In Ireland we like to name our Governments. We had the rainbow government. This week we were going to get the "left coalition". But the media and the establishment have come up with an entirely different coalition:

The suicide pact.

#gript


https://gript.ie/suicide-pact-coaliton/

"The demographic news from Italy remains bad. It has in fact got worse; so bad that the President, Sergio Mattarella, has recently described it as a “problem that concerns the existence of our country”. When the head of state of your country comes out and says that the lack of babies in your country is an existential threat, then perhaps you should worry… "

MARCUS ROBERTS on the Italian demographic crisis

#gript

https://gript.ie/italys-existential-crisis/

In the wake of reports of the rapid spread of novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China, the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) has said it is in “aggressive containment mode”, and fear the illness isn’t going away any time soon.

#gript


https://gript.ie/cdc-director-coronavirus-is-probably-with-us-beyond-this-year/

Lord of the Rings star claims Christianity has “made the world a better place”

#gript

https://gript.ie/lord-of-rings-star-claims-christianity-made-world-better-place/

Judge compares UK police to Gestapo for investigating “transphobic” tweets

#gript


https://gript.ie/judge-uk-police-gestapo-transphobic-comments/

REVIEW: Why an Old Dub Fenian thought Arthur Griffith was a hero. MATT TREACY reviews Colum Kenny’s The Enigma of Arthur Griffith

#gript

https://gript.ie/why-an-old-dub-fenian-thought-arthur-griffith-was-a-hero-matt-treacy-reviews-colum-kennys-the-enigma-of-arthur-griffith/

"Caroline Flack has died. She is the latest victim of a culture that has become relentlessly, and viciously cruel"

#gript


https://gript.ie/caroline-flack-pecked-to-death-by-fellow-humans/

THIS WEEK: UK: Dad facing jail for removing son from school teaching LGBT lessons

#gript

https://gript.ie/dad-facing-jail-son-removing-school-teaching-lgbt-lessons/

THIS WEEK: CDC Director: “Coronavirus is probably with us beyond this year”

#GRIPT

https://gript.ie/cdc-director-coronavirus-is-probably-with-us-beyond-this-year/

How a new organisation is helping to stop elder abuse in Kenya

#gript

https://gript.ie/karika-empowering-grandparents-in-an-african-megacity/

THIS WEEK: Jane Fonda: My expensive jewellrey at the Oscars is “sustainable”, you know

#gript

https://gript.ie/jane-fonda-diamonds/

It will be interesting to see if any new government keeps up with the mandatory screen tax that was being proposed by the last government

#gript


https://youtu.be/7Uxghn6z9SQ

HEATHER ALBERRO writes that we should be wary of blaming 'overpopulation' for the climate crisis

#gript


https://gript.ie/why-we-should-be-wary-of-blaming-overpopulation-for-the-climate-crisis/

Ireland has politicians who want to avoid Government at all costs and voters who seem to hate everybody to roughly a similar extent. The one thing we love is the electoral system, but what if it's actually the system itself that's to blame?

#gript


https://gript.ie/ireland-the-country-nobody-wants-to-run/

"Professor Donal O’Shea is a consultant endocrinologist at St Vincent’s and St Columcille’s Hospitals in Dublin, and, as such, has seen an explosion in the number of people, young people in particular, who are presenting with gender dysphoria."

TIM JACKSON writes that the advice of medical experts is being ignored in the rush to please trans activists

#gript

https://gript.ie/advice-medical-experts-ignored-rush-please-trans-activists/

"Fuinseóg, the ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior), the commonest hedgerow tree in Ireland, now threatened by the ash dieback disease (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus), brought into Ireland on imported ash plants for forestry.

This tree is of great importance in Irish tradition as the tree from which hurleys (or camáns) are made for the game of hurling. They are also of enormous ecological importance as the keystone species of Ireland's lime rich woodlands.

It is a sad fact that EU freedom of trade rules allow the free movement of plants around the continent of Europe without due regard to the considerable phytosanitary risks and the risks of introducing invasive plant species to new areas. That is not good enough!

In some parts of Europe 80% of this species has been wiped out."

Photo and commentary: Peter Carvill

#gript

POLL: Would you like another general election?

YES or NO. VOTE in our online Poll

https://gript.ie/poll-would-you-like-another-general-election/

Ireland has politicians who want to avoid Government at all costs and voters who seem to hate everybody to roughly a similar extent. The one thing we love is the electoral system, but what if it's actually the system itself that's to blame?

#gript

https://gript.ie/ireland-the-country-nobody-wants-to-run/

ON THIS DAY: 17th February 1846: Daniel O'Connell speaks in the House of Commons re poverty and starvation in Ireland.

The level of poverty in Ireland was evidenced by further comments from O’Connell:

"The last Population Returns of 1841 showed that, out of the whole rural population of Ireland, 46 per cent lived in a single room; the entire human family and the pigs occupied the same apartment together. The next fact was, that of the civil population — that is, of the inhabitants of towns — 36 per cent lived in a single room, and that two or three families sometimes occupied the same room."

#gript

“Destitution in Ireland. Failure of the potato crop”, illustration was published in The Pictorial Times on 22 August 1846. Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

TIM JACKSON writes that ending the cult of celebrity would be the kindest solution for everyone

#gript

https://gript.ie/ending-cult-celebrity-kindest-solution/

"A couple of weeks ago we discussed different strategies that European countries are taking to increase their birth rates and thus their natural population growth."

MARCUS ROBERTS discusses the Finnish parental leave expansion.

#gript

https://gript.ie/the-finnish-parental-leave-expansion/