What I Read This Week: A bizarre Dublin conference and the human cost of war

I spent a good chunk of Monday and Tuesday this week travelling from Brussels to Luxembourg and then back, to cover a meeting of EU finance ministers.
The 3½-hour train journey brings you through some nice countryside, which I had plenty of opportunity to look out at given the train had no wifi and patchy at best data and phone reception. I came prepared with Sally Rooney’s new novel, Intermezzo, a fantastic read.
This week we found out Michael McGrath is to face his EU commissioner confirmation hearing on November 5th. MEPs from a number of European Parliament committees will grill him for several hours on his commissioner for justice brief.
The parliament traditionally rejects at least one of the 26 commissioner-designates (as they’re called), and five years ago took three scalps. At the moment the former Fianna Fáil minister isn’t seen as overly vulnerable, but all can change. I’ll be reporting on how the hearings look like they will shape up over the coming weeks.
When I wasn’t bet into Intermezzo, here are some of the best stories I read this week:
1 Sally Hayden’s reporting from Lebanon continues to be essential reading, as Israel’s bombing campaign escalates the conflict in the Middle East. Reporting from a village near Saida where Israeli missiles killed at least 45 people, and speaking to staff in a local hospital treating others wounded by Israel Defense Forces strikes, Sally brings home the human cost of the war.
2 This one was a mad read. Olivia Kelly revealed the bizarre story behind a conference on female genital mutilation organised in Dublin. The organiser gave the impression the likes of Richard Branson would be there, with some campaigners paying thousands of euros to attend as a result. A “power breakfast” where attendees hoped they would rub shoulders with wealthy philanthropists amounted to a small group of advocates and academics standing around a room in Buswells Hotel with a few muffins laid out.
3 I was late reading this piece by Jack Horgan-Jones and Pat Leahy, but it is a great inside-the-room account of how Budget 2025 came together. It pulls back the curtain on the politicking behind the pre-election budget and is filled with detail, right down to the type of Snack bars laid out as refreshments during the talks.
4 Even from over in Brussels it felt like you could hear the gears of the Leinster House rumour mill whirring all week, following the Sunday Times splash about a member of the Oireachtas reportedly being compromised by Russian spy handlers. No one sketches the scene better than Miriam Lord.
5 Having grown up in Marino I have a natural affinity for people from Drumcondra, and one of the north Dublin suburb’s best exports, Orla Gartland, brought out a new album this month. The indie musician had a chat with Lauren Murphy about the new record, which is worth a read.
A US journalist I’m a big fan of, Ben Smith, was on the Inside Politics pod with Hugh Linehan. Ben recently set up the news website Semafor, and before that was the New York Times’ media columnist, where his reporting alone was worth the price of a NYT subscription. He and Hugh have a good discussion about some of the big changes in journalism and the media in recent times.
Within the EU “bubble” in Brussels this column syndicated from the Financial Times caught my eye: “To really change the EU, the northern flank must take the lead”. Germany and France have always been seen as the engine driving EU politics, but both are pretty rudderless at the moment due to domestic political turmoil. Martin Sandbu writes that a coalition of the Baltic and Nordic countries, along with Ireland and the Netherlands, should come together to drive some of the big reforms needed to stop Europe falling miles behind other powers like China and the US.
Next week will be a busy one in Brussels given the leaders of the 27 EU countries are in town for a summit on Thursday. A big part of the discussion around the European Council table will be what position they agree to take on the war in Lebanon. Ireland is expected to push for strong language in any joint statement, as well as keeping pressure on the EU to do more to hold Israel to account for its actions in Gaza and the West Bank.