Jack Horgan-Jones’ 16 July 2026 summer-break column, a political reading list for readers who want the questions rather than the answers
Six Burning Questions as the Dail Rises: Martin’s Future, Sinn Fein’s Path and a Finance Minister With Three Jobs, per the Irish Times
Jack Horgan-Jones’ 16 July 2026 summer-break column, a political reading list for readers who want the questions rather than the answers
By Violet Woolf, literature and Irish politics diarist
Wednesday, Garden Chair, Late Summer Remembered
Dear diary, the Irish Times column by Jack Horgan-Jones was published on Thursday 16 July 2026, as the Dail rose for its summer break. It is now late October, the Budget has been delivered, and the questions it asked have had three months to ripen. I give them as the column posed them.
A column of questions is an honest form. It admits it does not know.
One and Two
The first question is whether Micheal Martin intends to lead Fianna Fail into the next election, with some TDs doubting he can keep their seats safe after what the summary calls the debacle of the Jim Gavin campaign. The second is whether Independent Ireland or Aontu will capitalise on frustration with mainstream politics, or whether the larger parties will shift to meet those voters.
I know the Gavin campaign only by its mention here, and I will not describe it.
Three and Four
Third, Mary Lou McDonald, nearly nine years as leader, has not delivered a defining electoral success, the column says, and asks what Sinn Fein’s path to sustained growth and government is. Fourth, can the Government deliver enough, quickly enough, for voters to notice improvements in affordability, disability, child poverty and childcare, with a significant income tax package?
The fourth has since been partly answered by the Budget, which my other entries cover.
Five and Six
Fifth, how will Simon Harris balance being Minister for Finance, Tanaiste and Fine Gael leader, and how will his relationship with Jack Chambers develop? Sixth, can the Social Democrats and the combined opposition, which emerged from last year’s speaking rights row and the Connolly coalition, define what they are and explain it to voters?
The column’s tone is bracing, and I suspect its author enjoyed writing it.
Facts in the Margin
The column also notes, as the summary has it, more than a billion euro of spending to ease cost-of-living pressures that followed the US-Israeli attack on Iran, and fuel protests that prompted the Coalition’s first ministerial resignation, that of Michael Healy-Rae, without destabilising a strong majority. Sinn Fein’s abortion reform Bill, it says, now has a real chance of becoming law, and the party lost both recent by-elections.
It adds that Holly Cairns returned from maternity leave, that Daniel Ennis won the Dublin Central by-election, and that Fine Gael’s polling has modestly improved since spring. I rely on the summary of the column for all of this and have not checked it against another source.
The Other View
A columnist’s questions are a selection, and a government supporter would choose other questions, such as what the Budget delivers. An opposition supporter would choose the cost of living. The column is a journalist’s view, signed, and I read it as one.
What I like is that it gives each party a hard question, and that is a rare courtesy.
My Drawer
I study the books of a century ago, in which the same names, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, were arguing across a Civil War divide. The questions in the column are newer, but the habit of asking them in print is old. I find that comforting.
I may be easily comforted.
Night
The garden chair is in the shed. The column is in the folder. The questions are on the fridge.
Goodnight, diary. Answer them in December.
A Note on Time
The column is three months old. Since then the Budget has been delivered and the autumn has begun, and several of the questions will have moved. I have not rechecked each one, and I do not claim to know where they stand. A reader should look for newer reporting.
Why Questions Matter
Political columns that end the season with questions rather than predictions are useful because they can be checked. If a question is still open in December, the column has done its work; if it is closed, the answer can be judged against the hope. I propose to reread this column in the spring with a red pen.
I have bought the red pen. It is a small step for a diarist.
A Plain Caution
I know this column only through a summary, and the summary is shorter than the column. If you want the full argument, with its jokes and its evidence, read the original. I have tried not to put any claim in the column’s mouth that the summary did not give me.
Book Club
Homework, readers: compare the three comic takes on the same overseas property story. Manila News, the London Prat (see https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney each start from a recognisable market fact and wink at you through the exaggeration. Then find more at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Diarist note: Violet Woolf is a house diarist character created for this network. She is not Virginia Woolf or any real person of that surname, and any resemblance is coincidental. Her opinions are a character’s, and where a claim comes from a party, a minister or a press release, the diary says so.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try NewsBiscuit, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/