Alison O'Connor

tremendous moments of courage and reflection to decide whether they would want to discuss that and

victims who will have been inspired by Donaldson's victims but also Declan Parr another you know towering figure who went to jail George Gibney Alison O'Connor writing about that today

Yeah, I think both individuals are, I suppose, indicative of two powerful men who had a lot of credibility and they used that credibility as a means to protect themselves from the rule of law and justice, it appears.

Well, not appears, it's been proven now.

But on the other hand, what Alison O'Connor reminds us too is that there's sort of light at the end of the tunnel, that the victims have had justice served.

I know it's taken a long time, but I think maybe the key point is that this now is a move forward and that, you know, the next perpetrator, these things will not take as long.

Because what it does do is it should give huge confidence to people to amplify Ronan's point.

So there you go.

Alison O'Connor is a political columnist with the Sunday Times.

Kevin Shortall is a principal of St Aidan's Community School in Tala.

Mary Hanafin is a barrister and a former Fianna Fáil Minister for Education.

Okay.

We'll take a break.

Alison O'Connor, Kevin Shortall, Mary Hanafin and Aidan Regan staying with us.

Welcome back, Alison O'Connor, Kevin Shortall, Mary Hanafin and Aidan Regan still with us.

[upbeat music]And you're very welcome back.

Now to pick apart the budget, we're joined by economist Austin Hughes, journalist Alison O'Connor, and Ireland editor with the Irish Independent, Fionan Sheehan.

Do get involved in the conversation.

Send us your comments.

I mean, at the same time as we have, like, there's, there's some really interesting stuff in the papers today.

I mean, Alison O'Connor has a great piece about going, can we really complain very much about what we're getting from the budget if, as she, as her, one of her kids worked out for her, you're spending 1,400 euros a year on flat whites, right? That's one part of the Irish experience, and, and-

Mm

...

A lot of things that have been said, I think, haven't been good, to be frank.

I think that some of the rhetoric on this is really over the top, and I think that's Both Brenda Power and Alison O'Connor, I think, have good pieces today addressing some of those issues because, look, the international coverage here, again, is going to come down to one thing.

There's a tremendous amount of righteous anger in Ireland, and I get it, but it does seem to be particularly focused on this one issue.

And we have, for instance, a situation where Ireland played Afghanistan in cricket recently, and there was nary a word about it.

And, you know, some of this to me seems to be just very focused on one thing and the anger, the absolute anger and rage that's there.

You know, again, I don't like what's going on either, but some of it is really, really vicious.

To come to you, Lynn, I'm going to go to that piece by Alison O'Connor in the Sunday Times today.

And she says the outcry is not about Gaza and that it's not about soccer.