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Irish Independent
4 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Independent
New Irish Constitution would be required for a United Ireland, professor says
Speaking today at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Donegal, at an event focused on the Constitution, Ruadhan Mac Cormaic, editor of the Irish Times questioned a panel if a United Ireland would require 'tearing the thing up and starting again'. Professor David Kenny, Professor in Law and Fellow and Head of the Law School at Trinity, said former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar previously suggested that unification would require a new Constitution. The Professor said he could not see 'a way around that'. 'I wrote a paper hypothesising that you could radically change the constitution in so many ways, you would keep some structure of the current one and swap out of the planks; but I think even that would have so much baggage about it being the Constitution of this state that would be continuing,' he said. 'I think the continuity there would present symbolic issues. 'I think the idea of a new start and a new state in the event of unification would be crucial.' He added from a practical perspective, there are so many 'unanswered questions' about what the structure of that state might be or what kind of political system it would have. 'Is it federal, con-federal, unitary, what level of delegation down to provincial level would you see in various powers?,' he asked. 'There is very little in the Constitution 1937 that provides for that and the idea of unification that is in that document that the preamble aspires to the unity of the country was quite naïve. 'It was the idea that at some point Northern Ireland would just join in this state and things would continue. 'Really, the Constitution does not provide for a great deal beyond the fact that the territory of the state could encompass the whole island at some stage. 'It does not really think about unification like that, certainly not in any serious way. 'So, I think yes it would require a new constitution.' Professor Kenny said the challenge of this would be if there is a blank page with nothing agreed, then 'every single issue' in the Constitution becomes a possible point of disagreement. 'That is the benefit of trying to retain some document as a baseline so you don't have to put every single point on the structure of the state up for discussion in what will already be a very difficult process,' he said. 'I think the scale of the changes are so significant, that if you try to do an amended job on Bunreacht na hÉireann, you would be left with almost nothing left of that original document and you would wonder if there would be a great advantage to doing it that way.' Ivana Bacik TD, Leader of the Labour Party and Party Spokesperson on the Northern Ireland, said there is need for groundwork. She said a joint Oireachtas community on the Constitution established should be established now with the key part of its function to prepare the ground for what rewriting would be necessary. 'I think you would have to approach it on the basis of lets keep the framework and see where we need to change things to ensure unification could proceed as smoothly as possible,' she said. 'There is an interesting thing about the 1937 Constitution that it is still a transitional constitution. 'There is reference in it to Saorstát Éireann and the Irish Free State so it acknowledges that need for transitional and incremental change. 'I think it could build into a rewrite. 'A joint Oireachtas committee with careful groundwork, green paper, white paper, in advance of the holding of any referendum. 'I think that is essential if we are to avoid the mistake of Brexit to ensure the people go into it, both North and South, fully informed, fully engaged in the process.'
Irish Independent
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Kerry athletes achieve rare clean sweeps at Munster Schools Athletics Championships
Kerry racewalker David Kenny recorded a seasonal best competing for Ireland at the European team race walking event in Czechia Kerryman There was great success for Kerry's post-primary students at the Munster Schools' Athletics Championships at a sun-drenched MTU stadium in Cork on Saturday. Something rare happened, twice at these championships, with three Kerry students making a clean sweep of medals in the intermediate shot and later in the intermediate discus. The gold medal in the shot was won by the ever-consistent Kieran Keane (Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne) with a mighty put of 16.57m with the 5kg ball. That was his third attempt and he tried his all to increase that in the final two throws but that will come another day.
Irish Independent
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Academic role for Sligo solicitor at Trinity College
Ms O'Boyle SC is a partner in O'Boyle Solicitors, The Mall, Sligo where she has extensive experience in civil litigation. She said: 'I am truly honoured to be associated with Trinity College which has an excellent reputation for education, research and innovation nationally and internationally. I look forward to working collaboratively and constructively with Professor David Kenny, together with my colleagues at the School of Law and other disciplines and to contributing to the work and public profile of Trinity College.' Ms O'Boyle SC says she will continue to practice in Sligo as a solicitor in addition to undertaking the academic role at Trinity College. She was an elected member of the Council of the Law Society of Ireland for over 20 years and served on all of its senior committees including regulatory committees and she chaired the committee tasked with the appointment of the current Law Society Director-General, Mark Garrett. Ms O'Boyle was appointed President of the Law Society in 2019-2020 and was the fourth female President in 150 years and the first female President with a practice outside of Dublin. She was awarded the Woman Lawyer of The Year for her Leadership of the Solicitors profession during the Covid pandemic. She currently serves on the Law Society Family and Child Law Committee, Litigation Committee and Assisted Decision-Making Task Force. Having previously served on the Circuit Court Rules Committee as the Law Society nominee, she currently serves on the Superior Court Rules Committee. Ms O'Boyle is a representative of the Law Society on the Council of the International Bar Association (IBA) where she represents the Law Society internationally. She is a Director of Irish Rule of Law International and a Director of Benburb Street Property Company Limited. Appointed by government, Ms O'Boyle is a Board Member of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) and she previously held a State Board position with the Courts Service. She has presented to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice and Equality in relation to access to Justice and Costs and, she contributes to the media on a variety of legal topics.
Irish Independent
22-04-2025
- Science
- Irish Independent
Henry Walsh: It's good to be reminded that the world is not against us farmers
David Kenny, Teagasc's head of animal and bioscience research, oversaw a large gathering of impressive young people, many of them in research and all working for the good of agriculture. Farmers can often feel the world is against them, but conferences such as this give great reassurance that some of the best and brightest young people are working with us to produce healthy nutritious food in a cost-effective manner while helping us lower our carbon footprint. There were presentations on topics including gene editing, additives that help to reduce methane emissions and technologies to help us utilise our resources better. Bursaries were handed out to enable researchers to continue their work on a range of subjects. One of the challenges has always been to get research findings into practice on farms so that we can benefit financially, and the other is to make it commercially attractive for companies to invest in it to get it to market. This conference looked to merge the two as private enterprise mingled with science and research. Prof Michael Diskin, a reproductive physiologist, was given a lifetime achievement award for his work on fertility, much of it done in Teagasc Athenry. In my early years farming there were so many myths around fertility. AI was not trusted on most farms. There was often speculation at farmer gatherings that nitrogen fertiliser was causing embryo losses. Prof Diskin's great work replaced fiction with facts as he systematically identified the key components required to achieve good fertility, such as a rising plane of nutrition and starting with simple achievable targets like the correct body condition score at calving. ADVERTISEMENT Our farm walk was very rewarding with a strong level of engagement by the delegates, who had a good understanding of what we are trying to achieve here. The sunny weather helped the discussions, particularly around the role of pasture in our system. I explained that one of my frustrations last year was the absence of clover from the sward in early summer, while this year the clover is visible and alive, so hopefully we can get it to contribute earlier in the season. We talked about our breeding policy, from sexed semen to the use of the DBI index and how we are looking at the health traits with TB resistance in mind now because of our breakdown. We discussed protected urea and indicated our support for it even though there is a lack of trust among some farmers in the product in times of moisture deficits. Another topic was our approach to labour, and the challenges of securing skilled help. We stressed the importance of a good working environment with labour-efficient facilities and the use of simple affordable technology such as the Batt Latch to let cows in from the paddock for milking without human involvement. Henry and Patricia Walsh farm in Oranmore, Co Galway along with their son Enda
