Category: Culture & Arts
What Explains Covid Youth Shaming in Ireland?
There was much crying and gnashing of teeth from politicians and government officials Saturday over mass outdoor gatherings of mostly young people in Dublin and Cork. After over a year’s worth of lockdowns, the drink-filled gatherings were lambasted by a...
Will Liberal Morality Triumph?
In the first essay of Friedrich Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morality, the philosopher outlines the antagonism between what he describes as master morality and slave morality. Nietzsche, living in the latter half of the 19th century, is disgusted by...
Agallamh le Clann Éirí Gréine
An Burcach: I gcúpla fhocal, mínigh dom cad é an grúpa atá agaibh? Chlann Éirí Gréine: ‘S muid sluagh (grúpa) athbheochán cúltur 's teanga na n-Gaedheal abhaile 'gus trasna na domhain eadar muinntear Ghaedhealach ann fosta. Ba mhaith linn do...
When Wilhelm Reich Inspired Solar Cults in Roscommon
"Deformity in Conformity, I Found This, I Found This" “Sorel […] reproached Maurras for being too democratic, a reproach which, at first glance, can appear paradoxical. In reality, what Sorel wanted to say is that Maurras, positivist and intellectualist, had...
James “Lugs” Branigan: Lessons from An Era of Paternal Policing
At his retirement dinner in 1973, Chief Superintendent of the Gardaí Patrick Malone — a man not known for exaggerated statements — described Branigan as “one of those people who become a legend in their own time”. Born in 1910...
Reflections on the Resurrection: An Easter Musing-Michael Sonne
I recently had a Zoom meeting with a Dominican priest who serves the parishioners of St Saviour’s in Dominick street. We touched upon the events leading up to Christ’s imprisonment, in which the proposed God of the universe commands his...
St Patrick’s Confessio
The following is a 2004 translation of our national saint’s autobiographical Confessions by Pádraig McCarthy — Beannachtaí Lá Fhéile Phádraig daoibh go léir! My name is Patrick. I am a sinner, a simple country person, and the least of all...
Being Easily Offended is a Form of Status-Signaling
There is a common notion among people about how someone being easily offended is an indication that they just can’t control their emotions. While this is true, another dynamic is being overlooked. When someone gets offended about something you said,...
Why does it Matter that the Nativity Scene at the Vatican is Ugly?
In the spirit of a modern artist, the Vatican’s nativity scene might turn to the traditional defense of those who seek to defend the ugly, ‘I say it’s art, who’s to say it’s not art?’. In doing so, one is...
The Protestant Reformation was a Revolution of the Rich against the Poor
To the average person, when asked what the Protestant Reformation was all about, they will usually give some answer about how the Catholic Church just became too powerful, or how it caused the religious wars of the 17th century. Which...