Daniel Mulhall

Opinion | Don’t Listen to the Reports of Ireland’s Demise Former Amb. Daniel Mulhall replies to Dominic Green.

A link to my reply to Dominic Green’s diatribe against Ireland in @wsj.com. Thank you to the Journal for giving me this right of reply to refute the more egregious falsehoods in his error-strewn piece.
www.wsj.com/opinion/dont...

Indeed. I just find most governments, not just Ireland's, are bewilderingly lethargic and flat-footed in the face of a coordinated far-right billionaire-funded coup.

Where is the rebuttals unit? Where is the message grid? Where are the media regulators? Where are the intelligence services?

Opinion | Don’t Listen to the Reports of Ireland’s Demise Former Amb. Daniel Mulhall replies to Dominic Green.

A link to my reply to Dominic Green’s diatribe against Ireland in @wsj.com. Thank you to the Journal for giving me this right of reply to refute the more egregious falsehoods in his error-strewn piece.
www.wsj.com/opinion/dont...

It is not possible to cover everything in a short segment. Fact is though the Spectator view has access to the WSJ where real damage can be done to us. How Washington sees us is highly important.

How is Ireland perceived abroad? How is Ireland being perceived abroad? And how much are our political stances influencing it? Joining Jonathan Healy to discuss is Larry Donnelly, Law Lecturer at UCG and Columnist with theJournal.ie...

‘How is Ireland perceived abroad? My contribution to @newstalkfm.bsky.social’s The Hard Shoulder.
www.goloudplayer.com/episodes/how...

Once we had gathered driftwood, made a hearth
And hung our cauldron like a firmament,
The island broke beneath us like a wave.

The land sustaining us seemed to hold firm
Only when we embraced it in extremis.
All I believe that happened there was vision.
Seamus Heaney

I yearn for hammerblows on clinkered planks,
the uncompromised report of driven thole- pins,
to know there is one among us who never swerved
from all his instincts told him was right action,
who stood his ground in the indicative,
whose boat will lift when the cloudburst happens.
Seamus Heaney

Me, I explain the sea to lovers.
I explain it to strangers.
Even to myself, I explain.
Then I touch the water, my hands
salty, my skin wrinkled.
Where do you end & I begin? I wonder.
The ocean replies: Really? That is what
you’ve come here to ask?
Polina Cosgrave ‘About Water’

The strong geese claim the sky again
…
Blind to their huge, water-carved charts,
our blood dull to the tug of poles,
we are tuned still to the rising & dying of light
and we still share their need
to nest & to journey.
Moya Cannon ‘Migrations’ #IrishPoetry

Peace,
And this is where you were taken.

But you are not yet here,
Still on the move. The orange
Pumpkins you planted are growing in the garden,
The songs you were promised have not all been sung.
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin #Irish #Poetry

From breath to breath
from dusk to dusk

let there be rainfall
when the soil is parched as rock

let there be sunshine
when the barley bends to be cut

let there be rainbows
when the days are short of light

let there be wind
when our boats are turned for home
Jane Clarke #Irish #Poetry

Irish peacekeepers join thousands attending pope’s Mass in Beirut Pontiff’s three-day trip to Lebanon ‘brings a lot of hope’

Irish peacekeepers join thousands attending pope’s Mass in Beirut

Weaving my way
through a New York rush
I think of the herd of cows
at Dugort.

The way they lie
on marram grass,
legs folded elegantly,
heads held high.

The way at low tide
they follow each other
past the lifeguard’s hut,
stare out to sea.
Jane Clarke

Zelensky thanks Ireland for not losing faith in Ukraine Follow live updates as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska make their first official visit to Ireland.

Zelenskyy thanks #Ireland for not losing faith in #Ukraine. www.rte.ie/news/2025/12...

.. What happens next
Is undiminished for having happened once,
Twice, ten, a thousand times before.
Who cares if all the music that transpires

Is the fall of grit or dry seeds through a cactus?
You are like a rich man entering heaven
Through the ear of a raindrop. Listen now again.
Seamus Heaney

Happy #Thanksgiving to all who celebrate this great American holiday. I always enjoyed this time of year during my 6 years in the USA.

He gives his harness bells a shake   
To ask if there is some mistake.   
The only other sound’s the sweep   
Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   
But I have promises to keep,   
And miles to go before I sleep,   
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost

That’s nonsense. No other country is responsible for our security. We are. We have a budget surplus at present which means that we can afford to spend a little more on our defence instead of embarrassingly going cap in hand asking others to bail us out.

He knows it well now, this dream
Where he has locked himself outside.
Years and years too late he beats

At window glass that will not shatter
But echoes dully like hammered
Lead weights around his guilty heart.
Paddy Bushe #Irish #Poetry

Big Read’ in FT: ‘Ireland: the weak link in EU defence’. Some key points: 3/4 of undersea cables in N. Hemisphere pass through our waters; we do not have intelligence systems to receive classified information; no radar, no sonar; & lack of a dedicated intelligence agency - that ought to be rectified

Where did all the time go?
From the rainy seasons
out the country to the high
summers of wraparound light
as far as the swirling mackerel skies,
& the heavy cattle flummoxed
by the wrong unmoving gate -
we saw it all from under the stars;
now I only know what isn’t there.
Gerald Dawe #IrishPoetry

‘Lie down
in the word-hoard, burrow
the coil and gleam
of your furrowed brain.

Compose in darkness.
Expect aurora borealis
in the long foray
but no cascade of light.

Keep your eye clear
as the bleb of an icicle,
trust the feel of what nubbed treasure
your hands have known.’
Seamus Heaney ‘North’

‘Lie down
in the word-hoard, burrow
the coil and gleam
of your furrowed brain.

Compose in darkness.
Expect aurora borealis
in the long foray
but no cascade of light.

Keep your eye clear
as the bleb of an icicle,
trust the feel of what nubbed treasure
your hands have known.’
Seamus Heaney ‘North’

Just received my copy of the latest edition of @historyireland.bsky.social which has an essay of mine about E.L. Godkin, ‘An Irish Mugwump in Gilded Age America’, and many other fascinating essays. History Ireland is always a great read.

Thanks Dan! Your piece is excellent, and lovely to hear the kind words. Always much appreciated.

A new chapter for collaboration across the entire island of Ireland

From today’s Sunday Business Post, my op-ed on the significance of the inaugural €500,000 North-South Business Cooperation Awards, which were presented last month to 9 winning entries. The awards aim to encourage cross-border entrepreneurship in Ireland. www.businesspost.ie/commercial-r...

Should I join them
The old fellas
Above Troy’s gate
Demobbed by age
Their fighting days
Long behind them
Good talkers still
Conversation
Like tree-crickets
Or grasshoppers
Settled on branches
Deep in a wood
Voices gently
Lilting lily-like?
Michael Longley ‘Grasshoppers’ #Irish #Poetry

Just received my copy of the latest edition of @historyireland.bsky.social which has an essay of mine about E.L. Godkin, ‘An Irish Mugwump in Gilded Age America’, and many other fascinating essays. History Ireland is always a great read.

I was honoured to be asked to act as a judge for the 2026 Dublin Literary Award. I am already busy reading my way through the 69 nominated titles which include translations from 17 languages.

dublinliteraryaward.ie/the-award/

His grace is no longer called for
before meals: farmed fish multiply
without His intercession.
Bread production rises through
disease-resistant grains devised
scientifically to mitigate His faults.
Dennis O’Driscoll ‘Missing God’