Seán Rainford

'Does the Irish Constitution Forbid a Vocal Presidency?'
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

If the President decided to refuse to sign a piece of legislation based on purely personal disagreement, the Constitution provides a remedy for this: a Presidential Commission steps in to carry out the role that the President has refused to fulfil.

Language of 'constitutional crisis' is too often borrowed from UK context. Unlike King Charles, the Irish President isn't part of the executive branch. The President criticising Government policy doesn't create a divided executive branch -> no crisis.

The activist in the Áras: How Michael D Higgins shaped the presidency What some criticise as an outspokenness overstepping the bounds of his office, others see as the outgoing President’s knack of speaking to ‘the beating heart’ of Irish public opinion

Nice to see an article written to Jamie McLoughlin and I quoted in this long read by @naomiohreally.bsky.social

Our article (published in Dublin University Law Journal) is available to read on SSRN (link in post below).

I've a few thoughts ⬇️
www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...

I think if we have reached the stage where people are pretending not to understand what a "lawyer" is in order to attack Catherine Connolly, that they really do have very little on her

Catherine Connolly did ‘all types of work’ as barrister and represented banks during crash Presidential election candidate says she was ‘obliged as a lawyer to act on behalf of variety of clients’

Is there a barrel bottom that hasn’t been scraped yet in the determined drive to attack the character and professionalism of the Left candidate who’s doing well in polls? Of course Catherine Connolly BL acted for clients on a normal disinterested basis!

www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...

Refusal to consider rejoining the UK shows we're not serious about a shared island

How dare you criticise the media

Aside from all else, this makes zero sense when you're talking about losing a popularity contest! Her not being liked enough IS the point.

A diehard communist would also never get the nom, so would Pat say this the far left being "excluded from public life" or does it simply reflect the electorate?

The level of coping and seething that Sinn Féin endorsing Connolly has triggered among conservative and centrist media commentators is honestly pretty funny

United left* is a hell of an achievement for Catherine Connolly, regardless of what comes next.

*minus Alan Kelly

Essentially, it's a choice for the voters. While it's perfectly legitimate (and maybe desirable) to want to be above party politics, the presidency is an inherently political office.

Presidential campaign battlelines being drawn. Govt party candidates favour an 'above politics' president (contra MDH); CC campaigns to be a politically outspoken president (like MDH).

Both options are perfectly constitutional...
irishexaminer.com/news/politics/…

We should be able to send Irish troops into any country we want at any time we want for any reason we want.

I can understand why a company that gets commission from selling airport taxis, airport parking, airport coach tickets and car rentals may not want to compete with a metro. But MetroLink is about much more than Ryanair's business strategy or even the airport itself.

From the ireland community on Reddit: Catherine Connolly years ago almost perfectly describing the problem with our view of the economy Explore this post and more from the ireland community

Great clip from 2016, Catherine Connolly on Vincent Browne.

Always challenging consensus.
reddit.com/r/ireland/s/...

Article 157 of the Ukrainian constitution even forbids amendments that violate the country's "territorial integrity".

Disgust at that European Union complicity in genocide will be a factor when people vote in November for our next President.

I don't mind people taking a different stance on this topic to myself. What I can't stand, and which is *always present* in columns like this, is the patronising attitude taken to anyone who dares argue in favour of neutrality – that we're the problem for having these views.

Gerard Howlin: The EU status quo Ireland prospered in for 50 years is over Being at the centre in Brussels requires new credentials we have yet to acquire.

Same line repeated ad nauseum.

We cannot question the EU (or the US); those who do need to have things 'explained to them'.

'Our relationship to Europe is vital to our interests. The challenge is to explain that clearly and to make a case publicly.'

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

Leading questions, manufacturing consent

What can a President of Ireland actually achieve? | Newstalk Over the next three months we will hear pitches from candidates as to why they believe they shoul...

Was on the Pat Kenny show on Monday with @quiatimet.bsky.social to talk about the constitutional powers/limits of the Irish President
www.newstalk.com/podcasts/hig...

The Woke Left Claim to Hate the IDF, but Really They Hate the FDI | My article in the Sunday Independent on why we must reject the Occupied Territories Bill

Trying out a new political/constitutional theory: everything is illegitimate except the thing I like

One for the rule-of-law theorists to ponder...

I am quite strongly pro Irish neutrality, but I think there are legitimate arguments for and against it. This is not one of them. Under no circumstances do countries and international organisations which maintain defence ties with Israel get the moral high ground, or even the middle ground

Fair enough Tim. I suppose if you draw the line at WW2 she may have a point (though not regarding NI). I think it's a pretty arbitrary line to draw, however.

What so Irish MEPs are supposed to just sit there and nod their heads while she *does* betray clear ignorance of a member state's history? I think in particular the leading bit of ignorance was regarding language.

But Kathleen Funchion didn't tell Kallas that "Ireland had it harder post-1940" than Estonia. The whole point of the interaction was that Kallas was telling the Irish they didn't have a clue what imperialism was like, which itself takes truly mind-boggling ignorance.

...meanwhile, the EU is given almost unconditional backing to a state committing a genocide, and whose leader has an ICC arrest warrant on their head.

Aside from the ignorance of our history, this highlights precisely why we don't want to give the EU more control on our foreign affairs.