Free Republic

President Michael D. Higgins has issued a blistering critique of the situation in Gaza, saying it is scandalous that humanitarian aid and medical supplies are being blocked from entering the coastal strip. He added that those nations responsible for allowing the blockade to continue “must take responsibility for the deaths that are ensuing”. The President also criticized a “propaganda campaign” against the United Nations and called on countries to increase aid for the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA). Several countries, including the US and UK, have paused funding for the relief agency in Gaza following claims from Israel that some...

The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) has thanked Ireland for its “moral leadership” on the crisis in Gaza. During a press conference with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus reiterated his call for a humanitarian ceasefire. Both Dr. Ghebreyesus and Executive Director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program Dr. Mike Ryan were in Government Buildings for a discussion on a “range of global and domestic health areas”. They also spoke about an international treaty to provide for “timely and coordinated management” of future pandemics. Earlier, Dr. Ghebreyesus and Dr. Ryan met President Michael D. Higgins in Áras...

President Michael D. Higgins has strongly criticized the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen for comments on the Middle East conflict which she made on a visit to Israel last Friday. Ms. von der Leyen did not include a call for Israel’s retaliation to conform with international law. President Higgins said he agreed with those who criticized the intervention of the European Commission President. He said: “I don’t know where the source of those decisions was. I don’t know where the legitimation for it was, and I don’t know where the authority for it is, and I...

We like to claim Ernesto “Che” Guevara as one of our own. Guevara was an Argentina-born guerrilla fighter who helped Fidel Castro overthrow the American-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. He had an Irish ancestor, Patrick Lynch, who was born in Galway in 1715. So thrilled are we by this connection that, in 2012, a Che statue was proposed by Galway city council, and a stamp was issued here in his honour five years later. The uncomfortable reality that Guevara killed lots of people does not count against him in Ireland. Revolutionary violence has always had a certain romantic...

There have been fresh calls for the Republic of Ireland to rejoin the Commonwealth after the success of the recent State visit. Ireland left the Commonwealth in 1949, but recent historic moves including the visit of President Michael D. Higgins to the UK have reopened the debate. Senior Conservative MP Michael Fabricant said yesterday that the proposal “is not so mad as it might at first seem”. “If a country like the Republic of Ireland joined the Commonwealth, what greater message could be sent to countries facing political upheaval and disputes on the other side of the world than an...