Neale Richmond

Be grateful for small mercies & scandals

Neale Richmond on January 27, 2017, 1:58 pm

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This week in the Seanad we held a thorough debate on the current situation in Northern Ireland ahead of the upcoming Assembly Elections and the many challenges that lie ahead Beginning with an address by Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan TD, where he laid out the Irish Government’s role and responsibilities, the House covered the many issues that will be debated with a serious focus on the major difficulties posed to the whole island by the UK’s decision to …

Events of 2016 will shape the challenges of 2017

Neale Richmond on December 20, 2016, 11:13 am

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To put it mildly, 2016 has been a pretty eventful year politically with Brexit, the election of Trump, a failed coup in Turkey, the downfall of Renzi as well as slightly inconclusive elections in both Ireland and Spain. As we hurtle to the close of the year, many interested or active in politics will be hoping for some sort of respite over the festive season before what could be an even more eventful year in 2017. Whatever 2017 as in …

Winter is coming, so is Brexit

Neale Richmond on December 13, 2016, 8:00 am

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In a previous life, I served for two years as a member of the EU’s Committee of the Regions, a small EU institution that looks at European legislation from the point of view of local and regional government. As a member of Fine Gael, I sat on this body in the European People’s Party (EPP), similar to Fine Gael’s MEPs in the European Parliament. A centre right grouping born out of the old Christian Democrats, the EPP is relatively unique …

What next after Merkel?

Neale Richmond on December 6, 2016, 8:39 pm

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So far this year, we have seen both David Cameron and Matteo Renzi resign as Prime Ministers of the UK and Italy after perusing disastrous ego driven referenda. In France, François Hollande’s popularity has reached a new low and he won’t seek a second term. The last remaining major leader in the EU is longstanding German Chancellor, Angela Merkel; she has declared in recent weeks that she will indeed seek a fourth term in office and lead her centre right …

Where now for Scotland?

Neale Richmond on December 2, 2016, 12:14 pm

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In an historic and stirring address to Seanad Éireann this week, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon refused to set out a timeline for when she might ask the Scottish people to vote once again on Independence. She repeated her view that the Scottish people had not voted to stay within a United Kingdon outside of the European Union and that the Scottish people’s decision to overwhelming vote in favour of remaining in the EU could not be ignored. Immediately after …

Russia’s increasing influence

Neale Richmond on November 22, 2016, 7:30 am

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A regular attack launched at Donald Trump in the recent US Presidential election campaign was his worryingly warm attitude to Vladimir Putin’s Russia, more serious was accusations of Russian hacking and complicity in various scandals through the campaign. At the beginning of this year, it was reported that American intelligence agencies were conducting an investigation into how the Kremlin is influencing politics across Europe. There are major fears in US intelligence that the Russians are determined to exploit European disunity …

After Brexit and Trump, it is vital that the centre holds in France and across the world.

Neale Richmond on November 14, 2016, 5:22 pm

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Like many sane thinking political followers, I awoke on Wednesday saddened at the news that an odious individual who traded on a campaign of fear had been elected President of the United States. Many commentators have rightly chastised Trump for his verbose demeanour and truly dreadful attitude to women, minorities as well as to those with disabilities. Added to that, Trump’s policies, what few he has actually discussed, could directly impact upon the world and indeed Ireland more specifically. By …