Observations. Satire. Politics. Interviews.
Official HSE statistics place the population of ethnic Chinese in Ireland at somewhere in the region of 60,000 people. Many of these come to Ireland first as young scholars on a variety of different student visa programs. Today, I interviewed Changying , a woman who came to Ireland in 2002 on one of those very…
One of the talking points in Ireland since the first cases of coronavirus have hit our shores surrounds information. Specifically, how much information authorities should reveal to the general public. On the one hand our public servants and officials do not want to create widespread panic and on the other Irish people wanted to know…
So the week draws to a close with the island of Ireland receiving a visit from the infamous coronavirus. In the circumstances, I guess Storm Jorge provides an appropriate backdrop to unfolding events. Since the Italian outbreak, there’s been a certain creeping inevitability regarding COVID-19 happening upon our shores. In the end, it was a…
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus it is amazing the number of people that have become statisticians of the common flu. Because the clinical presentation of coronavirus is similiar to Influenza it is tempting to compare them I suppose. The basic point of these people is that the common flu is also contagious and kills…
You’ve probably noticed that coronavirus panic has increased several notches over the past week. The revelation of a cluster of cases in northern Italy last weekend, seems to have triggered a media frenzy across Europe. That is very much the case in Ireland too. This has shone a light on testing for the disease and…
Let’s start this article with a very simple proposition. Acting Minister for Health, Simon Harris, is a dangerous fool. Yes – Harris is a smart fool out of his depth in dealing with a crisis of the magnitude of the coronavirus pandemic. One of Harris’s responses to the coronavirus this week has been to appear…
I spent the morning chatting with the HSE on-line support and as I suspected Ireland doesn’t really have a plan to deal with an outbreak of the coronavirus. Basically, if you have any of the symptoms stay at home. And most definitely do not rock up to a hospital or GP Surgery. There could be…
Three Wall Street Journal reporters have been expelled from Beijing by the Chinese Communist Party this morning. Superficially, it follows a number of harsh opinion pieces in the WSJ critical of the Chinese handling of the Coronavirus outbreak. In particular Chinese authorities are aggrieved with one article – an opinion piece entitled ‘China – The…
Chinese communist party officials are reeling today after announcing the death of Dr Liu Zhiming from the novel coronavirus. Dr Zhiming was head of surgery and director of Wuhan Wuchang Hospital. Zhiming was at the forefront of Chinese organisational efforts to fight the outbreak in the Hubei province. Chinese officials initially refused to certify the…
The World Health Organisation have finally changed their approach to reporting Coranvirus cases today. All laboratory cases and clinically diagnosed cases are from today reported together as ‘Confirmed Cases’. While the technical change is welcome to simplify the reporting the underlying data underpinning the W.H.O. reports is still completely unreliable. Consistent examination of the W.H.O. reporting…
I have been taking a browse through the official coronavirus figures on the website of the World Health Organisation. The latest figures for February 16th 2020 have just been published and are broken down below by Chinese province. There are a number of curiosities. Some might say deliberate falsehoods. As you can see from the…
” This Virus is a demon and we cannot allow this demon to Hide ” President Xi of China I’ve been waiting. Waiting for the Irish media to take a proper run at the corona-virus. As we don’t currently have a government, it’s pointless lashing politicians for the moment, although it would be no harm…
The full violence of Storm Ciara swept into Ireland overnight bringing with it heavy rain, high winds and the full force of leftist populism. The Irish electorate wake up this morning to a changed landscape. The early tallies back up last night’s RTE exit poll. Sinn Fein and the left have made huge gains across…
Mary Lou McDonald is going to face a few difficult questions come Monday morning. The immediate reaction on Twitter to the RTE exit poll from GE2020 is one of delight by Sinn Fein supporters and many on the left. No doubt it is a big moment for them, but by the middle of next week…
Mary Lou McDonald and Sinn Fein have already made one mistake that Labour Leader, Dick Spring made in the moments before the General Election campaign of 1992. She still has time to avoid the other. Sinn Fein will be secretly hoping that they do not climb much higher than 25% of the national vote next Saturday….