Martina Devlin

The Delta variant is likely to become dominant here just as we are reopening up fully. Photo: Gerry Mooney

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Martina Devlin Opinion Dangers of Delta mean we need to take a deep breath and agree a short, strategic delay to reopening

Recently, I had the pleasure of travelling by barge between counties Cavan and Fermanagh, and disembarked for a few hours to dine in a hotel and marina overlooking Lough Erne. Indoor restaurant and bar service had just reopened in the North, which meant we could choose whether to eat outdoors or in.

Irish-born Margaret Keane, who died three years ago at age 73, was proud of her heritage

‘It was discrimination based on our Irish identity’ – Family at heart of struggle to place Irish language inscription on late mother’s UK headstone

A family who wanted an Irish-language inscription on their mother’s headstone in England were racially discriminated against, an ecclesiastical appeals court has found.

Edwin Poots leaving the chamber after nominating Paul Givan as First Minister in the Stormont Assembly in in Belfast. Photo: PA

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Martina Devlin Opinion In a seismic week when the DUP needed to be strong, it stumbled into self-destruct mode

Northern Ireland is having a seismic centenary. It’s also having a seismic week. As is the DUP, which appears to be in self-destruct mode at a time when unionism needs to be strong and focused, with unity talk growing louder – Leo Varadkar made it the hot topic of the Fine Gael ard fheis.

USE President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden walk along the boardwalk during the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, Britain. Photo: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque/Pool

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Martina Devlin Opinion Jill Biden’s blazer brings message of hope that relationships are there to be rebuilt

He has a pleasing grá for Irish poets, and Joe Biden arrived in Cornwall for the G7 summit quoting Yeats, but his wife, Jill, brought an inspirational communiqué too. Hers was a message-on-a-blazer.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin (centre) with Tánaiste Leo Varadkar (right) and Minister Eamon Ryan (left). The Coalition has gone gung-ho on its recovery plan. Photo: Julien Behal/PA Wire

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Martina Devlin Opinion Despite vow to Build Back Better, there’s no positive change in sight for Generation Rent

In London, rents are falling. A landlord I know there has been advised by the letting agent to reduce the rent by a quarter on their two-bedroom apartment to secure a tenant quickly. They have compromised with a 15pc reduction and new carpets throughout.

John Power blowing out his birthday cake candles while his grandparents Conor and Ruth McCarthy were cocooning. Photo: Mark Condren

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Martina Devlin Opinion The great Covid awakening: How lockdown made us treasure what is important in life

Lockdown has been both ball and chain and lighthouse beacon for us. Our shared world ground to an abrupt halt – but some useful truths were learned which are worth carrying forward.

Representatives from social media companies came before an Oireachtas committee this week, but their answers provoked exasperation from assembled public representatives.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Social media giants’ tolerance of online trolls is sending us to a very dark place

Cookie-cutter answers and a glut of word salad were on the menu at an Oireachtas committee meeting this week. Executives from Twitter and Facebook indulged in a banquet of evasion, arrogance and defending the indefensible.

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A Shock reflects on lives of people who feel trapped and wish to vanish

‘Why did you lie to me?” one character texts another in this book of interwoven stories set at the unwholesome core of the city. “I just like to entertain,” pings back the reply. It serves as a direct message from author to reader.

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Martina Devlin Opinion Untruths spread about me by accounts linked to Eoghan Harris were deeply upsetting

The best lie is always the one people want to believe. A miscellany of lies has been spun anonymously about me.

Broken promises: Boris Johnson in Hartlepool yesterday following his party’s by-election win. Photo: Lee Smith/Reuters

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Martina Devlin Opinion Johnson cares about neither nationalist nor loyalist victims, just his own narrow interest

We’ll comply, we’ll comply soon, we’ll comply by and by, said lawyers for the British government. And now all pretence is abandoned – not only is it refusing to comply, it proposes to introduce legislation exempting itself.

The River Fane tracks the border between Ireland (left) and Northern Ireland (right). Photo: Getty

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Martina Devlin Opinion People need a blueprint to make truly informed decisions on the Border question

The Roman statesman Cicero tells us it is a mistake to compel others to believe and live the way we do, counting it as one of the six recurrent mistakes of humankind.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Photo: Reuters

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Martina Devlin Opinion As those in favour of Irish unity grow in numbers, the stars move closer to aligning

As hair and beauty salons, barber shops and outdoor attractions reopen north of the Border, shaggy-haired residents of the Republic are looking with envy at lockdown divergence between the jurisdictions, although catch-up will happen. But on the unity question, the two parts of this island are already moving into closer convergence.

Boris Johnson. Photo: Jessica Taylor/Reuters

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Martina Devlin Opinion A paradigm shift is afoot and if Scotland secedes, what Union is there to fight for?

Northern Ireland’s future has never appeared more ambiguous than in this, its centenary year, and only the rashest gambler would risk money on it lasting much beyond another decade.

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Martina Devlin Opinion My father was a bus driver during the Troubles, we would see flaming buses on the news and all you could do was hope he would come home

My father was a bus driver throughout the Troubles and dread for his safety became part of my childhood.

A master of striking imagery: White City is Kevin Power’s second novel. Photo by Steve Gallagher.

White City: A deep dive into the moral bankruptcy of Celtic Tiger culture

Remember the Celtic Tiger era? I once asked a former bond trader about the most outrageously wasteful use of money he recalled from that time. He reminisced about how a helicopter was hired for a group of financiers on a skiing jaunt so that, instead of queuing for the lift like everyone else, they were flown back to the top of the slopes every time they skied down.

The Moore Street area of Dublin city centre should be a vibrant cultural hub. It could draw in tourists and its history could be celebrated in a compelling and accessible way. Photo: Damien Eagers

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Martina Devlin Opinion The regeneration of Moore Street and its history has been delayed for far too long

If ghosts walk any of Dublin’s streets, they must surely pace the warren of lanes and alleyways around Moore Street – where our founding fathers and mothers helped to shape the national story.

A mother hugs her child after leaving flowers at the shrine which stands on a mass burial site, which was formerly part of the Bon Secours mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway. Photo: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

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Martina Devlin Opinion Victims of mother and baby homes deserve much more than just our sympathy

‘It is, to some extent, our holocaust,” says lawyer Deirdre Moran. She’s acting on behalf of women and children who survived mother and baby homes – Ireland’s inhumane solution to the consequences of unmarried sex in an era when it was hidden away and denied.

The notorious Bessborough Mother and Baby Home

‘Many will be excluded in mother and baby home redress plan’ – law firm warns of narrow qualification criteria

Many mothers and children will not be eligible for compensation under the proposed terms of the mother and baby homes redress scheme, a leading legal firm has warned.

Senator Michael McDowell is raising matter in Seanad today

Don’t force politicians to vote on party lines in Seanad poll, McDowell warns Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil

Michael McDowell is warning against putting pressure on Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil politicians to vote along Government lines in next month’s Seanad by-elections.

Pope Francis appears to be a more progressive pontiff but he has not reformed the Church. Photo: Reuters

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Martina Devlin Opinion Catholic Church is missing the point of Christianity with its tone-deaf treatment of gay couples

The Catholic Church has a Book of Blessings which contains a wide variety of ritual benedictions. From animals to farm tools to seeds, and from new homes to factories to sporting events – for almost every occasion and situation there appears to be a matching blessing.

Margaret Keane, originally from Westmeath, who died aged 73 in July 2018

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‘A moment in history’ as Keane family finally honour their mother with headstone in Irish language after two-year legal battle

Two years, five words, six determined people. It’s taken a court challenge, media campaign and their case raised in the British parliament – but a family’s long wait to have Irish inscribed on their mother’s headstone finally ended today.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during their interview with Oprah Winfrey

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Martina Devlin Opinion It was glitzy entertainment but Meghan’s interview raised serious questions of us all

We woke up and smelled the conflict this week, when Britain’s royal family was given a roasting during that pop culture moment known as Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah.

US Vice President Kamala Harris. Photo: Saul Loeb/ Reuters

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Martina Devlin Opinion Let's honour more of our women who gave the glass ceiling a good, hard knock

If time travel was possible, here’s what I’d tell my younger self. Never say any of the following: I can’t, I mustn’t, I’d never succeed, what will people think?

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Martina Devlin Opinion Time for new perspective that acknowledges Irish and British loyalties are not mutually exclusive

‘Irish heart, Coventry home” is how barrister Caoilfhionn Gallagher evoked identity for her clients, the Keane family, during a landmark case in Britain this week about the Irish language.

Family of Margaret Keane, above, who died in 2018, have won their fight to have on her gravestone the Irish phrase “In ar gcroithe go deo”, which translates as “in our hearts forever”

Is féidir linn: Family win right to Irish inscription on mum’s English gravestone

A family in Britain is celebrating victory in the battle to have an Irish-language inscription on their mother’s headstone.

Ulster Bank will close down its Republic business over the next few years

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Martina Devlin Opinion Blood-sucking vulture funds set to prey on Ulster Bank during Covid and credit crunch

Consequences are inevitable when the bank you do business with pulls out of your home market, as Ulster Bank has announced. You’ll end up feeling squeezed – even if you’ve been a model customer.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood. Photo: Getty

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SDLP leader Colum Eastwood throws his support behind family’s fight to get Irish inscription on gravestone in Britain

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has swung his support behind a campaign to allow a family the right to use an Irish phrase on a headstone in Britain.

British Labour Party backs family’s battle to have Irish grave inscription

Members of Britain’s Labour Party are backing a campaign by a family which is fighting a court ban against five words of Irish being used on their mother’s headstone.

Respect: Sgt Fergus Gaughan watches the online funeral of Nora NÍ Mháille in Carraroe, Co Galway. Photo: Mark Condren

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Martina Devlin Opinion Rituals at a remove are counter-cultural to the Irish tradition and are leaving a scar

Once again this week I sat at my desk, switched on the laptop, turned off the mobile phone and attended an online funeral. Afterwards, I signed an online book of condolences. This is the only way most of us can pay our respects in the face of death, that great leveller.

Radical language: First Minister Arlene Foster with Finance Minister Conor Murphy in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, on Thursday. Photo: Kelvin Boyes/Press Eye/PA

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Martina Devlin Opinion Forget the paint pots and the paramilitary masks, the protocol is here to stay

And so we are forced to watch paleo-loyalism in action: vile graffiti, threats against customs staff, and a hooded show of strength in the wake of tensions around new post-Brexit inspection rules at Belfast and Larne ports. Violence and politics have long intermeshed in the North, a cycle broken by herculean efforts which led to the Good Friday Agreement. Unfortunately, that link has repaired itself with disconcerting ease.