Martina Devlin

Capable politician: Losing moderate unionist voice Ian Marshall from the Oireachtas is a mistake

Martina Devlin Opinion Aspirations for shared island suffered blow when unionist voice was left off Seanad list

When Ian Marshall was making his maiden speech in the Seanad two years ago, where he held a seat as the voice of moderate unionism, he turned to an unexpected source of inspiration - his neighbour Seamus Mallon.

Unionist left off Seanad list warns of 'disconnect with North'

Ian Marshall, the first Northern unionist in seven decades to be elected to the Seanad in 2018, has criticised the deafening silence from Micheál Martin's new Government following his omission from the upper chamber.

Bobby Storey spent more than 20 years of his life in prison. Photo: PA

Martina Devlin Opinion The Bobby Storey enigma: separating myth from reality and a hypocritical divide between Ireland's north and south

WE IRISH are a people enamoured by plucky underdog myths. Cúchulainn defending Ulster against Queen Maeve’s Connacht hordes. King Billy on his white horse saving Ireland from Rome Rule. Ulster’s blood sacrifice at Gallipoli and the Somme. Modern Ireland rising like a phoenix from the death throes of the 1916 revolutionaries.

Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill and the DUP’s Arlene Foster are working together against the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: Kelvin Boyes/PA

Martina Devlin Opinion Dáil Éireann shamefully remains a man's world - and guess who reaps the benefit?

Simone de Beauvoir famously said men had a narrow interpretation of what counted as truth.

Courage: Margaret Hutchinson and Helen O’Donoghue, daughters of convicted rapist James O’Reilly. Photo: Collins Courts

Martina Devlin Opinion O'Reilly abuse survivors are role models - not just for Traveller women but for us all

Imagine being a child. Completely without power. Imagine if Daddy, who's meant to love and keep you safe, does unspeakable things to you sexually - things you don't even have a name for. Then imagine how you might look for help. What to do to get it stopped. Who you could tell. This secret is so appalling you can't possibly hide it.

Protests: Elizabeth Monteiro pleads with police officers at a barricade during a protest against racial inequality in the aftermath of the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd in Boston. Photo: Reuters/Brian Snyder

Martina Devlin Opinion As American dream becomes a Trumpian nightmare, we can only hope voters wake up

Trumpland is a world where a passport stamped Caucasian is needed, preferably with the male box ticked too. Anyone lacking the foresight to be born white can expect difficulties.

People power: People at a Black Lives Matter protest rally outside the US Embassy in Dublin. Photo: Damien Storan.

Martina Devlin Opinion Shameful direct provision conditions should keep our leaders off high horse on racism

Racism can be overt - like a knee on another human being's neck. Or insidious - like corralling people with few choices in life into shoddy, ill-equipped direct provision centres and shrugging off complaints with words to the effect that nobody forced them to come here.

Talks: Anne Costello, Nursing Homes Ireland director, and Tadhg Daly, CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland, attend a committee meeting on the Covid-19 response at Leinster House in Dublin.
Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Martina Devlin Opinion Let's use this time to recalibrate how we care for our elderly - and help them stay at home

Let's talk about elder care. At home rather than in a home is where most people want to be - no disrespect to residential settings, where decent staff do their best.

Masked up: A man takes a picture of the window display at a Dublin bridal boutique. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA

Martina Devlin Opinion In this age of equality, blatant inequality has left women more open to fall-out from virus

Women are not more clever, imaginative, constructive, hardworking or vibrant than men. Nor are they less so. Women are not more needy, idle, helpless, shrill or vulnerable than men. Nor are they less so.

Time to deliver: A postman walks past a Dublin mural inspired by the HSE ‘Hold Firm’ campaign. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA

Martina Devlin Opinion Dithering politicians have kept us in limbo for 100 days - we can't let this happen again

There's a Zen proverb which advises: 'When walking, walk. When eating, eat.' It means we should concentrate on the activity we're engaged in currently.

Testing times: Leaving Cert has been cancelled for this year and replaced with ‘calculated grades’.

Martina Devlin Opinion Why abandoning the Leaving Cert is the wrong decision at the wrong time

Granted, it's flip-flop weather, but does the Education Minister really have to embrace flip-flopping with such enthusiasm that he applies it to policy- making?

Gesture: Hearts are being knitted for people in palliative care – coronavirus patients are deprived of human touch and love from their relatives. Photo: Amber Cantwell/PA Wire

Martina Devlin Opinion Our country is tight-knit - but stresses of lockdown could see social fabric fray

How precarious the present feels, even as the parameters of our world are about to be extended by a few kilometres. Whether the exclusion zone is 5km or 2km, our reality remains shrunken.

Members of the public pass a mural in Portobello, Dublin during the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic in Ireland.
Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Martina Devlin Opinion Intensive caring and good dose of common sense will deliver a superior design for life

Once upon a time, we presumed intensive care was something which only happened in hospitals - now we know intensive caring can exist on a broader scale: community-wide, city-wide and country-wide.

The truth is our inattention turned these homes into a forgotten frontline

Martina Devlin Opinion How our neglect turned nursing homes into forgotten frontline of a Covid-19 war

An afterthought. A postscript. A scramble to play catch-up. And hundreds of people have died - some of whose deaths must have been preventable.

Testing times: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Health Minister Simon Harris and Cillian de Gascun, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, duing a visit. Photo: Aidan Crawley/EPA-EFE Pool

Martina Devlin Opinion Covid-19 wave hasn't hit yet but frontline testing could get us ahead of the curve

There is much we don't yet know about Covid-19. But there are some things we do know which could be used as part of the containment drive. Number one, we know it's highly contagious. Number two, we know people in frontline healthcare are more exposed to the virus than others in the population - among those who've contracted it, one in four is a health worker.

Message of hope: A quote from Seamus Heaney is chalked on a gate near Martina Devlin’s home.

Martina Devlin Opinion We all seek out hope but it's important to remember that lockdown is not forever

Abraham Lincoln borrowed a nugget of wisdom from medieval Persian poetry for a speech delivered six years before his assassination.

Restrictions: Cao Junjie demonstrates a safety pod he created to protect his two-month old baby from Covid-19, in Shanghai, China. Photo: Reuters

Martina Devlin Opinion Chinese quarantine a very different beast to light lockdown we're living with here

Where were you when the Twin Towers were hit? When the bank guarantee was announced? When the Princess of Wales died? I don't suppose too many people remember where they were when they first heard the coronavirus or Covid-19 mentioned. But it is epoch-defining. And it will impact personally on us all, in large ways and small.

Light reading: Paschal Donohoe always likes to have a book on hand.
Photo: Gerry Mooney

Paschal Donohoe rules out Taoiseach bid as he tells of hopes to write a book

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has an ambition - and it's not to be Taoiseach.

All in it together: Families are being forced to spend much more time together as the Covid-19 crisis has gathered pace. Photo: Caitlin Ochs/Reuters

Martina Devlin Opinion Surreal is the new real as 'social distancing' reveals our simple need for human contact

Before the coronavirus pandemic, concerns were raised from time to time about over-reliance on the virtual world. People risked turning into recluses, warned researchers - apps for groceries, takeaway meals, clothing companies, dry-cleaning services and Amazon meant internet users were becoming anti-social.

Good advice: A street cleaner passes a sign reminding people to wash their hands on the window of a bar in Dublin’s city centre yesterday. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Martina Devlin Opinion Trust in the experts and in each other is key to getting us through this pandemic

In an interview, the public intellectual Malcolm Gladwell described the man who exposed Wall Street's crooked financier Bernie Madoff as an obsessive, "the sort to wipe down his keyboard with disinfectant after he opens his computer".

Come clean: Health Minister Simon Harris using hand sanitiser. Photo:Gareth Chaney/Collins

Martina Devlin Opinion State's default is to be sparing with facts - but a culture of silence benefits no one

Secrets. Silence. An economical approach to the truth. Mental reservation. So much damage has been caused because of this approach - no wonder people are losing trust in institutions.

Sitting down on the job: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Fine Gael colleagues on the first day of the 33rd Dáil. Photo: Maxwell Photography

Martina Devlin Opinion As hard Border threat reappears, the last thing we need is politicians navel-gazing

Rome is burning while our politicians fiddle. Or fiddle about, anyhow. Britain is stirring the Brexit pot and no-deal is back on the menu. Meanwhile our political leaders casually tell us we must be patient while they take their time weighing up the whos and hows, the ifs and maybes of government formation.

Working it out: Priti Patel says UK business can recruit from the country’s ‘economically inactive’ sector. Photo: Home Office/PA Wire

Martina Devlin Opinion This is England - keep out: immigration plan is an ominous sign of what's to come

Shakespeare trowels it on about his native land's supposed perfection: "This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England." In 'Richard II', he characterises the country as another Eden, a demi-paradise inhabited by a happy breed of men.

Decision time: Fine Gael deputy leader Simon Coveney speaks to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin at the Election 2020 count in the Nemo GAA complex, Cork. Photo: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision

Martina Devlin Opinion A deal can be done - but politicians will have to put national interest before party

Roll up, roll up, roll up and watch coalition poker played for high stakes by Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil. Their negotiators are wearing their poker faces - an essential prop because nobody has a royal flush.

Bestseller: Novelist Marian Keyes says novels written by men are automatically given more weight than those by women

'I'm being sexist because I'm tired with the other kind of sexism' - Keyes gives up on male authors

Marian Keyes is in a passion. Not because of any one man in particular - on the contrary, she feels sorry for the expectations loaded on to men as a group.

Party tricks: Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald juggles with oranges in Dublin yesterday as colleagues look on. Photo: Phil Noble/Reuters

Martina Devlin Opinion Mary Lou McDonald captured the mood for change

There has never been a female Taoiseach - in a century, not a whisper of it. Just let that settle for a moment. We've had a number of women as tánaiste, but male leadership of the Irish State has appeared to be a permanent arrangement.

Going to the polls: Voters have it in their power to change society for the better for themselves and future generations. Photo: Reuters

Martina Devlin Opinion Voters' desire for change driven by their belief that we can be better as a people

Today feels different. Today feels lush with potential. Today feels like a hinge moment in our nation's history.

Flying the flag: People celebrate at Parliament Square in London. Photo: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Martina Devlin Opinion There may be trouble ahead - but for all our sakes, let's wish the UK bon voyage

Is Brexit a Titanic-scale disaster or a national salvation plan for Britain which will confound doubters? Time will tell. What we can say for certain is it's full-steam ahead now for Brexit, with the transition phase under way to lock down trade deals - or not.

Fighting talk: Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin before their televised debate at the Virgin Media studio. Photo: Maxwell Photography

Martina Devlin Opinion Martina Devlin: 'Varadkar and Martin's decision to block SF from power shows that they're not listening'

We have a problem as voters, we really do. It's that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are so similar - they are two sides of the one coin. Other countries have a left-right split between the two largest parties, but the division here is along Civil War allegiances rather than any significant policy difference.

Aura of authority: Seamus Mallon helped both communities as he rose through the SDLP. Photo: David Conachy.

Martina Devlin Opinion Martina Devlin: 'Gentle peacemaker with steely streak earned his place in history by resolutely opposing violence'

During the long, hot summer of 2015, Seamus Mallon sent me a gift of runner beans grown in his garden. He had a bumper crop that year, more than he could eat.