Blogs et cetera
The Killer and his Little Friend
A decade ago, Zakhar Prilepin was a Russian extremist, and the political party he belonged to was banned. These days he is the mainstream....
Brian O’Doherty: 1928-2022
They are described by their shadows.
Brian O’Doherty on Edward Hopper
With the death in New York of the Irish-American artist, writer and critic Brian O’Doherty,...
A Winter of Czech Discontent
To understand the seriousness of the recent anti-government protests in Prague, one needs to rewind a bit. It’s been nearly a year since the...
The Big Boo
In his memoir My Mother-City the poet Gerald Dawe writes of mid-twentieth century Belfast’s pervasive Calvinist atmosphere, which lasted well into the 1960s. It’s...
Javier Marías 1951-2022
Javier Marías, who died on Sunday in Madrid from pneumonia, contracted after a bout of Covid, was probably the Spanish writer best-known outside his...
Sabina Right or Wrong?
Maurice Earls writes: Following the Treaty of Limerick, Ireland’s capacity to put an army on the field capable of defeating the English ended. For...
The Low Pay Trap
Marie Sherlock writes: Looking from the outside in, Ireland is a paradox of plenty. Despite the havoc wreaked by the pandemic, our economy expanded...
The Irish Psyche
Maurice Earls writes: It was reported recently in the Financial Times that the British might cut off gas supplies to Ireland this winter. And...
Isolation Anxiety
Maurice Earls writes: In response to the invasion of Ukraine and more particularly in response to the European reaction to that invasion, people in...
Cathal Coughlan 1960-2022
John Fleming writes: A sturdy melodic voice emanates from a man whose face and twisted body communicate some existential torture. Precise narrative lyrics work with...
Defending History
Maurice Earls writes: A story entitled “Three Glimpses of Life”, written by Patrick Kavanagh in preparation for his landmark novel Tarry Flynn, is a...
David McKechnie 1976-2022
Enda O’Doherty writes: Back in the 1990s I went on a short “study trip” to Germany as part of a small group of journalists,...
Living with Big Brother
Tom Hennigan writes: After the swift unravelling of the Soviet Union, its strategic thinkers scrambled to justify Russia’s demand for continuing influence in lands...
Down With Cows!
Maurice Earls writes: Micheál Martin was in Washington for St Patrick’s Day and caught Covid, or perhaps he brought it with him. Either way...
Not Dead Yet
Dave Duggan writes: In 1990, Routledge published The Death of the Irish Language by Reg Hindley. I was writing radio drama in English and...
The Mould Broken
Enda O’Doherty writes: With the publication yesterday (March 7th) by France’s constitutional council of the list of approved candidates, the campaign for the presidential...
The men that is now
Maurice Earls writes: Everyone agrees that James Joyce, who was born 140 years ago today (February 2nd), was unusually observant. Somehow he captured what...
Can we afford the price of greed?
Enda O’Doherty writes: When people choose to comment on the affairs of another country it can often be that, as they speak, they are...
Frank Callanan 1956-2021
Frank Callanan died suddenly at his Dublin home on December 12th last year. Frank was a distinguished senior counsel and historian. The author of...
How can you sell Killarney?
Enda O’Doherty writes: One of the more amusing moments in the neither long nor glorious history of far-right politics in Ireland came in the...
Mahon in the Milky Way
Michael O’Loughlin writes: Back in the mid-1980s, after several years living in Amsterdam, I rashly decided that what that great city needed was a...
The Execrable System
Maurice Earls writes: Gaelic culture and society collapsed in Ireland from the late seventeenth century on following several centuries of attack and military defeat....
Man is a Giddy Thing
Enda O’Doherty writes: “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future,” the celebrated American baseball catcher Yogi Berra is reported to have said....
When Johnny Goes Marching
When Johnny Goes Marching
Maurice Earls writes: As some may recall, a few years ago genetic studies emerged which revealed that in excess of twenty...
Unionisms and Partition
Richard Bourke
Two years after the 1920 Government of Ireland Act which first established Northern Ireland as a distinct jurisdiction within the United Kingdom, Ronald...
