Latest Blogs
The Law’s Delays
Charles Dickens was no great admirer of the practices of the legal system. Most notably in ‘Bleak House’, he exposed its inefficiencies and injustices. That was then of course, but in many respects the law today is still Dickensian.
Bright Young Things
The world of the wealthy young people who made up English high society in the middle of the last century was frequently a gay enough place. But it wasn’t a great place to be gay.
Robert Silvers: 1929-2017
The longtime editor of ‘The New York Review of Books’, who died this week, still working at 87, was simply the best in the business, a business that it is somewhat surprising can still be carried out in the 21st century.
Where Credit Is Due
TK Whitaker may have been generally far-seeing as regards the Irish economy, but one thing he did not foresee, and indeed looked with scepticism upon, was the soon to be very successful Irish credit union movement.
The Long Road
There are two views on whether the Arab-Israeli and Northern Ireland conflicts can be compared, with lessons being learned from the Irish peace process. One says the two situations are incommensurable as each is unique. The other says one car crash is pretty much like another.
The Enemy Within
In the late fifteenth century, huge numbers of Spanish and Portuguese Jews were expelled by the Inquisition, while others were judicially murdered. After Brexit, the Iberian countries are wondering if any of those ‘Sephardic’ Jews who settled in Britain might like to come back.
Why craic gets up my nose
A generation or two ago, wherever people gathered in Ulster crack was seldom in short supply. It was often powerful; then it moved south, where it was mighty, even ninety, and became craic. Today you’ll find craic wherever songs are sung. It’s as Irish as Guinness, but curiously you won’t find it in Dinneen’s dictionary.
The Way We Die
Seamus O’Mahony, a gastroenterologist based in Cork, is one of the most prolific of contributors to this review. His well-received study of the medicalisation of death has just been published in paperback.
Tzvetan Todorov: 1939-2017
The Franco-Bulgarian thinker and writer had a long career as literary theorist, historian of ideas, political thinker and art historian. He retained throughout his life a deep commitment to democracy and a free and tolerant society.
A Modest Proposal
In petitioning for a second wife, George Orwell did not oversell the goods, noting that he was quite old and a bit of a crock. Still, surely someone somewhere must have wanted to become the widow of a significant literary man.
You Have To Laugh
In Stalin’s Russia an ill-judged joke could land you in the Gulag. Later on jokes could still be dangerous but were also in a sense a safety valve, a relatively harmless way for the downtrodden to let off steam.
In the Bleak Midwinter
In the winter of 1784 in East Hampshire, it got so cold, the naturalist Gilbert White observed, that the cats became electrified.