All posts by Kevin O'Rourke

Raging at Bono

I am not a fan of U2. I first encountered the band in 2003 at the opening ceremony for the Special Olympics, at a time I was vaguely aware of a song called Beautiful Day and didn’t even recognise Pride...

/ 10/11/2018

Houses as Cars and the State of Dublin Planning

If you want to sell a car in the European Union, your offering has to meet quite a lot of very specific standards. For example, Commission Regulation 1008/2010, a six-thousand-word epic: “… concerning type-approval requirements for windscreen wiper and washer...

/ 31/10/2018

The Perilous White Male Rhetoric

The students’ union in Trinity has a new president, one Shane De Rís. He apparently doesn’t like me (or indeed himself) very much. “I want this to be the last time four white male candidates stand upon this stage. I...

/ 08/03/2018

The Curious Case of the Canadian Psychologist

One day I requested Jordan B. Peterson’s first book, Maps of Meaning, from the university library stacks. I already had an electronic copy and watched the whole lecture course, so the hassle was probably a waste of time, but I...

/ 29/01/2018

The Built-In Revolution in Free Markets

Indy100, the Independent’s sort of sideshow for the less literate, was delighted with Ryanair’s woes last month. “Theresa May hails the free market hours after Ryanair cancels flights of 400,000 people,” it crowed, the implication obviously being that if the...

/ 30/10/2017

Women in Surgery, Humans in Surgery.

Last year, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland set up a working group on Gender Diversity in Surgery. Professor John Hyland, president of RCSI, took to The Irish Times last week to give us an update. In an opinion...

/ 15/10/2017

An Unjust Law and Ascough’s Dilemma

You wanna know what you need to make a basic 12-gauge shotgun? It’s pretty basic stuff. You need a metal tube, 18.5mm wide, and a screw will suffice as a firing pin. For further information go to YouTube and search...

/ 01/10/2017