Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
The show began at the Riverbank Arts Centre in Droichead Nua, with Lisa supported by a group of very talented musicians as she read stories and letters, from a large old-style book, about a time before electrification, radio, and the dance hall, an emotional performance that also included songs from […]
The emergence of the bourgeoisie between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries from traders, merchants and artisans marked the beginning of the modern, capitalist era, beginning in Italy. This new social class, seeking political power to underpin and further its growing economic might, found expression in the Renaissance, which displayed its […]
History The theme of this alternative pride is the radical history of pride. As many people know, modern queer pride started in 1969, when queers, including many people of colour and then called transvestites (now you would say drag queens and trans people) fought back against a raid by the […]
The big item of conversation within the farming and rural community is the “Nature Restoration Law,” which is the EU Commission’s plan to restore more than a fifth of the EU member-states’ land and sea area by 2030. This is the first biodiversity law since the “Habitats Directives” in 1992; […]
Farmers always give the appearance that the last penny is in their pocket. Or better, hasn’t reached it yet. They might have 500 or 600 acres and they would still say, “It’s only a hobby.” No money in it, and talking about “giving it up” for fifty years. And yet […]
If you don’t work in tech, most probably you have heard of ChatGPT, and thought that it’s amazing. Actually many who do work in tech would share your amazement—a system that can mimic humans to the extent that, many argue, it can pass the Turing test, the gold standard for […]
In the preface of his book SuperIntelligence, Nick Bostrom writes: “The human brain has capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities (language, technology and complex social organization) that we owe our dominant position on the planet.” The question is whether these capabilities will […]
The recent events of June involving the death of five rich men dominated the media. As all eyes were on the Atlantic, in the Mediterranean those fleeing war, poverty and climate change were ignored as they drowned in the seas crossing to Europe. According to the EU commissioner for home […]
A pretence of listening to the people
Over the past few months the public, or at least a section of it, has been watching with interest the trials and tribulations of two high-profile political demagogues. We refer, of course, to the arraignment of Donald Trump and the British House of Commons voting to censure Boris Johnson. Yet […]
As the trade union movement gathers in Kilkenny for the ICTU biennial delegate conference, we must take notice of the changing demographics of union membership. The average age of union members is 48. Only about 12 per cent of members are under 30 years of age. Despite the number of […]
A Chara, I am writing to applaud the courageous decision by Dublin City Council to decline the application for a WW1 Memorial in Killester, and for their excellent maintenance of our publicly-owned green open spaces and trees over many decades. The majority of Killester residents do not want political controversy […]
During May a small but nevertheless significant gathering of peace groups took place in Brussels. The forum was hosted by MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, drawing activists from eleven countries. Both these MEPs have been the most outspoken against the war in Ukraine, both in condemning Russia’s invasion and […]
Sinn Féin, in a historical victory in the northern assembly, becoming the largest party with 27 seats compared with the DUP’s 25 seats, has crossed a threshold that looks likely to be repeated in the South in the near future. Countless articles have been written on the metrics and projections, […]
Q. What are the biggest ideological legacies that frame the current situation in Georgia. What role for instance, does the legacy of soviet Russia play in Georgian society today, and what has been the impact of the neoliberal turn that really took off in the mid-2000s? After the collapse of […]
One of the lasting effects of the continuing Cold War against all socialist thought and culture is the West’s denial of the art of socialist countries. This affects all genres in all the socialist countries. The work of these artists is rarely readily available to the general public, and sidelined […]