Given the Economist’s somewhat erratic policy of making material available for free online, it was a pleasant surprise to see that numerous pieces from its end-of-year double issue are easily accessible.One of the articles on America’s Most Hated Companies got me thinking. First, it made realize that, for a small country, Ireland has an abundance […]

The annual book-of-the-year lists (see here for an exhaustiveexhausting selection) is always an opportunity for those asked to nominate to showcase their taste, erudition, and, in some cases, their lack of both.However, I think the incomparable George Steiner deserves the laurels for recommending, in the December 2 issue of the TLS, the most intimidating tome […]

I have been so busy pontificating recently on political issues, that I neglected to mention, as I had hoped, that I caught the supposed “event picture” of the holidays, King Kong, over the weekend. Once I formulated the glib insight that the picture seemed to have grown fatter while its director became thinner, I was […]

While the first civil partnership ceremonies in the UK, which took place today in Belfast of all places, are to be welcomed as a reasonably sane and compassionate acknowledgement of reality, it raises the question of what effect this legal innovation will have on the island of Ireland as a whole. According to Slugger O’Toole, […]

Gavin’s Blog suggests that a website should be established to keep track of Michael McDowell’s actions. Yet given the spate of revelations about his past, it is arguable that there’s enough material to fuel a site chronicling the doings, past and present, of Frank Connolly. For example, The Sunday Independent (seen in some quarters as […]

In a piece excoriating know-nothing celebs preaching about the solutions to Africa’s problems, Paul Theroux takes aim at Bono: THERE are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can’t think of one at the moment. I have a suggestion: what […]

An interview with AA Gill that appeared in Thursday�s Guardian took what might be called a revisionist approach to its subject. That�s to say that the interviewer tried to persuade the reader that the Sunday Times� journalist and critic is not quite the jerk one would assume him to be.Actually, I have to admit that […]

On the subject of observing and being observed, I must mention the long, grim gander I took at myself in the bathroom mirror this morning. Usually these days I do not dally before my reflection any longer than is necessary. There was a time when I quite liked what I saw in the looking-glass, but […]

The cosy world of the Irish blogosphere seems all aflutter (see here, here, and here, for example) over the actions of Irish Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, who seems to have a gift for pouring Tabasco sauce over the stigmata of right-thinking Ireland. McDowell appears to have basically scuppered the recently established Centre for Public […]

Several weeks (months?) ago, I claimed that David McWilliams was consistently one of the best columnists working in the Irish print arena. Well, now he�s starting to grate a bit. Perhaps it�s a function of his heightened profile recently as he frantically plugs his new book (�The Pope�s Children�) in the run-up to Christmas. His […]