Israel’s right to self-defence must be proportionate, lawful and humaneGaza, already a sump of hopelessness, deprivation and subjection, is about to become a living hell. That will have lasting historical reverberationsWed Oct 11 2023 - 06:00
Aggressive protesting is not a one-way street. There are gutters on both sidesActivists on right and left use aggression as a recruiting tool. Right to peaceful assembly must be protectedWed Oct 04 2023 - 06:15
Dublin City Council is the only thing standing in the way of a beautiful capitalThe city needs something better: a reincarnation of the 18th-century Wide Streets CommissionWed Sept 27 2023 - 06:00
Lenin is an odious icon for Irish human rights activistsReal problem with fetishising Vladimir Lenin is his dedication to the mass execution of political opponentsWed Sept 20 2023 - 06:00
Quangos have vanished, only to be replaced by something worse. TangosWhether it’s advertising on RTÉ or activist NGOs, should public money be used to influence public opinion?Wed Sept 13 2023 - 05:00
Is anyone doing the sums on our climate strategy?The problem with stating ambitious climate targets is that credibility is squandered if it rapidly becomes obvious that they are unrealisticWed Sept 06 2023 - 06:00
Michael McDowell: Stop glamorising spray-paint vandalism by calling it artThere is a world of difference between Banksy’s works and the moronic squiggles known as tagsWed Aug 30 2023 - 06:45
Michael McDowell: Nostalgic fantasies about rail travel won’t change reality. What we need are roadsRailways simply cannot duplicate the advantages of road transport.Wed Aug 23 2023 - 06:00
Michael McDowell: Where’s the sense of urgency to end the housing crisis?O’Connell Street is just one example of zoning and planning confusionWed Aug 16 2023 - 05:51
Trump voters are shameful betrayers of the ideals and ambitions of democracyThe former US president is a repugnant embodiment of all that is worst in America and all that is most dangerous to democracy in the worldWed Aug 09 2023 - 06:00
Michael McDowell: Right-to-housing referendum would not lay a single brickEnshrining the right to housing in the Constitution won’t make the executive suddenly able to solve the housing crisis - all it will do is enrich the legal professionWed Aug 02 2023 - 06:30
Michael McDowell: How did Justin Barrett’s tiny National Party amass €400,000 in gold?If the bullion in the party vault is derived from donations, the question arises as to who the donors wereWed Jul 26 2023 - 06:20
Michael McDowell: State must not fill vacuum left by religion with its own doctrinesTinkering with constitutional provisions relating to education, the family, or reference to mothers’ role in the home is an activity where the Government might come unstuckWed Jul 19 2023 - 05:30
Electric buses shambles typical of State’s costly inability to deliverMichael McDowell: This is what passes for 'rolling out' new programmes and projects. In the meantime, the buses lie idle and the people whose job it was to plan the charging infrastructure sit at their desksWed Jul 12 2023 - 06:15
Michael McDowell: Inefficient, expensive, exasperating TV licence regime needs overhaulPoliticians funked the issue of financing public service broadcasting for far too longWed Jul 05 2023 - 06:15
Michael McDowell: Do we really want citizens arresting one another for incitement to hatred?In this cancel culture era, should activists have the right to physically arrest and detain those whom they suspect are engaging in incitement to hatred?Wed Jun 28 2023 - 06:27
Michael McDowell: Clarity needed on definitions of gender in new hate speech BillThe Bill seeks to criminalise incitement to violence or hatred against people by reason of their protected characteristics. These include extended categories of gender which are not definedWed Jun 21 2023 - 07:10
Ukraine’s counteroffensive cannot fail. Putin must be heavily defeatedMichael McDowell: If it gets bogged down in a slow-moving ground campaign, there will be serious consequencesWed Jun 14 2023 - 04:45
Michael McDowell: Nobody is thinking about the aesthetics of our citiesAre our urban office developments really worthy of admiration on the basis of architectural merit?Wed Jun 07 2023 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: Asylum conventions are outdated and in urgent need of a rethinkA functioning and sustainable system of migration depends on asylum law that is fit for purposeWed May 31 2023 - 04:45
Michael McDowell: Unionists have nothing to lose from making the North succeed economicallySelf-imposed economic failure and identitarian politics are no alternative to taking advantage of the North’s unique access to the EU and British single marketsWed May 24 2023 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: We fret about bilingual labels on beer cans, yet ignore gamblingThere’s no logic in our health policy approach, which gyrates from one issue or fad to anotherWed May 17 2023 - 05:15
Michael McDowell: The decline of the House of Windsor has implications for IrelandHow will unionists feel if the British monarchy adopts a Scandinavian style: appearing in casual gear and bicycle clips?Wed May 10 2023 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: Why stop with Berkeley? Cicero was a slave owner tooThere is a difference between Americans adorning their cities with statues of Confederate generals and the decision of the Fellows of Trinity 60 years ago to name their library after George BerkeleyWed May 03 2023 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: Local authority housing powers are a work of fictionVoters are weary of pop-up policies and whack-a-mole solutions, and they certainly don’t want to be herded into 15-minute citiesWed Apr 26 2023 - 03:00
Michael McDowell: Very real questions for DPP following Gerard Hutch murder trialSinn Féin must explain how suspicions about Jonathan Dowdall were kept from the party’s public leadershipWed Apr 19 2023 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: Government has nowhere to hide on Seanad reformPotential to create a second chamber that could bring new and different voices into the heart of our democracyWed Apr 12 2023 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: Donald Trump’s indictment makes his re-election more likelyThe issues with the former US president run deeper than the Stormy Daniels case and amount to an attempt to subvert democracyTue Apr 04 2023 - 14:16
Michael McDowell: Car use is not simply the prerogative of the odious and hysterical middle classMichael McDowell: Any suggestion that public transport will suffice to sustain the entire transport needs of a vast number of people is fanciful and unrealisticWed Mar 29 2023 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: State relied on private landlords for years. Now it is turning its guns on themThere will always be a need for private rented accommodation, no matter how many new houses and homes are provided by the GovernmentTue Mar 21 2023 - 19:47
Michael McDowell: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill is unconstitutionalFor the first time in a century, the Government will be legally prevented from choosing freely among serving members of the Supreme Court on whom to appoint as Chief JusticeWed Mar 15 2023 - 05:00
Achieving a caring consensus on gender issues requires a broad national discussion Gender dysphoria, counselling and medical treatment must be a broadly based national discussion. All citizens and all politicians must devise good policiesWed Mar 08 2023 - 06:15
What is the DUP up to now? The simple answer is: saving faceParty appears to be grasping at any straw to delay resumption of powersharing at StormontWed Mar 01 2023 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: We are having another ‘Munich moment’Giving Putin what he wants would have entirely predictable consequences. It must not happenWed Feb 22 2023 - 05:00
Private landlords in Ireland have little choice but to exit the marketPool of rental properties shrinking and rents of new lettings rising due to restraints on rentingWed Feb 15 2023 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: We are in crisis. There is no time for consultation on housing refugeesWe need emergency legislation to empower a specialist agency to acquire propertyWed Feb 08 2023 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: Ireland has real problem with getting things doneVast gulf between planning and execution tarnishes the credibility of our democracyWed Feb 01 2023 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: It seems grotesque that Sinn Féin should raise the issue of political donations at allBecause the party operates in more than one jurisdiction, it is not amenable to our system of regulation of political donationsWed Jan 25 2023 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: We have a national right and duty to determine migration policyGovernment must exercise that right carefully and half thought-out proposals to extend asylum rights to climate refugees are not helpfulWed Jan 18 2023 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: Radical change is needed to make Dublin a liveable cityFailed planning regulations and an ill-thought-out transport strategy make it more difficult to reimagine our capitalWed Jan 11 2023 - 05:30
Michael McDowell: Major inquiry into secondary school sex abuse may be less useful than focused studyIf inquiries are victim-led, are they in some sense drifting into social theatre rather than wholly impartial ascertainment of truth?Wed Jan 04 2023 - 05:00
We must face up to asylum issues or play into hands of xenophobic extremistsInternational protection applications must be processed more quickly and destruction of travel documents must become a negative for applicantsWed Dec 28 2022 - 00:01
Michael McDowell: Belarus must pay a heavy price for co-operating with Putin’s war machineMicheál Martin can take a lead at EU level to make it clear that the Lukashenko regime faces political and economic sanctionsWed Dec 21 2022 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: Confederacy is only model of Irish unity likely to garner wide supportThere is potential for an Ireland in which the Republic and North could share membership of the European Union without having to share a constitutionWed Dec 14 2022 - 00:00
Michael McDowell: The very least Sinn Féin owe us is to spell out their concept of a united IrelandFar easier to sell the illusion that Irish unity can mean anything at all - and conceal the detail on how their unified state would actually workWed Dec 07 2022 - 05:00
Varadkar’s remarks over arming gardaí were at best ill-judged, irresponsible at worst Arming gardaí is not Harris’s decision to make. Responsibility lies exclusively with elected politiciansWed Nov 30 2022 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: Time to offer Britain a way back into Europe?It seems impossible for a Tory or Labour politician to admit the obvious: Brexit has been a disasterWed Nov 23 2022 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: Fine Gael should bow its head in shame over EU-Canada trade dealThere is nothing as close-minded and arrogant as Fine Gael Euro-federalists with the bit between their teethWed Nov 16 2022 - 05:00
Michael McDowell: Planned change to appointing judges is deeply flawedSitting judges will decide whether future Supreme Courts will be composed of liberals, radicals or conservatives.Wed Nov 09 2022 - 05:00
We are entering a period of what will, at best, be a succession of narrow shavesLiberal values and rules-based international order face a pounding over next few monthsWed Nov 02 2022 - 05:00
