Ian O'Doherty

Chairs are thrown at police officers during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. Photo: PA

(Alamy) Balaclavas, also known as ski masks, were once the preserve of bank robbers and members of the IRA, but this week they were worn by thugs who clashed with police.

Some Spectator readers may recall the rather charming story of the small local newspaper in West Cork which took on the might of the Russian empire. In September 1898, following Tsar Nicolas II’s success in securing a warm water base for the Russian navy in the south China sea, a thunderous editorial warned the expansionist ruler that:

For the average member of the Irish political, media and NGO complex there are several political issues in Ireland which need to be addressed urgently. There is the burning need to introduce more stringent hate speech laws, a topic which seemed dormant until Taoiseach Simon Harris resurrected this prospect last week. There is the race

This week, when he was returned to Dublin’s Mountjoy jail for the third time in two years, Irish schoolteacher Enoch Burke was hailed by his many supporters as a martyr for free speech. He was, according to some, a very modern victim of a tyrannical ‘woke’ establishment riding roughshod over an individual’s right to religious