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 […]
Only a few years ago, the aggressive “New Atheist” movement was on the march, with rhetorical brawlers like Christopher Hitchens and renowned biologists like Richard Dawkins leading the charge against religion and the last vestiges of Christian faith in the West. Religion, Hitchens famously stated, “poisons everything,” and could only be considered, at best, humanity’s “first and […]
Alright, alright. The jokes and the sneers kind of write themselves, don’t they? When Harry Potter star Emma Watson says that she is “self-partnered”, the first thing that comes to mind is “why didn’t she just say “single”?” There’s also a very easy argument to be made that describing oneself as “self-partnered” is a perfect […]
“History is written by the winners” is a trite adage which was probably first circulated by some losers. Ever since, it has been used to cast a shadow of doubt over every account of struggles between human beings of which history purports to tell us. Searching through our past is a sacred pursuit. It is […]
For those of you who have been living on Pluto for the past decade and are not aware, “Dancing with the Stars” is an internationally successful popular entertainment programme where celebrities are paired up with professional dancers, and compete with each other to be the best dancer over a number of weeks. Three professional judges […]
Kanye West doesn’t have a degree in theology. He was never known for his humility, or as a great statesman or scholar. He’s not what most people would have called a saint or a “Holy Joe” – far from it. He is seen by most as nothing more than another egotistical rap artist. And that […]
Halloween used to be so easy. Kids would get dressed up, go trick or treating, eat too much chocolate, wear disposable costumes and wear ghoulish makeup. Adults – especially young adults – would get dressed up too – go hell raising for a night wearing whatever they wanted. The more outrageous, the better. But alas, […]
‘Cé hé sin amuigh A bhfuil faobhar ar a ghuth Ag réabadh mo dhorais dúnta Mise Éamonn a’ Chnoic ‘Tá baite fuar fluich O shíorshúil sléibhte ‘s gleannta’ Rugadh Éamonn Ó Riain gar do Theampaill Uachtarach, Co. Thiobraid Árainn sa bhliain 1670. Ba úinéirí talún iad a chuid sinsir. Coigistíodh an talamh seo go léir […]
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the untimely death of Hollywood queen Frances Gumm, better known as Judy Garland. Perhaps most famous for her character Dorothy in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Garland is less known for the trail of destruction which marked her off-screen life. Judy died from an accidental drug overdose in 1969 […]
What to say about Unplanned? Admittedly I went in expecting to like it, but that did not prepare me for the film’s exceptional emotional power, one of a fairly small number of films that have brought tears to my eyes. Yet you may not have heard of it. To say it does not appear to […]
The veritable nail has been hammered into the coffin of Irish TV comedy with RTE’s newest attempt to pander to the cultural Zeitgeist. If you haven’t seen ‘Comedy Showcase’, don’t bother. It’s dreadful. After watching one clip of ‘Bump’ I couldn’t help but wonder- what the hell happened in the seven years since The Savage […]
The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history. George Orwell, 1984 The recommendation of the National Council for Curriculum Assessment that the teaching of history remain an optional subject for the Junior Cert hardly came as a surprise. Anyone who read the 2016 NCCA background […]