Current Events
Ivor Bell, the Belfast Project, and Truth
My friend and colleague Donald Beaudette have written an op-ed for the Washington Post about the tension between justice and historical truth, as seen in the trial of Ivor Bell.
Current Events
Defending Men’s Right to Procreate via Rape: Lessons from Ireland
In October 2012, Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian woman living in the Republic of Ireland, died from a septic miscarriage. Doctors at University Hospital Galway detected a fetal heartbeat, but, fearing prosecution, they refused to perform an abortion that would have saved her life. Ireland’s now-repealed 8th Amendment recognized “the Read more…
Current Events
Free Contraception
The report of the Working Group on Access to Contraception was released today. The report follows the commitment made by Minister for Health Simon Harris to make contraception free for everyone–men, women, nonbinary–by 2021. According to the report’s estimates this will cost €80-€100 million per year. While that amount might Read more…
Current Events
Hate Crimes, Hate Speech, and Gemma O’Doherty’s Gobshite-ery
In another instance of overt gobshite-ery, notorious bigot Gemma O’Doherty has been shown as the root cause of the hate-fueled harassment faced by Fiona Ryan, her fiancé, and their son. The family, which is inter-racial, has posed for an advertisement for the grocery store Lidl. An article in today’s Irish Times Read more…
Current Events
The New York Times Spends “36 Hours in Dublin”
In this Sunday’s “Travel” section of the New York Times, the writers detail what to do with 36 hours in Ireland’s capital city. The author really looked for things to do in Dublin, although I wouldn’t make the same choices if you only have 36 hours to spend. Some of the Read more…
Current Events
Sexual Assault
This weekend’s Irish Times has a couple of stories that address sexual assault in Ireland. The most important one, by Conor Lally, presents some statistics: “The number of sexual crimes reported to gardaí are the highest on record, the latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) data shows…. However, security sources say it Read more…
Current Events
Friday, 9/27, Radio Kingston
I’ll be on Radio Kingston’s “The Source with Hillary Harvey” at 1pm on Friday, 9/27. We’ll be discussing the latest Brexit developments, and the impact of Brexit on Ireland. You can listen live, or hear a recording: https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/source-hillary-harvey
Current Events
Justin Barrett Hates Democracy
If you don’t believe me, believe him: Barrett’s language indicates anti-democratic, anti-pluralist tendencies: Who is Barrett referring to when he says “ancestors”? Daniel O’Connell certainly fought for Ireland’s right to be counted in a representative democracy as he rallied the Irish people for Catholic emancipation. O’Connell fought for “civil rights, Read more…
Current Events
ACI & 9/11 Conspiracy Theories
I was going to dedicate this post to discussing a recent livestream in which Gemma O’Doherty and Fr. Gerry Young discussed sex education and Islam. But, I’ll save that for another time; possibly for a piece for another website. [Admit it: you’re dying to know what an octogenarian priest thinks about Read more…
Current Events
Fascists….Again
I got so tired of the antisemitic bullshit in response to my Tweet about my research, that I wrote about it for Anthony McIntyre’s website, The Pensive Quill. You can read about my ordeal here.