This year’s James Connolly Festival runs from Tuesday 6th to Sunday 11th May 2025 with almost all events taking place at Connolly House and The New Theatre. It will include a week-long James Connolly Art Exhibition. Seven artists have been invited to prepare prints and paintings that will be available […]
Culture
Book Review: Western Marxism: How it was Born, How it Died, How it can be Reborn, by Domenico Losurdo
Western Marxism (WM) by Dominico Losurdo, translated into English and published recently by Monthly Review, is an important work exposing the idealism, pro-imperialism and eurocentrism (i.e. the paternalistic approach towards struggles in the periphery) of western Marxists. In the introduction, the book explains that WM is not a geographical orientation […]
Book Review: Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic by Ilan Pappé
Ilan Pappé, as readers may know, is one of the most controversial of Israel’s “new historians” after having sacrificed his academic career there by publishing extensively on the buried history of the Nakba and challenging official Zionist accounts of the colonisation of Palestine. His most recent work, Lobbying for Zionism […]
The German Peasants’ War
The German Peasants’ War (1524–1525) was a large-scale social and political uprising in early modern Europe, where peasants, who constituted the majority of the population, revolted against the oppressive feudal system. Trapped in servitude, the peasants were burdened with labour and levies to the nobility while a growing bourgeois class […]
Book Review: The Revelation of Ireland 1995-2020
Diarmaid Ferriter, who has come to be something resembling the public face of “History” in the respectable Irish media, has cannily inverted the title of his popular 2004 work The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000 in his latest book The Revelation of Ireland 1995-2020, which represents a sequel of sorts outlining […]
250th anniversary of William Turner’s birth
In 19th-century England, a new realism in painting emerged, driven by the country’s advanced capitalist development compared to the European continent. Landscape painting became the hallmark of this realism, particularly with William Turner (1775–1851). Turner’s work sought to capture the immense forces of nature while reflecting social transformations. A lifelong […]
Book Review: Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice, by Rupa Marya and Raj Patel
Rupa Marya and Raj Patel, authors of Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice, successfully cover an impressive range of topics in a coherent, extremely readable volume. When we speak of the book’s readability, in this case it is a testament to superb skill in using technical language when […]
Book Review: Against the Crisis: Economy and Ecology in a Burning World by Ståle Holgersen
“Let us outdate my book”, Ståle Holgersen writes on the last page of his book, Against the Crisis: Economy and Ecology in a Burning World. “We must change reality so that librarians will be able to move this book from the political section to the historical one.” His critical optimism […]
Heinrich Mann’s The Loyal Subject– A Sharp Analysis of Power and Submission on the 75th Anniversary of His Death
Heinrich Mann, brother of Thomas Mann and in his own right one of the most significant German writers of the 20th century, died in exile in California 75 years ago, on March 11, 1950. His literary work, deeply concerned with social justice and political change, remains relevant today. Mann’s writing […]
50 Million Tons
Gaza is now 50 million tons of debris How do you measure 50 million tons of debris? How do you weigh 50 million tons of debris? Go teach our children! 50 million tons of debris […]
Kneecap (dir. Rich Peppiatt, 2024)
Language, Identity and Modern Belfast Irish is often considered a relic of the past. Kneecap, directed by Rich Peppiatt, obliterates this notion with a brash, hilarious, and poignant quasi-biopic of Belfast’s working-class Irish-language leftwing rap trio. Starring Mo Chara (Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh), Móglaí Bap (Naoise Ó Cairealláin), and DJ […]
Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat by Hannah Proctor
How to fight while healing? Hannah Proctor spells out this, and other core questions of Burnout clearly as she engages with literature, historical examples, and her personal experiences. From the Paris Commune to Jeremy Corbyn, Proctor brings out illustrative examples of emotional experiences in left politics and revolutionary activity. In […]
Fragments of Victory: The Contemporary Irish Left
Edited by Oisín Gilmore and David Landy, Pluto Press, 2024 Social movements and radical politics were largely marginal in Irish society when I was growing up in Donegal during the Celtic Tiger. Even the Shell To Sea campaign, important as it was, hadn’t really registered with me or anyone I […]
In memory of Michael Longley (1939-2025)
Michael Longley, one of Ireland’s most celebrated poets, passed away at 85 on 22nd January 2025, leaving behind a remarkable legacy spanning more than 50 years. His death marks the end of a significant generation of Irish poets. Longley was born in Belfast in 1939 to English parents, the same […]
Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney
In her latest novel, Intermezzo, Sally Rooney continues her exploration of intimate relationships, albeit with a shift away from the clear political critique that characterised her earlier works. Its focus lies on what makes personal relationships successful, and, surprisingly, on unconditional love as something close to God. Rooney’s previous novel, […]
Review: Lost Gaels by Peadar Thompson, and Blood & Thunder – Rugby and Irish Life: A History by Liam O’Callaghan
In the past few months, two important contributions to Irish sports history hit the shelves of bookshops around the country. Labelling these books as Irish sports history is potentially reductive, as both authors make it very clear that the history they write is a shadow of what we would call […]