Striding briskly to your office one morning you pass the local park. Through the railings, you see a child struggling in the pond. Her arms flailing, her head has already disappeared below the water once. There is nobody else in sight. She is unknown to you. You are wearing your…

A few weeks ago, The Guardian’s Long Read podcast was a piece first published in the newspaper in April 1921. Under the title, The Clockwork Universe: Is free will an illusion?[i], Oliver Burkeman teased out the question posed by this sub-headline: A growing chorus of scientists and philosophers argue that…

Sinn Féin has consistently led political opinion polls in Ireland from the middle of 2021. Since then, its support has grown gradually rather than dramatically from the low 30s to the mid 30s giving it a lead of 10–15% over all other parties. Of course, as the cliché puts it…

Rishi Sunak’s anointment as leader of the Conservative party has brought about an abatement if not necessarily a sure cessation of the turbulence that has beset British politics and government for quite a while now. I will come back to the crescendo in turbulence that rose over the four months…

Most of us are familiar with the riddle of the Sphinx. “What being has four legs in the morning, two at midday and three in the evening.” The answer, we know, is human beings through their span from infancy to senility. I have written before of my affection for the…

It’s been one hour, eighteen minutes and twenty-five seconds Since we started this phone call… A friend of mine made a short trip from Dublin to Glasgow recently for a Coldplay concert. Travelling only with hand luggage, the journey out was uneventful. But, waiting in the boarding queue to return…

[I AM AWAY UNTIL MID-NOVEMBER SO THIS BLOG WILL APPEAR FORTNIGHTLY UNTIL THAT TIME. NEXT EDITION 19 OCTOBER] In April of last year, the Minister for Finance delivered on a commitment in the programme for the current government by launching a Commission on Taxation and Welfare. Chaired by Niamh Moloney…

Ireland is one of the very best nations in which to live on planet Earth. It is a remarkable place. Those are the arresting opening sentences of Mark Henry’s book, An Optimist’s Guide to Ireland at 100, published last year in anticipation of the centenary of Irish independence this year…

Until COVID brought things to a crashing halt in 2020, we had spent 20 successive annual holidays in Port Bourgenay on the Vendée coast of France about 10 miles south of Les Sables-d’Olonne, all but one in the apartment we bought there in 2000. Previously we would go for three…