Welcome to IT Sunday, your weekly briefing on some of the best Irish Times journalism for subscribers.
A heatwave is on the way next week with temperatures set to hit 30 degrees next weekend, marking the first time since 2003 there will be such a weather event in Ireland in August. As temperatures rise around the globe, with wildfires and extreme temperatures recorded in many parts of the world this summer, Fintan O’Toole questions how likely it is that Ireland will be enact the measures needed to mitigate climate change. “We can’t create a system that allows people to plant trees, what chance do we have of solving climate-related problems?” he asks.
“The natural trend for our carbon emissions is upwards. Cutting them by 51 per cent, as the State is now obliged to do by law, is an immense task. And let’s not kid ourselves. As things stand, we will fail ignominiously. Our existing culture of governance is not up to the job.” The State has failed in tree planting, in capitalising on our wind energy and “in relation to the retrofitting of homes, the target is to upgrade radically the energy efficiency of half a million homes by 2030. There’s just one problem: the recent record of the Irish construction industry is one long cowboy movie.”
As the controversy around Sabina Higgins’s letter to The Irish Times rumbled on earlier in the week, Michael McDowell in his column wrote that the president’s wife was wrong to “write that letter and seek its publication. It was wrong to post it on the Áras website as it would have been for her husband to do so. . . .“Does Sabina Higgins really forget that the western democracies attempted to deploy peaceful economic sanctions as a deterrent against the initial Russian invasion of Ukraine as far back as 2014? Those sanctions failed. Those western states didn’t receive a supportive letter from her to The Irish Times. And that brings us to the nub of the issue. Who decides Ireland’s foreign policy? The Government or the President? If, as it clearly is, it is the Government, the presidency has no business embarrassing the Government in its support of Ukraine’s fight to survive a cruel and immoral war of destruction.”
Nanci Peloi’s visit to Taiwan this week saw tensions escalate enormously between Taiwan and China. This weekend saw China’s military press ahead with its largest military drills, targeting Taiwan with what the island’s government called a simulated attack, including further incursions over the median line and drone flights over Taiwan’s outlying islands. And Ireland has lots to lose if these tensions heighten further as we are one of the few countries in the world that runs a trade surplus with China, writes David McWilliams. “In terms of the likely playbook, the West has shown its strategic hand in Ukraine. If China were to take Taiwan, and that has been a stated Chinese policy objective for many years, it’s likely that the West’s response would be a mirror image of the Russian playbook: sanctions allied with direct military support for Taiwan ... The financial ramifications of a global trade war with China dwarf anything that has played out thus far with Russia and the consequence of sanctions on Russia have been profoundly dislocating across the world economy, in a swathe of areas from petrol pumps to bread prices. Yet it could happen.”
Across the pond, the race for the Tory leadership continues, and when it comes to the immediate future of Anglo-Irish relations, Diarmaid Ferriter isn’t optimistic about the next likely prime minister of Britain. Liz Truss, much like the “outgoing catastrophe” that was Boris Johnson, “has not demonstrated any interest in or understanding of Ireland”, wrote Ferriter in his column this week. “While the Irish Government will understandably use the opportunity of a change of British leader to talk up the prospect of ‘resetting’ Anglo-Irish relations, the prospects of that are slim and the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement next year will be a muted and downbeat affair.”
Meanwhile, a recent breakfast outing with a friend has Hilary Fannin wondering about Dublin today. How could a person could possibly live a creative life in the capital these days, considering the eye-watering price for a sub-par scrambled eggs, let alone the rent situation? It’s a different city to the one her generation encountered in their 20s: “We were free to make work and friendships and mistakes and spaghetti bolognese in damp flats on sunlit streets and squares like the ones we were walking on now, cast in shadow as the morning lengthened. There was a privacy, too, back then, when you could only be reached by a public telephone at the bottom of a shabby stairway — or maybe I’m romanticising; maybe my memory is fraying. Nevertheless, the cohort I hung about with in the 1980s had independence, which is, in my estimation, a greater privilege than any gift an anxious parent might now bestow.”
Retired High Court president Mary Irvine speaks to Legal Affairs Correspondent Mary Carolan about her 44-year legal career in which she specialised in medical negligence cases and helped draft controversial new guidelines for personal injury awards. “I have left the job that I have loved most in my entire career,” she says and now wants to spend more time with her family. “There is a whole lot of stuff we want to do together while we still have the health and energy. We have loads of sporting interests to pursue and we love travelling. Give me a camper van with two bicycles in any part of the world and that is my idea of heaven. No deadlines and a home on your back. What could be better?”
In her latest Tell Me About It column, Trish Murphy responds to a parent who is concerned about how one of their children is reacting to a recent break-up. The boyfriend of the reader’s daughter abruptly ended their five-year relationship without much explanation; the reader now feels the young woman is not accepting the fact that it could really be over for good: “Apart from being there for her, supporting her and spending some quality time with her on holiday, etc, I am not sure what else if anything I can do to help her or how best to navigate or accelerate the healing process for her.” Read Murphy’s response here.
Meanwhile, Roe McDermott offers advice to a woman who says she and her boyfriend no longer spend time in the bedroom together, even at weekends. “It’s not even about sex — I miss the intimacy of sleeping next to him. I’ve mentioned this and he becomes defensive so I’m not sure what else to do.” You can read Roe’s reply, here.
As always, there is much more on irishtimes.com, including coverage of the All-Ireland senior camoige championship final in Sport (preview here), the latest rundowns of all the latest movies in our film reviews, and tips for the best restaurants to try out in our food section. You can find more articles exclusively available for Irish Times subscribers here.
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