The word ‘unprecedented times’, to describe the current scourge that is raging across the globe, has become a daily soundbite amongst our politicians, our media and our public. In my unqualified opinion, they seem to be trying their best, in particular when you compare them with the basket cases that […]
In Brian Friel’s masterpiece drama, ‘Translations’, a young English soldier and a local Irish peasant girl fall madly in love. This happens, in spite of their inability to communicate through language and the fact that they come from cultural, polar opposites – the conqueror and conquered. The local learned school […]
One of our greatest weaknesses when reading and studying history about Ireland is often our failure to contextualise Irish history in comparison to what was happening elsewhere in the world. I have written a lot about the revolutionary period in Ireland, which covers our War of Independence and Civil War […]