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New Eventsno events posted in last week
Blog Feeds
The SakerA bird's eye view of the vineyard
Public InquiryInterested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
Human Rights in IrelandPromoting Human Rights in Ireland
Lockdown Skeptics
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international / arts and media Friday January 14, 2022 - 13:55 by Gary Jordan
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Look at what we are left with! ... read full story / add a comment 
international / arts and media Friday October 29, 2021 - 23:53 by Gary Jordan
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Once a fraud, always a fraud. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / arts and media Tuesday October 26, 2021 - 22:11 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
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Review of James Bond No Time To Die film The latest Bond flick No Time To Die was certainly a rollercoaster ride of exciting action scenes and great special effects, yet contained more than a quantum of longueurs. With a running time of 163 minutes it certainly tries the patience and the bladders of its audiences (who I saw popping out of the cinema throughout the film). Personally, I think 90 minutes is enough for any film, especially since the disappearance of the intermission and ice-cream selling of yore. In this case, the increased length seems to have been to incorporate backstories of some of the individuals involved. The effect of this is to attenuate Bond’s appearances in the film, while adding very little to the story (hence the longueurs). One effect of this narrative style is to put more emphasis on the story of Bond and less on the usual geopolitics and action we associate with Bond films. ... read full story / add a comment 
national / arts and media Sunday October 24, 2021 - 14:42 by Gary Jordan
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Stoking The Flames of Hatred And Manipulating The Minds Of The Masses ... read full story / add a comment 
national / arts and media Sunday October 17, 2021 - 19:55 by Irish Inquiry
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Consistently f!u season has been winter fodder for the Irish press. Until it vanished at a time when officials needed to boost c0v!d case numbers. Convenient. It's claimed it disappeared due to stringent public health guidelines which strangely didn't quash c0v!d. Now officials need a scapegoat for spiraling hospitalisations post vaccine roll-out & any flu will do. #FlipFlopFluFallacy ... read full story / add a comment 
national / arts and media Tuesday September 21, 2021 - 22:38 by F. Makay
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If you believe the government will lift the restrictions in October, I have beachfront property in Switzerland I can sell to you. I firmly believe there are a lot more worse lockdowns coming instead unless the public unite to say no. ... read full story / add a comment
national / arts and media Sunday September 19, 2021 - 17:17 by Gary Jordan
John McGuirk from Gript thinks it's all just a conspiracy theory. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / arts and media Thursday August 26, 2021 - 17:56 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
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This paper looks at how elites use different methods to stay in power, especially language manipulation. ... read full story / add a comment
international / arts and media Wednesday May 05, 2021 - 21:57 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
Born in controversy but then ignored in its youth, the film Salt of the Earth has matured beautifully into a classic film in the neorealist style. Set in Zinc Town, New Mexico, a mining community with a majority of Mexican-Americans strike for working conditions equal to those of the white, or “Anglo” miners. The town and the mine is run by Delaware Zinc Inc. who refuse to negotiate with the workers and the strike goes on for months. The story focuses on Ramon Quintero (Juan Chacón) and his wife Esperanza Quintero (Rosaura Revueltas) who is pregnant with their third child. Ramon is arrested by police and beaten in prison at the same time his wife gives birth to their new baby. ... read full story / add a comment
international / arts and media Tuesday April 27, 2021 - 20:15 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
*This article contains spoilers* A well-meaning New Orleans judge, Michael Desiato, finds himself in a frightening situation when he discovers that his son, Adam, was in a hit and run accident with a son of the local mafia boss, Jimmy Baxter. Adam had been visiting the site of his mother’s death when approached by local guys. He drives off at speed only to drop his inhaler on the car floor during an asthma attack. As he struggles to drive the car and pick up the inhaler at the same time his car is in a collision with Jimmy Baxter’s son’s first spin on his motorbike. Rocco Baxter, the son, chokes to death on his own blood at the side of the road as Adam panics and drives off. When Michael realises who the dead boy was he tries to protect his son by arranging with Adam to cover up what happened. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / arts and media Saturday February 06, 2021 - 18:17 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
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The general problem of culture today is its ability to facilitate and support negative aspects of society through encouraging escapism, diversion and ignorance regarding many important issues of contemporary life, such as economic crises, repressive legislation, poverty, and climate chaos. Or worse still, the use of culture to promote elite views of society regarding power and money, as well as imperialist agendas through negative depictions of a targeted ethnic group or country. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / arts and media Wednesday July 29, 2020 - 19:17 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
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“We are slipping back from the age of reason into the mire of mystery, into a world of gods and devils, ghouls and angels. The difference this time is that we have chosen ignorance over knowledge, vapidity over insight, folly over realism. Consequently, we only have ourselves to blame when the rich and powerful take advantage of us.” – Andrew Davenport Introduction Why do we need to talk about Romanticism? What is Romanticism? And how does it affect us in the 21st century? The fact is that we are so immersed in Romanticism now that we cannot see the proverbial wood for the haunted-looking trees. Romanticism has so saturated our culture that we need to stand back and remind ourselves what it is, and examine how it has seeped into our thinking processes to the extent that we are not even aware of its presence anymore. Or why this is a problem. The Romanticist influence of intense emotion makes up a large part of modern culture, for example, in much pop music, cinema, TV and literature, e.g. genres such as Superheroes, Fantasy, Horror, Magical realism, Saga, Westerns. I will look at the origins of Romanticism, and its negative influence on culture and politics. I will show how Enlightenment ideas originally emerged in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Church and led to the formation of a working class ideology and culture of resistance. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / arts and media Saturday May 02, 2020 - 15:23 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
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Should sustainability and affordability be a major factor in the design and development of future buildings? What about aesthetics? There are many individual examples of modern buildings today that have positive aesthetic qualities, but can major future problems, like climate change, be resolved by individual efforts? Or will it take the role of the state with grand visions for the future? ... read full story / add a comment 
international / arts and media Tuesday January 21, 2020 - 01:30 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
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Quentin Tarantino’s new film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is a 2019 comedy-drama set in 1969 Los Angeles and features a large ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. The story centres around veteran actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), star of the 1950s Western television series Bounty Law, and and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Dalton is worried that his career is in decline and is reticent to take advice to travel to Italy to make Spaghetti Westerns. Cliff Booth also struggles to get work in Hollywood due to rumors that he murdered his wife on a boating trip. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / arts and media Monday December 30, 2019 - 18:18 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
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The Factory “And such should childhood ever be, The fairy well; to bring To life’s worn, weary memory The freshness of its spring. But here the order is reversed, And infancy, like age, Knows of existence but its worst, One dull and darkened page;—” by Letitia Elizabeth Landon – The Vow of the Peacock and Other Poems (1835) ... read full story / add a comment
international / arts and media Tuesday December 17, 2019 - 13:16 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
The importance of theatre is demonstrated by the prevalence and variety of forms it takes both locally and globally in society today. Indeed, over the centuries theatre has played an important sociological and ideological role. It has been used both by communities and elites to propagate and spread ideas for the consolidation of society (Morality plays), for social improvement (Neo-Classical plays) as well as instigating and promoting revolutionary ideas (Brechtian theatre). ... read full story / add a comment
international / arts and media Friday November 15, 2019 - 14:07 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
Poetry is often associated with genteel people and laid-back lifestyles, yet over the decades since the Enlightenment many poets have been actively involved in the most radical of political and art movements. Setting up a solid foundation for such attitudes was the poet extraordinaire, Alexander Pope. In this essay I shall look at the connection between poetry and socio-political struggles over the centuries. From Pope to the Chartists, and from the Irish revolutionary poets to the postcolonial writers writers of Africa, poetry has played an important part in social change. The recent explosion of global demonstrations and rallies has also been connectioned with radical poetry as will be seen in Chile for example. ... read full story / add a comment
international / arts and media Wednesday May 22, 2019 - 06:33 by CommonCommune
The last season of the Game of Thrones has prompted public outcry and culminated in a petition (signed by almost 1 million outraged viewers) to disqualify the entire season and re-shoot a new one. The ferocity of the debate is in itself a proof that the ideological stakes must be high. ... read full story / add a comment 
international / arts and media Thursday December 14, 2017 - 22:32 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
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Christmas is an ancient feast that has many positive associations for people around the world. While the bible places the birth of Christ in Bethlehem it does not say when, but by the 4th century the Churches in the East were celebrating it on January 6 and the Churches of the West on December 25. One thing is certain about Christmas is that it is rooted in many traditions and superstitions relating to nature that existed long before Christmas and many have continued in one form or another to the present day. The many strands of Christmas can be seen in the variety of different traditions associated with, or originating in, places all over Europe. These strands are, inter alia, the solstice, the Nativity, Saturnalia, Yuletide, St Nicholas, Father Christmas, and Grandfather Frost (Ded Moroz). ... read full story / add a comment 
international / arts and media Monday December 04, 2017 - 18:03 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
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In 1762 Jean Jacques Rousseau published his book, The Social Contract, in which he wrote, “In Greece, all that the populace had to do, it did for itself; it was constantly assembled in the public square.” Rousseau was well aware of the importance of public spaces when it came to political change. Indeed, the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 showed the power of the populace against armed guards defending the medieval fortress, armory, and political prison in Paris which at the time represented royal authority. Interestingly enough, the decision had also been taken to replace the Bastille with an open public space and the fortress was demolished within five months. Since then many open public spaces around the world have been the centres of political activity. ... read full story / add a comment |
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