Time was when the Home Countries Championship, then the 5 Nations, and then the 6 Nations was the be-all and end all of international rugby. It is still the bread and butter of the participating Unions, funding all their other activities. The World Cup has only been with us since the advent of professional rugby and cost the IRFU a net €9 Million this time around. Without the 6 Nations, professional Irish rugby could not survive.  Now the Captains of England and France have decided to give it a miss. Antoine Dupont in order to facilitate his playing in the Olympic Rugby 7’s tournament, an ..read more

Women in Northern Ireland are twice as likely to be murdered as a result of domestic violence than in the other UK nations. In some years, almost half of Northern Ireland murders are connected to domestic violence. In the 2022/23 year, of 17 homicides there were eight that resulted from domestic violence against women. Northern Ireland is also an outlier in international terms. While Finland has the highest rate of femicide by a partner, Northern Ireland is joint second with Hungary. (A report from Eurostat that found Northern Ireland and Romania to have the joint highest rate has been challen ..read more

In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break. So discuss what you like here, but no politics ..read more

No one should have been surprised when it was announced today that we’d lost Shane MacGowan, aged 65. He lived a worse lifestyle than Keith Richards, and we hadn’t heard from him musically in what seemed like decades. Plus his partner Victoria posted some photos recently that showed a man in terrible health. But I was still shocked. Some people seem like they’ll always be there. Obviously, I’m from a very different background from Shane and would have a very different attitude to Northern Ireland from him. But I always think it’s important to separate the art from the artist (except in the mos ..read more

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” – John Adams “Well, if the vote is for Brexit things will be more interesting.” “Facts don’t matter”. “When I offered them my contact book, none were interested. Young journalists these days are only interested in a 9-5 job job which involves taking no risks.” These are all off record quotes from local working journalists or prominent political commentators over the last seven or eight years. So what do we mean by public service journalism ..read more

Things seem to go from bad to worse for Elon Musk’s disastrous purchase of Twitter. He paid $44 billion for the site last year, and its value keeps dropping. The estimated value was $15 billion during the summer, but it has declined even further, probably to $5-10 billion. He really is the architect of his misfortune as he implements one terrible idea after another. Twitter’s primary value was its brand, so no one understood why it was renamed X. It would be like buying Coca-Cola and renaming it J. He also removed the names of articles, so you can’t even see what you are clicking on. Worst of ..read more

Last Thursday morning I sat down to write a blog in which I was aiming to argue that Ireland (the Republic) had been hugely successful in integrating a large number of immigrants over the past 20-25 years, and that this tolerant, multicultural – and economically dynamic – society was one which open-minded Unionists should not be afraid of, and might even (in the fullness of time) consider joining. But early that afternoon a man with a knife attacked and stabbed a group of small children leaving a primary school in Parnell Square in central Dublin, badly wounding a five year-old-girl, and injur ..read more

The UK Covid19 Inquiry, promised by the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the early days of the pandemic, is meeting and pouring over what happened with a view of learning lessons for next time. And yes, there will be a next time. Science and politics are on the stand and both are coming under intense scrutiny. Its terms of reference; “to examine, consider and report on preparations and the response to the pandemic in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, up to and including the Inquiry’s formal setting-up date, 28 June 2022” is a mammoth task indeed. The proceedings are attracting ..read more

Two things coincided this week that led to this piece. The first was Thursday’s violence in Dublin. The second is the fact I’m about two thirds through Graham Linehan’s autobiography in which he details his fall from grace and into career isolation following his emergence as a critic of transgender ideology. Two very distinct issues but they had one thing in common, the use of language as a basis for avoiding debate of the issues underpinning both. Arnold Carton touched well on the issue in his most recent piece and I think there is much to be added. Let me start by saying that : This isn’t g ..read more

Last week I had the good fortune to see my prediction of a clean sweep for all the provinces come true but warned that tougher weekends lie ahead. This week my predictions (for the Irish Rugby Fan Forum) were altogether more pessimistic, and unfortunately came true again.  Leinster 21  Munster 16   Prediction: Leinster win, although they won’t have it all their own way.  Munster certainly put it up to a Leinster side containing 14 world cup players in their starting line-out and it took a fortunate Gibson-Park try following a rare Beirne error to get Leinster into the ..read more