With all this talk of the NSA and its activities, espionage has stormed back onto the front pages. Perfect time to publish a spy novel set in China, the USA and Germany, one should think, and cometh the hour, cometh the man in the form of Olen Steinhauer. That surname suggests another Nordic star but [...]
Kickstarting Amanda Palmer
Amanda Palmer’s sensationally successful Kickstarter campaign has raised more than $1 million to finance her next creative venture, which will involve an album, a book and a tour. This is the future of popular music, she says. Send to Kindle
Countless curious cows
“To country people Cows are mild, And flee from any stick they throw; But I’m a timid town bred child, And all the cattle seem to know.” T.S. Eliot Send to Kindle
Sixty years ago today
“Monday for wealth, Tuesday for health, Wednesday the best day of all. Thursday for crosses, Friday for losses, Saturday no luck at all.” — Wedding day proverb. On Wednesday, 18 June 1952, Michael Fitzgerald and Catherine O’Donnell were married in the village of Lisvernane, County Tipperary. The ceremony was followed by a meal at the [...]
We know not whither, but we all must go
We pause now to pay our respects to the beloved father of Mrs Rainy Day, a man who cherished the mountains of his native Tipperary as much as the plains of his adopted Midlands. In the coming days, a sincere life will be remembered with tears and laughter and prayers fraught with pain as we [...]
The euro war of words
The cover of the current issue of The Economist, which castigates Germany for its reluctance to become more engaged in efforts to refloat the global economy, didn’t go down well in Düsseldorf, where the country’s leading business newspaper, Handelsblatt, is headquartered. It responded with a featured titled Original oder Fälschung? (original or fake?) and an [...]
For our mental, moral, and spiritual uplift
Busy week for Dublin. The city hosts both the Eucharistic Congress, celebrating the Catholic faith, and Bloomsday, celebrating the 90th anniversary of the publication of Ulysses by James Joyce. And the connection between the two? In a letter to his brother Stanislaus, James Joyce wrote: “Don’t you think there is a certain resemblance between the [...]
Big football fans
From Poland to Greece, from Ireland to Germany, from Italy to Russia, football fans across Europe are glued to the screens, public and private, as the Euro2012 tournament unfolds. Sure, much of the continent’s financial sub-structure is falling apart and banks are bankrupt, but now is not the time for distractions from the main event [...]
The persecution of Fazil Say
The internationally acclaimed Turkish classical pianist Fazil Say is to stand trial on charges of insulting Muslim religious values in comments posted on Twitter. If convicted, he could face a minimum of 18 months in prison. Say quoted a verse by the 11th-century Persian poet Omar Khayyam that ridiculed the hypocrisy of people who pretend [...]
Poland vs. Greece vs. Germany vs. Spain vs. Europe
Thank God for football. This evening in Warsaw, Euro2012 kicks off with Poland vs. Greece and we can forget about the weather and the world for a few weeks as we give ourselves over to the joys of the beautiful game. But wait, what’s this? “Spain’s Twitter Users Say ‘Stop Merkel‘”. It’s a story from [...]
It’s time for Michael Lewis to visit Madrid
What’s happening in Spain? Depending on who and what and where one reads, Spanish banks have lost between €300 billion and €1 trillion and the situation is so frightening and overwhelming that no one believes a single word that the government in Madrid is saying anymore. Time to send in Michael Lewis, we say. Perhaps [...]
Psephological prediction: A gale is going to blow across the US
When voting, those champions of democracy, the ancient Greeks, used pebbles as ballots. The Greek word for pebble is psephos and from it the British historian R. B. McCallum coined the term psephology to describe the scientific analysis of past elections. American students of psephology will remember that in May 1994, Ron Lewis won a [...]
Social media