The Wrong Side of History
On September 30th 1938 a clearly euphoric British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain returned home to a huge cheering crowd at Heston Aerodrome in West London. He had spent the previous days in Munich with other European leaders, in meetings hosted...
The MacGill Controversy: A Storm in a Bubble
In the midst of the biggest housing crisis in the history of the state, the longest ever hospital waiting lists, and the potential outcomes for Ireland in the ongoing Brexit negotiations, you might think that an obscure political summer school...
Welcome to Post-Catholic Ireland
On a cold January afternoon in 1922, Irish history changed forever in the courtyard of Dublin Castle, as the last Viceroy of Ireland handed over the keys of the city’s most historic building to the new Provisional Government of the...
A Proposal for a Course on National Studies
What with the “Beast from the East”, the upcoming abortion referendum and the ongoing crises in health and housing, you’ve most likely missed a double celebration of the Irish language that’s languishing at the bottom of the media’s priority list....
Judging 80’s Ireland
The long overdue apology by an Garda Síochána issued last month to Joanne Hayes, whose life was blighted forever by the almost forgotten “Kerry Babies” scandal, has triggered a thoroughly risible campaign to re-write recent Irish history. The media coverage...
Conservatives Should Care About the Decline of the Centre Left
In covering international affairs over the past year the Irish mainstream media has almost exclusively focused on the fallout from the Brexit referendum and Donald Trump’s three ring circus in Washington. You could be forgiven for thinking there was little...
Is there Hope for Renua as Ireland’s New Conservative Party?
It was a crisp Saturday morning in January 2014 when I joined almost 1,500 concerned citizens in the RDS for a “Monster Rally” organised by the Reform Alliance. The alliance was formed four months earlier by five former Fine Gael...
Australian Referendum: An Inside Perspective
As I write my first article for this journal, I’m watching the ferries meander around Sydney’s Circular Quay and considering how a loose-lipped drag queen ended up prompting my latest visit down under. In early 2014, Rory O’Neill (aka Panti...