The saga of the ownership and governance of the National Maternity Hospital has generated much heat and contributed to a further dimming of the light – particularly in magnifying the distaste that exists for anything with a religious association. The direct victims of this – both through political posturing and media manipulation – have been […]
The annual traditional music school, Scoil Samhradh Willie Clancy, has been moved online for a second year in a row due to Covid restrictions but amongst the online classes, concerts and presentations on offer is a feature of special interest to singers, historians and anyone with a grá for Ireland’s freedom. Who Feared Not the […]
This year marks 100 years since foundation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its Czechoslovak counterpart – KSČ (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia). Both parties set off with the same ”Leninist” pattern but their current shape is quite different from each other. Both parties organised terror in their countries, which cost thousands of lives in […]
There was a time when humanity’s heroes were almost invariably the champions of freedom. In politics, philosophy, story-telling, and beyond, our idols were those who fought the good fight so that people could live free and in peace. It was viscerally understood, by all of us, that freedom was a good thing and that no […]
The Irish Government has now announced that it will rush through legislation so that emergency generators required to fill the gap left by the State’s switch to ‘green’ or renewable energy can bypass planning laws. The move is in response to serious concerns about electricity blackouts in the winter months – with senior sources saying […]
“Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.” Benito Mussolini’s formulation remains one of the most enduring definitions of modern totalitarianism. The hyperventilated discussion about the new national maternity hospital has revealed some surprising – and not so surprising – tendencies of most of the political leadership in Ireland. Notwithstanding the […]
A Taiwanese youth who had worked in Shanghai for four years once told me that, when she read books in the bookstore during her leisure time, she would often find herself thinking: these books were abridged; when going to the movies, she thought: these were cuts. With incomplete content and no information about its validity, […]
A Taiwanese youth who had worked in Shanghai for four years once told me that, when she read books in the bookstore during her leisure time, she would often find herself thinking: these books were abridged; when going to the movies, she thought: these were cuts. With incomplete content and no information about its validity, […]
China So here we are heading into July 2021 and much of our Irish summer so far has been dismal. I gave up on hope for our Irish weather and built myself a greenhouse. Today I was planting my tomatoes as I thought about China and grumbled about the price of wood to build said greenhouse. […]
The fourth season of the multiple award-winning series The Handmaid’s Tale recently commenced on SBS. Loosely based (by this season, at least) on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel of the same name, the series presents a dystopian picture of a country known as Gilead, based in the north-east of America and ruled by a patriarchal and totalitarian theocratic government. The premise is that […]
Peter O’Neill was born in Coona, Cork, a descendant of the O’Neil clan of Co. Tyrone. He attended a hedge school in Inch, studied classics at Kilworth, and then began ecclesiastical studies at the Irish College in Paris, eventually teaching Celtic language and literature there. An exceedingly popular curate, he was appointed Parish Priest of […]
Sometimes historical anniversaries throw up interesting items. Examples of irony perhaps, or maybe indications as to how much things have altered over the course of time. On Friday evening, Sinn Féin was the main political party which took part in what was effectively a picket of a Catholic Church in Ballyfermot. They and others may […]