No drama. No headlines. No friction. “It’s all been quite... low key,” writes Political Editor Pat Leahy in his assessment of the 100-day-old presidency of Catherine Connolly. This is not what people expected, Pat suggests, of a head of state who took office promising to be a “catalyst for change” and proclaiming her opposition to Government positions on everything from Palestine to the European “military industrial complex.”
Her supporters are not concerned, pointing out that the Connolly presidency is still in its early days – she did not move into Áras an Uachtaráin until after the Christmas break – and that she has signalled her priorities in subtle but important ways, such as by inviting Greta Thunberg and other notable left-wingers to the Áras. Her first trip outside the State was to Northern Ireland. Britain is likely to be her first overseas destination, Pat reports.
Unlikely to be on the president’s travel bucket list is the Munich Security Conference, the annual defence-and-diplomacy gathering in Bavaria, but our Berlin Correspondent Derek Scally is there this weekend for an event that takes place against a background of deep transatlantic tensions over Ukraine, Iran, the Middle East, trade, Greenland, digital regulation and other issues. Derek also reports on a slow-brewing rebellion against Microsoft products in Germany and France, where politicians are asserting “digital sovereignty” by dropping services such Outlook and Teams in favour of free, open-source alternatives.
In his analysis, our China Correspondent Denis Staunton writes that the bulldozer diplomacy of the Trump administration has forced European states to rethink their relations with China, with whom they can work on issues such as global health, climate change and artificial intelligence. “The question that troubles European governments,” he suggests, “is whether it is possible to pursue a closer relationship with China and form alliances with Beijing on some issues while remaining true to their values.”
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Irish-based readers will have noticed that it has been raining even more than usual over the past few weeks. Communities across the island are counting the cost of destructive flooding, with warnings that more may be on the way.
Our Climate and Science Correspondent Caroline O’Doherty has done some timely digging into dozens of big flood-protection works that were deemed critical to protect thousands of homes and properties. Eight years later, she finds, most are still at design stage.
The experience of the past few weeks, our columnist Mark O’Connell writes, “has been one of being almost literally at sea: buffeted this way and that by gusts of scouring nautical wind, your face set in grim resilience as you trudge through wave after wave of rain.” It prompts him to consider our climate denialism and the comforting delusions that underpin it.
“In Ireland, there was a distinct collective tendency to think of it as something that would surely cause great chaos and destruction in the global south – in places such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka – and would bring about huge political upheavals to which we in the global north would not be immune, but which, on the other hand, might take the edge off Ireland’s rubbish weather ... I think that this delusion, as consoling as it may have been in its half-assed way, has been finally laid to rest.”
The Republic’s homebuying process is stoking bidding wars and pushing prices higher, a study found this week, leading guest writer Ciarán Mulqueen to observe that you can expect more transparency buying a steak in Ireland than buying a home. Jack White speaks to house-hunters about having to navigate what one describes as a “soul-destroying” process.
Elsewhere on irishtimes.com this weekend, Laura Slattery and Colm Keena try to establish what RTÉ, the shrinking State-funded broadcaster, will look like in five years’ time; Rosanna Cooney shares the lessons she learned from a month without her phone; Donald Clarke speaks to Wuthering Heights star Alison Oliver; and Ian O’Riordan posits a novel explanation for the struggles of the Irish rugby team: they’re not very good at running.
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