Category Archives: Republic of Ireland

One fan’s view of the farcical shenanigans of the Football Association of Ireland

Posted on Tuesday, 30 April, 2024 by andypollak

This blog is about football: not Gaelic football, but football as it is played by many millions of men and women around the world, the ‘beautiful game’ as it is played by Brazil and France and Argentina, at Real Madrid … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Republic of Ireland | 1 Comment

Ireland in 2024 is a rather good country, despite the begrudgers

Posted on Wednesday, 13 March, 2024 by andypollak

Maybe because St Patrick’s Day is coming up and we’re in the middle of Seachtain na Gaeilge, I’m feeling a bit patriotic – so am going to write about why I think the Republic of Ireland is a rather good … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Republic of Ireland | 4 Comments

Why the Republic of Ireland needs a new John Bruton

Posted on Tuesday, 20 February, 2024 by andypollak

With the death earlier this month of former Taoiseach John Bruton, we have lost an important and courageous voice in the Republic of Ireland. We will need a new John Bruton to appear from somewhere: a nationalist leader who will … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Republic of Ireland | 7 Comments

Does Dublin’s anti-immigration riot mark the beginning of the end of Ireland’s image of openness and tolerance?

Posted on Tuesday, 28 November, 2023 by andypollak

Last Thursday morning I sat down to write a blog in which I was aiming to argue that Ireland (the Republic) had been hugely successful in integrating a large number of immigrants over the past 20-25 years, and that this … Continue reading →

Posted in British-Irish relations, General, Republic of Ireland | 3 Comments

What have the British ever done for us? Quite a bit, actually

Posted on Wednesday, 1 November, 2023 by andypollak

One of the recurrent themes of these blogs is that if we are going to welcome 900,000 Unionists into a ‘new Ireland’, we are going to have to accept and respect their passionate Britishness. And that is going to be … Continue reading →

Posted in British-Irish relations, General, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland | 2 Comments

Straws in the autumn wind around the Irish unity debate

Posted on Tuesday, 19 September, 2023 by andypollak

There have been some interesting straws in the autumn wind in recent weeks as politicians get ready for the new political term and general elections in both Irish jurisdictions in the near future. Leo Varadkar doesn’t very often talk about … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Irish reunification, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland | 3 Comments

The Border Region as a microcosm of opinion across the island

Posted on Monday, 21 August, 2023 by andypollak

I have a particular fondness for the border town of Clones; it was a place I visited frequently during my 14 years running the Centre for Cross Border Studies in Armagh. It was in the news earlier this month for … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-border cooperation, General, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland | 1 Comment

Why not a loyalist woman as the symbol of the ‘new Ireland’? Why not Bessie Burgess?

Posted on Thursday, 3 August, 2023 by andypollak

I was in Galway last month to see the brilliant production by the Druid theatre company of Sean O’Casey’s classic play set during the 1916 Rising: The Plough and the Stars. This is the tragic story of Jack Clitheroe, who … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Irish reunification, Northern Ireland, Protestantism, unionism and loyalism, Republic of Ireland | 3 Comments

Refugee crisis reveals the racism in our smug republic

Posted on Monday, 19 June, 2023 by andypollak

I don’t usually write about contentious issues in the Republic of Ireland, because – although I have lived here for many years – I feel I have little to add to the hundreds of thousands of words on television, radio … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Ireland, Europe and the world, Republic of Ireland | 4 Comments

Why I am an (Irish) Unitarian

Posted on Tuesday, 6 June, 2023 by andypollak

This is a slightly edited version of an address I gave in the St Stephen’s Green Unitarian Church, Dublin, on 30th April. I’m going to talk today about why I am a Unitarian. But I am going to start with … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Republic of Ireland | 3 Comments