What would Joyce have done?

We must go to Athens. Will you come if I can get the aunt to fork out 20 quid? So said Buck Mulligan to Stephen Daedalus in the opening chapter of Ulysses. I’ve just come back from the Martello Tower at Sandycove – all Joyced up – where this opening...

Greece’s downfall, Europe’s disgrace

It is regularly pointed out that Greece is only 2 per cent of eurozone GDP, but maybe we should consider that the plughole is also only 2 per cent of the bath. Greece matters not just politically and financially, but morally too and this is why the behaviour of...

Why there is a whole lot more to success than making the grade

Today let’s talk about the Leaving Cert (and its ugly little brother, the Junior Cert). Let’s look at the sort of minds that are rewarded by the system and the sort of minds that are punished by it. Given that the Leaving Cert is the closest thing we Irish...