The afternoon of Christmas Eve, just as it’s beginning to get dark, Mum opens the black oak sideboard in the hall. We crowd around, the little ones shoving and pushing. Frantic to see the treasures inside. The whole house already smells of Christmas – the ham simmered overnight in its blanket of floury paste, now … Read more
In December the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) published a comparatively critical review of the government’s Budget 2024. Criticisms of ‘bad budgeting’ arose from the ‘lack of transparency,’ and the use of ‘fiscal gimmickry.’ IFAC defined the latter as ‘creative accounting techniques’ used to make the numbers ‘look more favourable than they are.’ The Irish … Read more
In Ireland, North and South, the Arts Sector, currently, is a sinecure. Those middle-class mentalities which dominate, and, indeed, hold most high profile positions, would argue vehemently against such – as they would see it – an offensive statement, but nevertheless I believe it to be a fair characterisation. ‘Stephen says bitterly, “It is the … Read more
In 1967, the fidgets struck again. That was the year my mother died, rapidly following my father. I confess now that I was not obviously upset by the deaths of my parents. In the culture of my generation and class, love, certainly any public expression of it, was an embarrassment. Such namby-pamby language was confined … Read more