Turning TINA
Yesterday’s editorials of The Irish Times and The Irish Examiner are politically instructive, that is to say, they illustrate a situation in which politics cannot take place. The differences in tone...
View ArticleKeeping it Real
Originally published on MediaBite. For as long as I can remember, coverage of the teachers’ conferences has provided journalists with a license for a spot of amateur anthropology, a chance to walk...
View ArticleIt’s racist, and you know it is
The title of this wee piece scans a little like a football chant. That might, at least at the start, make it easier reading for Ian O’Doherty of The Irish Independent. But it’s mainly a...
View ArticleThe Emperor is a Fighter Not a Golfer
(This article was first published in Crisisjam on politico.ie on 21/1/11. This is an updated version 24/1/11) Is there anything left to say about the spectacle of the last week? How do you sketch out...
View ArticleNothing but the Truth: the Deportation of the Izevbekhai Family
Pamela Izevbekhai and her daughters, Naomi (10) and Jemima (9) were deported from Ireland on Tuesday morning. Having been arrested at 1.30am, they were flown to Amsterdam at 6am, to be placed on a...
View ArticleIt Ain’t Easy Being Blue
If Darren Scully, the Fine Gael mayor of Naas, was feeling ‘sad’ yesterday, there is every chance his melancholy has taken a turn for the worse as today has progressed. Yesterday Cllr Scully was ‘sad’...
View ArticleThe crisis of multiculturalism: Europe’s imaginary friend
The live coverage of Anders Breivik’s trial in Oslo may be highly structured and subject to restrictions, but there is currently significant debate as to whether it nevertheless provides him with a...
View ArticleThe Irish Times publishes Morten Messerschmidt
When the Irish Times chose this morning to publish an article by Danish MEP Morten Messerschmidt arguing for Irish people to vote no to the Fiscal Compact Treaty Referendum it left out an important...
View ArticleDiscussing Charlie Hebdo
It is possible to mourn human loss without embracing everything those humans did. It is possible to mourn human loss while being openly disturbed that certain deaths are never mourned, and the reasons...
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