People spoke about the beauty of Prague but few Irish people had travelled there throughout the whole of the 1980s. In 1989, the aggressive Brezhnev Doctrine was replaced by the Gorbachev Doctrine of non-intervention, the Cold War ended and the world changed. We are witnessing a geopolitical change that may well be as dramatic as the end of the Cold War. In return for cash, the State gave the companies the legal monopoly to orchestrate trade with the East Indies. It was called War Capitalism then, and it is War Capitalism now.

Source: The Irish Times January 10, 2026 10:32 UTC