All posts by Dr Declan Hayes

Whither Irish Neutrality?

The current war in Ukraine is, we are told, Europe's biggest since the Second World War. Bigger, we are told, than the wars of the Yugoslav succession, when NATO handed the Slavs' historical homeland over to their pliable Albanian gangsters,...

/ 01/03/2022

Is the Trinity Seanad Race Already Sewn Up?

Nominations are closed, ballot papers are being posted and the University of Dublin's 2022 Seanad by-election is on.  It is a large field of 17 candidates, with representatives of minority communities, family therapists, former ambassadors, Continuity Greens, Dissident Greens, students,...

/ 25/02/2022

Flat Earth Thatcherism: Has Economic Liberalism Sunk the Irish State

When the late Margaret Thatcher told Woman's Own magazine that there is no such thing as society, she could just as well have been referring to present-day Ireland, where Thatcher would be considered quite progressive by her acolytes in Sinn...

/ 19/02/2022

Belfast: Sectarianism Through Rose Tinted Glasses

Belfast, Kenneth Branagh's semi-autobiographical movie about being a Protestant in Belfast at the outbreak of the Troubles, has been nominated for seven Academy awards, one of which will almost certainly go to British Quaker Dame Judi Dench for playing the...

/ 16/02/2022

Ireland’s Retrofitting Debacle: Are Green Politics Just a Mask for Corporate Takeover?

Though I'll tell my great grandchildren that it was the luck of the Irish that saved my hide from the Great Covid Pandemic, the more numerate amongst them would point out that, by the Irish regime's own estimates, 5,019,908 of...

/ 11/02/2022

Housing and Ireland’s Secret Power Struggles

In my rambles around Dublin Bay North, that salient bordered by the Malahide Road, the sea and the coast road back to Fairview, I have come across two homes, one opposite Sutton Marina and one on the Baldoyle Road, both...

/ 08/02/2022

Reforming Ireland’s Toxic Markets

If Davy's recommendations are your weather vane on Irish stocks, then plump for AIB, Bank of Ireland, CRH, Flutter Entertainment, Glenveagh, Greencoat Renewables, Hibernia REIT, Irish Res PR PRC, Ryanair and/or Uniphar. Let's quickly dismiss most of these and move...

/ 02/02/2022

Euro Snap Shot: How Corporations Abuse Irish Residency

The Euro Stoxx 50 index gives us a snapshot of how EU denominated stocks are performing. As they also indicate where institutional investors with Euro denominated liabilities should hold their offsetting assets, they play pivotal roles in the management of...

/ 28/01/2022