A review of Seán O’Casey: Political Activist and Writer, Paul O’Brien (Cork University Press), £45.00 “May you live in interesting times!” Whether offered as a blessing or a curse, this well-worn phrase certainly applied to the life of the great… Continue Reading
Few in Ireland would have imagined, even a couple of years ago, that a vote to liberalise abortion would be so decisively won. The referendum on 25 May that repealed the Eighth Amendment to the Irish constitution which made abortion… Continue Reading
A review of Judith Orr, Abortion Wars: The Fight for Reproductive Rights (Policy Press, 2017), £12.99 Abortion is as old as womanhood. Throughout history, abortion has been a necessary and accepted part of women’s lives. However, rights to abortion have… Continue Reading
A review of Aaron Edwards, UVF: Behind the Mask (Merrion Press, 2017), £14.99 UVF: Behind the Mask is a vast if somewhat episodic account of the killings, feuds and internal factionalism of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force written by… Continue Reading
Abortion has rarely been out of the headlines in 2016. Women have been leading an unprecedented surge of resistance to attacks on already limited rights to access to abortion. Mass protests at both ends of Europe, on its western shores… Continue Reading
The problem with political anniversaries is that they often focus on specific dates in the past without any recognition that they are part of a longer process. Easter Monday 1916 is an iconic date in Irish history that all and… Continue Reading
Ireland is undergoing a form of shock therapy and major political changes are in the offing. The government has embarked on pay cuts and reductions in the public sector as its principal strategy for getting out of a recession that… Continue Reading
Ireland, once hailed as the success story of neoliberalism, is undergoing a traumatic economic crash. In its wake a political earthquake is brewing that could shape its politics for decades to come. Formerly known as the “Celtic Tiger”, the Irish… Continue Reading