Journalist, author, broadcaster
This comment piece on the closing of the MOX plant at Sellafield appeared on Guardian.co.uk in August. Sellafield Mox nuclear fuel plant to close. It’s a headline that generations of Irish environmental activists, and government ministers in Leinster House, never thought they would see. After just 10 years of operation – and at the cost […]
From the Scotsman, July 26. In 1950, Ireland’s then minister for health, Dr Noel Browne, announced his intention to radically reform the former Free State’s ailing health service. For the first time, maternity care for all mothers and healthcare for all children up to the age of 16 would be delivered free of charge. Dr […]
My review of New Irish Short Stories, edited by Joseph O’Connor from the Sunday Business Post. Last February, Irish novelist Julian Gough was at the centre of a literary spate about the state of contemporary Irish fiction. In comments published on his personal blog, and later picked up by the Guardian online, the Berlin-based writer […]
IF ONLY every day was as easy for Enda Kenny, as, on a bright lunchtime in Dublin, the Fine Gael leader was elected Taoiseach. Last weekend’s ratification of the Fine Gael-Labour coalition pact paved the way for Kenny’s day in the sun, but even in victory there were signs that it will not be all […]
Ireland’s recent general election was the most dramatic in the country’s history: Fianna Fáil lost almost three-quarters of its seats, the hard Left made significant gains and Gerry Adams will now sit in the Dáil as the head of the fourth-largest party in Irish politics. But in an election of such surprises, the eventual result […]
I spent election day 2011 in the company of Mick Fealty from Slugger taking a roadtrip around Ireland as part of RTE’s election coverage. Here’s what we found: As former US Senator Tip O’Neill once quipped: ‘All politics is local’. The election campaign was dominated by national issues – jobs, emigration, the economy – but […]
Fine Gael and Labour will form a coalition government in Ireland following the ratification of a draft programme for government by a special Labour Party delegate conference in Dublin yesterday. Separately, the Fine Gael parliamentary party unanimously endorsed the proposed programme. After six days of talks, including lengthy meetings between Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny […]
By Peter Geoghegan in Dublin Ireland’s new leader-in-waiting, Enda Kenny, last night launched a fierce attack on the outgoing government for being removed from the people. As his party emerged the clear winner in the country’s general election, Kenny called on politicians to learn a lesson from the annihilation meted out to his rivals at […]
By PETER GEOGHEGAN in CAVAN TURNOUT at Ireland’s polling stations was reported as high yesterday, despite widespread scepticism that the incoming government will be able to drag the country out of recession. Fine Gael, the right-of-centre opposition in the last parliament, is still heavily tipped to form a government under leader Enda Kenny, ending decades […]
By Peter Geoghegan in Longford On the road from Dublin airport to the city centre stands an eye-catching piece of street art. Painted in 4ft-high red and white letters, located on a concrete wall just a stone’s throw from the half-finished headquarters of the bankrupt Anglo-Irish bank near the banks of the River Liffey, the […]