Society

As Britain comes to terms with the worst riots seen there for decades, John Holden looks at some of the theories bandied about among psychologists and scientists to try and explain ‘mob mentality’.

From the schoolyard to the streets of the major metropolitan city, group behavior has its own crazy way of reminding humanity of our animalistic origins. With Britain’s riots now easing, the rush to explain such unexpected behaviour is on, with biological, psychological and geographical theories all in the media.

The only way to escape the current crisis is to default on much of the debt that caused this crisis in the first place: private credit lent to households that financed the bubbles in housing and shares since the early 1980s, writes Steve Keen.

The dramatic falls in share prices of Greek debt-laden French banks overnight (10 August) highlights just how closely tied the current market chaos is to the world’s worsening debt woes.

A successful appeal by a secondary school against a ruling that it had discriminated against a Traveller boy by refusing him admission is one more example of how the Irish education system is neglecting one of the most marginalised communities in the country. By Brian Moran.

The messianic nature of US presidential elections makes it unlikely that a winning candidate will promise anything but utopia. But we can't just will a better world into being with the power of positive thought alone. By Kevin McGeary.

Although full reconciliation is still a long way off in Northern Ireland, the Féile an Phobail community event in Belfast shows that it has come much further than many could have ever imagined. By Vincent Browne.

At a time when societal acceptance of homosexuality is once again being scrutinised, John Holden looks at attitudes in the animal kingdom towards the gay members of the herd.

The majority of primary schools in Ireland are still under the patronage of the catholic church, despite the fact that a significant of the population do not share this belief. Educate together schools provide a humanist alternative to this, where children are not segregated or ostracised because of belief, and where religion is taught in a historical context which highlights the comparison between world religions. By Justin Frewen.

Growing Diversity

New research suggests that women’s taste in muscular male strangers is more negatively biased when they are fertile. So if you don’t pull at the nightclub, could you blame genetics, asks John Holden?

The Catholic Church has sanctioned acts of terrible depravity for hundreds of years, writes Vincent Browne.

The “dysfunction, disconnection and elitism” which Enda Kenny said “dominates the culture of the Vatican to this day” did not start with the investigation into clerical sex abuse in the Cloyne diocese.

It has been the defining characteristic of the Catholic Church throughout history and abuses of an even greater scale than clerical child sex abuse have been a feature of that history throughout most of its existence.

Investing the €800 million saved through the interest rate cut on Ireland's bailout loan, and dispensing with spending cuts, would provide a real boost to the economy. But the Government may avoid such an approach for political rather than economic reasons. By Michael Taft.