All posts by Ciaran Brennan

Catfight at the NWCI: Is Ireland’s NGO Consensus Breaking?

It has been a politically inclement week for Ireland’s premier femoid advocacy group the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI), with scorned Fine Gael hitting out at the group’s alleged favouritism towards left-leaning and opposition TDs. Receiving generous state annuities...

/ 20/02/2022

Benefacts Goes Offline: Is the State Trying to Run Cover for NGO Complex?

Formerly an essential resource for keeping track of the nation's elephantine NGO sector, the Burkean looks despondently at the effective closure of the transparency website Benefacts.  Providing oodles of information, from funding to governance boards on thousands of NGOs, the...

/ 18/02/2022

The Udoma Committee: TCD Phil’s POC Powwow

Ireland's rising tide of colour seized temporary control of Trinity's GMB debating hall for the inaugural Udoma subcommittee geared at incubating 'POC' debaters. Not knowing where else to spend a squally February evening, this at the time rather intoxicated Burkean...

/ 12/02/2022

Soros at the Oireachtas: INAR Lobbies to Fastrack Hate Speech Legislation

A Thursday morning Oireachtas press conference and media photo op encapsulated just the latest attempts to enshrine British-style hate crime and hate speech legislation on the Irish statute books, as INAR Ireland led the way on enhancing Garda powers. In...

/ 10/02/2022

Musgraves Leads Charges on Lobbying for non-EEA Migration

The diminishing ability of Eastern European labour pools to placate the needs of a post-covid Irish economy is being demonstrated with the increasing lobbying of major employers for non-EEA migration. As reported in the weekend edition of the Sunday Independent...

/ 09/02/2022

Chu for Seanad (Again)? Will Diversity Gimmick Woo Voters?

The characters (玩世不恭) denote the word cynicism in Mandarin Chinese and it appears that the impending Seanad race will be getting that in spades with news of Hazel Chu's snap involvement. Thought to have slung her political hook by burning...

/ 05/02/2022

Why is Ireland Pushing for Regime Change in Ethiopia?

Our Boys in the Tigray The expulsion of four of our diplomatic staff from the war weary nation of Ethiopia last November was met with bafflement by the general Irish population Experiencing a year-long civil war pitting northern Tigrayan rebels...

/ 03/02/2022

Bloody Sunday: Why Mere Civil Rights Were Never Enough

“I yearn for hammerblows on clinkered planks, the uncompromised report of driven thole-pins, to know there is one among us who never swerved from all his instincts told him was right action, who stood his ground in the indicative, whose...

/ 30/01/2022

Lights Out For Cathal Brugha Barracks?

If the Russians weren't going to polish off the Defence Forces, certainly our own state may do so with confirmation that Cathal Brugha Barracks has been earmarked for a feasibility study on converting it into social and affordable housing. Home...

/ 29/01/2022

Gunboats Off Valentia: Irish Media Bangs War Drum Against Russia

Oh, the Russians are on the sea, says the Shan Van Vocht and Ireland must entrench itself in more NATO warmongering. Irish tabloids took up the unusual cause of defending our neutrality this week amid anxiety over Russian naval exercises...

/ 27/01/2022