Stay updated with breaking news from Martina Devlin. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
The secret to getting things done is to just get things done. Nothing is achieved by empty words and prevarication – which leads me to the Government’s promise to introduce legislation giving maternity rights to Oireachtas members. Female politicians continue to wait, and senators, TDs and ministers are still not entitled to maternity leave.
“There is an old saying taught in medical school: if you hear hoofbeats in Texas, think horses, not zebras,” says Atul Gawande in his book Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science. It’s another way of suggesting that the obvious interpretation is usually the right one.
“We decided “to roll the dice,” is how political strategist Dominic Cummings described a decision to put Boris Johnson into 10 Downing Street. Cummings admitted he felt Johnson was unfit for high office, but thought he could control him. So, his masterplan wasn’t “take back control”, but “control Boris”.
Islandmagee is a quiet civil parish on the east coast of Northern Ireland.
Omagh-born, Dublin-based author Martina Devlin recalls a period in Northern Ireland’s history which felt so unjust that she was inspired to write a book, and launch a campaign which resulted in a plaque being erected in Islandmagee earlier this year.