Posted in Irish Middle Class, Fianna Fáil, Irish Society, Irish Economy, Irish Working Class, Ireland on Oct 28th, 2008 3 Comments »
“”All I’m saying is that I want to take one step back to take two steps forward,” Batt O’Keefe on Education cuts.
I teach History and English in a medium sized secondary school in Wexford Town. My sister lectures Economics in an Institute of Education. We don’t talk about it much but a big part […]
Posted in Irish Middle Class, Marx, dublin, Irish social history, Irish Working Class, Irish Labour History on Sep 30th, 2008 15 Comments »
Night is gone, a dawn
comes up in birds and sounds of the city.
There will be light
to live by, things
to see: my eyes will lift
to where the sun in vermilion sits,
and I will love thee and have pity. (Michael Hartnett)
I’m sitting on the small fenced stone wall that surrounds the central bank on Dame Street, drinking […]
Posted in Irish Middle Class, Marx, Irish Society, Irish social history, Irish History, Irish Working Class, Irish Labour History on Sep 11th, 2008 1 Comment »
I’m standing at the corner of Cathal Brugha Street and Thomas Lane, waiting for my friend Lida to arrive. She’s starting up her own business soon, and wants me to write a blurb for the website. The buses are running a bit late but she gets here around 6.30pm and so we head off for […]
Posted in Irish Middle Class, Marx, Irish Society, Irish social history, Irish Working Class, Irish Labour History on Sep 4th, 2008 6 Comments »
It is not the poverty
Of soil in Leitrim that makes me raise my hat
To fools with fifty pounds in a paper bank” (Lough Derg, Kavanagh)
A friend of mine is fond of saying, “he who tires of Bray, tires of life”. And there’s more than a line of truth in that one. As for myself, today […]
Posted in Irish journalism, Irish Times, Irish Middle Class, Irish Society, Irish Working Class on Jun 16th, 2008 8 Comments »
Indeed, the evidence from last Friday’s opinion poll in the Irish Times showed a No majority across virtually all age cohorts and social groupings. And as is evidenced from Dublin South West, turnout was unusually high in some working class areas, where there was a clear anti-treaty sentiment. (I.T. 13/06/06, Harry McGee.)
Tallies from early on […]
Posted in Irish Middle Class, Middle Class, US Politics, Irish Working Class, Working Class, Politics on Mar 5th, 2008 10 Comments »
The race for the White House, in particular the race for the Democratic nomination, is proving once again that in American politics, it’s the economy, stupid.
For the rest of the world, American foreign policy looms large. The American economy is also an issue, but our coverage and analysis tends to focus on Iraq, the […]
Posted in Irish journalism, irishness, irish culture, Irish Middle Class, Art on Mar 2nd, 2008 9 Comments »
Karen Dervan is not well.
In today’s Sunday Tribune review section she tells us that her blood is boiling. The reason is simple: Glen Hansard and his “make art” speech at the Oscars.
There are Irish artists struggling to “make art” every day, artists who will most likely never earn any recognition for their efforts until, […]
Posted in Irish journalism, Irish Middle Class, Irish Working Class on Jan 16th, 2008 15 Comments »
A writer for The Dubliner magazine, Robert O’Byrne, has written 3,442 words defending his definition of what it means to be Middle Class. The title of the article is In Defense of the Middle Class, but apart from dwelling on clichéd notions of class in the 19th Century he doesn’t seem to know what class […]
Posted in Fianna Fáil, irishness, Irish Middle Class, Irish Society, Irish Working Class on Nov 6th, 2007 11 Comments »
Now I am going to explode,” he cried. “I shall set the whole world on fire, and make such a noise that nobody will talk about anything else for a whole year.” And he certainly did explode. Bang! Bang! Bang! went the gunpowder. There was no doubt about it.” (Oscar Wilde, The Remarkable Rocket)
The Ego […]
Posted in Irish Middle Class, Irish Society, Irish Working Class on Sep 22nd, 2007 24 Comments »
The middle class has had a decidedly mixed experience. Some professionals, lover-level managers and small business owners have lost ground. These tend to be people more closely associated with the working class - social workers, teachers, store owners in working class neighbourhoods, community college faculty. Others have prospered dramatically - corporate lawyers, sophisticated tax accountants, […]