Culture

By Michael Smith A recent article in Village, ‘Obesity obeisance’ (June 2015) suggested Ireland was in the manipulated throes of a spurious fatness ‘epidemic’ contrived by industry machination, junk science and twenty-first-century angst. The article was an example of truthiness, a righteous gloss on truthfulness – minus the core ‘truth’ element; and thankfully a number […]

By Brian John Spencer George Orwell wrote that sport is war minus the shooting. Like a ritualised clash between two tribes sport allows men and women to spill their primal energies, growing and bonding as human beings in the process. I played rugby every weekend from the age of seven with Instonians at Shane Park, […]

By Kenneth Ruxton The passion for art had been there since I was a child though I hadn’t created any works of art since I was fifteen years old, thirty-three years ago. In early 2012 I was sitting on my mother’s couch, unemployed for over a year and I decided to start creating some art […]

Frank Armstrong reviews Thedore Zeldin’s ‘The Hidden Pleasures of Mankind: a New Way of Remembering the Past and Imagining the Future’. Contemporary job insecurity is more than a byproduct of prevailing neo-Liberalism. Technological change often reduces the need for labour inputs. A serious mismatch has emerged between skills and the requirements of our economies. Only […]

Michael Smith replies to a recent article in Village which misled about obesity

One of the greatest world megalithic complexes is ill-served by its visitor centres, tired technology and poor accessibility.

Professionalism sidelines the near-brilliant who won’t do second best. Brian John Spencer replies to Jim O’Callaghan’s article in July’s Village which said that rugby had become a spectator not a participant sport