Ireland's political and cultural magazine
Portentousness is the word that best delineates most Anglo-American literary criticism. The canon seems to demand erudition and a souciant hauteur loaded with the jadedness of the cocktail party. That at least is the tone favoured by the Times Literary Supplement whose reviewers tend to devour books as AA Gill does restaurants. Attending functions when […]
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We should urgently select 1000 language-lovers to champion it
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Review of Conor Lenihan’s ‘Haughey: Prince of Power’
So, now we know it. The Arts Council is efficient. The Evaluation Unit of the Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht produced a Value for Money and Policy Review of the Arts Council that examined its activities from 2009 to 2012. It found: the Arts Council “operated efficiently in a difficult climate by applying a […]
John Bruton (Taoiseach 1994-7, Minister for Finance 1981-2, 1986-7) has a book out. His publisher, Currach Press, suggested journalists might like to interview the lively former Taoiseach. I signed up and an appointment was arranged. The morning of our interview the man from Currach texted to say Bruton was concerned it should be primarily about the […]
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Corruption and soccer. By Alina Mungiu Pippidi The international football association is so corrupt that if it was a country, it would be ranked somewhere in the bottom half. Intervention by the US Justice Department would be entirely justified. Speaking on Thursday, December 3, on the corruption indictments of additional FIFA officials (bringing the […]
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The descendants of the Tuatha Dé Danaan who constructed the temples along the Boyne Valley in 3200 BC left a legacy of architecture with calendars in stone, solar and lunar maps; and triple spirals bearing witness to their spiritual, scientific and astrological culture. The temples are older than Stonehenge, the Pyramid of Giza and for […]