Tag: Culture
Oasis At Croke Park: The Triumphant Return of Gaelpop
Finally, the Gallagher brothers made a return to their country by blood to play two back-to-back nights at Croke Park. You may remember from my article last year when the band announced their reunion that I was unable to secure...
Kneecap: Why the Irish Left Will Regret Legitimising Ethno-Nationalism
The Northern Troubles famously originated in a Civil Rights movement that went off the rails and ignited a sectarian timebomb primed since partition. An attempt to import MLK-style civil agitation into the six counties kicked the canister onto a society...
The Bicycle – A Friend to Ireland
As a National Cyclist (NatCyc) I am growing weary of the cyclist hate seen regularly on my twitter feed. The bicycle has been a friend to Ireland, in particular the rebel, for a long time, and in this article I...
Aramark Controversy Misses Point on Asylum
Progressive minded tea drinkers have been taking aim at the National Gallery all month for the latter's freshly signed contract with the catering conglomerate Aramark. Getting itself into liberal Ireland’s bad books for taking business to do with the much...
Progressive politicking invades The Hist
Trinity College’s Historical debating Society, commonly known as The Hist, has a rather comfy position within the university resting on its laurels after centuries in operation. The quarter of a millennia old student society has acted as something of an...
The Decline of Poetry
In 2016, the organisers of the Rose of Tralee announced that contestants would no longer be allowed to recite a poem as their onstage party piece. The explanation was that poetry was “slowing down the flow of the show”. The...
The Underhanded Neo-Gombeens
I had a chat once with my old landlady about the meaning of that word 'gombeen' prompted by Varadkar appearing on the telly one evening. She said “I don't think there's any gombeens left anymore.” She spoke as if it...
The Necessity of the Irish Nation-State
I find truth in the observation that from the 1960’s onwards the scholars and thinkers of Ireland, and those unfortunate enough to unwittingly consume their opinions, elevated the external and the imported over the domestic and native. Persuaded by the...
Irish Conservatives and Nationalists Need a Mythos
There is much that can be said about Peter Hitchen's 2010 book, The Rage Against God, that is relevant to modern Ireland. Though the author delivers a critique of secularism from the platform of his Anglican faith, the trends that...
RTÉ and the Case for Reforming Public Service Broadcasting
No sooner had the toys from this year’s Late Late Toy Show been tidied away than the RTÉ suits were turning their attention to the real business of the night – the audience rating figures. It may term itself as...