All posts by Ciaran Brennan

Burkean Candidate Pledges Flat to Asylum Seekers —Asks Other TCDSU Candidates to Do Likewise

Earlier this week The Burkean reported on the launch of our former Culture Editor Peter Caddle’s candidacy for the editorship of TCD’s University Times in this year's TCDSU student elections. As the masthead publication for the student body, the editorial...

/ 06/03/2021

Caddle For Editor? —Challenging the UT Clique

For what regards itself to be a journalistic bastion, Trinity College’s University Times (UT) has accrued a rather blemished reputation over the years. From budgetary overspends, to the infamous botched bugging of student accommodation, the paper has shuffled by in...

/ 01/03/2021

The Irish Government’s Public Housing Bonanza for Asylum Seekers

With a foreword written in Albanian, Urdu and Georgian, as well as welcoming introductions by Micheál Martin and Roderic O’Gorman, the long anticipated White Paper laying out the State’s plan to end the Direct Provision system for asylum seekers dropped...

/ 28/02/2021

Where Next for Refugee Resettlement Post-Covid?

On the 15th of November of last year an Aer Lingus Airbus A330-300 touched down on the tarmac of Dublin airport with 160 Syrian nationals. Largely unannounced the refugees were shepherded off the plane by officials wearing UN lanyards and...

/ 22/02/2021

The Irish Courts’ Disturbing Hate Speech Ruling

While without ratified hate speech legislation akin to other European states, it should be remembered that the Irish Republic still has strong legal recourse to charge those guilty of what is perceived to be aggravating speech. Despite living in an...

/ 17/02/2021

Who is Lobbying the State on Hate Speech Legislation?

As of yet uncodified, it appears almost certain that a hate speech bill of some sort will limp its way to the Cabinet table circa Easter time this year. While the Department of Justice has forewarned that it will not...

/ 10/02/2021

ROXANNE: Ireland’s New Anti-Hate Speech Surveillance Technology

Marketed as a multiplatform analytical tool to evaluate speech and facial patterns in order to create visual mapping for authorities and identity suspects, ROXANNE is a new breed of surveillance technology in the process of development and currently being backed...

/ 02/02/2021

Simon Coveney Reiterates Support for Turkish Membership of EU

During a two-day visit to Ankara this week, Simon Coveney engaged with Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusogl, about the prospects of greater integration and membership for the 82 million strong predominantly Sunni nation into the European Union. Despite EU-Turkic relations...

/ 30/01/2021

Le Chéile: Ireland Newest Censorship Org Off to an Uninspiring Start

The congested field of anti-racist organising in Ireland met with a new and belated contendor this December with the birth of Le Chéile, a new voice to combat Ireland’s apparently nefarious far right. With an arranged press release coverage from...

/ 29/01/2021

Vive le Roi : An Interview with Action française

A staple of the French Right since its genesis in 1899 Action française is (AF) a largely student led nationalist group known for its boisterous youth activism and philosophical moorings. Often described as a gadfly to Le Pen’s Rassemblement National...

/ 21/01/2021