Explaining the Shutdown with Trump’s Magic Eightball
Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice.…
Browsing: Current Affairs
Inside China: What My Students Knew about European Culture
Up to my retirement several years ago I taught spoken English at an agricultural university…
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Migrant Crisis
I raise myself into the UNHCR’s prefrabricated 10×20 ft unit; directly in front of me…
Irish Propaganda II – from Celtic to Paper Tiger
THE LONG READ: In the last edition ‘How Irish Propaganda Operates’ explored how political and…
Who did pay that Restaurant Bill Mr Varadkar?
Following an account of a New York banquet in a recent biography of Leo Varadkar[i],…
How Irish Propaganda Operates
THE LONG READ: Ireland is neither a totalitarian state, nor even a dictatorship. Nonetheless, the…
There is Something Rotten in the State of Democracy
On a recent visit to Athens I chanced upon the supposed tomb of Socrates near…
Into the Arms of America
I am sitting on a Frontier flight, a low-cost U.S. airline – basically the American…
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš Appears Oblivious to Our History
Andrej Babiš is a chameleon. At one point you see him on a poster beaming…
The Slow Death of White Male Privilege
The history books are laden with white men changing the world, from Alexander the Great…
Leo-Liberal
Leo Varadkar dismisses his father Ashok’s claim to be a socialist, which came in an interview…
Post-Truth: People of the Lie
Morality is the basis of things and truth is the basis of all morality. Mahatma…
Ryan Tubridy’s Ethical Flop
Ryan Tubridy is the highest paid broadcaster in Ireland’s state broadcaster, RTÉ, earning close to…
Alternatives to Italy’s Political Malaise
Seemingly out-manoeuvred by more experienced, and ruthless, political ‘partners’, the Five Star Movement (M5S) has…
The Audacity of a Third Party Candidate
The problem with writing about the U.S. Democratic Party, whether analytically, historically, or even as…
We Need Another ‘New Deal’ and Umbrella to Unite Under
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), U.S. President between 1933 and 1945, was born to enormous privilege.…
Steve Bannon’s Tour de Farce
Donald Trump’s former confidante Steve Bannon has been on a latter-day American Grand Tour around…
Inside the Heartland of Italy’s La Lega
At the age of sixteen, in 2001, I took a job in a small factory…
RTÉ Says: ‘Stars’ In Their Own Cars
One trail runs dry, but a scent hangs in the air. Pursuant to Stephen Court’s…
Leopold Bloom and the Art of Loafing
What does it mean to be a loafer? Loafing as an activity has always existed.…