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Dublin Gossip

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Dublin’s Stoneybatter was a happening place well before the hipsters started moving in five years ago. The alleged doings of Doyle the publican and the delectable Miss Devine were trending back in the 1830s.
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Homes for the Blind and Deaf

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There was perfect cleanliness and order in all parts of the establishment, and a large allowance of fresh air. We took leave of the kind and courteous Brother and left the Home for Deaf-mutes, heartily wishing that the blind boys could enjoy the privilege of being under the care of the excellent and intelligent Christian Brothers.
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The Trouble With Concessions

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When nineteenth century Ireland received the benefits of British political reform the effect was the opposite of what it had been in England. Far from it being a case of being bought off, bringing the Catholic middle classes into the tent in Ireland actually resulted in greater pressure.
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A Sabbath Stroll

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A stroll down Thomas Street on a Sunday morning after divine service afforded the pious the pleasure of seeing the Dublin poor in thrall to ardent spirits and women, in their hoarse, degraded voices, singing to the praise of whiskey.
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1-9 of 689 results
  • Evidence of fullness

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    • 1 April 2026

    Ciarán O’Rourke writes: On the evidence of his work to date, Martin Dyar might be thought of as an able, and often savagely funny, dramatist of the universal human parish.
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  • Party Time Over?

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    • 1 April 2026

    Michael Laver writes: While ‘The Great Retreat: How Political Parties Should Behave and Why They Don’t’ by Didi Kuo adds to a burgeoning ‘decline of parties’ literature, are we to believe that this decline is part of a global pattern or more specific to the US?
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  • Centenary of ‘The Plough and the Stars’

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    • 1 April 2026

    Bess Rowen writes: 11 February 2026 marked a century since protesters disrupted Sean O’Casey’s ‘The Plough and the Stars’ by singing nationalist songs and rushing the stage.
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  • Semantic Escalation

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    • 1 April 2026

    Charlie Ellis writes: The English lexicon is famously hospitable. Much to the chagrin of prescriptivist sticklers, it is a language that greets new arrivals with open arms. We are accustomed to technological neologisms like ‘doomscrolling’, ‘podcast’, and ‘vibe coding’ and track them with the obsessive energy of a birder spotting a rare migrant.
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  • A Political Exile

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    • 18 December 2025

    Thomas McCarthy writes: A poet and former director of Poetry Ireland, Theo Dorgan has already written a number of successful prose works, including ‘Voyage Home’, his marvellous logbook of an ocean voyage from Antigua to Kinsale on the seventy-foot schooner ‘Spirit of Crosshaven’.
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  • Yes We Can

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    • 15 December 2025

    John Fanning writes: Earlier this year I saw the film ‘Mountainhead’, the new Jesse Armstrong production continuing his exposure of the rich and powerful following the success of the Murdoch family saga ‘Succession’. The characters featured are all filthy rich tech bros, some easily identified: Musk, possibly Sam Altman.
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  • Getting in Close

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    • 5 December 2025

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  • A Pinch of Salt

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    • 4 December 2025

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  • Tom Stoppard: 1937-2025

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    • 4 December 2025

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