Ireland's political and cultural magazine
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Former NASA chief climatologist, Jim Hansen has a prejudicial knack of being right a lot more often than he’s wrong. And when it comes to projecting the future path of climate change, he has an equally unfortunate habit of being well ahead of the scientific posse. Back in the sweltering summer of 1988 Hansen testified […]
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As predicted a month ago in Village, and following a pathetic shadow dance by the two main parties, climaxing as Village went to press with Fianna Fáil’s rejection of Fine Gael’s offer of Partnership in a government with them and a few Blueshirt-diluting independents, the former two giants of Irish politics still have little choice […]
The issue of standards for community work might seem a bit on the esoteric side. Yet, they cannot be ignored by anyone concerned about our unequal and harsh society. They need to become a central point of reference for a community sector under ever increasing threat and pressure, if it is to continue to make […]
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Transgender issues are becoming more visible. Last year’s Gender Recognition Legislation was mostly progressive and things are improving. However, it’s not all plain sailing for this community and their families. Families of transgender people face many challenges as their loved one undergoes a gender transition, and often have to shelve their own emotional needs as […]
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Review by Michael Smith Enda Kenny’s former legal adviser has published a book. Jennifer Carroll MacNeill tells “the inside story of the process by which judges were chosen over the past three decades, both in cabinet and in the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board”. Barrister (and former solicitor), Dr Carroll Mac- Neill has worked as a […]
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Christopher Hitchens, no stranger to contrarian positions, once wrote a remarkable polemic called ‘The Trial of Henry Kissinger’ impugning Kissinger for being as guilty as any common war criminal of crimes against humanity. In evidence Hitchens proffered his inculpation in the murder of democratically-elected Chilean president Salvador Allende. After General Pinochet assumed power Kissinger told […]
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The Arts Council and the County and City Management Association (CCMA), the local government management network, have just agreed ‘A Framework for Collaboration’. The Framework culminates thirty years of collaboration between the Arts Council and the local authorities. It is promoted as a new way for these partners to work together, maximise the impact of […]
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When probed by critics to contextualise their vast collection of photographs of industrial architecture, Hilla and Bernd Becher stated that, “just as the medieval thought is manifest in a Gothic cathedral”, then “so too is the industrial age captured in the machinery once scattered across our lands”. For more than 40 years the Bechers, husband […]
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Barely noticed, outside a few articles recalling its early days as pirate station Phantom, alternative music radio station TXFM announced at the end of March that it will shut down before year’s end. Unfortunately, despite a recent rebranding, TXFM was never able to attract more than 19,000 listeners according to JNLR surveys, a number which […]
Isn’t it nothing sort of remarkable that the Irish Independent failed to explore the extraordinary role played by Michael Noonan and his officials in the Department of Finance in the Project Eagle affair until just after the votes were counted in the February election? While the newspaper had covered the story over several months it […]
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It’s a couple of years since I observed somewhere or other that, if Enda Kenny chose to have an election in the springtime of 2016, he would fight it not against Micheál Martin and Gerry Adams but against Pádraig Pearse and Joseph Mary Plunkett. So it has come to pass, although this meaning of the […]
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It’s hard to remember now. It is more than a month ago. Who remembers the delayed European Commission Country Report on Ireland, the one that got postponed until after the February election so it would not influence the voters? There was all sorts of hype about the timing and what the European Commission was or […]
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After the General Election the political vista remains hazy. A minority Government led by Fine Gael but backed by Fianna Fáil looks the most likely after Fianna Fáil’s churlish rebuttal of Fine Gael’s Partnership Proposal. Before the election, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil said they refused to go into coalition with one another. Sinn Féin […]
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On March 8 this year – International Women’s Day – Dubliner Victoria Curtis posted a photograph of her recently bruised face on Facebook, and wrote: “This is what misogyny looks like. This is what being a faggot looks like. This is what happens women on Saturday nights walking home with their friends. This is what […]
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The situation is stark according to the report issued in late March. 56% of LGBTI people aged 14 to 18 year old have self-harmed, 70% have had suicidal thoughts and one in three has attempted suicide. Compared to the ‘My World National Youth Mental Health Study’, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and/or intersex (LGBTI) young people […]
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When Mr Justice Feargus Flood – the Planning Tribunal’s original sole member – embarked on his mission for the truth, he was wont to require various parties to provide him with full and frank “narrative statements” to answer the many and varied allegations of wrongdoing made by Mr James Gogarty in an affidavit he had […]
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Bullying of a child by staff, unauthorised searches of bags and belongings, infestations of vermin, and rooms with no heating and broken windows … just another day in the life of Ireland’s direct provision system. Copies of letters of complaint by asylum-seekers, all of which were upheld after investigation, paint a grim portrait of life […]
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So, now we have been promised a “Government working to give every person equality of opportunity in a fair society” in the Programme for Government. Leaving aside the limited ambition as goals of equality of opportunity and fairness, the Programme does contain a raft of equality commitments. There is something for nearly everyone in the […]
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I am in favour of liberal laws on abortion. I once initiated an abortive master’s thesis about it, coming down in favour of the liberal approach. This magazine has always taken a liberal stance, outlining all the obvious anomalies in the Irish regime. We have devoted cover and editorial space to the issue and given […]
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Rural Ireland faces depopulation and outward migration. This is fed by limitations in access to transport, broadband and many services and supports which also undermine the quality of life for those who want to stay. However, rural Ireland maintains strong local communities. Its economic value and social role in agriculture and associated activities, mean that […]
