essay

Those ready for a modest change to Ireland’s abortion laws are confronted with a more radical proposition

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John McGuirk is the Communications Director of the Save the 8th Campaign. In the first of a series of essays on the upcoming referendum on the 8th amendment to the Irish Constitution John shares his experience of the campaign and what’s at stake. Nothing has struck me more in this referendum debate than the comment made by a man on RTE Radio One’s “Joe Duffy” show last week. Joe had decided to find out what was happening out there beyond the …

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Roger Fenton – the first war photographer

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The run up to the 11th November seems as good a time as any to produce the first in an occasional series of essays on photographers. I’m starting with Roger Fenton who produced the first ever published photographs from a war zone. It seems all the more relevant after hearing earlier last week that South African war photographer, João Silva lost portions of both his legs after stepping on a land mine in Afghanistan. The differences in the genre since Fenton embarked on his historic expedition …

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Derry Essay 3: Sharing our Past, Sharing our Future

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A couple of years ago at an event to promote the Walled City cultural tourism attractions at Stormont, Martin McGuinness talked about ‘Derry’ and ‘Londonderry’. With those two words he gave explicit recognition to the multiple narratives that are required to tell Northern Ireland’s story. The story that Derry/Londonderry wishes to tell entwines Colmcille, Plantation, 1689, and Free Derry with a cultural story that brings us into the present day.  What was impressive about that event was how this rich …

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Derry Essays 1: Precarious future of the living Protestant heritage

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“Derry/Londonderry” is either an expression or stalemate or a statement of intent to create a truly shared future. The UK City of culture bid should help decide which it really is. Outwardly, the Jerusalem of Ulster where I grew up over half century ago has survived far better than I could have hoped. The physical layout is still the perfect metaphor for Northern Ireland’s sectarian divide. Proud citadel towers over huddled masses in an area below obligingly called the Bogside. …

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Derry Essay Series…

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As a foil (pun intended) to the reductive scrapping of the election campaigns, we’re running an essay series focused on Derry (or if you insist, Londonderry). The news hook is the city’s UK of culture bid which will be submitted in the third week of May, I think. But our aim is not to underwrite the big, so much as to find as many different (and differing) voices to describe the problem by exploring the Derry experience(s) through a number …

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