(Not So) New To The Parish – #3 Father Ted, Or How The Snake Eats The Tail
I grew up watching British comedies, and I still watch many of them, with the likes of Bottom, I’m Alan Partridge and The League Of Gentlemen being particular favourites. Seeing Father Ted of course stuck out like a sore thumb....
(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...
(Not So) New To The Parish – #1 Celtic Tigers and Millennial Woes
This is 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 of sorts,...
Irish Big Tech’s Links To Left-Wing Activism
With social media becoming increasingly ingrained in the daily lives of users through laptops, smartphones and tablets, our ways of speech and expression can be said to reflect these developments and changes. To paraphrase the Canadian communications theorist Marshall McLuhan,...
Disquiet On The Eastern Front: Ireland Backs Colour Revolution in Belarus
The re-election of Alexander Lukashenko in August as the president of Belarus spurred protests and initiated widespread outcry on mainstream media. Much lionising has been made of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the opposition leader, who has recently called on Ireland to be...
A Virus Against Liberalism
The spread of the coronavirus has become an issue that not only dominates global news, but has come to directly affect how we conduct ourselves in our everyday lives. As late as the first week of March, talk and gossip...
The Proxy Warriors Of Balbriggan
Balbriggan is noteworthy for several reasons. Having grown rapidly in population in the post-Celtic Tiger years, the seaside town has one of the highest concentrations of people born outside of Ireland, and whose national origin is from outside of Ireland....
Corporate Social Responsibility In A Post-Irish Ireland
The winners of this year’s BT Young Scientist Awards saw much praise from mainstream Irish media. Entitled “A statistical investigation into the prevalence of gender stereotyping in 5-7 year olds and the development of an initiative to combat gender bias”,...
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...
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...