This is the first instalment of a three part essay on the legacy of the Great Depression.. The Great Depression began in 1929, leading Wall Street bankers literally to throw themselves from windows. I was shown one such exit site on 45th Street 5th Avenue in Manhattan. Lives were destroyed as a favourable market collapsed. … Read more
Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost. Dante Alighieri Religion is an emotional need of mankind. The rationalist may not want it, but he has to admit that other people may… Let’s not leave out a single god! […] Let’s be … Read more
It is often said the current Irish housing crisis is mainly the result of a lack of supply of new houses; a supply that slowed down and never really fully recovered following the burst of the property bubble in 2008. Developers lament a lack of initiative in governments past and present; housing plans replace one … Read more
Before a recent online poetry reading I was invited to meet with other international participants. I assumed the purpose was to gain a little insight into the other writers’ work. In fact, one of the main reasons – I was informed by our overtly gracious American host – was to establish which pronouns we would … Read more
As a UCD undergraduate I recall Professor Tom Bartlett likening Irish history to a pint of Guinness, ‘with black representing ownership of the land, and the white froth everything else, including all the political movements.’ Old habits die hard. The issue of property remains a paramount concern. By the year 2004 Ireland’s rate of private … Read more
A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business” Henry Ford. “Improving Employee Wellbeing”. “Creating Social Good”. “Sustainable Procurement and Consumption”. “Fair Pay for Fair Work”. These are just some of the slogans used by people talking about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR, hereafter), which refers to practices benefitting society at large, … Read more
Contemporary marketers must simultaneously think global, local, and glocal factors in order to stay ahead of the curve, or just keep up, given evolving market conditions and a growing attention to ‘bespoke’ needs. The IT revolution – plus the possibilities that AI, deep and machine learning have to offer – have washed away static approaches … Read more
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics “That’s how you learn. But after you make the same mistake one, or two, or five times, you’ll eventually get it. And then you’ll make new mistakes.” Louis Sachar, The Card Turner (2010) Managing … Read more
A fundamental difference between modern dictatorships and all other tyrannies of the past is that terror is no longer used as a means to exterminate and frighten opponents but as an instrument to rule masses of people who are perfectly obedient. Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1966) It is, perhaps, notable that as a … Read more
In December 1899 Honolulu-based physicians attributed two deaths to bubonic plague, and a local paper duly announced that the ‘scourge of the Orient’ had arrived.[i] Within months a first plague fatality was reported in continental U.S. as Chinese-American Chick Gin (Wing Chung Ging or Wong Chut King depending on the transliteration) succumbed to the disease … Read more