Today is the anniversary of death of Roger Scruton in 2020 There is a very interesting discussion between Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution and Roger Scruton on You Tube. In these times of Manichean witch hunts against anyone who does not sign up to a narrow left liberal agenda, it provides a breath of […]
IRA leadership displayed “managerial incompetence on an Olympian scale.” Former United States Marine John Crawley joined the IRA hoping to use his high level of military training. His book, The Yank, examines the military and political reasons why the IRA campaign failed.
BIG TALK: Peter Ryan with Matt Treacy
One of the key debates during the early decades of the Irish state after the 1921 Treaty was how to establish the foundations of an independent economic and financial system. Here, Peter Ryan who has written about some of the debates within the revolutionary leadership, discusses how the first Cumann na nGaedhael government more or […]
Listening to Health Service Executive Paul Reid dismiss the report by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre regarding the infinitesimal risk of Covid 19 transmission through outdoor activities reminded me of John Prine’s paean to doom. Prine sang that scientists,were “bastards in their white lab coats, who experiment with mountain goats”. There’s no suggestion that Mr […]
The worst bit about all of this, of course, is that we didn’t even get a link out of it. Like it would have killed the Deputy to send us a bit of traffic. Though, to be fair, the article in question did very well anyway: It’s a niche website & I’m not going to […]
James Connolly is often cited by the current liberal left movement as an icon, even though most of them either never believed in, or have ceased to believe in, Connolly’s goal of an independent sovereign Republic based on the generally understood concept of justice. Connolly was not a statist who advocated the replacement of private […]
Following the fitting commemoration of those killed at Croke Park in November 1920, it is apt to recall that the other main stand and the terrace adjacent to Hill 16 are also named in honour of two great Irishmen, Michael Cusack and P.W Nally, who also died in the month of November. Michael Cusack, of an […]
The sacrifice of the Irish fishery by incompetent negotiators prior to the state’s entry to what is now the EU in 1973, has long been regarded as one of the great betrayals of Irish sovereignty. Curiously, Ireland along with Norway in 1971 refused to accept the fishing proposals in which Irish, British and Norwegian waters […]
So that wealthy overseas investors could buy up the country? Luke Kelly wrote a poem some time around the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising lamenting the failure of the Irish state to implement the Proclamation’s pledge to “secure the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland.” With the exponential growth in […]
My grandmother, Esther Hannon, had two heroes other than Mattie my namesake granddad who was from Tipperary and whose own history remains a mystery. We are not closely related to the most famous Treacy who was from the football part of the county. She was a Dub going back generations, although her own mother, a […]
Gerry Adams’ announcement that he is retiring from politics brings to an end one of the most significant public lives of the past century. He is without doubt a major historical figure whose influence on events in Ireland was hugely significant. I cannot claim to have known him well. I did know him but I […]