Culture

Article Culture Gaeilge - Irish Language Ireland Latest

Athghabháil na hÉireann: The Cultural Reconquest of Ireland

“Tá dualgas ar gach saoránach Gaeilge a labhairt.” [“Every citizen has a duty to speak Irish.”]  These words of Máirtín Ó Cadhain, spoken in an earlier era of struggle, are finding new resonance in today’s Ireland. Across the nation, and particularly among the younger generations, a quiet but determined reconquest […]

Article Books Latest

Book Review: The Open Wound – Liadán Ní Chuinn’s Anatomy of Intergenerational Trauma

Liadán Ní Chuinn’s stunning short story collection is a courageous, unflinching diagnosis of an open wound. That wound is the legacy of the conflict in the British-occupied Six Counties. Ní Chuinn’s genius is to move beyond the strictly political to explore its precise, cellular-level damage within the nationalist community—how state […]

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Music, poetry, comedy and theatre performances at Connolly Books during December.

Music, poetry, comedy and theatre performances at Connolly Books during December. Leading musicians, comedians and actors will perform live shows in Connolly Books, and its associated New Theatre, every Thursday, Friday and Saturday in December. Launching on the 4th, it is a celebration of the largely youth-driven renaissance in Irish […]

Article Culture International

Festival Granma Rebelde

The 3rd International Meeting of the Theoretical Publications of Leftist Parties and Movements (15–17 October) and the 1st Festival Granma Rebelde (17–19 October) constituted an important programme leading to the Cuban National Culture Day on 20 October this year. Organised in a period of extreme difficulty for the people of […]

Article Culture Music

Shostakovich’s 13th Symphony ‘Babi Yar’: A Profound Reflection on Soviet Society, History, and Humanism

In 1962, Shostakovich composed his 13th Symphony, based on five poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. These poems reflect on Soviet society during the 1950s and 60s, exploring themes ranging from the suffering caused by Nazi Germany and the resilience found in humour, to the trauma of Stalinism and the strength of […]

Article Culture Current Affairs Ireland

Crime, Drugs, and Class: Breaking Ireland’s Cycle of Despair

Ireland’s working-class communities have lived with the shadow of the drug trade for decades. From the heroin epidemic of the 1980s to today’s cocaine economy, drugs have carved deep scars through families, schools, and neighbourhoods. Entire generations were written off, while governments looked away.  Today, the problem remains as sharp as ever. […]

Article Books

Book Review: The Searchers: Five Rebels, Their Dream of a Different Britain, and Their Many Enemies – Andy Beckett, Allen Lane, 2024

Ten years on from the unlikely victory of Jeremy Corbyn in the British Labour Party leadership contest, and his subsequent exile from the Labour Party following a Zionist-led smear campaign over accusations of antisemitism, it has to be asked if there’s anything new to say about that brief moment when […]

Article Culture Ireland

Palestinian GAA is a shared experience

From at least the 11th Century, Irish people have lived experience of genocide, imprisonment, starvation and expulsion from their land; and Ireland. Outside of Ireland, they have also experienced racism, inequality and exploitation. Countless Irish people have been excluded, banned and even deported from countries, just because they were Irish […]

Article Culture Ireland

Kneecap - Soundtrack to the Struggle, But Not the Struggle Itself 

In an era of cultural homogenisation and sanitised commercial music, Irish language, punk-rap trio Kneecap stand out as a raw, unapologetic expression of working-class resistance and international solidarity with the oppressed. Their explosive rise to fame is not just a musical phenomenon but a political one—rooted in anti-imperialism, socialist struggle, and […]

Poetry

Glastonbury 

A poem in Irish and English by Gabriel Rosenstock  (for Kneecap)        Glastonbury  Legend has it that Jesus himself came here  With Joseph of Arimathea.     Jesus the Carpenter lent a hand to build a church  Of clay and wattles made     Incitement of love was His desire     […]