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Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 20m

I think Ireland has / should have allies. But it is still unusual for the same presidential candidate to pledge solidarity with our European ‘allies‘ and then also say that we are ‘neutral’. Both statements are in obvious tension with each other.

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

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ie-nb.bsky.social @ie-nb.bsky.social · 10h

Questions about Ireland’s neutrality on the ballot in this election – The Irish Times

https://www.newsbeep.com/ie/75285/

Debates about neutrality during the presidential election have highlighted important questions about the formal and informal powers of…

Questions about Ireland’s neutrality on the ballot in this election – The Irish Times - Ireland News Beep

Debates about neutrality during the presidential election have highlighted important questions about the formal and informal powers of the role.

www.newsbeep.com

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Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 9h

I wrote about Irish neutrality, foreign policy and the presidential election for the Irish Times.
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

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Patrick Porter @patporter76.bsky.social · 11h

My piece in @TheCriticMag: in the eternal argument between continentalism and blue water worldwide posture, Britain should prioritise its region more, and fret about worldwide importance less. Instead of obsessing with being "global", be serious.
thecritic.co.uk/against-glob...

Against global Britain | Patrick Porter | The Critic Magazine

Fifteen years ago at a London foreign policy breakfast in a bunker, a pathology that blights British statecraft reared its head. “We’ve got to have a global role”, insisted a senior member of…

thecritic.co.uk

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Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 1d

Amid debate about Troubles 'official history', the Government denies ever interfering in official history books – but a file I've found disproves that, showing it “negotiated” with a foreign government over what could be said, to dismay of top historian.

Project could drastically change our understanding of the Troubles… but declassified file disproves claim about government meddling

In The Steel Shutter, a remarkable Troubles film made more than half a century ago, nine people from Belfast were taken to Philadelphia to sit in a circle and talk while being filmed by the celebrated...

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

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Peter Ricketts @lordrickettsp.bsky.social · 2d

Unusually I disagree with this @TheEconomist leader on Gaza. Trump’s plan is NOT a ‘radically different vision from the moribund approach under Oslo’. Indeed one of the most striking things about the 20 points is that they move the US towards the classic Oslo vision of the end-state 1/3

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Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 1d

Off to Belfast to see about some Bulls #ULSvBUL

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Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 2d

It was a pleasure to join RTE’s Behind the Story Podcast earlier today to speak Trump and his (not) near miss at winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/b...

Katie gets a new job and how to win a Nobel Prize

Podcast Episode · Behind the Story · 10/10/2025 · 30m

podcasts.apple.com

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Seána @grantsana.bsky.social · 2d

That was not the act of a child, it’s an insult to call it childish - it was triple distilled misogynistic behaviour.

Irish Independent @independent.ie · 2d

Joe Brolly says he regrets a 'childish, crude and inappropriate gesture' made on a podcast while talking about the presidential election campaign.

It came after Fine Gael’s candidate Heather Humphreys said the video was 'very misogynistic' and was 'targeted at women'

Joe Brolly regrets ‘childish, crude gesture’ on podcast about the presidency

Joe Brolly says he regrets a “childish, crude and inappropriate gesture” made on a podcast while talking about the presidential election campaign.

www.independent.ie

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Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 3d

I’d sign off on that research expenses receipt which is probably why i am not in a position to sign off on receipts

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Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 3d

Five and a half years sentence? Light.

Sergeant Brendan Eddery was fortunate to survive - his courage and that of another garda got him through. And good for him for refusing to yield his city to, as he puts it correctly, “to bullies, a mob” 👏

www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/co...

Man receives 5½-year sentence for livestreamed assault of garda during Dublin riot

Sergeant recalls fearing serious injury or death when mob of up to 30 assailants attacked

www.irishtimes.com

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 4d

"15 years ago, Polish workers came here to find opportunity. Now Poland is growing twice as fast as we are," says Kemi Badenoch.

Any ideas what may have happened in the interim?

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 4d

If you want to read an actually good piece about integration in the United Kingdom, try @samfr.bsky.social:

The Truth About Integration

I have been challenged by readers to write something less depressing about the state of the country.

samf.substack.com

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Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 4d

economist.com/internationa...

Europe struggles to put homeland defence first

Years of expeditionary operations leave it vulnerable if America abandons the continent

economist.com

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Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 4d

“Israel seems more important — and less desirable — than ever for British Jews”
www.ft.com/content/14d4...

Israel seems more important — and less desirable — than ever for British Jews

Amid rising antisemitism at home, our lifeboat abroad seems less attractive

www.ft.com

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Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 5d

And also make it illegal for them to sell - 100%

Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 5d

i have addressed this already. remove public subsidies from companies selling to states carrying out systematic war crimes. I have no problem with this. if connolly said this in a specific criticism I would agree with her. rather than her crude intervention.

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Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 5d

I have no problem removing public subsidies / investment from companies that refuse to comply

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Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 5d

You are evidently speaking about German arms companies - private sector - selling so Saudi, Israel etc. That is not in Germany‘s defence budget. If you would like the German gov to regulate / prevent that - and they should - that is a separate political initiative.

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Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 5d

These are exactly the central, critical instruments of defence that Germany is investing in. If she objects to a part of Germany‘s defence budget but not others then she should say so - instead of making crude 1930s Nazi era analogies.

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Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 5d

She has criticised a European democracy for its investment in precisely these capabilities to defend itself and other EU member states against an aggressive autocracy.

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Tessa Szyszkowitz @tessaszy.bsky.social · 5d

On October 7th we remember the victims of the Hamas attack on Israel. Sharone Lifschitz writes in @theguardian.com how her mother, a peace activist, was kidnapped from kibbutz Nir Oz to Gaza and shook hands with her captors when she was released. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Two years after 7 October and the kidnap of my parents, hate is in fashion. For all our sakes, we need compassion | Sharone Lifschitz

So many were killed – yet on her release, my mother said ‘shalom’ to her captors. Let’s learn from that moment of grace, says Sharone Lifschitz, London-based film-maker and academic

www.theguardian.com

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Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 5d

"Catherine Connolly’s horror at the remilitarisation of Europe is understandable. But it is a very strange lesson to take from the history of the 1930s that democracies, faced with the threat from aggressive autocracies, should not prepare to defend themselves."

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

Pat Leahy: Ireland faces a stark choice in the face of the threat from Russia

Catherine Connolly’s horror at the remilitarisation of Europe is understandable, but she has taken the wrong lesson from the history of the 1930s

www.irishtimes.com

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Conor Hogarty @conorhogarty.bsky.social · 5d

The EU is preparing for war - are we?
Edward Burke is writing in todays @irishexaminer regarding the defence capabilities that 🇮🇪 should be focusing on.
Pick up a copy today.

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Edward Burke @edwardburke.bsky.social · 5d

My article in today’s Irish Examiner on the Copenhagen defence summit and the ramifications for Ireland.
www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

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