What a beautiful day to be a nihilist. The sun shatters like a wine glass on the sheer ocean. Someone is stretching a canvas on the patio. Little blue flowers whose names I will never know sprout up in the grass, crickets trill, an empty crab shell contemplates existence on the window sill— the compost … Read more
It is thirty years since I consumed my last drop of milk and the food scene for vegans in Ireland has changed considerably in that time. Back then options for eating out were fairly limited, although there were always a few vegetarian places along with Indian, Italian and Chinese restaurants that could easily cater for … Read more
Automation in a variety of sectors could liberate millions from mind-numbing labour. But despite technological advances workers’ earnings have stagnated since the 1990s, while the rich have grown seriously richer, as we face an unemployment cliff. A powerful remedy to the impending obsolescence of many types of work, and grotesque inequality, could be the introduction of … Read more
At the height of the Vietnam War, torching U.S. flags at anti-war demonstrations became something of a burning issue for many patriotically-minded Americans. Most states brought in laws criminalising such actions, but the US Supreme Court twice struck these down, holding that desecrating the star-spangled banner is protected by the First Amendment, which regulates freedom of … Read more
Editor’s Note: The presumption of innocence is a hallowed principle central to the Rule of Law. Human rights lawyer and founder of the Innocence Project in Ireland, David Langwallner rails against a culture of Political Correctness that permits trial-by-media of alleged sexual offences, leading to a distortion of male-female relations. He identifies this with an … Read more
The Irish-based Go Vegan World is the largest vegan education campaign worldwide. Its sophisticated advertising campaign has got under the skin of the animal exploitation industries, who have attempted, unsuccessfully, to shut it down. In this article founder Sandra Higgins explains the ethical considerations that animate her grassroots movement. Most people imagine themselves to be … Read more
Where to begin the story of Roger Casement, humanitarian crusader, knight of the British realm, and 1916 revolutionary? Lawrence of Arabia wrote that he had ‘the appeal of a broken archangel’; Joseph Conrad said: ‘He could tell you things! Things I have tried to forget, things I never did know”; Edmund Morel described him as … Read more
It is necessary for him who lays and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope. Niccolo Machiavelli In the summer of 2007 I agreed to teach a law course to visiting American … Read more
We are a little more than a year into the Trump Administration, and the US President shows no sign of slowing down. His behavior – erratic to some, predicable to others – and character (vanity fueled by obsession with, well, what is he not obsessed with?) have propelled a global audience into a compulsive cycle … Read more
70 I’d like to set you to The tune Of ‘Wolves A-Howling’, So you can make no tarrying, And hurry Out across The peaks of wild Arkansas, The heights of south Missouri: Make haste, O Lord, to help me, Make haste, O God, to seize me, Can’t you see the wolves a-howling All round my … Read more