Hello and welcome to this week’s IT Sunday, a selection of the best Irish Times journalism curated for our subscribers.
A quick perusal of the most read stories this week shows no single issue grabbed everyone’s attention in the past seven days.
But that does not mean that four powerful, underlying themes - climate, housing, the cost of living and immigration - have dissipated.
Quite the contrary.
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Through climate change, war or other huge national disturbances, vast displacements of people look set to continue. This will have significant consequences for the countries from whence they came, for the immigrants and for the countries they are trying to reach. How to move beyond the current “crisis driven” response to large-scale movements of migrants was the subject of a European Union summit last week.
In his column this week economist David McWilliams looks at how people in this country feel about immigration, and in particular, whether those feelings differ depending on their own economic circumstances.
While McWilliams believes that immigration is in the aggregate good for an economy, dismissing people’s anxiety, and in some cases anger, about it is how far-right political movements gain traction. “We need to accept that high immigration during a housing crisis is problematic,” he writes.
As protests against refugees have begun in Ireland, Europe Correspondent Naomi O’Leary notes that similar protests in Belgium in 2019, Finland in 2015 and the Netherlands in 2016 suggest the recent protests here are the belated arrival of tactics long-practised elsewhere in Europe.
She notes that “in 2015, the German news programme Tagesschau reported on the role of right-wing extremists in fomenting local protests against refugee accommodation. They had a playbook of organising ‘citizens’ initiatives’ in minor towns through Facebook groups ... In the town of Freital, the local anger culminated in riots, attacks on refugees and the torching of the car of a left-wing politician who was vocally opposed to racism, Tagesschau reported.”
In the opinion of Cas Mudde, one of the world’s leading experts in radical right-wing movements, any notion that Ireland had a special immunity to such politics for cultural or historical reasons was a myth.
How different social and economic groups respond to the four broader themes outlined above is also examined by Fintan O’Toole in his column this week, which notes that when it comes to climate change, it is the people with all the money who are “burning down the house. Which is why we can’t be serious about zero carbon if we’re not also serious about tackling inequality – not just between countries but within them.”
“The average human currently emits about 6.5 tonnes of greenhouse gases every year. But that average masks a vast difference. The top 10 per cent of emitters are responsible for 30 tonnes each; the bottom 50 per cent for just 1.5 tonnes. And the top 1 per cent pump out 110 tonnes a year,” he writes.
As interest rates march ever upwards, placing particular pressure on mortgage holders, Cliff Taylor examines whether the Government may feel compelled to offer some form of mortgage interest relief.
“Ministers have resisted so far, but have been careful not to rule out policy measures. With more interest rate rises coming, this is going to become a big issue,” he writes. Taylor examines the key areas where debate is growing here.
Jennifer O’Connell this week looks at the issues of legacy, of voter memory and how reputations can be restored or reframed.
Bertie Ahern’s return to Fianna Fáil required him handing over €20 to rejoin the Dublin Central branch, but of course, the “return” itself is far more complex and has involved a months-long concerted rehabilitation of Ahern as a respected elder statesman figure, she writes.
That Ahern speaks to a deeply held longing among many in the party for happier times when Fianna Fáil was the dominant political force is undeniable, as Jack Horgan-Jones reports. He says some party members long for a return of their lost swagger, with Ahern’s return a reminder “of the days when we truly dominated Irish political life”.
Ahern has also left open the possibility of a possible bid for the Áras in 2025, responding when asked on that prospect: “Twenty twenty-five? Jesus that’s a long way off ... I have to stay alive first.”
As O’Connell points out, to give Ahern his due, when it comes to the Belfast Agreement all of this credit is fair. “It is also fair to point out the other part of his track record. The report of the Mahon Tribunal did not find him guilty of corruption, but it concluded that he did not truthfully account for payments of IR£165,000 (€209,000) made to accounts connected to him. He rejects these findings.”
Regardless of how he is now viewed, O’Connell also points out that the world into which Ahern is seeking to re-emerge as a political figure is very different from the one he led through the Celtic Tiger years. “It is an Ireland of abortion rights and marriage equality, a country whose most popular party is Sinn Féin. This Ireland is grappling with an energy crisis, an escalating climate crisis, the fallout from a pandemic, the threat of an emerging far-right and the repercussions of the Russian war in Ukraine.”
In her advice column this week, Trish Murphy deals with a query from a reader who is in their late 30s and disabled. This person was “sexually assaulted a year and a half ago by the same person who abused me as a child. This person is now very elderly and is mentally ill and has dementia.” While the reader seeking advice has no desire to report the abuse, “I now feel very vulnerable and frightened again, uncertain about the future.”
Finally this week, relationships expert Roe McDermott hears from a man who loves his girlfriend but who is struggling with her weight gain. “At first I thought I had a problem with it. However, I realised I always found plus-sized or curvy women attractive. The issue for me is not the weight but the lack of confidence. I find it very attractive when my partner is confident and feels sexy in their own skin. My girlfriend struggles with that and it has impacted my attraction towards her. I find myself no longer wanting to have sex,” the reader says.
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