Isaiah Berlin’s Legacy
What’s alive and what’s dead in the thought of Isaiah Berlin? A new book argues there is plenty of mileage left in the arch fox.
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Tyranny of Choice
In recent decades, Ireland has experienced a profound transformation from a society shaped by religious and communal authority towards one defined by individual autonomy. Sophia Rosenfeld’s book serves as an excellent catalyst for rethinking this paradigm.
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Marilyn Monroe at 100
‘Please don’t make me a joke,’ she pleaded in her last recorded interview, although, by then, the portents were dark.
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Massacre in Dunblane
He never married, had no children, lived alone. He had few friends, and kept none for long. He ran a small DIY shop and was a keen photographer. He was also interested in guns.
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Unholy Thoughts
A skillful excavation of the ‘Presbyterian archive’ has produced a surprising and captivating history of Presbyterian life in eighteenth century Ulster, a veritable Bridgerton on the Bann. Drawing on a rich variety of contemporary records including letters, diaries, newspapers and…
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Whither Gay Rights?
If there was nothing inevitable about the expansion of liberty for lesbians and gay men and today nothing inevitable about the future maintenance of that liberty, what should be the strategy of the lesbian and gay rights movement?
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Are Irish schoolbooks antisemitic?
A recent report claims that Irish school textbooks misrepresent Judaism and minimise the Holocaust. But do these charges stack up?
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Honey, I’m home!
A woman speaks to camera about how to serve your husband. She says, ‘submission has become a dirty word’. She details her journey from ‘hardcore feminist’ to proponent of traditional femininity – softness, bread, being a helpmeet. The woman talking is my sister; I have watched this video maybe ten times. My sister is one…
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Reality Bites
Emily Nussbaum is a Pulitzer-prize-winning writer at The New Yorker magazine who has specialised in TV criticism. Her current book, Cue the Sun, recounts and analyses the invention and growth of ‘Reality’ TV, and the far-reaching implications of that development –– both on and off our TV screens. Her book’s enigmatic title comes from…
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Hardened Skin in the Game
It comes from somewhere, whatever it is. Folks say it starts as a whisper on the Atlantic air: a wheeze, a rustle, a ripple, a swell coming in on the cold; then a sulphurous bouquet of fishy salt and maybe blood. In time, it rises from the sea, a churning vortex. One can, presumably, see…
