Michael McDowell

Michael McDowell

Contributor

Michael McDowell, a contributor to The Irish Times, is a senior counsel and Independent Senator. He writes a weekly opinion column. A former Tánaiste, minister for justice, equality and law reform, and Progressive Democrats TD, he also served as attorney general

Israeli hostages not a priority for ministers planning Gaza takeover

Captives are unlikely to survive a further occupation or the annihilation of their brutal Hamas kidnappers


Donald Trump’s presidency represents a reversal of American orthodoxy on trade

US president has convinced voters that they can reap the benefits of the global economy while building tariff drawbridges on that two-way street


Whatever about his tariffs, Trump’s ‘helpful advice’ to the EU is on the money

According competence to the EU in relation to external migration and asylum seeking has turned out to be a disastrous error.


You might think a planning application for a windfarm is good news. You’d be wrong

Planned demolition of the €200 million Derrybrien windfarm will lead to destruction of potential green energy source for 30,000 homes


Many people won’t decide how to vote in a Border poll until they see what’s on offer

Why can’t Sinn Féin spell out exactly what it means by a united Ireland and allow unionists to consider it?


Israeli-American plan seems intended to kill off any hope of a two-state solution by deporting population of Gaza

US-Israeli long-term strategy flouts all notions of international law and amounts to a programme of war crimes


Folly of abolishing bedsits only to promote co-living is now becoming clear

Broken system places further emphasis on State to focus on increasing supply


The idea that the Kremlin has kompromat on Trump seems increasingly plausible

If the White House capitulates to Putin on Ukraine, it will grossly and perhaps fatally betray the principles on which Nato was founded


There is a way to unblock Ireland’s infrastructural logjam

The Victorian model of having the legislature authorise major infrastructural development is the answer


I gave my friends hats which said ‘Make America Hate Again’. That’s what Trump is trying to do

I find it hard to understand how public opinion in America is not revolted by events such as the $200 million ‘gift’ of a jumbo jet that will become the president’s private property


EU cannot ignore what’s happening in Poland and The Netherlands

Fundamental change is not merely possible or probable; it is becoming an existential necessity


For all his bragging, Trump knows he has little leverage with either Putin or Netanyahu

Just as Trump folded his tent in the Doha discussions on Afghanistan and gave up threats to forcibly end North Korea’s missile programme, his boasts about doing deals look empty


Migration policy is the EU’s biggest weakness and Donald Trump is aiming to exploit it

Across the member states, there is growing recognition that the much-vaunted EU migration pact is too little and too late


Military axis of Russia, China and North Korea will test what the West stands for

Issue of migration – especially economic migration disguised as asylum-seeking – is a growing issue for the political viability of the EU


Ministers need to stop pointing out obstacles to delivery - and start tackling them

Constant headlines about housing schemes being struck down by councils, the planning board and the courts are chipping away at public confidence


Common Ground

How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands