In the presence of the gentry, Old Kenny the peasant, doffed his cap, crooked his knee, arranged his face in an expression of obsequious servility and said: ‘Savin’ yer presence, yer honours, but sure ’tis all our own fault, for we’re a feckless nation an’ not used at all at all to the ways of [...]

What is unacceptable about dreams
for Illan
is not the terror we feel
but that we create them
that the twin towers meant first
the globalist dream
& only later humanity
& people who were falling not flying
this is the terror we fear
that we dreamed of the falling tower
William Wall is the author of four novels, a collection of short fiction and, [...]

One of the many things that we hear repeated ad nauseam in the context of the present rioting in London is that the rioters are ‘feral’, ‘yobs’, ‘thugs’ or more generously ‘disaffected youth’. All the talk from Cameron and his cohorts is of crime and punishment and ‘the full force of the law‘ - as [...]

I have been thinking about the present scandals enveloping the Catholic Church in Ireland. People say, ‘How could they do it, men and women of God?’, or ‘How could they believe in the Gospel’, etc. The bafflement is understandable since the Church has always represented itself as a form of institutionalised [...]

Book Review: Sins of The Father by Conor McCabe, The History Press, Dublin. (ISBN 13: 9781845886936 ISBN 10: 1845886933)
Like a ship in distress or an army in retreat, Ireland is awash with rumours about what caused our downfall. Among certain liberal citizens the idea has taken hold that we’ve all been doomed by a kind [...]

The death of Rachel Peavoy in Shangan Flats, Dublin, on the night of January 10th 2011, a bitterly cold night in the coldest winter in living memory, stands in so many ways as a metaphor for Ireland itself. She died, according to the pathologist, of hypothermia. There is no avoiding that judgement. According to her [...]

Introduction
The University College Cork Chairman of Ógra Fianna Fáil, the tiny youth wing of one of the smaller parties in Ireland, has apologised for his remarks on the adoption of children by gay couples. His remarks came in a post to his blog which has now been deleted. However, fortunately for scholarship, the Google caché [...]

Whatever happens in the coming weeks in terms of forming a coalition government, this election represents a great leap forward for the Irish Left. That’s not how the media here sees it - naturally - but it’s still objectively true.
In the last Dáil (parliament) the left vote stood at approximately 15%. After this election that [...]

I was reading a fascinating article in the Canadian Journal for Traditional Music recently. The article was about AL Lloyd, the great English collector of folksong. Lloyd had a remarkable life - orphaned at 15, sent to Australia by his relatives to work as a labourer on the sheep ranches, educated himself through distance learning, [...]

I woke early this morning and, as always on such occasions, my conscience got to me - atheists have notoriously active consciences. I’m inclined to think I may have wronged poor Davie Adams. An Dorcha is right that his former associations shouldn’t matter and anyway the situation in the North of Ireland at the time [...]