I want to tell you a story today about two men born in the age of Parnell.
 
Ireland after Parnell, in the dying years of the 1800s, was a grey place of paralysis. Politically stuck and fighting with itself.
 
The opportunity to right the wrongs of the Act of Union seemed lost.
The promise of Home Rule forlorn.
 
Yet [...]

Will the terms of reference for the Irish Banking Inquiry be as wide as that of Iceland?
 

The Irish public does not have any such opportunity to engage in an inquiry which from the outset is perceived to lack legitimacy because of the decision to hold the investigation in private, unlike similar inquiries in the [...]

Labour is primarily an urban party and must make inroads in rural constituencies if it wants to succeed, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the IRISH TIMES April 20 2010
 
EAMON GILMORE is good at oratory. His “One Ireland” rhetoric at the Labour Party’s annual conference in Galway paid tribute to the hope of an Ireland defined by [...]

Who will be accountable when we discover, like in Iceland, that no global bogeyman was to blame for our banking collapse? asks ELAINE BYRNE in the IRISH TIMES 14 April 2010
 
THE SPECIAL investigation commission, established by the Icelandic parliament, published its nine-volume 2,300-page report yesterday into the causes of Iceland’s ecnomic collapse.
 
It found the collapse [...]

As the teacher union conferences get under way, more focus needs to be given to the future of Irish education, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the Irish Times APril 6, 2010
 
THE ANNUAL teacher union conferences are currently under way and much of the focus over the next week will centre on their response to the public [...]

RENEWING THE REPUBLIC: This series has shown a thirst for political reform coupled with an uncertainty about how to achieve it, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the Irish Times April 3 2010
 
ACCOMPANYING THIS series has been an image of our national flag, contorted at the centre by a knot. The narrative embarked upon by the various [...]

Fear is the driving force behind the most significant day in the country’s recent economic history, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the Irish Times March 30, 3009
 
TODAY WILL be full of language that seeks to “once-and-for-all” draw lines in the sand. A public exhausted by financial fatigue will continue to be confused by the complexity of [...]

The culture of self-interested national interest, as defined by Fianna Fáil, has already thrown €4bn of taxpayers’ money at Anglo Irish Bank, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the Irish TImes March 23, 2010
 
FINE GAEL is a failed political entity when compared to similar political parties in western democracies. It has never held two consecutive terms. It [...]

The strength of party whips has ensured a parliamentary system contrary to the spirit of the Constitution, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the Irish Times March 16, 2010
 
CONFUSION OCCURS when there is an absence of clarity. When confusion reigns, disorientation persuades the collective memory to forget about the past and look forward to an undefined future. [...]

Elected to the Althing in the ‘kitchenware revolution’, a leading writer has found politics a frustrating profession, writes ELAINE BYRNE in the IRISH TIMES March 9, 2010
 
THRAINN BERTELSSON describes himself as someone “who happens to being doing time in parliament”. The Icelandic “kitchenware revolution” of January 2009 enticed him to join a contagious grassroots coalition [...]