Articles
Essays, reviews, and commentary on literature, history, politics, and ideas.
In Defence of the Gàidhealtachd
Activists concerned to protect the oldest of all living Scottish languages have been wrongly accused of perpetrating a sort of nationalist essentialism.
They Heard the Call
A history of Ireland’s main Catholic seminary has a much wider focus than the merely institutional
Stalking Truth
Geraldine Mitchell’s four collections have in part sprung from insights gleaned from a lifetime of covert observation
In Rothko’s Rooms
Ekphrastic poems allow a poet to amplify and expand the meaning of the piece of art being viewed.
Dream Time
The pursuit of the common good, Pope Francis argues in a new book, needs societies to focus
The Anti-Freud
Dr Trotter challenged Freud, asserting that ‘all human psychology … must be the psychology of associated man, since man as a solitary animal is unknown to us’
The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
It was once possible to regard the judge Sergio Moro as a zealous, perhaps overzealous, prosecutor of corruption.
Taming the Past
The terms ‘victim’ and ‘perpetrator’ are not mutually exclusive, in the present or in the past.
Voices from the Chorus
Given the historical amnesia that prevails, Katrina Goldstone’s account of the activity of Irish left-wing writers in the Thirties is something of a revelation.
The Europeans
Eurosceptics have been predicting the collapse of the EU for twenty years now, sure that the citizens would realise it was all an impossible dream
Webs and Networks
In popular imagination, the Arts and Crafts movement is indelibly linked to well-known figures like William Morris, John Ruskin and Edward Burne-Jones.
No Myth No Nation
A state will be at a loss if it doesn’t know where it came from.