The Black Hand Cafe
My ear is pressed up against the past as if to the wall of a…
Browsing: society
The Most Natural Thing in the World (I)
Build me a cabin in Utah Marry me a wife, catch rainbow trout Have a…
Towards the Brink of the Cataract
Unaware of the roaring cataract ahead, a small boy splashes in the dark river named…
Jack B. Yeats: Painting and Memory
Often overshadowed by his elder, Nobel laureate, brother W.B., Jack Butler Yeats occupies an exalted…
A Solution to the Housing Crisis
The penny drops as I listen to RTE’s Liveline. There’s a highly articulate woman in…
Where is Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World?
For Christmas two years ago, my mother bought me a copy of Sally Rooney’s novel…
Housing: Enshrining the Gambler
To understand the origins of the Irish Housing Crisis we also need to look beyond…
Cuban Love Songs Launch
In a rousing introductory speech, retired diplomat Philip McDonagh described the publication of Cuban Love…
Magick or Rationale?
the perpetuation of debt, has drenched the earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under…
Shakespeare’s Wisdom in Troubled Times
As a barrister I am given to quoting from Shakespeare’s plays in closing speeches. This…
A Grá for the Language
An grá is an gráin, say these two words out loud, say them out loud…
Our Barmy Bread
The appeal of exotic cuisines and esoteric diets has done little to diminish bread’s status…
Crappy Sleeper
I have a story for all kinds of weird sleep-related shenanigans. Walking, talking, singing, dancing,…
Roll Model: Dervla Murphy
Dervla Murphy’s father was one of Pádraig Pearse’s patriots. Schooled in St Enda’s, aged eighteen…
The Doomsday Machines – saving ourselves from ourselves (with audio)
https://soundcloud.com/frank-armstrong-649911741/the-doomsday-machines-ii-recording-1-2020-01-09-t01-29-51pm-frankarmstrong Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film ‘Dr Strangelove’ dramatizes the still not-altogether-remote scenario of Mutually Assured…
The Secret Model – Subtle Complaints
Entering the dragon’s den I arrive twenty minutes late for a casting, but it doesn’t…
HEY POCKY WAY
In the year of our Lord 2019, what remained engrained was an émigré from the…