Back Issues / 2009
Can we govern ourselves ?
The doghouse no longer feels lonely; in fact, it is becoming rather crowded. Catholic clergy have been in it for ages, but now we have been joined by bankers, builders, property developers and government leaders who, like us, used to be the toast of the nation, but are now some our most execrated citizens. Irish Catholicism has long been described, by its critics, as ‘toxic’, but even that word seems insufficient to describe our banking culture in the sour aftermath of our love affair with property and banking, which, only recently, had replaced our belief in faith and motherland
Overlooked in Irish History
One hundred years ago, John Redmond was by far the most famous living Irishman. Today, he is almost forgotten: streets, buildings and institutions are not named after him. Redmond is regarded as representing a dead end in Irish history. One hundred years ago, Nano Nagle was overlooked, though the Presentation Sisters were working in nearly every large town in Ireland. Nine years ago, she was voted the Irish Woman of the Second Millennium.
What do we do next? Solving Ireland's Problems
We should have realised the true extent of our national crisis in October 2008, when the Minister for Finance invoked ‘patriotism’. For about thirty years, our country had been discussed as ‘an economy’; politicians spoke of what was ‘best for the economy,’ invoked ‘the needs of the economy’ and established Social Partnership between employers and trade unions ‘for the good of the economy.’ The economy and the country were synonymous. Most of us were lulled into the belief that there was money for all, and no foreseeable shortage of it.
Dying, Death and Bereavement
How do we really value those amongst us who are coming to the end of life? It would be easier to write “the end of their lives”, as if death were something that is not going to happen to me. About twenty years ago, an Irish newspaper article on longevity had to remind us that “mortality is, eventually, 100%”. Acceptance of personal mortality seems to come early in middle age. It is a shock, but it is also an awakening to reality. Some of us die in accidents or because illness takes us before we have completed what our society regards as our normal span, but we are living a lot longer than most of our forebears
The Winter 2009 issue of Studies Quarterly Review, "Dying, Death & Bereavement", is published in association with The Irish Hospice Foundation.
The issue was launched by Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh on Monday 7th December at The Irish Hospice Foundation.
The issue contains papers from The Forum on the End of Life in Ireland, which was launched on 11th March 2009 by President Mary McAleese
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