Opinion & Analysis | The Irish Times

Functions that are locally controlled in almost every other European country – policing, health and social care, schools – are in Ireland almost entirely controlled from the centre.

Fintan O’Toole: Are we too stupid to be trusted with making choices about our own regions?

Fintan O'Toole
June 12, 2021

The lack of spending power at local level is an absence of power, full stop

WB Yeats: arguably the arch sage. Photograph: Getty

8:20 David McWilliams: Educated elite have become more left wing

David McWilliams
June 12, 2021

Will Ireland’s middle class vote for a party that promises to build homes for their children?

European Council president Charles Michel, US president Joe Biden, Japan’s prime minister Yoshihide Suga, British prime minister Boris Johnson and Italy’s prime minister Mario Draghi on the first day of the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall on Friday. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Pool/EPA

EU gives Johnson a reason to be constructive on NI protocol

Denis Staunton
June 12, 2021

Cost to the UK of failing to find a way forward will be more than a few sausages

The Government has made some welcome moves – on the right to disconnect and request remote working. But if it wants to put in place policies to push this in certain directions, now is the time.

Cliff Taylor: Post-pandemic decisions needed on working from home

Cliff Taylor
June 12, 2021

Government policy must look beyond short term and kill commutes to ease working lives

British prime minister Boris Johnson: In its role as the “guardian of the treaties”, the European Commission is duty-bound to ensure the rule of law is adhered to – the option of not suing the UK is simply not on. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg

World View: Enforcement of rule of law key to EU operations

Patrick Smyth
June 12, 2021

UK’s defiance of treaty obligations and protocol provisions requires legal action

The Irish 12.5 per cent rate – and the fierce political commitment, unchanged from government to government, to maintain it – has acted as a beacon to foreign investors.

Pat Leahy: Ireland’s economic model on brink of upheaval

Pat Leahy
June 12, 2021

Corporate tax rate is symbol of openness and cross-party consensus on it is set to shatter

“China is at the forefront of academic research in many disciplines and the second-biggest economy in the world. The possibilities for collaboration would be exciting if the price tag were not selective blindness to human-rights abuses.” Photograph: Paul Yeung/Bloomberg

Underfunding of universities leading to blind spots on human rights

Breda O'Brien
June 12, 2021

Business-led utilitarianism and closer China links resulting from underfunding

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar admitted Fine Gael engaged in ‘similar’ practices to Sinn Féin on door-to-door polling. File photograph: Nick Bradshaw/The Irish Times

5:53 Jennifer O’Connell: Public right to be cynical about Irish politics

Jennifer O'Connell
June 12, 2021

Parties’ practice of using fake pollsters goes against principle of secret ballot

Flugelhorn: Bob Dylan’s own website says that what the undertaker blows is a “futile” horn. Photograph: Getty Images

On a Dilemma of the Horns – Frank McNally wrestles with the enduring mystery of a Bob Dylan song lyric

Frank McNally
June 11, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Good nursing home care is not cheap. The environment needs to be small-scale, homely and fit-for-purpose. Photograph: Regis Duvignau

Fair Deal scheme review achieves little or nothing

Suzanne Cahill
June 11, 2021

Money is supposed to follow elderly patient but our price model remains unfair

The Bessborough Centre, Blackrock, Co Cork, a former mother and baby home operated by the Sacred Heart nuns. File photograph: Provision

Diarmaid Ferriter: Mother and baby homes inquiry falls short of the mark

Diarmaid Ferriter
June 11, 2021

Women who spent time in these homes led to believe they would finally be listened to

US president Joe Biden and UK prime minister Boris Johnson at a hotel near near St Ives in England on Thursday, ahead of the G7 summit. Photograph: Toby Melville/Getty Images

British sausage as key ingredient in talks shows how farcical NI protocol row has become

Stephen Collins
June 11, 2021

UK prime minister ready to use every available trick to wriggle out of international deal

George Orwell: had no time for the idea that sporting rivalries could be a safe outlet for national self-expression. Photograph: AP

(No) Danger Here – Frank McNally on how George Orwell got it badly wrong about football

Frank McNally
June 10, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

Andrew McGinley with his three children Conor (aged 9), Darragh (7) and Carla (3) McGinley, whose bodies were discovered at the family home in Newcastle, Co Dublin on January 24th last year. Photograph: Supplied byAndrew McGinely through the Garda

Andrew McGinley: People are dead who might be alive if families had been involved in their treatment

Andrew McGinley
June 10, 2021

‘Not one clinician has spoken to me about the life Deirdre shared. Who could have provided them with more detail than me; the person sharing that life, sharing a house, sharing parenthood?’

Boris Johnson: The ongoing tussling over the Northern Ireland protocol – and the UK’s attempts to renege on the commitments of the Withdrawal Agreement – could undermine whatever semblance of amicability exists between himself and Joe Biden. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/Getty Images

Boris Johnson right to ditch ‘special relationship’ tag

Finn McRedmond
June 10, 2021

UK leader caught between rock and hard place over US trade deal

Designated first minister and DUP MLA for Lagan Valley Paul Givan at Stormont. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Newton Emerson: Poots the odd presence in his Stormont team

Newton Emerson
June 10, 2021

DUP leader needs to get a grip on party’s message, morale and discipline

Reader David Kennedy sent me an eye-witness account of the burning of the Custom House by his late father Paddy, aka Padraig O’Cinneide. Photograph: Getty Images

Baptism of Fire – Frank McNally on the Irish Free State’s incendiary origins

Frank McNally
June 9, 2021

An Irishman’s Diary

A loyalist march to protest over the Northern Ireland protocol, in Portadown on Saturday. Photograph: Paulo Nunes dos Santos/The New York Times

5:14 Susan McKay: Loyalists marching on from century to century

Susan McKay
June 9, 2021

The boyos in Portadown talk of bombing Dublin, Billy Wright and a glorious past

We need an agency with the vision of Baron Haussmann – who renovated Paris in the second half of the 19th century – to reconfigure our inner suburbs.

Michael McDowell: Pedestrianising streets is easy part of change

Michael McDowell
June 9, 2021

Reimagining our urban buildings and the inner city is our real planning challenge

The Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

UK subvention to North irrelevant to debate on Irish unity

John Doyle
June 9, 2021

Economic debate on unity needs to move on to policy decisions needed for growth

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Editorials

The Irish Times view on Northern Ireland politics

For Dublin and London, a distracted DUP leader is a bigger problem than an intransigent-sounding one

The Irish Times view on the European Championship: best in the field

Unlike Eurovision, the other TV moment that Europeans share, this one is hard to game

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David McWilliams

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David McWilliams: Educated elite have become more left wing

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Cliff Taylor: Post-pandemic decisions needed on working from home

Patrick Smyth

Patrick Smyth - Europe Editor

World View: Enforcement of rule of law key to EU operations

Pat Leahy - Political Editor

Pat Leahy: Ireland’s economic model on brink of upheaval

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