A group of Irish artists together with the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) have launched a cultural boycott of Israel. By Eamonn Costello.
At a gathering in Dublin's Temple Bar, creative and performing artists undertook to boycott Israel by refusing to perform, or to allow their work be displayed there.
Ireland has the highest recorded incidence of Hurler syndrome - a genetic disorder potentially fatal among children. Three quarters of Irish children diagnosed with the disorder are Travellers. A screening programme could save lives, yet no such programme is in place. Sandy Hazel investigates one of the risks of 'cousin marriage' in the first of three articles on Traveller health.
The government is not turning to community development or the community sector as a whole for support. By Ann Irwin.
People are often confused, and understandably so, about community development, often assuming that community development refers to everything that happens at local level – in communities or neighbourhoods. The reason for the confusion is that community development ‘the approach’ has become decoupled from community development ‘the objective’.
What is the point of all this innovation other than to make money for the designers, the manufacturers, and the retailers? By Vincent Browne.
Not since the age of five have I been given a present as good as the one I got for a recent birthday. Santa brought me a toy jeep back then.
I don’t recall why I was into SUVs at the time but it was great fun, aside from the trouble I had preventing my brothers from taking it. Happily, both of my brothers are tech-illiterate and there will be no competition from them for my recent acquisition - an iPad.
Historian Tony Judt's scathing attack on the debased condition of modern society and his powerful challenge to create a better world makes this book one that none of us can afford to ignore. Review by Edward O’Hare.
The Catholic Church’s controversial recent document Normae de Gravioribus Delictis put the sin of ordaining female priests on a par with child abuse. The document has reignited the debate on the role of women within the Church and society as a whole, as well as the role of feminism. By Sean Carroll.
In the late twentieth century feminism galvanized many young women into demanding fundamental change. The movement questioned ingrained ideology and aggressively advocated women’s equality.
There is a shocking distinction between the treatment of asylum seekers and the powerful in Irish society. By Siobhan O’Donoghue.
There is big money in oil. Certainly that seems to be the motivation for people like Sean Fitzpatrick, who along with Lar Bradshaw invested €25m in Movido Exploration and Production, an oil company operating in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
There is also big trouble associated with oil. The people of the Niger Delta have been struggling with this reality for decades.
Karel Capek (pictured) and Gyyula Krudy, two major figures in European literature, have waited a long time for a new audience. The reprinting of two of their masterpieces is cause for celebration. Review by Edward O’Hare
People with disabilities and their carers indict the government's lack of support for their needs during recent protests. By Sara Burke.
As people with disabilities and their families marched outside the Dail on July 7, those listening to the speeches inside heard reassurances from the Taoiseach and Ministers Harney and Maloney that no respite services for people with disabilities have been cut. If we are to believe our political leaders, why did thousands of people take to the streets on July 7 in Dublin, Galway and Castlebar?
Ireland is changing as a society. This change is accompanied by the many ways oppression (including racism) manifests in society. The very existence of racism has been markedly denied in recent years. Instead, the semantics of diversity and integration dominate the policy and public discourse. By Siobhan O’Donoghue.