The prize painting in the National Gallery of Ireland is, without a doubt, Caravaggio’s depiction of The Taking of Christ. The painter presents us with an iconic image of Judas in the act of betraying Christ with the sign of a kiss, as previously arranged with Roman legionaries, who are depicted in costumes from Caravaggio’s … Read more
Do you know the feeling of wanting to discover secrets that aren’t being spoken aloud? For a while I thought it was an esoteric way of preserving knowledge. I imagined there were savants to seek out, to turn to. And in search of traces, I became passionate about chasing and searching for the threads of … Read more
At a recent debate organised by the English-Speaking Union (ESU) at its HQ, Dartmouth House in London, we considered whether the British government’s response to Covid placed too great a priority on security rather than liberty. Naturally I took the liberty side of the argument. I expressed the fear that such a public forum as … Read more
On the last day of February, the first Ukrainian refugees arrived in Serbia. Radoš Đurović, the director of the Center for the Protection and Assistance of Asylum Seekers in Serbia believes that approximately 600,000 Ukrainian refugees will come to Hungary and will be expecting them to come to Serbia, once Hungary has reached capacity. Despite … Read more
I met Vladimir Putin once. Or, at least, I was in the same room as him, no more than thirty or forty feet away, for several hours. Not much further than Macron recently in Moscow. In August and September 2000, the last time Ireland was lobbying for a seat at the UN Security Council, I … Read more
Don’t you ever read the papers? Roderick Spode is the founder and head of the Saviours of Britain, a Fascist organization better known as the Black Shorts. His general idea, if he doesn’t get knocked on the head with a bottle in one of the frequent brawls in which he and his followers indulge, is … Read more
Foreword Sometime in early 2022, in the middle of the fourth or fortieth wave of the corona virus, I got a message from my old friend, Stefano Schiavocampo. He told me that he was editing for a magazine in Dublin and he’d like me to contribute. “Me?” I thought, “What would anyone need to hear … Read more
You enter here a taut quintet Where theorists can shift or shape How we make sense of market flow; How men and how it’s mostly men, Explain the ways our commerce works. No Flash of insight, more a slow Encroachment that in turn creates Our understanding how by stealth New certainties of common sense Construe … Read more
In two hundred years doctors will rule the world. Science reigns already. It reigns in the shade maybe – but it reigns. And all science must culminate in the science of healing – not the weak, but the strong. Mankind wants to live… to live. Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent (1907), p.263 This article charts … Read more
I can barely make out Richard´s handwriting on the piece of torn paper. “Second left” I say, looking down at the words. “After the farm…with eh, the eh, big stables.” “I think we just passed it.” Richard says, looking behind him. “Eyes on the road dude!” I shout. “Please!” I´d almost reached for the wheel. … Read more