The Harry-and-Meghan saga rumbles on, and one reason for the attention it is given is that people see it as a focus for dissecting family relationships. Let’s face it: we all have complications within our family constellation. There may be a problematic uncle who seems to have let the side down. There is possibly a…
We face a difficult series of commemorations, for sure, with the centenary of those troubled times between 1920 and 1923 – the War of Independence, the Black-and-Tan war, the disputed Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Civil War. Small wonder that our elders, our grandparents and parents, said so little about those times. There were aspirations of which…
When the history of Ireland in the decade of 2010-2020 is written, one picture will surely dominate: the photograph of thousands cheering outside Dublin Castle as the results of the abortion referendum were announced. Some participants were, literally, dancing in the streets. The picture has already illustrated the front cover of David McWilliams’ recent history…
Really, I was only ever superficially aware of the disaster of Chernobyl. Yes, I remember when it happened in April 1986, and that it was awful, and indicative that the Soviet Union was hopelessly badly organised – something I had seen in visits to Russia and the USSR anyway. And I admired the work that…
One of the most uplifting Christmas presents I received was an old cassette tape – remember those listening tapes once played on a cassette machine? Well, I still have, and use, a cassette machine. Back in the 1990s, my late nephew gave me a tape of some Dublin schoolchildren re-telling their versions of Bible stories…
As a new party, Aontú did well in the Derry constituency of Foyle for the UK General Election: Anne McCloskey got over 2,000 votes and saw an increase in support for her party. Yet, in terms of the overall political picture, it’s surely also a welcome development that the SDLP, which had been wiped off…
Lord Jonathan Sumption is a well-respected British judge and historian, who has served as a Justice of the Supreme Court. But what he now says about the increasing power of lawyers in the interpretation of the law is deeply significant. I have been much impressed, this year, by his short book Trials of the State:…
Who do you believe – Prince Andrew or Virginia Roberts? In the midst of a general election in Britain, as many people were discussing this as the state of the political parties. Virginia Roberts – now using her married name of Guiffre – appeared on a special BBC Panorama programme on Monday night, which made…
When I spoke at the Ennis Book Club Festival earlier this year – an enjoyable and rewarding event – discussion turned to the changes seen in Ireland over the past fifty years or so. An older woman – a retired schoolteacher much esteemed in the community – stood up to say: “I do think we…
Here’s a sad post-adoption story which emerged last week: a 60 year old man was informed by Tusla, the child and family agency, that the mother and father he believed were his birth parents were in truth his adoptive parents. They had never revealed this – they are now dead – and he was stunned…