Category: Ireland
John Mitchel: The Fenian Who Fought the 19th Century
It is quite fitting that John Mitchel’s birth year coincided with the final defeat of the great Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo. Born as the son of a Presbyterian minister near Dungiven, County Derry, Mitchel was from what could be described...
The Gaelic State in the Past & Future-Darrell Figgis
Extracts from a 1917 text by Sinn Féin activist and subsequent Treatyite TD Darrell Figgis on the genesis and function of the pre-conquest Gaelic state. A Nation is crowned when it exists in the world not only by virtue of...
Fitzcarraldo: The Triumph of Gaelic Autism
“Hey, white boy, what you doin' uptown? Hey, white boy, you chasin' our women around?” – The Velvet Underground, ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’ A film whose production process was mired with difficulty — owing to the technical problem of...
RTÉ’s Holy Show: Has the Church Dropped the Ball on Evangelisation?
A caller to a Catholic apologetics show recently asked for some advice on how to evangelise his dear old mother who had somewhat of a checkered attitude to religion, particularly Catholicism. The apologists reply came back swiftly and without reservation....
Margaret Buttimer: Remembering Clownworld’s Irish Prisoner This Christmas
As turkeys are carved and selection boxes pilfered throughout the nation, one Bandon home will be without a key member of their household this Christmas. A grotesque reminder of just how far off the rails the country has erred in...
An Irish Progressive Rethinks the Borg
It’s hard to believe, in the current year of 2021 CE, that Star Trek: The Next Generation was once seen as the cutting edge of progressivism. It’s true that it introduced a ship’s counsellor to the show, not to mention...
8% of Revenue Threatened by Vehicle Electrification Budget Office Warns
Doubts were cast upon the ability of the Irish State to successfully transition to a promised one million electric vehicles by 2030, with a new report by the Parliamentary Budget Office warning of a potential dip of 8% in state...
(Not So) New To The Parish #2 – From Norf FC to Skibbereen
This is the second part of a series of articles in which I intend to look at various aspects of Irish cultural and social life through the eyes of a foreign onlooker. It is intended to be a cultural autobiography...
Alice Glenn At 100: Catholic Ireland’s Rearguard Action
The 35 year constitutional crusade to place the Irish state on a progressive footing came to a thundering end in the courtyard of Dublin Castle the Summer of 2018 with the erasure of the right to life for the unborn...
The Spooky Saga of Dr Bassalat
Following a grueling imprisonment at Maghaberry Jail, the Palestinian rights activist Dr Issam Hijjawi Bassalat tastes freedom for the first time in 15 months. His case is one that begs more questions than answers about the practices of British security...