In August of 1915, Patrick H. Pearse, future president and commander-in-chief of the Provisional Government and Army of the Irish Republic, wrote a character study of the late Fenian revolutionary, Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, where he stated with approval that the latter was: “…not only ‘extreme’, but he represented the left wing of the ‘extremists’. Not only… Read More Not Merely Free But Gaelic 1916-2016
The magazine, Science, has a fantastic in-depth article reporting on research carried out into a treasure trove of prehistoric finds from northern Germany which have turned the world of Bronze Age archaeology, and what we knew of warfare and society in western Europe some three millennia ago, on its head: “About 3200 years ago, two armies clashed… Read More Evidence Of The Biggest Battle Known From Bronze Age Europe
Whatever else one may say about the muddled involvement of the United States and the Russian Federation in the dreadful Syrian civil war it has certainly given the armed forces of both nations the opportunity to test out their military equipment in live-fire conditions. One of the latest examples of this proxy-contest between the world’s former superpowers is a minute and a half long… Read More Russian Tank Meets American Missile In Syrian Proxy War
So a Roman Catholic priest, a Jesuit intellectual no less, condemns armed insurrection by a significant body of men and women against the colonial occupation of their island nation by a foreign imperial power, and their hope of establishing a democratic republic with equality for all persons regardless of gender, class or faith. Furthermore his words… Read More A Catholic Priest And The Message Of British Guns Good, Irish Guns Bad
My short post on Friday criticising the tone and content of the New York Times opinion piece, “Inventing the Irish“, has generated considerable interest over the last twenty-four hours, with some 50,000 views so far. Barry Kennerk, the author of the original newspaper article, has requested an opportunity to reply to this and the associated commentary, which I’m happy to publish below: “This… Read More Writer Barry Kennerk Replies To His Critics
A quick update on the divisive 1916-2016 centenary banner erected by Dublin city council at the prominent Bank of Ireland building in College Green which features images of historical Irish politicians Henry Grattan, Daniel O’Connell, Charles Stewart Parnell and John Redmond. The inclusion of Redmond, the early 20th century leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party and its paramilitary wing, the Irish National Volunteers, has… Read More The John Redmond Banner And Ireland’s 35,000 Dead
I’ve never really understood the grief some people feel at the death of a public figure, usually a celebrity of some description. Sure, one can feel surprise or shock at the sudden death of a notable person or some sympathy for the departed’s family and friends, but those who take to the internet to metaphorically tear out their hair and rend… Read More In Praise Of Garry Shandling
The New York Times has published an extraordinary opinion piece by the writer, Barry Kennerk, on the significance of the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising for contemporary Ireland. Extraordinary because it echoes an anachronistic view of our island nation that one would have expected to encounter a hundred years ago, not in 2016. It is essentially… Read More The New York Times Argues That The Irish Are Actually British
During the Easter Rising of 1916, when the revolutionary Irish Republic confronted the colonial British Empire in several locations across Ireland, the United Kingdom’s forces in Dublin found it necessary to construct a number of improvised armoured vehicles to spearhead their attacks against the well-entrenched insurgents around the capital. Seeking aid from sympathetic unionist business leaders in the city, the British Army was supplied with nearly twenty cars… Read More Improvised Armour, From The British Army 1916 To The Islamic State 2016
A quick post to recommend this short essay, “The Political Imagination: Irish Fantasy Writers and the Easter Rising“, by Rob Maslen over on the City of Lost Books blog. The article examines reactions to the 1916 revolution in Dublin and elsewhere from two different, if not unrelated, points of view. On the one hand there was James Stephens,… Read More Two Irish Fantasy Writers On The 1916 Easter Rising
A couple of recent video documentaries on the Kurdish struggle in Syria and Iraq. The first, “Kurdistan: Girls at War“, was broadcast last year by the Franco-German television channel, ARTE, focusing mainly on the fighters of the YPJ and PKK. Its interesting if slightly less questioning than it should be (and the title is a bit patronising). The… Read More Two Documentaries On The Kurdish War, Plus The Russians Get A Fright
These two interviews with the Australian war correspondent, Michael Ware, highlighting his traumatic experiences reporting on the conflict in Iraq, now presented in a new HBO documentary, “Only the Dead”. First up is a video from ABC News in Australia broadcast last June, followed by a recent appearance with Bill Maher on Real Time.
So, the regional justice minister in the north-east, David Ford, has disdained an invite to the official celebrations in the capital marking the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising. The leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI), which boasts of its supposed “cross community” credentials (by which it means it can attract some middle-class Catholic voters in the north who… Read More Orange Is Not The Only Fruit, Just Ask The Mandarins Of The Alliance Party
At the tail end of last year the former British army commander turned security “expert”, Tim Collins, writing in Britain’s conservative Sunday Telegraph newspaper on the Bloody Sunday Massacre of 1972, the attack on an Irish civil rights demonstration in Derry by UK troops that left fourteen men and boys dead, claimed the: “…Saville inquiry found that the IRA fired the first… Read More The Excusers And Apologists For The Bloody Sunday Massacre Are Still With Us
Last November I featured news from Britain on the decision by the Conservative Party government in London to make savage cuts to the public funding of S4C, the Welsh language television channel, and BBC Alba, its Scottish Gaelic equivalent. Now the SNP government in Edinburgh has intervened in the controversy, pledging to meet the fiscal shortfall in BBC Alba’s annual budget by continuing its… Read More The Scottish Government Backs BBC Alba In The Wake Of Tory Budget Cuts
On Saturday, March 19th 2016, an Irish edition of Jacobin Magazine will be launched in Liberty Hall, Dublin. The issue will explore Ireland’s revolutionary period from a socialist perspective, looking at the role played by workers and women who challenged the social order. To launch the magazine, in association with SIPTU, Jacobin presents the Workers’ Republic conference,… Read More #Jacobin1916 Launch 19.03.2016
At the end of last year I discussed the publication of a research paper analysing the ancient DNA remains of a number of individuals who reached Ireland during – and perhaps heralding – the Neolithic and later Bronze Age periods in Irish history. The mapping of their genomes by a team of geneticists indicated that those from the Neolithic era ultimately originated in the Middle East, modern… Read More Irish And Celtic Origins In The Late Bronze Age
From the United States (but of course), and more specifically, the city of Seattle (naturally), a video illustration of “100 Years of Beauty – Ireland“, a phenomenon which apparently separated the country into two separate fashion cultures for some place called “the Republic of Ireland” and an even more mysterious territory known as “North Ireland” (?). Which will come as a surprise to pretty much every… Read More When Irish History And Geography Meets American Earnestness
It seems likely that the IE Domain Registry (IEDR), the company that manages Ireland’s “.ie” country code top-level domain (ccTLD), is to go ahead with the introduction of “Internationalised Domain Names” to the Irish internet market. Stripped of the jargon it simply means that Irish-based websites using “.ie” at the end of their addresses will be able to make use of special or… Read More Internationalised Domain Names To Be Introduced For Ireland Namespace
Way back in June of 2013 a post on the Cedar Lounge Revolution asked, “Is the Seanad really a dumping ground for failed Dáil candidates?.” If the answer was a resounding “Yes” then, it is even more so now in the wake of the recent general election. From a report by the Irish Times: “Former Labour… Read More Rejected General Election Pigs Looking For A Trough
In recent days we have witnessed the bizarre spectacle of Dublin city council erecting a 1916-2016 centenary banner at the historic Bank of Ireland building in College Green, featuring the images of late 18th, 19th and early 20th century Irish politicians Henry Grattan, Daniel O’Connell, Charles Stewart Parnell and John Redmond. It has caused much… Read More John Redmond MP, The Historical Man And The Revisionist Myth
There are people of both genders around the world who oppose the provision of clinical abortion services to women for a wide variety reasons, be they religious, ethical or scientific. Most of these individuals are neither extreme nor intolerant in their general opinions or day-to-day lives. They simply hold a negative view on this one, admittedly controversial, medical procedure.… Read More Abortion Prohibitionists Choose To Victim Blame Women And Girls
