John Downing
Independent.ie
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Past articles by John:
Is this Sunak and Macron ‘bromance’ about change or just hype?
Franglais – that strange mangled mix of French and English – is a rich source of humour, even for people with bad school Francais or, indeed, poor Anglais. → Read More
'We did what we did to fix the economy': Brendan Howlin hits back at Holly Cairns and defends Labour's role in 2011 coalition
Labour veteran, Brendan Howlin, has rounded on Holly Cairns and accused her of playing politics with assessments of his party’s efforts to fix a broken economy while in government a decade ago. → Read More
Dead on both sides of Civil War in Kerry commemorated
Hundreds of people have attended centenary commemorations in Kerry of two inter-connected atrocities, each of which was committed by anti-Treaty and pro-Treaty factions in the Civil War a century ago. → Read More
Why a Civil War atrocity that killed eight men 100 years ago has sparked a split today
As Civil War atrocities go, the horror at Ballyseedy Cross, outside Tralee, tops the list. On March 7, 1923, Free State soldiers took nine anti-Treaty prisoners, tied them together, detonated a mine under them, then threw bombs at them, and finally raked them with rifle fire. → Read More
Mick Wallace is a man of many contradictions and people have been okay with that – until now
ONE of the nicer things about getting older is realising that often most of us are a mass of contradictions in our views about life. → Read More
Why Empress Elisabeth of Austria – aka Sisi – is still a cult figure 125 years after her death
Film subtitles can tell us something about a person. I have one very engaging friend, a self-confessed inverse snob, who wants nothing whatever to do with them: “Reading the flicks? If I want to read I get a book, I don’t go to the movies for a read.” → Read More
Berliners prepare to vote again after a ‘very un-German’ botched 2021 election
It is not the sort of thing we expect to happen in Germany, and the citizens of Berlin will hope things go better tomorrow as the courts have ordered that local and state elections must be re-run. → Read More
Is Bertie Ahern a super-peacemaker or simply in the right place at the right time?
Bertie Ahern’s ticket of re-admission to the human race – or at least the Fianna Fáil party – came via his much-talked-about pivotal role in delivering the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and that party’s need to cadge reflected political glory around its silver jubilee on April 10. → Read More
Leo Varadkar’s 2015 plan to cut Hepatitis C payments was deemed ‘too harsh’
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that as health minister in 2015, he and the government considered curbing compensation schemes for HIV and Hepatitis C sufferers. → Read More
Justice Minister Simon Harris vows to ‘face down’ rogue elements stoking migrant tensions
Justice Minister Simon Harris has vowed to “face down” far-right agitators who seek to exploit community tensions on the migration issue. → Read More
Ireland backs EU protection for wild wolves despite concerns that their reintroduction is a problem for farmers
Ireland is among a number of EU governments giving strong backing to continued wildlife protections for wolves and other predatory animals in Europe, officials have confirmed. → Read More
Gardai and border control to conduct checks on passengers arriving into country without travel documents
The Justice Minister has said gardai will conduct checks on passengers leaving planes in Ireland without travel documentation. → Read More
Leo Varadkar’s team of city slickers will harm Fine Gael’s hopes of rural votes at election time
A BAD case of “Dublinitis” may yet add to Leo Varadkar’s mounting woes on re-election. Brendan Griffin’s decision to quit politics certainly compounds difficulties for Fine Gael outside the capital and along the western seaboard. → Read More
The big question for Ireland is, can Rishi Sunak face down Tory Europhobes to fix Brexit?
Rishi Sunak – elected the UK’s third prime minister of 2022, just three months ago – has now been in office twice as long as his ill-starred predecessor, Liz Truss, who lasted 45 chaotic days. → Read More
It’s ‘Manu’ versus the pensioners as workers prepare to take to the streets in droves
Who in their right mind would go into an election pledging to increase the pension qualification age? Oops, with apologies to Messrs Varadkar and Martin, let’s concede we had not entirely thought that one through. Both leaders and their parties paid a rather high price for the pension age row in the last general election in February 2020. → Read More
The Brexit week sailed into stormy seas and quickly hit a rock – but ultimately entered calmer waters
The Brexit week began on a high note – then quickly hit a rock with a row about who should be included in intensified talks. → Read More
Death of esteemed newspaper editor Brian Looney
Brian Looney, a former editor, and Irish Independent journalist has died. → Read More
Tánaiste Micheál Martin due in Brussels as EU-UK Brexit talks progress
Tánaiste Micheál Martin is due in Brussels today for talks on an emerging EU-UK Brexit deal aimed at fixing the long-running dispute over Northern Ireland’s special trade status and giving it unlimited access to British and European markets. → Read More
Brexit is the issue with a problem for every solution but it may be on course for final fix
The late, great John Hume often said: “If you’re not confused about Northern Ireland – then you definitely don’t understand it.” → Read More
Leo Varadkar promises ‘carrot and stick’ approach to motivate new building work
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has targeted action on 70,000 unused planning permissions – mainly involving unbuilt apartments – vowing “carrot and stick” measures next year to speed delivery. → Read More