Irish Examiner view: An agent of destructive change
US president Donald Trump gives his inaugural address during the 60th presidential inauguration in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington on Monday. Picture: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
Mr Trump promised he will reverse four years of American decline and, in doing so, coldly outlined how he would make “a new golden age” for the country and its people.
Before he had even sat down behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, he announced he could declare an national immigration emergency, vowed to reclaim the Panama Canal and rename the Gulf of Mexico, become a world peacemaker, make America a land of only “two genders”, conquer Mars, and bring free speech back to his country.
As fact-checkers the world over rushed to establish the veracity of every word he uttered, Mr Trump told the audience in the Rotunda he would torch much of his predecessor’s New Green Deal climate-saving plans and it later emerged he was proposing to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement — again.
He also pledged to end birthright citizenship — which is enshrined in the constitution — and largely sent shudders of fear through liberals across the country and across the globe. Those in power in the UN, Brussels, Beijing, Moscow, Kyiv, Taipei, and every other capital city in the world, listened to his statement of intent, some with fear in their hearts.
He was surrounded not only by his predecessors, the American political establishment — as well as judicial and religious leaders — but by a cabal of billionaires, acolytes, loyal supporters, family, political wannabes, ass-kissers, bank account boosters, and all manner of sympathetic foreign leaders anxious to cling to his coat tails.
Everything, it seems, is going to change in the next four years in America, but the question for many is whether or not his new ‘tech bros‘ Musk, Zuckerberg et al were merely paying homage to Donald Trump yesterday or whether they are actually in control of the levers of power in the US.
Internationally, the consensus is that rather than making America great again, Mr Trump’s plans will destroy its international credibility and fester the already febrile atmosphere within the country itself — while setting his country on a disastrous path of climate ignorance.
The reverend Robert Fisher, delivering his sermon at St John’s Church in Washington before the inauguration, asked the Lord “to look over us this day” , and requested he guide the leaders of the American nation so that they will be faithful in their service to this country and to all her people.
He said what the Lord asks of us is “to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God".
The wish of the churchman is a noble one. Whether doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God are on Trump’s agenda, is a matter of some considerable doubt.
It may not be on top of anyone’s priority list as government formation talks continue, but the overcrowding crisis in Irish prisons needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency — for the benefit of the prisoners themselves, prison officers charged with supervising them, and society at large.
It is intolerable that, right across our prison system, inmates are being shoehorned into cells designed to hold only one person and that bunk beds and floor mattresses have to be utilised to accommodate excess numbers.
Right across our prison system — in men’s and women’s facilities — accommodation levels are far above capacity, causing distress to the inmates themselves, an intensified risk to prison officers and the closure or curtailment of visits, education services, workshop facilities, and even tuck shops.
Like many societies, Ireland is having to cope with a set of circumstances in which an upward trend in crimes committed, increased conviction rates, and stiffer sentencing have combined to make life in our prisons unbearable for those in them and those tasked with managing them.
Mountjoy Prison, Cork Prison, the male and female prisons in Limerick, and the Dóchas women’s prison in Dublin are severely overcrowded, and this has led to a 20% increase in the number of in-cell incidents prison officers have to deal with.
The figures we are evaluating are not even up to date, so the possibility is there that the situation is, in reality, even worse than in 2023 when the current available data was recorded.
Those who have fallen foul of society and its rules deserve punishment, but they do not deserve to be placed in facilities unable to cope with them. A detailed rethink of the application of justice is needed quickly.
Millions of Irish lives are touched by tragedy every year and, in the coming months, there will be much angst among those facing daunting medical diagnoses and psychologically and physically demanding surgical outcomes.
The trauma to people diagnosed with any number of cancers or otherwise incurable maladies, and to relatives and friends is incalculable. For those lucky enough to have avoided damning medical judgement, undoubtedly there are many more in their immediate circles who have not.
Many of their stories are compelling and powerful — as highlighted by Michael Murphy in Saturday’s — as well as being inspirational.
It is therefore a potent source of motivation for each and every one of us to embrace and support those facing into days, weeks, months or even years of recovery and recuperation.
Their bravery and sagacity in the face of sometimes horrendous probabilities and often limited possibilities is inspirational and reminds us — every minute of every day — of our responsibilities to them and their needs.
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