Diarmaid Ferriter

Ireland

Contributor at Irish Times

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Articles

Diarmaid Ferriter: First water becomes undrinkable, then unswimmable, then untouchable

2 weeks ago | irishtimes.com | Diarmaid Ferriter

A visitor from England at Lough Owel in Mullingar expressed surprise to me recently that locals were swimming in the lake. She could not understand how they would take such a risk. I assured her they had no reason to worry; the most recent rating for Lough Owel from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classed its water quality as excellent.
Diarmaid Ferriter: Was it for Keir Starmer’s craven display before Trump that London endured the Blitz?

3 weeks ago | irishtimes.com | Diarmaid Ferriter

Britain, we are often told, likes to put aside its differences in coming together to commemorate its war sacrifices and victories. This was evident last week during the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (V-E) Day. Narratives honed around such commemorations gloss over fragility and uncertainty as the ghost and words of British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill are invoked to emphasise a uniquely resilient British spirit.
Diarmaid Ferriter: Trump’s assault on universities mirrors that of the Nazis in 1930s Germany

1 month ago | irishtimes.com | Diarmaid Ferriter

Last week, the deputy chief of staff of the White House, Stephen Miller, issued one of the now regular chilling briefings on behalf of his fascist administration: “Universities are on notice”. US president Donald Trump and his team are determined to destroy academic freedom in the US, as they are so many other freedoms. They have Harvard University in their sights and have already witnessed Columbia University cave in to their demands in order for $400 million in federal funding to be restored.
Mary MacSwiney by Leeann Lane: A revealing, well-researched and compelling biography of this patriot

1 month ago | irishtimes.com | Diarmaid Ferriter

Mary MacSwiney Author: Leeann LaneISBN-13: 9781739086381Publisher: UCD PressGuideline Price: €30In September 1922, amid the Irish Civil War, Sinn Féin leader Éamon de Valera bared his soul to his confidante, the Cork Sinn Féin TD Mary MacSwiney. He told her he was struggling because “Reason rather than faith has been my master ... I have felt for some time that this doctrine of mine ill fitted me to be leader of the republican party”.
In Ireland, we are obsessed with the land - owning it, not roaming it

1 month ago | irishtimes.com | Diarmaid Ferriter

“This land is your land, this land is my land ... this land was made for you and me.” When Woodie Guthrie penned these words in 1944, he was revising a song he had originally written in 1940 with the title God Blessed America. The updated version became an unlikely anthem, evoking redwood forests, golden valleys and wheat fields waving, but its original intent was defiance.
Diarmaid Ferriter: The hurt that dripped from Michael O’Brien has to be part of Francis’s legacy

1 month ago | irishtimes.com | Diarmaid Ferriter

Born a few years before Pope Francis, Michael O’Brien, who also died this week, will be remembered for his appearance on RTÉ’s Questions and Answers current affairs programme in May 2009. As an audience member, he spoke powerfully and agonisingly of the physical and sexual abuse he experienced in Ferryhouse industrial school near Clonmel, Co Tipperary, run by the Rosminians.
Diarmaid Ferriter: Forget an apple for the teacher. What they really need is a Valium

1 month ago | irishtimes.com | Diarmaid Ferriter

In 1988, journalist Francine Cunningham wrote in this newspaper about growing evidence of stress-related resignations from the teaching profession in Ireland, noting that in the previous year, these pressures had led to the departure of 50 secondary schoolteachers. The framework of understanding for this phenomenon, however, was slight, as “there has been no solid research done on the subject of teachers and stress in Ireland”, she wrote.
Diarmaid Ferriter: We are constantly told to shop around and switch utilities providers. Easier said than done

1 month ago | irishtimes.com | Diarmaid Ferriter

Until two years ago, I was unaware there was such a thing as a “life administration” day. This was how I heard a radio presenter describe her day off; a clearing of the decks to sort out bills and make calls to utility companies. As such duties have become ever more irksome and time consuming, a single day will hardly suffice. We are constantly told to shop around, switch providers, do our services homework and compare a multitude of plans.
From ‘Damned Englishman’ to ‘f**king a**hole’: A history of Ireland in 25 Dáil insults

2 months ago | irishtimes.com | Diarmaid Ferriter

The recent sourness pervading Dáil proceedings has generated understandable criticism of lack of decorum. There is little doubt the language heard in the Dáil has become coarser; insults such as buffoon, guttersnipe, corner boy and yahoo, once regarded as egregious, now look tame given the contemporary preponderance of the F- word and Michael Lowry’s recent two fingered gesture.
Diarmaid Ferriter: A century after the Monto, street prostitution has been replaced by sordid networks run by pimps

2 months ago | irishtimes.com | Diarmaid Ferriter

One hundred years ago this month, those intent on purifying Dublin orchestrated a clampdown on the city’s red-light district. The previous year, a vocal commentator on sexual immorality, the Jesuit priest Richard S Devane, had suggested that as long as the British army garrison was in Dublin, “it was impossible to deal with prostitution effectively.

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