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Conor McGregor and Irishness

Op-ed: Conor McGregor is the latest vehicle for the lie that binds the deep fissures within American society: that anyone can make it, if they are good enough

OP-ED

More than one in six Irish-born people over the age of fifteen people now live abroad, the highest proportion of any country in the OECD. This metric is a testament to generations of economic stagnancy. Despite De Valera’s famous promise …

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Labour has not protected ‘core’ welfare rates

The very notion of “core” welfare rates has its roots firmly in the neoliberal doctrines that the Labour Party have lapped up.

comment1When asked to justify their role as a junior coalition partner, Labour Party ministers and TDs usually argue that they have protected “core” social welfare rates, which otherwise would have presumably been slashed by Fine Gael. It can’t be denied …

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Feeble reality of Irish capitalism

Ireland’s weak economic base and reliance on foreign direct investment has defined our general self-perception just as Marx said it would.

Karl Marx famously said that the economic “base” of society determines its “superstructure” – the culture, politics, social institutions and so on. This has proved to be a compelling and often fruitful theory, even if its empirical justification is still …

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Studying philosophy has taught me nothing except how to survive misery

I have developed a virtue ethics specifically designed to help you not only survive, but thrive in periods of low-level misery.

comment1When you are stuck in essay purgatory, your perception of the world changes. You burrow yourself like a little mole into your study alcove. Emerging on rare trips from your lair, the sky presses in oppressively, you glare enviously at …