Articles
Essays, reviews, and commentary on literature, history, politics, and ideas.
Strong Hand, Beloved Leader
A hoard of letters written by Germans to Hitler show a people keen to abdicate their responsibility and infantilise themselves, but they do not indicate any great enthusiasm for either Nazi ideology or territorial aggression.
The Beat on the Streets
From Phil Chevron of the Radiators to Stompin’ George Verschoyle spinning rockabilly hits at the Magnet Bar, it is the evocations of the Dublin music scene that stand out in a new miscellany of pieces on the city’s social and…
Challenging the State
The 1970s was a transitional decade for Ireland in which new social movements emerged and the state acted decisively against movements which were prepared to use lethal violence within the jurisdiction.
Clash of the Titans
The pragmatism associated with JM Keynes derives from a sustained optimism in the capacity of intelligence to inform and influence correct responses to a crisis. Hayek’s market morality reflects an altogether more pessimistic view of human behaviour.
A Ghost is Born
In a new biography, David Foster Wallace mostly emerges as a sympathetic figure, a troubled man whose fearsome intelligence seemed only to exponentially increase his unhappiness.
Bitter Truths
A new generation of Slovak poets has rejected the central themes of the communist and Christian past, now seen as lies or illusions. But the truths of post-communism are hard on the spirit.
Losing Our Cool
After the Gold Rush, after the slump, perhaps Ireland could just learn to relax, and regain its creativity and its cool.
Do You Believe In Magic?
The truth is never pure and rarely simple, and in Macbeth fair is foul and foul is fair.
THE END OF DAYS
Barbara Kingsolver presents a story of American rural life in which ecological concern is balanced with a fine feeling for the texture of actual lives.
HEADS STUCK IN A BOOK
A woman reading is in a world of her own, not in the world of others managing or nurturing, where some think she belongs.
FIGHTING CORRUPTION
Developed Western states have a multitude of interests in Africa and the Middle East and balancing human rights concerns with other economic, ecological and political interests will never be easy.
It’s Diston Wot Done It
Like Evelyn Waugh, Amis knows how to sharpen his comedy by a deadpan delivery. Like Waugh too, he is adept at pressing the narrative towards the monstrous, surreal and grotesque while remaining just on this side of the border between…