Is ‘porn literacy’ something we should be teaching in schools? If so, at what age? What is ‘porn literacy’? Is there such a thing as ‘ethical porn’? To what extent will these things be part of the planned new Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) course? For clues, we might look to Kate Dawson who is […]
Known as the fastest field game in the world, a sliotar can top 93mph from a good strike. Hurling is also mentioned in the 11th/ 12th century Leabhar na hUidre, while further descriptions are to be found in 13th/14th century romantic tale Cath Mhaigh Tuireadh Chunga. This latter account details a very bloody hurling game […]
ON THIS DAY: 3RD DECEMBER 1974: Maguire Seven charged with possessing materials for bomb making 40-year-old Irish born Anne Maguire, from North London, was convicted of possessing nitro-glycerine, which was then allegedly passed on for use to the IRA. Her husband, Patrick Maguire, 42 was also sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. Her two younger sons, […]
On an ordinary January day in 1927, as Yocundo Durán walked home in Chihuahua, Mexico, he crossed paths with Federal Gen. Miguel Valle, who was walking out of a local tavern. The general recognized Durán and had one of his soldiers detain him and ask, “Are you a Knight of Columbus?” Durán confirmed that he […]
The Book of Kells is Ireland’s greatest cultural treasure and the world’s most famous medieval manuscript. It contains the four Gospels in Latin based on the Vulgate text which St Jerome completed in 384AD, intermixed with readings from the earlier Old Latin translation. The book is written on vellum (prepared calfskin) in a bold and […]
Thomas Clarke Luby was an Irish revolutionary, author, journalist and one of the founding members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was a member of Daniel O’Connell Repeal Association whose aim was to repeal the 1801 Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland. He parted company with O’Connell after the repeal campaign failed, having […]
The suspicion that RTE has been living “way beyond its means” and has been engaged in the provision of exorbitant rates of pay to its ‘top talent’ has moved from the realm of tentative speculation into that of clear fact. Indeed, such suspicions have a long and notable history. For example; in December 1966 the […]
The Irish Citizen Army was founded at the height of the Dublin Lockout of 1913 to protect strikers at their demonstrations from the police. Three years later it took part, alongside the Irish Volunteers, in the insurrection of Easter 1916. Its leader James Connolly along with his second, Michael Mallin, were executed for their part […]
After the Birmingham Pub bombings the previous day, six men were arrested; Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Hill, Robert Hunter, Noel McIlkenny, William Power (Belfast-born Catholics), and John Walker who was a Derry-born Catholic. All six had lived in Birmingham since the 1960s, and were arrested on the way to a funeral in Belfast, while in custody […]
Joseph Mary Plunkett, Seosamh Máire Pluincéid, was an Irish nationalist, poet, journalist, revolutionary and a leader of the 1916 Easter Rising. Throughout his life, Joseph Plunkett took an active interest in Irish heritage and the Irish language; joined the Gaelic League and began studying with Thomas MacDonagh, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. The […]
ON THIS DAY: 21 NOVEMBER 615: SAINT COLUMBANUS (Columbán meaning white dove) died in present day Italy As an Irish missionary, he was notable for founding a number of monasteries from around 590 in the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms, most notably Luxeuil Abbey in present-day France and Bobbio Abbey in present-day Italy. He was one […]
After serving in a scout-sniper platoon in Mosul, Iraq, Tom Voss came home carrying invisible wounds of war — the memory of doing or witnessing things that went against his fundamental beliefs. This was not a physical injury that could heal with medication and time but a “moral injury” — a wound to the soul […]