The Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes has unleased another wave of soul-searching in Ireland. How could a society claiming to be ‘Christian’ have failed to protect, and even to have harmed, its most vulnerable – unmarried mothers and their ‘illegitimate’ children? The harrowing accounts fit within a wider … Read more
The use of opioid-based drugs (heroin, codeine, oxycontin), increased access to opioid synthetics (fentanyl, carfentanyl) and prescription anti-anxiety medication such as benzodiazepines have skyrocketed globally over the past eighteen years.[i] This has led to an alarming rise in opioid-related disorders and deadly overdoses – from respiratory depression and cardiac arrest – worldwide. The Republic of … Read more
The total number of deaths attributed to the Coronavirus in Ireland had reached 22 by March 27th, from 2,121 confirmed cases. However, with 14 of those occurring over the previous two day it suggests that number could rise steeply. Indeed, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has warned that intensive care units may be at capacity ‘within a … Read more
You might think of the film ‘The Rocky Road to Dublin’ as some dated artifact, featuring Dub-a-lin in da rare auld times. But many of the cultural assumptions revealed in the film, and which later went towards hindering the film’s reception, are still very much alive in today’s Ireland. The sacred cows may have changed, … Read more
Out of Ireland have we come. Great hatred, little room, Maimed us at the start. I carry from my mother’s womb A fanatic heart. W.B. Yeats, ‘Remorse for Intemperate Speech’ (1931) With proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies, Irish elections tend to be colourful affairs. Debate rarely rises above the clamour of claim and counter-claim as … Read more