Fact is a poor story-teller. It starts a story at haphazard, generally long before the beginning, rambles on inconsequentially and tails off, leaving loose ends hanging about, without a conclusion. It works up an interesting situation, and then leaves it in the air to follow an issue that has nothing to do with the point; … Read more
Brilliant white cinder-block walls and pastel-coloured floors. In between, lightweight partition walls carve up what is essentially a warehouse, and inspire confusion in short tangential corridors. Varying odours and temperatures permeate the air, where a multitude of individuals experiencing homelessness have the fortune of a roof over their head. Some move quickly, others slowly, some … Read more
It was exciting to meet the enthusiasm at the inaugural meeting of Talamh Beo, a grassroots organisation of farmers, growers and land-based workers on the island of Ireland. It aims to ensure a living landscape, where people and ecosystems thrive together. Inspiration comes from the Landworkers’ Alliance (UK), which in the five years of its … Read more
Just a few years ago the prospect of Irish unity seemed remote. However, things are changing. Power-sharing has broken down and the Northern Assembly has been suspended for over two years. On top of that, a combination of a demographic shift in favour of Catholics, and the Brexit-influenced warming of some Protestant voters towards Irish … Read more
Bull Moose is a monthly bulletin discussing the politics and society of the United States. A Gift to Dems – should they take it… The news that Donald Trump had not been adjudged to have colluded with the Russians prior to the 2016 election was greeted with elation on the Right and disappointment and annoyance … Read more
Back in Dublin again, I was one of thirty, all-male trainees destined to become the camera, lighting and sound operators with the new television service. I started late, in November 1961 and found the first work ambience I had ever enjoyed. We were based in the hall of a school near Ringsend and then in … Read more
Irene H. Going into your house, I sat in the conservatory waiting for the door to open. Waiting for your familiar rasping voice to call, “Mann! Herzenskind, komm rein.” I remained there still in the leather chair, trying to pluck up the courage to open the door and be met with emptiness. You’d snuck out … Read more
The idea of home is a recurring Irish preoccupation – níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin.[i] This can be traced to a history of Famine dispossession, and a subsequent Land War. The Irish Constitution still commits the State to supporting women as home-makers.[ii] It perhaps explains the vehemence of recent criticism, from across the … Read more
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”38″ gal_title=”Featured Artist of the Month: Hector Castells”] These poems belong to the Puddle Heroes series, by the hectic fish. Puddle heroes is a collection of pictures of puddles with people on it, people not necessarily drowned as much as free floating They are the icons of all the rhymes that follow. All … Read more
The use of xenophobic language by Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro, known as the ‘Trump of the tropics’, reinforces a dangerous narrative in which refugees and migrants are portrayed as threats to national security, writes humanitarian worker Bruna Kadletz. FLORIANÓPOLIS, Brazil – In his first official visit to the White House, Brazil’s new Far Right President … Read more
Inferno in the Alpine foothills of Northern Italy near Vercelli and Biella, Piedimont. [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”40″ gal_title=”NoComment: Inferno in the Alpine foothills of Northern Italy near Vercelli and Biella.”] https://cargocollective.com/francescotaurisano/BIO
‘What is law?’ This is a fundamental question posed at the outset of any course in the philosophy of law. The standard form of response includes that it is a system of rules, according to a tradition known as legal positivism. Such is a ‘black letter’ lawyer, and Anglo-American approach. This is a product of … Read more
‘Descend the stairs, bend your legs, melting one by one. / Open your mouth to the snake in the sand, swallowing you one by one.’ So begins the first single from our latest album. It’s one of my treasured moments in the meandering Loafing Heroes journey: in how it came about, how it was constructed, … Read more
In the inner world, time has a way of standing still long enough so you can come to your senses. Then you can have eyes that see and ears that hear. My Aunt Jewel taught me this more by example than with words. She had no use for words and she wasn’t really my aunt. … Read more
Once I had finished it I didn’t understand my own poem, so how could you? There had been a moment when, possessed by a sort of deftness, I had made choices about matters such as line length but now all that had left me. I was confused. The intriguing question is what path led me … Read more
Jesinta got back in touch with Manus through the internet. Face-book. He had stuck his name and a photo of himself up, and someone from his distant past had got in touch with him. For Manus it was a timely, and much appreciated contact He was down in the dumps living in Dublin. An old … Read more
