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Instead of blaming the unvaccinated, Leo, just answer the doubts

You know how it is when there’s a more or less constant noise in the background, so constant you’re hardly aware of it?

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Medics bearing the brunt of our political history

Over the past week, as Covid infections surged, the political establishment panicked. They seem to have been taken by surprise by developments that had been building up for weeks, but which they apparently didn’t notice.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion It’s jam today for the developers

This is the story of Andrew and Maurice. It’s a heartwarming story of everyday property developers and their struggle to do the right thing.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion An acceptable amount of deaths

Ten days ago, the following headline appeared in The Irish Times, over a column by Mark Paul, business reporter: “Let’s talk about acceptable Covid death rates before restrictions kick in”.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Living with Covid: Don’t forget the prayer to St Jude

And so, the great experiment begins. We are now Living With Covid in earnest.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Victims of abuse are treated like enemies of the State

Last week, in the Budget, the S tate put aside €31m for redress for people who were sexually assaulted in day schools, including those assaulted by a teacher in Co Cork 48 years ago.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Housing hell and hospitals crisis are the result of policy

Yes, they were mugs, the people who bought Eircom shares in 1999 — some of whom appeared on an RTÉ One documentary last week. But before we laugh too loudly at them, it’s worth noting that the same forces that made fools of them are feverishly at work behind the current housing debacle.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Taking the credit like only Fine Gael can

There was a time when Fine Gael wasn’t arrogant and aggressive. Hard to believe, after listening to Regina Doherty blowing the party’s trumpet last week. God be with the days when you could have a bit of crack with a Fine Gaeler. Some of them were snobbish, some were reactionaries, and there was the odd conniving gobdaw — but there were plenty of them who lived in an Ireland familiar to the rest of us.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion A booster shot none of us needs

There are times when a deadly pandemic can come in handy, if you’re a floundering politician. And, yes, sure enough, as the Martin and Varadkar double act blunders ever-deeper into the swamp of their own making, their desperation has inevitably led to a cringe-making effort to use the pandemic as a political booster shot.

If the State shrugs off its responsibility, what then?

Is the family of the late Fr Niall Molloy condemned to eternally — fruitlessly — demand justice?

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Scandals ain’t what they used to be, and for that we should be thankful

You call that a scandal? The Coveney/Zappone/Varadkar carry-on? Seriously? That’s the kind of thing that qualifies as a scandal these days?

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion On tip-toe through the nightmare

Winter was coming, countless lives were in peril and Mary Robinson, then with the United Nations, called for a halt to the bombing of Afghanistan. Just stop bombing, she pleaded, at least until the Afghan people can be fed.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Stop badmouthing the homeless in debate on crime

It started on the Liffey boardwalk, with an Olympic athlete assaulted. Then Pat Kenny got in on the act, a Dublin City councillor got very angry and the media saw a few easy headlines. In no time at all, Dublin City Council CEO Owen Keegan decided to use the rumpus to draw attention to something that was bothering him.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Are the bishops now looking to have a rematch?

There’s a Catholic cleric on the radio, and the tone has changed. For a long time, the clerics were reflective and tentative on certain matters. There’s new confidence in their rhetorical style. It has the feel of an old, defeated champion hankering for a rematch.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion OK, Leo, let’s get the alibi straight

This is a new low in Irish politics. On his worst days, Haughey didn’t hogtie his own government, as Micheál Martin has just done. Neither did Brian Cowen, nor Bertie Ahern, as they stumbled towards the exit.

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Bit thick? Don’t worry. There’s a job for you in Davy

Are you an idiot? If so, a wonderful future awaits you as a senior executive in the financial services business. 

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion But what else did Des O’Malley say?

If you want to understand Des O’Malley, read his revered speech — the one with the “I stand by the Republic” soundbite.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Bitter and angry Fianna Fáil are now a laughing stock

When someone is in the kind of trouble Fianna Fáil is in, the decent thing to do is to offer a kind word, an encouraging gesture. But, no — we owe that party nothing.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion ​​​​​On the trail of the long black coat

It has been a long time since I sat in Cork Circuit Court, where Ian Bailey was suing eight newspapers. I remember glancing across the room, thinking how odd it was that we were all sitting so calm, so civilised, with Bailey — a man who committed a terrible murder — right in the midst of us.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion I’m tired of it. Not Covid-19 – a grim fact of life – but the political performances that accompany each wave

Here we go again — into the fourth wave. Frankly, I’m tired of it.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Sister, any chance of a bit of oul land for d’oul hospital? 

The major parties — Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael — have historically been meek and ineffectual in dealing with both the Catholic Church and An Garda Síochána. And now, in planning a new National Maternity Hospital, the government parties have become farcically entangled with the church.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Ranks of the rich back to putting on the poor mouth

Do you remember what it felt like, in the spring of 2020, during that initial lockdown as the first wave of Covid rushed towards us?

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Varadkar’s politics of fear and insults

You will not be at all surprised to hear that last week, Mr Varadkar became angry with Sinn Féin. Mr V spends more time getting angry with Sinn Féin than the rest of us spend on eating, drinking and worrying about global pandemics.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Welcome to the Jim and James bit-players show

There’s Jim and there’s James. They’re both barristers. And they’re both involved in the current by-election in Dublin Bay South. They are minor figures on the political landscape, no better or worse than dozens of their like. Currently, they’re being crudely packaged and sold to us as major players, with crucial roles to play in political life.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Fake shock and anger on housing

The governing politicians had a problem last week — they had to look like they were angry, and they had to act like they were angry, but they had to ensure that nothing much changed. Well done, lads.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion The penny is finally dropping for the Profits before People alliance

There was a time when the Irish had no problem with building stuff. We were so good at it that we sent generations of our offspring to help the British and the Americans build their cities. Now we have a crisis — we haven’t enough dwellings for our people to lay down their heads in at the end of the day.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Data harvesting: Is it worse when Sinn Féin do it?

What is Sinn Féin up to with its computerised voter database? I think I know, and I don’t like it. Perhaps this frank quote from an activist will help:

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Lads, it’s time you got the message – the Fianna Fáil party is over

This is embarrassing. For the past 10 years, the Irish people have been sending the same message to Fianna Fáil. And the party keeps pretending not to hear what the voters are saying.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion RTÉ reporting has had a revamp – would you like some panache with that crisis?

We need to talk about RTÉ news and current affairs. There’s something odd going on out there. And, no, this is not one of those complaints about how everyone in RTÉ is an overpaid Leo Varadkar fan.

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Gene Kerrigan Opinion Beware the fourth wave - aka the Fine Gael variant

Micheál Martin says we're in the "final stretch" of this pandemic. I don't know if that's true (neither does he), but it might well be. Certainly, the next couple of weeks are dangerous, with a possible fourth wave about to hit.