Few of us give thought to the names we grant our diseases. William Styron complained that the word “depression” didn’t aptly describe the all-encompassing void that was his illness. Rarely do we relate our cancer to the crab-like appearance after …
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How dare they take our Pav grass
The Trinity Summer Series left a hole in our lives.
“Though nothing can bring back the hour/ Of splendour in the grass,/ of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find/ Strength in what remains behind”
I’m a man of simple pleasures. Sunshine, somewhere to lie down, a …
Northern Ireland should reject the Irish Language Act
Efforts should instead focus on depoliticising the language, and encouraging cross-community promotion
Four months after the Assembly election in March, Northern Ireland still has no devolved government. A long-running dispute behind the political deadlock concerns the introduction of an Irish Language Act. While Irish has official status as a national …
Pools, lakes and sandy beaches: summer at home in the States
It’s been a little over two weeks since I landed in Boston, for the first time since December, and it’s good to be home. We had pretty awful weather recently, and when you work at a pool that is less …
Corbyn offers a new path to success for the Left
The growth in Labour’s support, with a proudly left-wing manifesto, is important. It has disproven the consensus that to win, you have to move to the centre.
The narrative of last week’s British election result – one of Corbyn and Labour confounding expectations to a degree no one expected – has already been well documented. But it is worth restating briefly the scale of the achievement: Labour …
Trinity’s rise in the rankings a good start, but funding and internal reform still needed
The recent rise of college in the QS rankings should be commended, as rankings matter. However, it does not alleviate the need for increased higher education funding.
During the year I overheard someone from the SU talking about a special rankings commission he was involved with. The problem, he said, was how many academics had absolutely no interest in rankings: they considered it an insult that someone …
Politicians are making war with the media
Politicians have embraced a new strategy to avoid dealing with difficult questions: discrediting those who ask them.
In 2009 the Obama administration excluded Fox News from a round of interviews with an executive payroll manager due to its unfavourable reporting. They declared that they were a wing of the Republican Party, rather than a news organisation. Jake …
Trying to understand a UK general election awash with confusion
The use of spin and slogans over coherent policy communication has made this election hard to follow.
Whatever individual, company or special taskforce has been charged with formulating party messaging in this general election, all of their work be traced back to one original source. That is Original Source, the shower gel manufacturers, the company with a …
An awkward entanglement
Daniel Gilligan analyses the relationship between church and state in contemporary Ireland.
The comments which prompted an investigation into Stephen Fry for blasphemy related to a fundamental and intriguing theological question: If God is all-knowing, all powerful and infinitely good, how can suffering be so ubiquitous?
Progressives might find themselves asking a …
The great divide in our students’ union
The proposal and failure of a motion on BDS at the last Congress both show up the weaknesses of TCDSU
Only class reps can vote, but anyone can go to an SU monthly congress, and they are fascinating things. Speeches for or against motions can only be about 2 minutes long. For the motion to support BDS at the most …