2020 was a strange year for the film industry. Covid-19 closed the theatres; a number of movies appeared first on streaming services like Amazon and Netflix. We’ve selected a dozen of the year’s releases for our readers. Not all of them are Oscar material, but they all combine artistry, engagement and reasonably humane values which […]
William Higgins was born in Drumlish, the thirteenth and youngest child, of William and Elizabeth Higgins. Initially he was educated by his mother and that would form his early formation. The rising of 1798 was deeply impressed on the mind of the young boy. The Longford Leader’s article on the unveiling of a statue in […]
The Australian Cardinal, George Pell, recently released by the High Court of Australia after over 400 days in prison, had been wrongly convicted of five offences of sexual assault. The decision of the High Court is a finding that Cardinal Pell is innocent of the charges brought against him. Cardinal Pell was convicted by a […]
Clansmen and women of native Irish families were lured to discuss terms with the English at Mullaghmast, Co. Kildare. To the famous Rath at Mullaghmast which has figured in Irish history from as far back as 82AD. The site consists of a raised circular rampart breached at two sides allowing grazing cattle to wander through […]
In the wake of Cardinal George Pell’s successful appeal to the High Court of Australia, and his release from jail after 404 days, several books purporting to be “investigative journalism” have appeared about this astonishing miscarriage of justice. All of them have been hostile towards Pell. After reading The Persecution of George Pell, by Keith Windschuttle, it […]
The notion that artistic creativity and emotional state are somehow related goes back to the time of Aristotle. However, it is extremely difficult to quantify the degree of misery (or happiness) of an artist, and even more so if an artist is deceased. In my research I have found a way to do so by extracting the emotional […]
Daniel Breen – Dónall Ó Braoin – was a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. He was born in Grange, Donohill parish, County Tipperary, his father died when Dan was six, leaving the family very poor. He was educated locally, before becoming a plasterer […]
St. Stephen was the first Christian Martyr, killed by stoning for refusing to renounce his faith in Jesus Christ. Saul of Tarsus was present as a prominent persecutor of Christians. It was on this day December 26, 415 AD, his remains were recovered after having been lost for centuries. It is said that as the […]
Willie Clancy was born into a musical family in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare. His parents both sang and played concertina, and his father also played the flute. Clancy’s father had been heavily influenced by local blind piper Garret Barry. Willie started playing the whistle at age 5, and later took up the flute. He first […]
The HSE and the Government provide details of the daily number of confirmed Covid patients in hospitals as well as the number admitted and discharged in the previous 24 hours. The daily data for these measures are available to view at their website[1] since mid-March to early April. I speculated that the admissions and discharge […]
The colossal hypocrisy of the green movement has been called out in a letter from an industry expert who supplies the materials that woke corporations use to make their products. Is it naive – or just deceitful – to think that you can “leave fossil fuels in the ground” and also live a modern life. […]
By this time, 1.5 years into the worst starvation Ireland had experienced in the 19th century, the death and destruction of famine was gaining international headlines. Accounts were so horrific that many thought they were exaggerated, alas, it was not the case. Several went themselves to establish the truth only to find it worse than […]