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Michael Mcdowell

Michael Mcdowell

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Escalation of the conflict in Gaza may be exactly what Netanyahu wants

As things stand, the Binyamin Netanyahu war cabinet plans to launch a major ground offensive on Rafah in the coming weeks. The stated purposes are to...

10.04.2024 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Republicans who do not respect unionists or recognise State are standing in way of united Ireland

Not many people read our Constitution, and for many it might prove a difficult casual read. Perhaps every school leaver should have been given a...

03.04.2024 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Sinn Féin is this island’s best resourced political party, the beneficiary of a legacy of barbarism

I was at the multiparty talks convened by the leaders of the British and Irish governments, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, at Weston Park, a mansion on...

27.03.2024 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Every day Netanyahu stays in office conducting his war prolongs the barbarous treatment of innocent people

What is happening in Gaza is entirely predictable. It was not inevitable, however. As far back as October 11th last I wrote of the need to avoid the...

20.03.2024 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

No matter how we try to airbrush reality, mothers and fathers are not the same

When I was studying for my arts degree in economics and politics at UCD in the early 1970s, we had a choice whether to take either statistics or Roman...

13.03.2024 9

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Wholly implausible to suggest amendments will have no serious consequence

Tomorrow the broadcast media moratorium on the referendums to be held on Friday will come into effect. And for me what has been a hectic engagement...

06.03.2024 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Referendums ask us to insert a toothless aspiration and approve some vague-minded proposals about marriage

I do not always agree with the political views of Una Mullaly as expounded in these pages. But I am in definite agreement with her suggestion that the...

28.02.2024 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Has anyone thought about what happens when a durable relationship ends?

There are still two weeks to go before the citizens of Ireland decide whether to amend our Constitution by the 39th and 40th amendments. Posters have...

21.02.2024 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

No true republican should wish for the failure of Northern Ireland

Like the majority of people in this State, I believe in republican government. And I favour an Ireland in which all Irish people — North and South...

14.02.2024 8

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

A Yes vote on the family referendum is a vote for a foreseeable and avoidable mess

Dr Tom Hickey of Dublin City University’s School of Law and Government correctly points out in two recent letters published in The Irish Times on...

07.02.2024 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

It’s not fanciful or contrived to ask questions about ‘throuples’ in referendum debate

Now that the two referendums have been fixed for March 8th – International Women’s Day – it becomes all the more important that public debate on...

31.01.2024 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Do we want a society in which non-marital relationships are the easier, equal and growing norm?

The Supreme Court decision in the O’Meara case was made in the context of articles 40 and 41 of the Constitution as they stand – before any of the...

24.01.2024 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

The sad truth is that we do not have urban planning anywhere in Ireland

I was reminded when reading Una Mullally’s piece on the proposal to demolish the Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre at the top of Grafton Street and...

17.01.2024 7

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

If it’s not broke, don’t fix it: voting No is wisest option in upcoming blindman’s buff referendums

The Government plans to have two referendums on March 8th to amend our Constitution. One is to amend Article 41.2 of the Constitution to remove the...

10.01.2024 6

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Michael McDowell: Can Joe Biden devise a strategy to pull ahead of Trump?

This is election year in the United States. As things stand, the Democrats look set to nominate Joe Biden and the Republicans seem on course to select...

03.01.2024 20

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Before Metrolink juggernaut becomes a money pit, let’s look at alternatives

It was reported recently that enabling works on the site of the new National Maternity Hospital on the campus of St Vincent’s hospital are to...

27.12.2023 30

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Sheer foreseeability of what is happening in Gaza robs Biden’s handwringing of all credibility

As I watched footage of Palestinian men of all ages stripped of their clothing and blindfolded, with their hands tied behind their backs, being herded...

20.12.2023 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Judicial appointments Act may be deemed constitutional, but it is still a dog’s dinner

The Supreme Court ruled that it is constitutional for the Oireachtas to prohibit by law the government from filling any vacancy in judicial office,...

13.12.2023 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Politicians losing touch with public opinion on thorny issue of migration

Sooner or later, we in Ireland are going to have a mature national conversation about migration, free from a suffocating anxiety not to fit into glib...

06.12.2023 8

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

We need to get real: the entire system of criminal justice is in crisis

Policing in Dublin is in crisis. It took an orgy of destructive rioting and looting to bring a significant visible Garda presence back to the streets....

29.11.2023 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

It’s hard to see how having a Bloody Sunday Bridge advances bridge-building

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” The question posed in Juliet’s famous soliloquy comes to...

22.11.2023 30

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

As David Norris discovered, it matters a lot who is appointed to the Supreme Court

Professor Oran Doyle of TCD’s law school wrote recently in the Irish Independent about the significance of the Supreme Court hearing to be held this...

15.11.2023 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

As David Norris discovered, it matters a lot who is appointed to the Supreme Court

Professor Oran Doyle of TCD’s law school wrote recently in the Irish Independent about the significance of the Supreme Court hearing to be held this...

15.11.2023 4

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Prospect of an early election is looming large in the imaginations of many in Leinster House

The announced departure from the political stage of Frances Fitzgerald has happened well in advance of the European and local elections due next June....

08.11.2023 5

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

How far will Rishi Sunak’s government go to deny the slaughter in Gaza?

Looking at what is happening in Britain in the context of the ongoing destruction of innocent civilians in Israel and Gaza, I am left wondering how...

01.11.2023 20

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Grotesque notion of ‘super-majority’ would have killed Belfast Agreement

Steve Baker, a British minister of state for Northern Ireland and a former chairman of the Tory Eurosceptic European Research Group (ERG), suggested...

25.10.2023 5

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Israel’s retribution on the people of Gaza is exactly what Hamas planned

The atrocious Hamas massacre and hostage-taking in Israel was intended to have the exact outcome which is now unfolding before our eyes. Hamas’s...

18.10.2023 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Israel’s right to self-defence must be proportionate, lawful and humane

The premeditated, evil barbarity unleashed on hundreds of innocent human beings by Hamas, a terrorist organisation, can never be justified or excused....

11.10.2023 30

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Aggressive protesting is not a one-way street. There are gutters on both sides

Liberty to exercise the right of citizens to assemble peacefully and without arms is guaranteed by the State in Ireland subject to public order and...

04.10.2023 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Dublin City Council is the only thing standing in the way of a beautiful capital

There has been a lot of commentary in these pages and elsewhere in relation to urban dereliction in Dublin, and the piecemeal and inadequate response...

27.09.2023 20

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Lenin is an odious icon for Irish human rights activists

I was intrigued to see posters featuring Vladimir Lenin and red flags featuring the hammer and sickle in evidence at a recent counterdemonstration in...

20.09.2023 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Lenin is an odious icon for Irish human rights activists

I was intrigued to see posters featuring Vladimir Lenin and red flags featuring the hammer and sickle in evidence at a recent counterdemonstration in...

20.09.2023 4

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

Michael McDowell: Quangos have vanished, only to be replaced by something worse. Tangos

A radio advertising campaign on disability rights is currently under way “brought to you by the Government of Ireland”. It carries the message:...

13.09.2023 10

The Irish Times

Michael Mcdowell

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