On Friday, November 29, a majority of Westminster MPs voted in favour of a bill titled “Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill”, proposed by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater. If passed into law, it will allow terminally ill people in England and Wales with six months or less to live to be supplied with lethal…

Sometimes, political spouses change history. Annabel Malinauskas, wife of the premier of the small state of South Australia, Peter Malinauskas, finished reading Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. She then turned to her husband and said, ‘You had better effing do something about…

How did you feel about the election result? How happy did it make you feel? I think a lot of people went into the election with a slight feeling of resignation. There wasn’t much enthusiasm for the Government but not enough anger either to kick them out, and for many there was no viable, realistic…

There is an old Irish toast that goes like this: ‘May you have warm words on a cool evening’. It makes the point that words are spoken with a certain temperature. They can be warm and loving or cold and cruel. Very often, it is not the words themselves that make the difference but the…

Elaine Noonan As we prepare our hearts for the coming of the Christ-child this Christmas, we are reminded so keenly of the incredible challenge that the Holy Family endured all those years ago. Mary and Joseph, far from home due to the census, faced uncertainty and rejection as they searched for a place to stay.…

Senator Rónán Mullen “The people of Mayo,” Michael Ring once said, “have voted for a Taoiseach, a Tánaiste – and a Minister!” That was in 2007 when FG and Labour fought the General Election on the back of a 2004 electoral pact which they had agreed and gravely termed the ‘Mullingar Accord’. The party leaders, Mayomen Enda…

Family values? Oh, yes, the dynastic principle of following in a family political tradition is thriving. Among first-time TDs just elected are Aisling Dempsey in Meath, daughter of the former Fianna Fail minister Noel Dempsey; Marie Sherlock for Labour, niece of Labour Party TD Joe Sherlock and cousin to former TD Seán Sherlock; Grace Boland…

Last week, we held another national election. It was a case of nothing changed, utterly no change, and yet something terrible was born – and boy, it was not beautiful: Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin – a three-headed Cerberus guarding the gates of Dáil Eíreann. For all the concerned talk on the national airwaves…

Martina Purdy When Andrew Black was a boy, his mother would often say: “As long as you have your health, son…”. And he would nod in agreement.  But years later, when he became a chaplain in a Belfast hospital, having been ordained a priest, he was meeting people, who no longer had their health, people…

Is Éamon de Valera now a forgotten figure? There is no statue or monument to the political leader who had the longest and perhaps most influential impact on 20th century Ireland. Certainly, the party he founded seldom has recourse to invoking his name at election time (or any other time). And “De Valera’s Ireland” seems…