as they seem to be occupied with revolutionizing themselves and things, creating something that did not exist before, precisely in such epochs of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up […]
By Niall Monaghan. For what toil the sons of Róisín, is it pennies? In this period of increased focus on the climate breakdown, our primary producers are often perceived as holding back progress. They are commonly viewed as another polluter that must be challenged to change their ways. But farmers […]
By Michael Taft. “It is the supreme paradox of democracy that every man is a servant of the matters of which he possess the most intimate knowledge, and for which he shows the most expert proficiency; namely, the professional craft to which he devotes his working hours; and he is […]
Ailbhe Smyth has been fighting to repeal the eighth amendment banning abortion since it was inserted into the Irish Constitution in 1983, and has been fighting for women’s liberation and LGBTI rights since the late 1980s. More than any other individual, she has provided the consistent leadership, energy and commitment […]