2022
Showing 1–12 of 17 results
Contents
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An Irish Dante, Part 1- Possible Precursors to the Commedia
Daragh O’Connell
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2021 marked the septicentennial celebrations of Dante’s death in Ravenna. Despite the restrictions brought about by the global pandemic, scholars and creative practitioners around the world ensured that the anniversary did not pass unnoticed, with online and in-person conferences, seminars, readings, performances, adaptations, translations and dialogues taking place on a daily basis.
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Behold a Pale Horse- Horrors and Heritages of Famine
Cormac Ó Gráda
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In late January 1849, a woman in her sixties was bludgeoned to death in her own home in Rooskagh, not far from Athlone in the Irish midlands. Margaret Kelly, née Doran, was by all accounts an unpleasant woman.
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Democratic Backsliding and the Unravelling of the EU Legal Order
Ronan McCrea
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The political world of the EU has often been accused of being a Potemkin village. It had a flag, a parliament and elections, but behind this façade the voters were not really engaged. This has fueled a tendency to easily perceive existential crises for the Union.
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Hitler Looks West- An Irish Diplomat’s Unwitting Role in the Plan to Alter Irish Neutrality
Barry Whelan
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On 24 August 1942 Ireland’s diplomatic representative to Spain, Leopold Kerney, met a senior figure in the SS (Schutzstaffel), Dr Edmund Veesenmayer, in a Madrid Café. The German had travelled under false papers on a special mission approved by the Reich Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentropp, to sound Kerney out on Ireland’s willingness to to alter its neutral policy in the war.
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Julien Green (1900–1998)- Exploring the Intersection of Religion and Literature
Eamon Maher
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The extent and quality of Julien Green’s work has earned for him a place in the pantheon of French, and, indeed, world letters. Born in Paris at the very start of the twentieth century to American parents, Green never felt completely at home in France or in the American South, where he went to pursue a university education.
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Patrick Reel- A Life in Paint
John O’Hagan
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I first met Patrick Reel around fifteen years ago. Initially I was drawn to the quaintness of and the atmosphere in the shop, house, studio, and gallery. In time we were delighted to become regular visitors to Ludlow St to meet Patrick and his sister Esther, and we became familiar with his wonderful life of artwork, the subject matter of a current retrospective exhibition of Reel’s work in the State Apartment Galleries in Dublin Castle.
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Political Theology- Three trials – Antigone, Socrates, Jesus
Paul Corcoran
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A traveling circus in Denmark had caught fire [in front of a numerous public]. The manager thereupon sent the clown, who was already dressed and made-up for the performance, into the neighboring village to fetch help. … The clown hurried into the village and requested the inhabitants to come as quickly as possible to the blazing circus and help to put the fire out. But the villagers took the clown’s shouts simply for an excellent piece of advertising, meant to attract as many people as possible to the performance; they applauded the clown and laughed till they cried.
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Some Reflections on Maynooth’s 225th Anniversary
Martin Henry
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I first went to St Patrick’s College Maynooth in the autumn of 1971. At the time I probably just took it for granted, perhaps too easily, that the mission of the college was to corroborate and sustain the religious beliefs of the Catholic people of Ireland, mainly by educating future priests and teachers of religion.
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Sovereignty and Culture
Michael Sanfey
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In a 1931 article entitled ‘World Sovereignty and World Culture: The Trend of International Affairs Since the War’ the historian Arnold J. Toynbeeconcluded by saying:
The need of the hour is to enable the public in each country to understand their neighbours’ point of view. Understanding, of course, does not necessarily bring agreement in its train but it does take the sting out of disagreement. People who really understand one another can disagree without rancour; people who disagree without rancour can discuss their differences with frankness; and a frank discussion of differences is a sovereign means of arriving at an agreement in the end.
If only this were true.
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Sovereignty and Its Limits – Some Kantian Lessons
Susan Meld Shell
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This is rather a different presentation than the one I would have presented a few weeks ago, before the gallant people of Ukraine along with their morally inspired leader, reminded us that announcements of the death of (popular) sovereignty may have been premature. Their actions might also call to mind Kant’s designation of an earlier act of republican courage, namely the storming of the Bastille, as prompting a ‘sign’ ‘never more to be forgotten’ that the future of the human race is not hopeless.
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Sovereignty and Strife
Giovanni Giordini
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Sovereignty is the power of command in the last instance, the power to make the ultimate decision. It may include different prerogatives in different political orders, but it has the intrinsic characteristic of being ultimate, the final decision; this means that no one has the right to oppose or overturn the sovereign’s decision.