Ireland's political and cultural magazine
By Christopher Stanley Litigation Consultant KRW LAW LLP Belfast. Last year I wrote piece for Village called The Accused and the Accusers: If Not Now, When? There,I offered an analysis of the proceedings of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse Inquiry (IICSA) in relation to its investigation into the allegations of child sexual abuse […]
As Covid-19 and other diseases spawn resistance to over-used antibiotics, phages – viruses that naturally infect and kill bacteria – may be a long-term replacement By Shane Raymond Doctors Globally worry daily about fighting Covid-19. However, some doctors and medical experts now worry not just about the damage the virus can cause, but about the […]
By Joseph de Burca. This week marks the 32nd anniversary of the assassination of the Belfast solicitor Patrick Finucane. In 1989 he was shot dead by UDA killers controlled by MI5 in front of his young family at his home. The British government continues to resist a judicial inquiry into the murder despite castigation from […]
By Margaret Urwin. In ‘The Intelligence War against the IRA’, Thomas Leahy, Senior Lecturer in Politics in Cardiff University, challenges the growing dominant narrative that the IRA was brought to the negotiating table in the 1990s because they had been ‘brought to their knees’ by British intelligence. Since the outing of State agents, Stakeknife and […]
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A poem in the pandemic, by Kevin Higgins after Brian Patten Now all the old gods have died or are on life support in the prison infirmary psychiatric wing we have a new name for the absolute: AstraZeneca. Even those who get emotional at dinner parties about the state of the planet know there’s no […]
Kildare Councillors flouted the public interest and perhaps the law in approving the sale of Council land without including its additional actual value to the purchaser as a “ransom strip” – following a valuation by a former Fine Gael Councillor.. By Fiona McLoughlin Healy. The role of Councillors in disposing of assets is an important […]
By Kevin Higgins Inspired by the apologies of British Labour Party leader Leader Keir Starmer for his party’s “anti-Semitism” and his recent appointment of a former Israeli intelligence officer as Labour’s head of social media. To any white South Africans hurt by the anti-Apartheid movement. To any tobacco plantation owner’s son barred by Emancipation from […]
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Drafters of the US Constitution foresaw violent demagogues, and Presidential Inaugurations have mostly befitted the momentous transfers of power By John Vivian Cooke. Exactly on the stroke of noon on 20 January, Donald Trump will be out of office. There will be no more lies, frauds, outrages, or broken laws from President Trump. His presidency […]
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Having failed to crush, flatten, or close our borders against it, as Winter begins to put its uncouth fingernails all over us there is talk of negotiations. King Virus comes to the table wearing a crown of spikes that fans out to fill the whole room and can’t be removed except on the day of […]
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Ireland will again exercise its place on the Security Council to promote consensus rather than vision and values. By John-Vivian Cooke Ireland took a seat on the UN Security Council for the term 2021/22 on 1 January. This is the fulfilment of a key strategic goal of Irish foreign policy. However, having secured that seat […]
London extradition hearing was the last stand of either Wikileaks founder or Western Intelligence Imperialism, and awaits January decision By Caroline Hurley Queensland-born Julian Assange (49) founded Wikileaks in 2006. Four years later it published several huge and devastating leaks provided by US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, including: the Afghanistan war logs, the Iraq […]
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Cloughjordan Ecovillage Two Decades On. By Caroline Hurley. Cloughjordan So Far In September 1999, at the Central Hotel Dublin, Gavin Harte and Gregg Allen launched Sustainable Projects Ireland Ltd. (SPI) trading as The Village, whose aim was to create Ireland’s first eco-village, with a stress on sustainability, community, and promoting mainstreaming environmentally-friendly ideas. Rising property […]
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Twitter rejects lockdown relatability ‘We all hate you’ By Sam White Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Placido Domingo, Idris Elba, Harvey Weinstein, Donna Air, 1960s songstress Marianne Faithful, Kodaline guitarist Mark Prendergast, Prince Charles, Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings, Prince Albert of Monaco, John Taylor from Duran Duran, Ireland’s Ryan Tubridy and Mary Lou McDonald, and ‘Bond […]
A note from the editor: This article is about the late Paudge Brennan, the Fianna Fáil Minister who resigned a little over 50 years ago after the eruption of the Arms Crisis. It is written by his son, Sean. Not surprisingly, it is partisan. It does, nevertheless, yield an insight into a perspective on Irish […]
By David Burke. A memo has just been released from Britain’s National Archives. It concerns discussions at the apex of the British government about salacious rumours relating to John Hume’s private life. It was sent to Sir Robin Butler, Cabinet Secretary to John Major’s government, and also to Major’s private secretary, Sir Alex Allan. Allan […]
By David Burke. George Blake has just died aged 98 at his dacha outside Moscow where Putin’s overseas intelligence service, the SVR, was protecting him from Covid-19. Blake was held in high esteem by the Russians. Putin has said that the “memory of this legendary person will be preserved forever in our hearts”. Putin awarded […]
By Andrew Lownie. A few weeks ago the Irish Times ran an article on the death of Mountbatten linked to the new series of The Crown in which the murder features in the opening episode. As the author of the most recent biography ‘The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves’, I was interviewed for the piece on […]
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Transgender people are not getting appropriate psychological or medical treatment and, in breach of WHO guidelines, are being treated as if they have mental health problems By Rachel Rathbone. I always knew I was female, from an early age. Never more so than when I went to primary school, an all-boys school with me, a […]
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Michael Smith reviews ‘The Men who eat Ringforts’ by Sinéad Mercier and Michael Holly, featuring Eddie Lenihan The title of the delightful ‘The Men Who Eat Ringforts’ gratifyingly, replicates the headline for a typically incisive article by Tony Lowes published in this magazine in 2010. It complained that there was no legal protection for ringforts. […]
Style with some substance By Mehar Luthra I used to pride myself on being the most politically unaware human on the planet. I revelled in my political illiteracy. Politics was a snooze-fest. Until, that is, the advent of Obama and Trump. Obama came along, made politics cool and accessible and inclusive and he actually talked sense. […]
