When I spent time some years ago on Oileán Chléire, off the coast of west Cork, I saw a great summer thunderstorm sweeping in off the ocean. As it gobbled up Fastnet Rock the windows and doors across the island were pulled to and made secure and livestock huddled into what shelter they could find. Everybody prepared as best they could for the storm to make landfall. I get the same sense here today, as we await the surge. Our healthcare workers are the lighthouse keepers who are already feeling the brunt of that sto…

Only a few short weeks ago, I signed the roll of the Thirty-third Dáil as a newly elected Deputy. The Clerk of the Dáil was gracious enough to guide me through some of the historical registers dating back to the earliest days of the State. When I looked at the roll for the Second Dáil, which only sat for a few months as the War of Independence gave way to the Civil War, I thought how different that troubled time was from the context of our own election. So much has happened in the intervening weeks. Our world and c…