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Trump's White House, with a flattering painting gifted to the US president by Russia's Putin. Alamy Stock Photo

Opinion Can the US still call itself the 'land of the free' while targeting legal residents?

Our columnist laments the changing immigration approach by the Trump administration and says it’s a worrying development for many Irish Americans.

THE ONGOING DETENTION of an Irish woman, Cliona Ward, who has lived lawfully in the United States for decades, in an apparently dreadful Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Tacoma, Washington, is absolutely appalling.

Ward had battled addiction and was convicted many years ago for drug-related offences. Her record has been expunged.

Yet, after a visit to Cork to see her elderly father, she was seized at San Francisco International Airport and evidently may be kept in custody for months. This situation is a travesty. Ward, who is a carer to her son, is collateral damage in efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to enhance border control, in accordance with the ascendant mood of the electorate.

ward Cliona Ward moved to the US in her early teens, and currently lives in Santa Cruz, California. GoFundMe GoFundMe

One wonders, though, whether opposition to the abstract “illegal alien” will persist at a high level as the public witnesses the manifestly inhumane treatment of innocents caught in the crossfire, such as Cliona Ward. Her plight is angering to Irish people everywhere. It has hit me hard personally, as someone who identifies equally as American and Irish.

‘Land of the free’?

How does Ward’s de facto incarceration comport with the ideals our civic religion inculcates in us – that the US is “the land of the free and the home of the brave” and that ours is a “shining city on a hill,” in the words of President Ronald Reagan? It simply doesn’t.

I tell friends and acquaintances here now that – while I was growing up in East Milton, on Boston’s immediate southern edge, during the 1980s and the 1990s – I thought everyone in Ireland wanted to cross the Atlantic and dwell among us. Not only were a slender majority of my pals’ parents Irish-born, we were surrounded by a new generation of immigrants from the “auld sod,” fleeing a dearth of economic opportunity and chasing the prosperity their predecessors worked indefatigably to achieve in the US.

My boyhood perspective was perfectly understandable. The Irish, especially from the western seaboard, were inescapable. Those working in the trades appealed directly to the ancestral loyalties of Irish Americans by proudly advertising their counties of origin and often using them to maximum advantage when bidding for jobs. It may sound far-fetched at this juncture, but I was in the thick of it. That’s how it was.

Of course, I experienced this cultural phenomenon particularly acutely because of the transformative role my late uncle, former US Congressman and Ambassador Brian Donnelly, played in championing the legislation that bears our family name and allowed tens of thousands of Irish women and men a chance at the American Dream. The Donnelly visa was followed by the Morrison visa, further swelling the ranks stateside.

2 Brian Donnelly_90672765 The late Congressman, Brian Donnelly. Rolling News Rolling News

Then, two things happened: one welcome, one tragic. The Celtic Tiger boom attracted many to return to Ireland and dissuaded plenty more from leaving. 9/11, given the onset of strict security measures that resulted, marked an end to unimpeded travel to and from the US for the Irish without status. Their numbers have declined steadily since.

Irish American

That said, a sizeable cohort in my native territory remains, as my wife invariably notices on our regular trips. On my recent sojourn to Boston, I undertook the scenic walk from East Milton over Milton Hill with its rambling mansions and gorgeous views of the downtown skyline – where President George HW Bush was born, and Irish women toiled as domestic help for old Brahmin families – through Dorchester’s Lower Mills section and onto Adams Corner, probably the city’s most Irish slice.

The pubs, restaurants and bakeries are still there. The convenience stores all feature Irish products. And there are so many Irish staff and patrons that those here who are unfamiliar with these locales, the real Irish America, might find it rather disconcerting. Indeed, I heard several conversations in the Irish language, which was unsurprising in that this has long been the next parish over for Connemara people, lots of whom feel more comfortable in Dorchester or in neighbouring municipalities like Milton, Quincy, Braintree and Norwood than in Dublin.

In this milieu, and in light of President Trump’s immigration tsar Tom Homan’s uncompromisingly ruthless rhetoric pledging to remove anyone not entitled to be in the country without fear or favour, what impact will Green Card holder Cliona Ward’s predicament have on the thousands of illegal Irish in America?

washington-united-states-of-america-28th-apr-2025-white-house-border-czar-tom-homan-speaks-during-a-press-briefing-in-the-james-s-brady-press-briefing-room-of-the-white-house-in-washington-dc-ap White House Border Czar Tom Homan. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Young emigrants I encountered in New York restaurants and bars on the first leg of my travels expressed worries about their precarious existence. The advice from lawyers and organisations serving the undocumented in the places the Irish typically flock to has been that the individuals who are undeniably taking a big risk – no matter who is in the Oval Office – should tread extremely carefully. In essence, they warn that it is wise to keep your head down.

Conversely, there are definitely Irish women and men who do not believe that they are in any greater jeopardy at this moment than when they opted to overstay their 90-day tourist allowance. Their broad sentiment is that they have always avoided and will continue to avoid drawing unnecessary attention to themselves.

The current administration’s priority, they are convinced, is to deport gang members and criminals, not them. If they stick to their routine of working, paying taxes, contributing to the fibre of their communities, and not getting in trouble, things will be fine. It is simultaneously true that they benefit from being white, English speaking, and part of an ethnic grouping with very powerful allies and advocates in the US.

I pray that they are not wrong. Some are indifferent or unsympathetic on this front. But when I look at the undocumented Irish, I and most Irish Americans see the faces of our own parents, grandparents or great-grandparents, who were able to enter and embrace a new land fairly seamlessly. For many years, however, US law has effectively discriminated against putative Irish immigrants. That was the impetus behind the Donnelly and Morrison visas. We await a worthy successor, albeit with precious little hope at this fraught stage.

We are where we are. Cliona Ward’s is a cautionary tale – remember, she has the right to be there – reminding us that the Irish illegally resident in the US are not immune from President Trump’s crackdown. Their lives could be uprooted in an unfortunate instant.

Larry Donnelly is a Boston attorney, a Law Lecturer at the University of Galway and a political columnist with TheJournal.ie.

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    Mute Rafa C
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:18 AM

    Clíona Ward’s situation is hard to stomach. She’s lived in the US for decades, raised a family, contributed to her community, and had old drug convictions expunged under state law, which, in most cases, means the slate is wiped clean.

    But seems like there is a catch; federal immigration law doesn’t have to recognise those expungements. So, even if a state court says it’s all in the past, immigration authorities can still use it against you?

    That seems like a serious flaw in the system. Clíona has legal status, no threat to anyone, and yet she’s being treated like a criminal for something the justice system has already forgiven. It’s not just harsh, it’s unjust. If this can happen to her, it could happen to any legal resident.

    And while the US plays fast and loose with its laws, we’ve got Trump McTrumpface floating the idea of rewriting the Constitution so he can waltz into another glorious term…free tanning lotion for everyone, just pay the extra tariff so he can settle up with his hookers and cover up for his cronies.

    The absurdity would be funny if it weren’t so bloody real.

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    Mute Rafa C
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:27 AM

    @Niall English: That’s what I said.

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    Mute Numinous20111
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:37 AM

    @Niall English: Donald J. Trump himself has a history of both drug use and a long time association/business partnership with a convicted cocaine smuggler, whom Trump went out on a limb for even during that smuggler’s trial. Look up David Cay Johnston who has spoken extensively and repeatedly about this…and despite Trump threatening to sue Johnston, Trump never has.

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    Mute frank dowling
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:40 AM

    @Rafa C: before you went on a rant about Trump, feel better now ?

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    Mute Rafa C
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:48 AM

    @frank dowling: Better? Not particularly. The fact I have to go on a rant about a man casually tossing around the idea of rewriting the Constitution like it’s a menu at Mar-a-Lago isn’t exactly soothing. But when legal residents like Clíona get treated like second-class humans while a former president flirts with authoritarian cosplay, I think a few sentences of frustration are the bare minimum.

    You might prefer your news bland and buttered, Frank, but some of us still have a pulse.

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    Mute The Firestarter
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    May 2nd 2025, 11:04 AM

    @Niall English: Why has she only herself to blame. Is it because she is not a puritanical bore like you, living a holier than thou life. It must be great where you are, perched upon your throne, looking down upon those who have previously sinned.

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    Mute Pelagius Asturias
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    May 2nd 2025, 12:11 PM

    @Rafa C: It’s the land of the corporations and Israeli lap dogs

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    Mute Ollie Fitzpatrick
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:10 AM

    As long as the Fanta Fuhrer and his ilk are there, they will never be free. They are in an dictatorship with a looney in the driving seat.
    The people who voted for him must shoulder part of the blame too. Shame on you all!!

    95
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    Mute Eddie Nugent
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:13 AM

    @Ollie Fitzpatrick: the Journal needs a special section for such low grade comments

    56
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    Mute Ger Whelan
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:19 AM

    @Ollie Fitzpatrick: “Fanta Führer”. Feel like I’m back in primary school with the level of maturity of people like you Ollie. How old are you 10?

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    Mute Numinous20111
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:23 AM

    @Ger Whelan: Trump is an empty, toxic person. Using dismissive and mocking labels for him is appropriate. He’s like a whirlwind of invective, scapegoating, scamming and vapid narcissism. Every so often that whirlwind stands still and Trump reveals just how utterly sad his response to existence is.

    46
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    Mute Rafa C
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:25 AM

    @Ger Whelan: Yeh the Coca-Cola company doesn’t want to be linked with that monstrosity, even the fictional land of Oompa-Loompa are up in arms as he’s been slapping on their patented shade of orange without permission.

    Apparently, the Oompa-Loompa Council has launched legal action via Willy Wonka’s legal team, citing cultural appropriation, shade theft and crimes against mirrors. They’re demanding he return to his original colour, which sources confirm is the soft pink hue of unchecked ego.

    Meanwhile, across the sea of delusion, the Constitution is being treated like a flat-pack IKEA manual, misunderstood, discarded and eventually repurposed as firewood for roasting the truth. Some folks are already queuing up for the next season of the reality show formerly known as democracy, where loyalty is measured in hat sales and policy is scrawled in crayon. The only thing being drained is the collective IQ of the electorate.

    And somewhere in the background, Lady Liberty’s torch flickers, not from the breeze of freedom, but from the sighs of exhaustion.

    36
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    Mute Ollie Fitzpatrick
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:25 AM

    @Eddie Nugent: You’d top the list!!

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    Mute Ollie Fitzpatrick
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:26 AM

    @Ger Whelan: US magabot!!

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    Mute Ger Whelan
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:50 AM

    @Ollie Fitzpatrick: Why? Because I want supposed adults to act like adults? Wow brilliant. Grow up child

    16
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    Mute Ger Whelan
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:54 AM

    @Numinous20111: So because trump is bad it’s ok to act like children? Do you people ever listen to yourselves. Grow the F up lads.

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    Mute Ollie Fitzpatrick
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:03 AM

    @Ger Whelan: Tell me what good, sensible and constructive things he has done!!

    16
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    Mute Ollie Fitzpatrick
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:06 AM

    @Ger Whelan: Listen to yourself, you are of similar ilk, you think everything you think is best and correct. You are a dictator whilst we are realists!!

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    Mute Ger Whelan
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:11 AM

    @Ollie Fitzpatrick: So you believe acting like a 10 year old child in the playground is being a realist? Lord I’ve heard it all now. If behaving like a grown up makes me a “dictator” then it explains a lot about you lad. You must have hated your parents

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    Mute Mary Linton
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:20 AM

    @Ollie Fitzpatrick: 1) deported thousands of illegal alien murderers & gang bangers. 2) clearly defined how many sexes there are ( only 2- who’d have guessed?). 3) negotiating & fighting hard to wrap up that pointless conflict of death and destruction that has claimed so many young Ukrainian ( & Russian ) lives needlessly. ——- there’s 3 to get ya started!

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    Mute Ciaran Foster
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:27 AM

    @Mary Linton: 1) without due process, so anyone could be next. 2) how does this benefit anyone? 3) the war goes on and he’s not helped in any noticeable way.

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    Mute Numinous20111
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:42 AM

    @Ger Whelan: Who is most known for using childish name calling of his political opponents, or anyone who disagrees with him? Trump.

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    Mute Ger Whelan
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:55 AM

    @Numinous20111: So Trump does it so that makes it ok. There was me thinking you wouldn’t want to be like Trump a man you supposedly dislike. But hey if you wanna be like him go for it.

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    Mute Ger Whelan
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    May 2nd 2025, 9:39 AM

    @Ciaran Foster: 2. Women in sport for starters. They no longer have to worry about playing against biological males. Even the FA in England have finally banned transwomen for competing in women’s football. Long over due the nonsense that biological males could enter Female sports is coming to an end.⁹

    21
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    Mute Ollie Fitzpatrick
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    May 2nd 2025, 9:40 AM

    @Mary Linton: Methinks you get your newsfeed from the Daily Maga or the Trump Times!!

    8
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    Mute Ollie Fitzpatrick
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    May 2nd 2025, 9:43 AM

    @Ger Whelan: Everyone is out of step Ger except you. Get a life and look at the world through clear glass and not red, white, blue, stars and stripes glass!!

    7
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    Mute Ger Whelan
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    May 2nd 2025, 10:06 AM

    @Ollie Fitzpatrick: Since when have I supported the US. Jayses your something else. You now think me asking you to act your age means I support Trump?. You really are a child lad. Mommy or daddy needs to start supervising you on the internet

    8
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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    May 2nd 2025, 3:54 PM

    @Mary Linton: prove now many murderers and gang bangers he deported. Including the person with a tattoo badly photoshopped onto his image.
    He was stopping both conflicts in hours but instead made it worse.

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    Mute 2q6v4IEp
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:45 AM

    Larry Donnelly is always supercilious, sanctimonious and conceited individual. He affects this air of knowing political ambiguity while having the moral constitution of a liver fluke. Why he gets a platform on here I’ll never know. We can only hope that he gets detained by ICE: when he gets sent to Supermax he’ll probably try to order a curry and cheese chip

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:48 AM

    “Why he gets a platform on here I’ll never know”… really? you don’t know why?… *drumroll… advertising, which you’ve just contributed to

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    Mute Pól Pot
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:29 AM

    I don’t know. The gaf was formed on the back of slavery, genocide, and has always had deep institutional racism. This Cliona Ward situation is really pushing the envelope through.

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    Mute Rafa C
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:41 AM

    @Pól Pot: Sure, the US was founded on slavery and genocide no argument there but let’s not act like that’s some unique American quirk. That’s more or less the world’s oldest blueprint for empire. The only difference is some nations wore powdered wigs while others just wore less shame.

    Spain rolled into South America with crosses in one hand and swords in the other, turning civilisations like the Aztecs and Incas into footnotes. Ever wonder where all that colonial gold in Madrid came from? It wasn’t a bake sale.

    France? Ask Algeria about liberty, equality and fraternity while under occupation. Ask Haiti how long it had to pay colonial “reparations” back to France for daring to fight for its freedom… spoiler: it took over a century and strangled the country’s economy.

    Japan’s imperial expansion in Asia left behind a trail of war crimes so brutal, parts of China and Korea still can’t talk about it without spitting.

    And then there’s the charming legacy of the Dutch in Indonesia, or the Germans in Namibia who pioneered concentration camps decades before the Nazis. The Herero and Nama genocide was a test run for darker horrors to come.

    The point isn’t to excuse America, but to remind that the “civilised world” got that way by being extremely uncivilised. The real problem isn’t that the US was born of horror it’s that it wrapped the whole thing in Stars and Stripes, said “land of the free” with a straight face, and still pretends it invented democracy rather than just rebranded it with fireworks and fast food and a side order of any firearm you want.

    52
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    Mute Rafa C
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:50 AM

    @John Doe: Don’t mistake your free education on The Journal as a meltdown. Now go ask your mammy to make you a hot cocoa and go watch some cartoons.

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    Mute Pól Pot
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:40 AM

    @Rafa C: I’m not “acting like that’s some unique American quirk.” The article asks if she can still claim to be the “land of the free.” Cheers for the “free education” Thomas Aquinas.

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    Mute Rafa C
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:46 AM

    @Pól Pot: Ah no Pól, the “free education” wasn’t a gift for you it was more of a general PSA for anyone pretending that the US cornered the market on historic horror. You’re dead right to ask if America can still call itself the “land of the free” I just added some global context to show that plenty of nations were built the same way, they just don’t have the same PR department.

    Wasn’t challenging your point, just broadening the lens. But I get it, nuance doesn’t trend.

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    Mute Pól Pot
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    May 2nd 2025, 9:28 AM

    We can’t all work miracles, can we, Tom? You know that.

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    Mute Rafa C
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    May 2nd 2025, 12:24 PM

    @John Doe: lol… Didn’t read it just laughed

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    Mute Pól Pot
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    May 2nd 2025, 1:06 PM

    @Rafa C: It’s all pretentious filler that isn’t relevant. Cockadoodle-dooooo.

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    Mute Nick Vasilakis
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    May 2nd 2025, 2:50 PM

    @Rafa C: Beautifully put

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    Mute Pól Pot
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    May 2nd 2025, 5:23 PM

    @Nick Vasilakis:?!

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    Mute thomas molloy
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:25 AM

    Crime rates in Ireland could be greatly reduced by our justice department and media highlighted the implications of acquiring a criminal record.

    24
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    Mute Ollie Fitzpatrick
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    May 2nd 2025, 9:45 AM

    @thomas molloy: How did you sort yours out??

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    Mute Rian O'Callaghan
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:00 AM

    The US just like Europe needs to speed up mass deportations of foreigners it’s the only thing that will save countries.

    28
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    Mute Alan Kennedy
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    May 2nd 2025, 12:54 PM

    @Rian O’Callaghan: Exactly, and then finally the Natives will have their lands back after 500 years!

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    May 2nd 2025, 1:28 PM

    @Rian O’Callaghan: The reality is the earth has no borders, but I do enjoy watching how people react, you don’t have to be afraid Rian, soon enough the waters will rise around your sky pointing finger :)

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    Mute David Owens
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:07 AM

    Why don’t you do an opinion piece on this basket case of our government for a change !

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    Mute Seamus Enright
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    May 2nd 2025, 10:02 AM

    US citizens are indoctrinated from a young age to believe that they live in the freest country on Earth, which is a bit of a paradox in itself.

    Nothing will change that perception for many of them, not having the largest prison population on Earth, not being denied abortion rights, not being denied due process.

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    Mute Seamus Enright
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    May 2nd 2025, 1:52 PM

    @John Doe: Plenty of people here would prefer you to be shot than innocent schoolchildren.

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    Mute Regular John
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    May 3rd 2025, 12:56 AM

    @Seamus Enright:
    And yet it seems that you have no problem killing innocent babies ? Very strange way of thinking…

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    Mute Tracy Reddy
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    May 2nd 2025, 10:21 AM

    Once again the journal going after a foreign body while its own house is in a mess.

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    Mute Robert Halvey
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:10 AM

    Lar lad , you made it quite clear ,you where at best wishey washey about US democracy, How the whatever did you get your job, oh I forgot the irish church likes everything but the truth

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    Mute Ger Whelan
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:01 AM

    @Robert Halvey: you are a bit wishey washey yourself Robert. Remember the other day you were cheering on an elitest banker becoming pm of Canada? Seems you’ll happily sell out when it suits you.

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    May 2nd 2025, 3:56 PM

    @Ger Whelan: he worked very hard to become a successful banker. Unlike your hero who got Daddy’s slum landlord money

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    Mute Uí Braonáin
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:30 AM

    Of course it can. Just like it can call itself ‘Home of the brave’. From forcing immigrants into the army on arrival to murdering half a million Iraqi children on a lie it’s never been either but it can call itself whatever it wants. It can even call itself a democracy even though it fails at all pillars.

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    Mute Shaun Gallagher
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:49 AM

    Was it ever the land of the free.

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    Mute Jerry LeFrog
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:09 AM

    @Shaun Gallagher: more like the land of the freak nowadays.
    There are decent Americans though, but what happens at government level these days is a real freakshow.

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    Mute john salmon
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    May 2nd 2025, 11:43 AM

    @Shaun Gallagher: the home of the depraved

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:31 AM

    “Don’t tred on me”… but do what I say lol!

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    Mute Fergus O'Donnell
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:52 AM

    It was never the land of the free. Just a delusional cesspit full of dopes and dullards.
    Good riddance.

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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    May 2nd 2025, 8:07 AM

    @Fergus O’Donnell: It played an important role in the international system and was a guarantor of sorts for Western freedoms. Those days have gone, for now at least.

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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    May 2nd 2025, 7:48 AM

    No.

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    Mute Keth 417
    Favourite Keth 417
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    May 2nd 2025, 12:20 PM

    Overall, yes. Freedom is not freely obtained. It is fought for, constantly.

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    Mute Paul A Kane
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    May 2nd 2025, 3:19 PM

    Nothing free about that country as it was built on stolen land

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    Mute Thomas Brophy
    Favourite Thomas Brophy
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    May 3rd 2025, 9:11 AM

    Don’t trust the system under Trump he’s not much of a president

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    Mute Joe Soap
    Favourite Joe Soap
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    May 30th 2025, 7:00 AM

    Viva president Taco

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    Mute Joe Soap
    Favourite Joe Soap
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    May 30th 2025, 6:58 AM

    American natives ,
    You only have to remember what Trump types did to the Native Americans, after slaughtering them put them in internment camps ( called reservations )

    1
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