“44 Inch Chest”: secondhand embarrassment galore
Watching “44 Inch Chest” is like being stuck in a bad karaoke bar with a pissed up divorcee screeching through “Without You” before breaking down into a crumpled heap on stage. Imagine...
Category: Europe
Paul Chambers: “privacy is dead, get over it” is not good enough
China's snooping on dissidents is unfortunate but unsurprising, but Western governments – and businesses – need to get out of our private communications, too. Last week a British man, Paul...
Ukraine election: Yulia Tymoshenko is NOT the Ukrainian Sarah Palin
When history is being made, you focus on the mundane details, such as the snow that swirled down on election day in Kyiv. At the local voting precinct, the first representatives of the electorate to...
A river of crocodile tears over the Gerry Adams affair
It has been a busy year in Irish politics – and hectic to say the least: first the never-ending revelations into Catholic sex abuse finally implicated the state, then the public was treated to the...
The Big Chill in Ireland: a lack of true grit
Ireland is covered in a blanket of snow. If you listen carefully, you can hear pipes bursting all over the country. Electricity supply is spotty. Heating oil delivery is delayed. In fact, the country...
Peter Robinson’s marriage is the least of N. Ireland Assembly’s problems
It was revealed today that Iris Robinson, member of both the Westminster parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly, was unfaithful to her husband, leader of the right wing Democratic Unionist Party...
Ireland: sex crime nation
2009 was a watershed year for Irish sexual politics – but not in the sense that we usually understand the term. What we have seen is the intense politicisation of sex. Ireland has never had a...
Listowel: rape apology that the rest of Ireland will not tolerate
A figure sits shivering in the drafty courthouse. She is only twenty two, alone except for the counsellor from the Rape Crisis Clinic. She waits for the judge to enter and sentence the man who...
Ukrainian feminism: from Yulia Tymoshenko to making babies in a crisis
As a holiday gift to myself and readers, I sat down recently to speak to my friend, translator, and Ukrainian feminist, Maria Dmytrieva, who's famous as Mary Xmas in LiveJournal circles. What follows...
Bad apples or a bad barrel? Sexual abuse and the Irish Catholic Church
Resignations of bishops is the issue of the day in the Irish Catholic Church. The initial shock of the Murphy Report has worn off, probably because many who opine on its contents have not taken the...