'There is, of course, such a thing as Irish intellectual thought'
Inspired by this article on Politico which invites Europe to celebrate America s birthday on 28th June, here is a post celebrating the ideals of the American Revolution. This day is not, of course, the date independence was declared, but it is the date the first draft of the Declaration of Independence was presented to Congress. [ ]
Two of Maria Edgeworth's books, "Ennui" and "Practical Education" were mentioned in "Bridgerton". This post shows how "Ennui" shows the effects of neglecting the educational lessons of "Practical Education" and how that relates to some themes of the series.
Today is the 250th anniversary of Daniel O Connell s birth (see here for a post by RTE marking the anniversary and summarising his achievements) I have written before of his philosophical influences, which are more liberal and utilitarian than the traditional hagiography might suggest. I ve also written about his European legacy of popular mass movements aimed [ ]
While reading this Gismodo article ( Billionaires Convince Themselves AI Chatbots Are Close to Making New Scientific Discoveries ), I suddenly had a flash of insight: the true inventor of the Large Language Model was Jonathan Swift. Yes, the Dean of St Patrick s Cathedral who died in 1745 is the true creator of this concept. If you [ ]
Peter Grey on Bluesky, March 22, 2025 at 9:12 AM I was just thinking it’s about time the Clontarf Proclamation was rescinded More than 3,300 obsolete laws from 19th century set to be repealed (Irish Times link) Every set of legislation contains some dead wood, but the Irish system probably contains more than most. This [ ]
Today, President Trump s 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods came into force, with Canadian retaliatory tariffs coming online at the same time. It also saw the removal of US liquor from shelves in Ontario, a effective boycott. The term boycott derives from the name of a landowner, Charles Cunningham Boycott, who was one of [ ]
Thomas Drennan, teacher at Francis Hutcheson s school and father of William Drennan of the United Irishmen, died on St Valentine s day, 1768.1 I have written about him previously, but for the day that is in it, this brief blog will describe how he met his wife. The family story was that Thomas Drennan was a confirmed [ ]
These two subjects may seem to have no relevance to each other. But the philosophy of toleration may give a different way of looking at how to vote in Irish elections. Voting in Ireland Irish elections use the Single Transferable Vote system, a form of PR. For those who need an explanation, in STV the [ ]
Iris Murdoch died twenty-five years ago today, on 8th February 1999. No better day, then, to listen to the long-running Iris Murdoch Podcast. The podcast covers a wide range of topics, including Murdoch s novels, her life (including the one embedded above) her philosophy (for example this and this on Murdoch s Metaphysics as a Guide [ ]
Fáilte! The February/March edition of Philosophy Now features a number of pieces about Irish Philosophy, including one about how this blog came to be. This post is intended as a roadmap to link to books, people and posts mentioned in that article. As I said in the article, Irish thought encompasses a wide variety of [ ]