Ireland
Letters: parliament has a responsibility to stop Brexit
Parliament’s responsibility Sir: I always enjoy reading the intelligent and outspoken Lionel Shriver. But her latest article (14 September) puts…
For the first time since 1171, Ireland has more power than England
Watching Boris Johnson in Dublin, where he came to ask Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to get him out of a hole,…
Letters: why Rose Hudson-Wilkin is the right choice for Bishop of Dover
Rose is the right choice Sir: Every Wednesday for the past nine years, it has been my privilege to attend…
Oodles of fun – but unfair on climate sceptics: Kill Climate Deniers reviewed
Kill Climate Deniers is a provocative satire by Australian theatre-activist David Finnigan. The title sounds misanthropic and faintly deranged but…
How Ireland became a back door to Britain
I was working in Johannesburg when I first got wind of the fact that Ireland has become an illegal back…
It’s not anti-Irish to criticise Leo Varadkar
The relationship between the UK and the Republic of Ireland has ‘reached a hunger-strike low’, says a new study by…
Ireland’s strange decision to become a French colonial outpost
Seventy years ago this month, a prime minister led a divided nation towards the exit from what was then one…
Why are we allowing ourselves to be held to ransom by has-been Irish militants?
When politics goes round in circles, the columnist inevitably revisits issues that would have been sorted if only everyone read…
![British poet Salena Godden presenter of Mrs Death Misses Death on Radio 4. [Photo: Roberto Ricciuti / Getty Images]](https://spectatorau.imgix.net/content/uploads/2018/12/Radio.jpg?auto=compress,enhance,format&crop=faces,entropy,edges&fit=crop&w=410&h=275)
Listening to people talking about death can be strangely consoling
‘Without death,’ says Salena Godden, ‘life would be a never-ending conveyor belt of sensation.’ For her death is what gives…
Letters: Brexit’s impact on the Irish border issue has been flagged up all along
The Irish border Sir: Contrary to the assertion that the Irish border ‘only hit the headlines’ after Leo Varadkar became…
Leo Varadkar has done his absolute best to damage Brexit
How did we get into this Brexit mess? Why is it proving so difficult to leave the EU? Was it…
History will judge UK ministers harshly for the Irish backstop
We may or may not hear news soon of a settlement of the Irish border issue that will allow Brexit…
Divide and rule: how the EU used Ireland to take control of Brexit
The story of Britain and Ireland’s relationship has, all too often, been one of mutual incomprehension: 1066 and All That…
How the Irish see Brexit
In February, I spoke at the first ‘Irexit’ public meeting in Dublin, a discussion about options for Ireland in the…
A friendship in flux: Normal People, by Sally Rooney, reviewed
‘Marianne had the sense that her real life was happening somewhere very far away, happening without her, and she didn’t…
Brian Friel’s Aristocrats should be called ‘Posh People Move House’
Non-stop chatterbox and mystifyingly revered fabricator of sub-Chekovian paddywhackery, Brian Friel has received another production at the Donmar. His play…
Did Ed Balls mean to make a documentary on the joys of Trump’s America?
The thing I most regret having failed ever to ask brave, haunted, wise Sean O’Callaghan when I last saw him…
Why has the National given over its largest stage to one of the nation’s smallest talents?
The National has made its largest stage available to one of the nation’s smallest talents. If Brian Friel had been…
It’s not for Westminster to decide Northern Ireland’s abortion law
Predictably enough, there have been no calls this week for the Irish referendum on abortion to be re-run, no complaint…
Pope Francis raises the white flag
Just before Ireland voted overwhelmingly to end the country’s constitutional ban on abortion, Catholics in the fishing village of Clogherhead…
The Irish border is the EU’s problem, not ours
In deference to public exhaustion, I’ve largely avoided Brexit in this slot. But a columnist’s output ought rightly to echo…
The Good Friday Agreement is not a peace but a truce
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), which celebrates its 20th anniversary this week, is not a peace, but a truce. This does…
It is the Europhiles who are the head-bangers now
For almost as long as I can remember, Eurosceptic Tory MPs have been defined by the media as ‘head-bangers’. As…
The DUP is quite likely to cave in over ‘regulatory alignment’. Here’s why they should not
I’m afraid I have a deep faith in the Democratic Unionist Party’s capacity to cede an issue of principle in…
David Trimble: The Irish government is dragging Brexit into dangerous territory
When I negotiated the Good Friday Agreement nearly 20 years ago, no one foresaw a day when the -United Kingdom…
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