“This island needs a national dialogue with facilitated local forums established in every county, a responsibility that may ultimately fall to civic society, should political parties fail to unite.” ~Emma Desouza The Irish News ☕️🥐

“Celtic fans and support for Palestine go hand in hand. Rarely, if ever, does the Palestinian flag not fly at Paradise.” ~Kelly Given The National ☕️🥐

“As Ireland makes the final preparations for its ascension to council president, it must reflect on what it gains by eroding human rights in Europe when the entire rule-of-law-based world order is under threat.” ~Andrew Forde Irish Examiner ☕️🥐

“It is Walmart warmongering, a Bargain City blitzkrieg, a Kmart coup” ~Fintan O’Toole The Irish Times Foreign policy replaced by a Netflix script. ☕️🥐

“The forcible capture of a sitting head of state by another country, without a clear mandate from an international court, represents a dramatic departure from established norms of law” ~editorial The Irish News ☕️🥐

“If we are serious about protecting our children, we could start by protecting them from the politics of fear” ~Colin Sheridan @colinivan Irish Examiner ☕️🥐

“Our masters of the universe are seldom spotted trudging to work in the rain, waiting for a bed in a hospital or a domestic violence refuge, residing beside derelict buildings or on streets festooned with menacing anti-immigration flags.” ~Justine McCarthy The Irish Times ☕️🥐

“The most important challenge in 2026 will be the protection of human rights and human rights defenders.” ~Andrée Murphy Andersonstown News ☕️🥐

“the only people who would want to stay connected to a politics that no longer exists are, you’ve guessed it, unionists.” ~Brian Feeney The Irish News ☕️🥐

“What matters most is the Irish Government making its collective mind up about acting on a goal it is legally/ politically committed to.” ~Colin Harvey The Irish News ☕️🥐

“Sectarianism functioned as cover. It reduced a colonial conflict and a contested sovereignty question into “two warring tribes”, absolving the state of responsibility.” ~Patricia MacBride The Irish News ☕️🥐

“This Labour regime is chock-full of Israel supporters and Israel apologists.” ~editorial Andersonstown News

“You could write the script the British government is following, because it is exactly the same as the one Thatcher’s government followed in 1981.” ~Brian Feeney The Irish News

“Fragile is the flesh of defenceless populations, tried by so many wars, ongoing or concluded, leaving behind rubble and open wounds,” ~Pope Leo The Irish Times

“It is no surprise, then, to learn that Israeli forces have killed so many of those bearing witness to their atrocities.” ~editorial Irish Examiner ☕️

“The fundamental problem is that SF and the DUP do not agree on the purpose of the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement. They don’t share a common aim, let alone agree to share power.” ~Brian Feeney The Irish News ☕️🥐

“we are talking about a chief executive who is above the law” ~Prof Aziz Huq Irish Examiner [From demagogue to piracy, rogue narcissist to partner in genocide, watch as every law is ignored to feed an insatiable ego] ☕️

“The images of retired elderly professionals being led away by the Met Police has been a stain on Keir Starmer's leadership” ~Allison Morris Belfast Telegraph

“The ongoing genocide is robbing Palestinians of their futures, and these strikers have responded by putting themselves on the line.” ~Naoise Dolan The Sunday Independent

“A watching world has kept schtum about it all for fear of scuppering a ceasefire that is flagrantly failing to cease the firing.” ~Justine McCarthy The Irish Times ☕️🥐

It isn’t just Trump. Irish Examiner ☕️

Laughing MPs set to continue their legacy of political stupidity.

“If unionists cannot rule the roost, they will do everything they can to ensure that nationalists are stymied.” ~Tom Collins The Irish News ☕️🥐

“This promotion of hatred in pursuit of political goals is recognised as a phenomenon in political economy, where it is appropriately described as fascism.” ~Prof Richard Murphy The National ☕️🥐

“Prost was added to the sanctions list in August because five years ago she was one of the judges who ruled to authorise an investigation into alleged war crimes by the Taliban, Afghan forces, US forces and the CIA in Afghanistan since 2003” ~Naomi O’Leary The Irish Times ☕️🥐

“…the UVF — acting alone — did not possess the technical, operational, or organisational capacity to execute the Dublin car bombings of May 17, 1974.” ~John O’Brien Irish Examiner ☕️🥐

“To fit Gaza and the Eurovision Song Contest into the same sentences, we must leave irony far behind and venture deep into the realms of the grotesque.” ~Fintan O’Toole The Irish Times [a colonial experiment that encapsulates the very worst traits of narcissistic psychopathy]

“Normally I try to be a glass halffull kinda guy. But where Trump is concerned, half-empty rules.” ~Tom Collins The Irish News ☕️🥐

“Calls for justice for Palestinian children such as Hind Rajab have not been led by governments which have long claimed to be protectors of women's rights…” ~Khudejha Asghar The National ☕️🥐

“For civil society and policy, the reforms test whether migration policy in Ireland will prioritise control and limitation, or continue to balance economic need, humanitarian protection, and social justice”, writes Colin Sheridan @colinivan Irish Examiner ☕️🥐

“The political temperature has continued to rise as 2025 draws to a close because of political unionism’s conscious decision to embrace rage bait politics with renewed vigour…” ~Chris Donnelly The Irish News ☕️🥐

“The US government has decided to sanction — or, essentially, de-person — a European judge for carrying out his official duties in Europe while working in an institution established by Europe’s elected representatives …” ~Yanis Varoufakis Irish Examiner ☕️🥐

“Democracy depends on transparency; when that transparency is threatened, trust erodes.” ~editorial The Irish News ☕️🥐

“The intention of these sanctions, and the extraordinary difficulties they cause for the ICC judges, is obvious. They are aimed at sabotaging the work of the court and, in a larger sense, delegitimising the institutions of international law” ~Mark O’Connell The Irish Times ☕️🥐

“This is the unique force of what might be called ‘polite dissent’, the ability to embarrass an institution not through confrontation, but through withdrawal.” ~editorial Irish Examiner (* ‘polite dissent’ is not always the most operative route) 🍷

“It makes no sense to have two separate health services on an island of this size.” ~Pat Cullen @patcullen9 The Irish News ☕️🥐

“For northern nationalists, particularly those close to the border, the London Agreement was the ultimate betrayal meted out to them by the Free State government.” ~Cormac Moore The Irish News ☕️🥐

“By the beginning of November 2025, Unifil recorded almost 7,100 Israeli air violations of UN resolution 1701, which the ceasefire agreement was based on.” ~Sally Hayden The Irish Times ☕️🥐

“Into this tropical archipelago of geopolitical ego arrives Donald Trump bearing a “peace plan” that appears to have been constructed by holding a map of the Middle East upside down while blindfolded.” ~Colin Sheridan Irish Examiner ☕️

A story of two slices of toast and a moulded loaf. The Irish News ☕️🥐

“Only those blinded by ignorance, naivete or a lack of genuine experience of northern affairs would maintain that propping up a unionist veto or setting wildly unrealistic demands as a condition for Irish unity are appropriate at this time.” ~Chris Donnelly The Irish News ☕️🥐

“There is zero respect for Irishness from the DUP. They don't respect our citizenry, our traditions, our culture or our heads of state.” ~Andrée Murphy Andersonstown News ☕️🥐

“…democracy requires standards that guard against hidden influence and the public has a right to know who is shaping the information they receive” ~Eilen Culloty The Irish Times ☕️🥐

“Human rights have to be permanent and can’t be removed at the whim of a state.” ~Brian Feeney The Irish News ☕️🥐

“One of the measures of Connolly’s success will be the number of times she too becomes a thorn in the side of ministers who put their own interests before the people’s.” ~Tom Collins The Irish News ☕️🥐

“The Israel Defense Forces and the nation’s football teams operate in lockstep as instruments of nationalism.” ~Colin Sheridan Irish Examiner ☕️🥐