"unlike our government, most Irish people are not emotionally calcified men operating in a bizarre echo chamber where cruelty is rebranded “making the hard decisions” and tugging the forelock to despicable bullies is “bravery”."
👏👏
And this is precisely why it would be terrible for us to join NATO. Every Irish government would fall in line with every harebrained Yank misadventure, bowing, scraping and tugging the forelock while declaring themselves delighted to be finally playing senior hurling.
An important article - in an era of asymmetric warfare and dramatic power imbalances on the world stage, Western democratic leaders, so often in public, will likely come to regret the degradation of the norm against Head of State/Govt assassination by other states much more than autocrats will...
International law isn't an optional add-on for small states, it's essential for their existence and security.
The triple lock is painted by its critics as a limitation of Irish sovereignty. But when the government has effectively ceded all foreign policy decision-making to imperial powers, the triple lock's role in maintaining Irish sovereignty is far clearer.
The importance of maintaining the triple lock could not be clearer.
Any government that can't call out clear violations of international law because they're afraid how the US will respond cannot be trusted with decisions about foreign deployment of troops.
It's as simple as that.
The Constitution commits Ireland to respecting international law - the Minister ought to know the first principles.
what does the Irish government understand international law to mean if the unprovoked US attacks on Venezuela and Iran – with the kidnapping of a head of state in one case and the murder of a head of state in the other – do not clearly violate it?
Powers of president require reform – Michael D
www.advertiser.ie/galway/artic...
Kaja Kallas is a dangerous warmongerer who should never have been allowed anywhere near the senior foreign policy position in the EU. she rightly decries Russian imperial aggression, but will back any amount of imperial aggression by her allies as long as the bombs are eviscerating non-Europeans
Sky news: "we must assume that the Americans and Israelis have taken all calculations into account."
Why must we assume that?
The likely scenario is Ireland ends up joining "peacekeeping" missions abroad (with no UN mandate) led by NATO or a similar alliance without ever formally joining. Maybe you're fine with that but the triple lock prevents this happening.
“Neutrality remains one of the most widely supported pillars of Irish foreign policy, rooted in historical experience, post-colonial identity, and a long-standing preference for international mediation rather than military alignment.”
~Patricia MacBride
The Irish News
☕️🥐
In the alternative, a declaration that the plaintiff, having lawfully declared candidacy and having refused to participate in an unconstitutional process, is the only validly nominated candidate under Article 12.4.5, and is therefore duly elected without a vote, as no other valid nominations exist, and will hold the office until a constitutional referendum is held to make amendments to Article 12 and remove the undemocratic nomination process.
My favourite submission from recent years in Irish courts...why doesn't the High Court simply declare me to be the President?
Sorry lefties, it's a scientific fact that Ireland is insufficiently right wing | my latest for the Irish Times
Ireland isn't some unique specimen; if directly elected mayors (with substantive powers) can work in other places like 🏴, it can work here too. The problem is that central government (i.e. FF & FG) doesn't want it to work.
The framing of this article and its headline is really frustrating. It really shows that the Centre doesn't want this experiment in local democracy to work.
www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...
Aside from the fact that this is extremely alarming why the fuck would part of our EU presidency brief include anything to do with NATO? We're not in NATO.
The unchallenged idea that the more money you spend = the more left wing you are is idiotic.
www.irishtimes.com/podcasts/ins...
My politics would not be particularly close to John Moran's but this tallies with every single thing I've heard about his tenure as Mayor. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors have been behaving incredibly immaturely and are terrified of a Mayor who is not at their beck and call
Good discussion on Irish politics from @social-democrats.bsky.social conference, partly discussing options for a left-only government after next election
youtu.be/22vmYLRuDe4?...
They spent months making up a Catherine Connolly in their heads and getting mad at her!!!
Should we let loose Satan's demonic hoards on the Earth to begin an orgy of blood, violence, and torture?
Supreme court: sorry that's a political question.
IN ITS haste to welcome the Government's proposed abolition of the triple lock, the Irish Times front-page lead story this week regurgitated the killer argument (actually a rather dubious contention) that since 2014 the Russians, Chinese and Americans could veto Irish troops deployment anywhere. That would be around the same time that Martin declared the triple lock to be "the core of our neutrality" (2013). The newspaper also referred approvingly to the Government's dismissal of the Oireachtas defence committee's proposal for a " formal legal review before any troops
were sent abroad. Replacing UN approval with an Irish legal approval would, of course, meet the Jesuitical argument about the Russians and other bad people vetoing Irish decision making However, the IT explained that such an Irish legal safeguard would, according to one of its "senior sources?, merely replace one triple lock with another. Does this not mean that foreign vetoes have nothing to do with the argument and that Martin was correct in 2013?
The Phoenix on Irish Times arguments re the triple lock
it's crazy that Micheál Martin's first instinct when facing sharp criticism is to pull a "how dare you" as if he isn't of the nastiest, cattiest men in Irish politics
1. Wild to see this response to reforms that are broadly perceived as pro-industry. Private sector cannot be trusted with housing
2. Wonder if this counts as the legal action that holds back progress on housing, the type the government are so keen to blame for everything
I think you're missing my point. Abiding by the UN Charter and requiring UNSC authorisation to engage in armed action abroad isn't a violation of Irish national sovereignty. The only armed action demanded by national sovereignty is self-defence, which the triple lock does nothing to prevent.
Blaming the weather man for the weather while spending the last 4 decades willfully ignoring climate science to the extent we face billions in fines because of EU emissions rules. A government of out and out grifters and clowns.
I think you're missing my point. Abiding by the UN Charter and requiring UNSC authorisation to engage in armed action abroad isn't a violation of Irish national sovereignty. The only armed action demanded by national sovereignty is self-defence, which the triple lock does nothing to prevent.
The Irish Times thinks the triple lock means "ceding national sovereignty".
This is only true if you think "national sovereignty" means being able to send your troops into any country for any reason, without UN authorisation.
