Last week two young people were stabbed to death at London Bridge while attending a conference organized by the University of Cambridge on rehabilitation of prisoners through education. Boris Johnson and other Conservatives were quick to politicize the tragedy, implying the attack – by a convicted terrorist on day release – signified a failure of … Read more
For anyone to become an opinion writer for the ‘paper of record’, the Irish Times, requires considerable ability. But does a particular viewpoint give an aspiring columnist a distinct advantage? It is said that if you’re not a socialist in your twenties you have no heart, and if you’re not a conservative in your forties, … Read more
Overheard in the local last night D’ye go to mass at all? Ah, just the odd time, ye know, Christmas ‘n funerals. I see, I do go meself most weeks, don’t agree with it all but I like the words but I tell ye something ye get a very different class of a handshake down … Read more
The CASSANDRA VOICES MAGAZINE CHRISTMAS GATHERING will take place at TAILORS’ HALL, Back Lane, Dublin 8, on FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13th from 8PM. Tailors’ Hall is the oldest surviving Guild Hall in Dublin, and has been at the heart of the city’s cultural life for over three hundred years. Fittingly, this was a meeting place of … Read more
What is the experience of a refugee caught in the crisis on the Mediterranean Sea? Approximately 18,910 lives have been lost or are missing since 2014, including three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi in 2015; so far in 2019 there have been an estimated 1089 deaths.[i] Yesterday in a Dáil Éireann briefing room we heard testimonies … Read more
Two stories were in the headlines this October illustrating how money is undermining our values. ‘Ah,’ I hear you say, ‘a story as old as time,’ but before tuning out, let us explain what’s different this time, and why it really matters. Given the pace of technological change, the weight of power of two individuals, … Read more
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”60″ gal_title=”Featured Artist of the month: Doireann Ni Ghrioghair”] There is many a country that has decided to establish a capital city with grandeur, efficiency and unity of the central government. In ancient times, urban planning was pursued in Egypt, in a large number of cities in China, Greece and Rome. There are examples … Read more
The Steadfast-Starry Sky in the Shannon Do you remember last year when the weather was nice for ages? Six weeks of sunshine and warmth. There hadn’t been a picture-book summer like it. Not since 1995. I wasn’t living in Ireland in 1995 but still I know all about that summer. Sometimes, during a relentlessly … Read more
What is it they say about going bankrupt? Slowly at first, and then all at once. As we crossed the precinct yard and I saw the scale of the operation in real terms, the vehicles crowded into rows, still more throbbing outside, as I heard all those boots, I knew the slow part was coming … Read more
The great English chemist James Lovelock conceived the Gaia (Gr. ‘goddess of earth’) Hypothesis in 1972, later developing this alongside American microbiologist Lynns Margulis. Later still, Lovelock, aged eighty-seven, was awarded the prestigious Wolston medal by the Geological Society of London for his pioneering concept. Now firmly embedded in the zeitgeist, the Gaia Hypothesis posits … Read more