Government must persuade the EU to help resolve Brexit row, Northern First Minister tells Taoiseach

The Irish Government must persuade the EU to “fix” the North’s Brexit crux and undo the harm done by its use of 1972 border bombing photographs to help win special trade status for Northern Ireland.

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John Downing Opinion Belarusian tyrant Alexander Lukashenko reaches a new low in his hybrid war with EU

Lithuanian border guards detained 171 illegal migrants on the frontier with Belarus on Tuesday night. In an average year, they expect to detain about 100 people. This year the number is above 3,000, with 2,482 detained in July alone. The migrants come from the sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East, but especially Iraq. The ultimate prize is EU residency via Lithuania’s membership.

Dublin Government must persuade the EU to fix North’s Brexit crux, First Minister Paul Givan says

The Dublin Government must persuade the EU to “fix” the North’s Brexit crux and undo harm done by its use of 1972 border bombing photographs to help get special trade status for Northern Ireland.

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John Downing Opinion If we can hire Katherine Zappone as an envoy, why not go whole hog and make Bono and Imelda May ambassadors?

The very undiplomatic Ambrose Bierce has defined diplomacy as: “The patriotic art of lying for one’s country.”

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John Downing Opinion Authorities in France and Germany move to make vaccine the only way to normality

Officials, and sometimes government politicians, love the seasons.

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John Downing Opinion Martin Fraser, adviser to three Taoisigh, takes key London post 

Martin Fraser is one of the least known  but most influential people in the Irish Government and administration.

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John Downing Opinion It won’t endear us to the EU, but we must help Boris Johnson put out the fires he started

Go to the top of the class if you can spell out the difference between the backstop and the protocol. Few of us – bar people paid to know such things – would clog up their memory with such arcane stuff.

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John Downing Opinion Gibraltar is cast in the shadow of the North’s post-Brexit trade status row

Molly Bloom, James Joyce’s siren creation in Ulysses, is celebrated by a statue in the splendid Alameda Botanic Gardens on the Rock of Gibraltar.

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John Downing Opinion The good news is Brexit talking goes on – the bad news is a solution needs a big political change of heart

It’s a hard job to see the other person’s side of a visceral argument. It’s even harder when the other side refuses to keep a deal already made – opting instead to significantly change that deal.

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John Downing Opinion The good news is Brexit talking goes on – the bad news is a solution needs a big political change of heart

It’s a hard job to see the other person’s side of a visceral argument. It’s even harder when the other side refuses to keep a deal already made – opting instead to significantly change that deal.

Brussels rejects calls by UK to renegotiate North’s trade status under Brexit protocol

The EU has rejected UK calls for fundamental renegotiation of Northern Ireland’s special trade status agreed under two Brexit deals in 2019 and 2020.

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John Downing Opinion The ‘accidental politician’ whose split from FF led to progressive gains

For years after Des O’Malley was elected a TD, a bitter election slogan – “Vote O’Higgins 77” – remained painted on the footpaths in his native Limerick city.

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John Downing Opinion We are all bored of Brexit drama at this stage – so it’s high time it just worked

Hyperbole, neglect and lies have been the hallmark of the marathon acrimonious split between the EU and the UK.  

UK backs off threats to upend North’s Brexit deal – but demands a ‘standstill’ on big changes

The UK government has demanded that the EU re-negotiate post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland in a new twist in the five-year-old row.

Tributes to Des O’Malley after ‘life of courage and consequence’

Des O’Malley, a leading and controversial figure in several Fianna Fáil governments and founder of the Progressive Democrats, has died in Dublin after a long illness at the age of 82.

From acting, to rugby, and famous relatives, Des O’Malley’s life less ordinary

• Des O’Malley’s Limerick city family were steeped in politics. His father, also Des, was three times mayor of that city. His uncle, Donogh O’Malley, was also Mayor of Limerick but his career in politics was almost blighted for being “a hellraiser” fond of drinking binges. “Donnick,” as he was popularly known in Limerick, quietened down and became a government minister best remembered for introducing free secondary education.

Des O’Malley: a huge force in Irish politics and foe of Charlie Haughey has died

Des O’Malley, who was a dominant figure in Irish politics across four decades, has died aged 82.

Frost set to make statement on Northern Ireland Protocol to MPs

Britain’s Brexit minister David Frost will today make a statement in the London parliament on the Northern Ireland Protocol which is set to stoke a new row with the EU.

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John Downing Opinion Both sides will renew ‘tough talk’ on Brexit – making compromise harder 

Brexit is often a tale of bust-ups postponed rather than resolved. That other joy – Covid-19 – has put the dreaded saga into abeyance for long periods since March 2020.

London prepares to pump up the volume in Brexit negotiations on Northern Ireland

THE UK government is set to warn EU leaders it will move away from agreed Brexit deal terms unless it gets more flexibility over the Northern Ireland trade arrangements.

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John Downing Opinion Johnson’s “Freedom Day” risks becoming a calamitous botch amid huge virus surge

It was not really Freedom Day for Boris Johnson, who was self-isolating as a Covid-19 close contact at the prime minister’s country residence of Chequers, as some of the English nation hailed the full-on ending of restrictions.

Delta surge fears as country opens up to foreign visitors

Fears are rising over a Delta surge engulfing Ireland as the country opens up its borders to foreign travel today.

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John Downing Opinion Martin is not thinking of the emergency handbrake... yet

So the cases are spiralling once more and everyone is nervously eyeing the hospital admissions, which are rising slightly, with intensive care numbers happily stable for now.

Phone threats to Holohan and Glynn are condemned

Threatening phone calls to the Government’s most senior Covid-19 health advisers, Dr Tony Holohan and Dr Ronan Glynn, have been widely condemned on all sides.

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John Downing Opinion Lethal flooding in Europe is putting climate change front and centre again

Georges Simenon’s mother thought it would be “unlucky” to register his real date of birth as after midnight on February 13. The midwife colluded in stretching the registration details, which were recorded as 11.30pm on February 12.

Amnesty ‘not a fait accompli’ as all five Northern parties and Dublin are united

All five Northern Ireland political parties and the Irish Government have presented a wall of opposition to UK plans for an effective amnesty for crimes committed during the Troubles.

From the DUP, through Alliance, UUP, and SDLP, to Sinn Féin – all unite with Dublin to say ‘no’ to Johnson’s Troubles amnesty plan

ALL five Northern Ireland political parties have united with the Dublin Government to utterly reject UK plans for an effective amnesty for crimes committed during the Troubles.

John Downing Opinion ‘Amnesties’ just fuel the embers of loss – we must face our old horrors

There is no statute of limitations on grief, on injustice, or the refusal to give the bereaved information about contested violent deaths.

France celebrates ‘a brilliant Dublin doctor’ who risked his life to help the wounded

SOME 200 Irish doctors, nurses, dentists and other health care workers died tending to the wounded in ‘the killing fields’ of World War I, Professor Grace Neville told French, Irish and other guests gathered to mark Bastille Day in Dublin.

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John Downing Opinion EU reopening continues amid fears of a Delta dawn reversal

As the happy possessor of a brand new ‘Teastas Digiteach Covid an AE’ – AKA “that Cert”, as Gaeilge – I promise to be the last to rain on anyone’s freedom parade.