This headline appeared today on the home page¹ of the Daily Telegraph: “Daring German carnival floats mock Trump, Putin and AfD”. In Germany, that's anything but daring. [1]: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Simon Harris described¹ Ukraine as “the largest country on the continent of Europe”, but it's dwarfed by European Russia. [1]:

RTE.ie

Tánaiste to bring proposal for €100m in aid to Ukraine

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris will bring a proposal to Cabinet on Tuesday providing an additional €100 million in finan...

Check out the definition of ”domestic violence”¹ on Citizens Information, which includes things that are aren't violence at all. Posted after the line below. [1]:

Safety orders, protection orders and barring orders in Ireland

Irish law provides protection for those living in violent or abusive situations in the home. What are safety orders, protection orders and barring...

------ Domestic violence is the use of physical or emotional force or threat of physical force, including sexual violence, in an intimate relationship. As well as physical violence, domestic violence can also involve: • Emotional abuse • The destruction of property • Controlling behaviour such as isolation from friends, family and other potential sources of support • Threats to others including children • Stalking • Control over access to money, personal items, food, transportation and communication

A recent story¹ on RTÉ News said: “Ten people - four men, three women and three children - ranging in age from five to 59, lost their lives in the tragedy” [1]:

RTE.ie

Creeslough families to challenge planning decision

A solicitor representing families who lost loved ones in the explosion in Creeslough more than two years ago has said they intend to challenge the ...

Why count men and women separately? I think it's because the author places a higher value on a woman's life than a man's. But that can't be reconciled with the “gender equality” that we constantly hear about from the establishment.

Here are 2 paragraphs from a recent RTÉ News article¹: “US Senator Jim Risch, who is the head of the powerful group charged with leading US foreign policy legislation, said that Ireland's "strategic position" comes with "significant responsibility". "Ireland must increase its defence spending to safeguard vital undersea cables from our shared enemies," the Republican Senator for Idaho said in a statement to RTÉ News.” [1]:

RTE.ie

US senator calls on Ireland to increase defence spending

The Chair of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has called on Ireland to increase its defence spending to ensure the protection of undersea ...

We should pay another country to do this for us. It would be a lot cheaper than doing it ourselves. The best candidate is probably the UK.

In October 2024, the CSO published a web page of statistics¹ on men and women in Ireland. (I've written “men and women” but the page always puts them in the opposite order.) Three things caught my eye. [1]:

Press Statement - Snapshot of the lives of Women and Men in Ireland in 2024 - CSO - Central Statistics Office

October 23, 2024.

The Revenue Commissioners' “Gender Pay Gap Report” for 2024¹ says: “Revenue has made important strides in fostering gender parity and in mitigating its gender pay gap. Since 2017, female representation across all senior management grades has significantly increased and has now reached 56 per cent.” [1]: downloadable from

Gender pay gap

This page details the reporting from Revenue on the gender pay gap

However, a table on page 1 tells us that in 2019, the balance in senior management was 50/50, so from the point of view of “gender parity”, the organization has regressed since 2019. Is “gender parity” just code for “advancing the interests of women”? It can't be that “gender parity” refers to pay parity, since the passage above clearly regards “gender parity” and the “gender pay gap” as two different things. The balance between the sexes is particularly lopsided at the Principal Officer grade, with 63% of employees being women. (See page 7, top row.)

A recent story¹ on RTÉ News said: “The 2024 I Wish Report showed that 60% of Irish teenage girls believe that gender inequality is the biggest barrier preventing them from pursuing careers in STEM.” [1]: https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2025/0206/1495000-showcase-to-encourage-girls-to-take-up-careers-in-stem/ I checked the report² myself. RTÉ's claim seems to be drawn from page 8. [2]: https://www.iwish.ie/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/I-WISH-2024-Survey-Report.pdf The page is so poorly written that it's hard to know what the underlying question was, but it appears that girls were asked to identify “Barriers to STEM Careers”. Therefore, on the evidence of this document, RTÉ's story is wrong, because the question asked about “barriers”, not “the biggest barrier” or “the biggest barriers”. In any case, 60% of respondents did indeed cite “Poor gender equality in STEM careers”. However: • 60% cited “Lack of information about careers in STEM”; • 58% cited “Lack of school visits by female role models”.

A recent publication¹ from the CSO reported the following from a survey of 25-year-olds: “Almost one in five (18.1%) men had experienced people acting as if they were afraid of them at least a few times a year.” [1]:

Press Statement - Growing up in Ireland Cohort '98 at Age 25 - Main Results - CSO - Central Statistics Office

It's interesting they would ask that question.

George Lee writes¹: “What Storm Éowyn should have driven home to people in power is that storms are getting bigger” [1]:

RTE.ie

Storm Éowyn underlines the climate risks that lie ahead

If there is one major lesson to be taken from the devastation inflicted by the extraordinary winds of Storm Éowyn, it is surely that we need to fo...

But 7 paragraphs before that, he writes: “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said clearly in its science reports that it has very little confidence about the links between extreme wind events like Storm Éowyn and climate change.”

Writing¹ in the Irish Times, Kevin O'Sullivan describes Storm Éowyn² as “Probably Ireland’s worst ever storm”. In what time period? Since the founding of the Irish Free State in 1922? Since Ireland became separated by sea from Britain over 14,000 years ago? [1]:

The Irish Times

Storm Éowyn: Can Ireland’s electricity, water and phone networks cope with extreme weather?

‘We’re not resilient to today’s climate,‘ says expert as State and utility companies face greater pressure to prepare for stormier weather

[2]:

Storm Éowyn - Wikipedia

In a story about Storm Éowyn¹, RTÉ News reports² that: “Mr [Micheál] Martin said that [...] the number and severity of storms of this nature were increasing” [1]:

Storm Éowyn - Wikipedia

[2]:

RTE.ie

RTÉ Weather - Forecast

Weather forecast by RTÉ and Met Éireann. Get the most accurate hourly and 7 day weather forecast for the Republic of Ireland and Europe with dail...

That doesn't sound right to me. Below is some contrary evidence that I have quickly rounded up. Kendon et al. recently examined³ the UK's climate. Figure 60 on page 75 of their paper shows no increase in widespread high winds since 1969. [3]: “State of the UK Climate 2023”. https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/joc.8553 For honesty's sake, I should quote the following caveat from the paper: “interpreting trends in storminess from UK wind speed data is not straightforward due to the limitations of available data, and results should be treated with caution. The wind network on which Figure 60 is based comprises around 120 to 130 stations in the 1970s increasing to 180 stations in the 1990s before falling back to around 150 stations. Figure 60 has not been adjusted to take into account this changing network” Since Micheál Martin was probably thinking of climate change when he said the above, it's worth quoting from another recent RTÉ News article⁴: ”there is not that much research and agreement in relation to climate change and wind. Professor of Physical Geography at Maynooth University and climate expert, Peter Thorne, said there are vanishingly few studies that have come up with a definitive link between the frequency or intensity of windstorms and climate change. "That doesn't, necessarily, mean that there is no link, but it is important to be honest as to what we don’t know," he said.” [4]:

RTE.ie

RTÉ Weather - Forecast

Weather forecast by RTÉ and Met Éireann. Get the most accurate hourly and 7 day weather forecast for the Republic of Ireland and Europe with dail...

Sam Bidwell believes¹ the Southport murderer should be executed. He writes: “Parliament should pass an act which specifically authorises the death penalty for Axel Rudakubana. [...] There is no risk of “getting the wrong man” — this attack was well-documented, and Rudakubana pled guilty to the charges against him. His guilt isn’t just “beyond reasonable doubt” — it is beyond any doubt.” [1]:

The Critic Magazine

The case for execution | Sam Bidwell | The Critic Magazine

Exceptional times call for exceptional measures. In 1723, the German maestro George Frideric Handel was appointed as Composer of Music for King Geo...

I agree that the murderer should have been condemned to death, but I think the opportunity for doing so has passed. However, this crime should be the spur that leads Parliament to restore capital punishment in cases where the evidence of guilt is overwhelming. If Parliament attaints this killer, it will face pressure to do the same in future cases, where the evidence may be much weaker. In the next 30 years, this could easily lead to the execution of an innocent person.

I want to comment on the Department of Education's Gender Pay Gap Report¹ for 2024. [1]: https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/b1659-gender-pay-gap-report-2024/, published on December 19, 2024. Here are 3 quotes from that document: 1. “The Department of Education has made great strides in fostering gender parity across all senior management grades, with over 66% of senior managers being women.” 2. “As the Department has more women than men employed at almost all of the grades, the question could be asked as to why any gender pay gap exists at all.” 3. Under “Measures to address the gender pay gap”: “participation of Department staff at Dublin Pride and other Pride-related events”. And my comments: 1. If 66% of senior managers were men, would the Department be satisfied? Would it describe that state of affairs as “gender parity”? 2. Unless I'm missing something, that sentence is seriously innumerate. 3. What does participation in Pride have to do with the “gender pay gap”?

The housing shortage will last a long time. This would be true even if our underperforming state suddenly became a high performer. So we need a palliative for the short and medium term. I think the Irish government should pay Irish citizens to emigrate. Some traditional destinations for Irish emigration, notably the UK, are also short of housing. However, there must be foreign countries that have affordable housing and reasonable employment prospects. Lest we annoy the receiving countries, the scheme should disperse the emigrants so that they don't drive up the cost of housing too much. I don't expect the next government to adopt this idea. If they did, they would probably leave immigration unchanged, or even ramp it up (since many immigrants will accept worse housing conditions than the Irish), thus accelerating population replacement. Of course, as a nationalist, I want to see immigration reduce to a trickle, housing shortage or no housing shortage.

As anyone who follows Irish politics will know, the next government recently published a Programme for Government: https://www.finegael.ie/app/uploads/2025/01/Programme-for-Government-2025.pdf I will use this thread to comment.

I want to contrast two articles about gender pay gaps: 1. https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2023/1220/1423033-department-of-public-expenditures-gender-pay-gap/, dated December 20, 2023 2. https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2025/0114/1490660-an-post-gender-pay-gap-report/, dated January 14, 2025 The first has the headline “Gender pay gap narrows to 2.57% at Dept of Public Expenditure”. It says: “on average men were paid 2.57% more than women in 2023”, but “the median gender pay gap indicates that, on average, women are paid 1.56% higher than men”. The second has the headline “An Post reports zero gender pay gap for fourth year in a row”. It says: “the mean gender pay gap at An Post for 2024 was -2.8% in favour of females, while the median gender pay gap was 0.7%”. I'd bet that if the pay gap in the second story were 2.8% in favour of men, the headline would not refer to a “zero gender pay gap”. By the way, the headline of the second story is identical to the headline of An Post's press release:

An Post reports Zero Gender Pay Gap for Fourth Year in a Row | An Post

Get all the latest news and information about An Post reports Zero Gender Pay Gap for Fourth Year in a Row from our media centre.

I want to comment on this: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/wellbeing/sex/ive-been-an-agony-aunt-for-a-year-heres-what-ive-learnt/ It's by Rachel Johnson, the Daily Telegraph's agony aunt. She writes: “I have had to point out that there is no such thing [conjugal rights]. Even the long marrieds have no rights of possession or ownership of their spouse, and marital rape entered the statute book in 1992. In theory – if not in practise – consent attaches to every act, it is not assumed just because you are in a relationship. [...] There is no entitlement to sex or someone’s body even if you are married to them. In this country, women are equal. We have agency, and can choose whether to have sex or reproduce, even if this choice is unwelcome to the male.” This—especially the reference to marital rape—is missing the point. I very much doubt that her correspondents are saying: “I have the right to get sex from my wife at any time“. Rather, I expect they are saying: “sex is part of marriage; a wife who never has sex with her husband is in default of her obligations”.

https://sdp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SDP_Manifesto_2024.pdf The above is the manifesto of the Social Democratic Party in the UK, produced for last July‘s election. The immigration policies in that document are surprisingly good. This is in stark contrast to nationalist parties in the Republic of Ireland, none of whom have produced anything with this level of detail. Everything after this paragraph is from the manifesto, verbatim except that I have numbered the list items. Items 2, 3, and 4 are of particular interest. 1. In the interests of Britain’s community relations and the survival of our hard-won welfare state we will vigorously resist the idea of ‘open borders’. Britain’s immigration policy must be skills-based, needs-based, legal and subject to democratic control. 2. We will withdraw from the 1951 Refugee Convention, the ECHR and all other international instruments which deny UK border sovereignty. We will promote a new set of international agreements on refugee rights which are fit for purpose, protect genuine refugees and do not facilitate illegal trafficking. 3. We will reduce net migration to 50,000 per annum and promote a generation long cessation of ‘mass immigration’ in the interests of integration, solidarity and social cohesion. Agreements between key strategic partners may result in selective exemptions if clearly in the national interest. 4. All unsolicited asylum applications via breaches of the UK border will be declined. They will result in immediate repatriation or detention offshore within British Overseas Territories until repatriation is expedited. The UK will contribute to humanitarian resettlement of genuine refugees by offering 20,000 refugee visas annually to carefully vetted families fleeing major conflict zones. 5. A foreign spouse of a UK citizen will not qualify for UK residence if there is evidence that the marriage was entered into primarily to obtain admission to the UK. He or she must also demonstrate good quality spoken and written English. Family visas will be offered only to direct lineal ancestors or descendants of UK citizens. 6. No person will be offered UK citizenship unless they have spent 7 years resident in the UK with ‘probationary leave to remain’ (PLR) status. Any indictable offence or any act considered materially hostile to Britain’s social peace committed while on PLR will result in prompt deportation after a single review by a special tribunal. 7. Study visas will be cut by half to approximately 250,000 per annum and only allocated to students with places at accredited universities and colleges. Work visas will be restricted to those with specifically required skills and sponsored by employers with a strong record of paying UK corporate tax. Employers of illegal immigrants will be liable to fines of up to £100,000 per employee concerned and criminal penalties where the offence is knowing or systematic. 8. People who have been resident in the UK unlawfully for more than five years before this policy comes into effect will be offered PLR status if they come forward in a defined period and can show evidence of a settled family life in the UK. Exit checks at all UK points of departure will be reinstated and matched with visa entry data to ensure that overstay is tracked and prevented.