Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Halt the embargo
An edited version of this article first appeared in Village magazine, June 2018 edition. Can you determine what the following news reports all have in common? * Eoghan Murphy, Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government announced that Orders have been made directing that bye-elections be held to fill the vacancies in the Seanad caused […]
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#RepealThe8th: Oldies get it wrong again
An edited version of this article first appeared in Village magazine, June 2018 edition. You should stop reading right now. Pay no attention to pretty much every columnist of my generation. We got it wrong. Opinion polls are only as good as the people who interpret them, and we all filter our interpretations though our […]
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Callinan stands firm on smear campaign denial
Charleton Tribunal: Summary of week ending 25 May 2018 First published in the Sunday Independent After three days of evidence from former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan, there was one thing Mr Justice Peter Charleton couldn’t quite understand. “I’m still puzzled as to how you chose David Taylor, because whatever way you look at it, it […]
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Shatter steps back to ‘quicksand’ of issues raised by Sgt McCabe
Charleton Tribunal: Summary of week ending 18 May 2018 First published in the Sunday Independent Alan Shatter had barely started his evidence, explaining the various contacts he had as justice minister with whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe, when Charleton Tribunal barrister Kathleen Leader asked him about the Commission of Inquiry headed by Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins. […]
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Charleton Tribunal: week ending 11 May 2018
Article for Sunday Independent of 13 May 2018 Supt David Taylor’s reputation has taken something of a battering since the Charleton tribunal began its inquiry earlier this month into allegations he was ordered to brief journalists negatively about whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe. Former garda commissioner Martin Callinan denies giving instructions to brief negatively to the […]
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Charleton tribunal: week ending 4 May 2018
Article for Sunday Independent of 6 May 2018 John Ferris had a difficult time adjusting to life with David Taylor in the Garda press office. An inspector at the time, Ferris told the Disclosures tribunal how when Taylor first arrived to his posting at Garda headquarters, they shared an office. Aware that his new boss […]
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Charleton tribunal: week ending 13 April 2018
Article for Sunday Independent of 15 April 2018 Tomorrow morning, Disclosures tribunal chairman Peter Charleton plans to visit Kildare Street. The Supreme Court judge will inspect Leinster House 2000, a new building completed in 2001. First stop will be the Coffee Dock, a popular breaktime spot for everyone working in the complex. From the checkout […]
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McCabe, O’Sullivan and a stick of ‘political dynamite’
This article first appeared in the Sunday Independent on 21 January 2018. “Political dynamite” were the two words solicitor Annmarie Ryan wrote down when barristers for the garda commissioner began to challenge garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe’s credibility at the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation. “I was always conscious in relation to it getting into the media, […]
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End of an Era at Examiner
An edited version of this article first appeared in Village magazine, December 2017 edition. The proposed Irish Times buyout of Landmark Media, owner of the Irish examiner and several other titles, as well as regional radio station shares, comes as little surprise, having been well flagged for several months. If anything, the surprise is it […]
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Do Not Feed The Bots
An edited version of this article first appeared in Village magazine, November 2017 edition. One in four twitter followers of Philip Boucher Hayes are fake accounts, the RTÉ broadcaster announced on his twitter feed recently. Around the end of August, Boucher-Hayes had noticed an uptick in new followers on Twitter, which he had monitored since. […]
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