Europe Lucinda Creighton: Softening of Von der Leyen’s green rhetoric plays to her electoral baseIn her state of the union speech, the European Commission president focused on policies that are likely to get her re-elected
Politics Lucinda Creighton: Spiralling crime and unrest in France offers a grim opportunity for Marine Le PenThe far-right leader, who is strongly playing the law-and-order card, is poised to reap the benefits of Macron’s apparent loss of control of the streets
Opinion Lucinda Creighton: Smaller parties and Fine Gael the big losers in boundary redraw Sinn Féin is set to benefit most but even if they double their seats at the next election, they may struggle to form a government
Comment Lucinda Creighton: Government in a quandary as vote on gender could hand it a bloody noseThere were plans to put the referendum before the people but there’s a realisation now among ministers that the issues are potentially far more contentious than they bargained for
Comment Lucinda Creighton: Taking out key conspirator Prigozhin likely to strengthen Putin’s regimeThe Wagner leader became a marked man after his short-lived challenge to the Russian president’s power base
Opinion Lucinda Creighton: Threat from Africa is on our doorstep – and EU needs to prepareRamifications of increasing unrest in the Sahel region of Africa are potentially severe and must be mitigated against
Comment Lucinda Creighton: Better and more policing is the key to ending Dublin’s crime crisis We need to fund the Garda properly, adopt a zero-tolerance approach to the smallest of offences, and bring back community liaison officers, for a start
Opinion Lucinda Creighton: The Fiscal Advisory Council won’t be taken seriously if it continues to cry wolfIfac’s role is vital, possibly never more so, but it needs to stick to its guns
Comment Lucinda Creighton: Western allies must plot a course to bring Ukraine into the heart of NatoIt is hard to see how Nato can tackle the single greatest threat to Euro-Atlantic security – Russia – without addressing Ukraine’s membership of the alliance
Hate Speech Lucinda Creighton: Government should use summer recess to quietly bury barmy Hate Speech bill Curbs on open debate and free speech are being reformulated as positive, liberal steps, when in fact the opposite is the case
Analysis Lucinda Creighton: Higgins has no legitimacy lecturing the government about foreign policy, peace or neutralityThe President seems to have a growing disdain for experts who might confront his own archaic, Marxist political bias – it’s about time the government challenged his hugely damaging political posturing
Comment Lucinda Creighton: There’s nothing righteous about spending less protecting your citizensIreland’s self-congratulatory policy of neutrality is based on self-delusion and the time is coming when the country will need to be part of formalised defence arrangements with either the EU or Nato
Analysis Lucinda Creighton: Sinn Féin will cannibalise all others on left at next electionThe party looks set to be the kingmaker after the next election, but the question facing SF is from where it will draw its coalition partners
Opinion Lucinda Creighton: Letting a wolf like Assad slip smugly back into the fold is a grave mistakeIt’s understandable that neighbouring countries want stability in the region, but there should have been conditions met before the Syrian dictator was invited to rejoin the Arab League
Big Tech Lucinda Creighton: Meta’s €1.2bn fine is wholly appropriate, and not before timeThe tech giant has promised over and over to do the right thing each time it is caught out misusing private data, but it never truly changes
Analysis Lucinda Creighton: Forget scrapping the USC, it’s the one tax that everyone has to payThe Universal Social Charge has become a political football with which to beat FG due to absurd promises of abolition, but with middle income workers in Ireland shouldering a far greater burden than in almost any other country in the world – the USC levels the playing field
Opinion Lucinda Creighton: Far from being ‘far right’, Italy’s Meloni stood up when it really matteredThe election of the ‘far right’ politician as prime minister of Italy was met with scepticism and fear – but so far she has proved to be proactive, unwavering and reassuringly pro-EU
Comment Lucinda Creighton: Exodus of backbench FG deputies speaks of malaise at heart of partyDespite a thriving economy, Fine Gael TDs are bowing out in alarming numbers – which speaks to an ailing party deeply in need of new blood and new ideas
Politics Lucinda Creighton: Giving far-left extremists authority puts democracy at riskSociety takes a far too forgiving approach to criminal and violent actions by eco-socialist protest groups who believe their views are morally superior to all other opinions
Politics Lucinda Creighton: A wannabe Blair, Starmer lacks the courage of conviction on virtually every issueBritain’s next election is Starmer’s to lose, but which version of the constantly shape-shifting Labour Party leader will voters actually get?
