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Oldfilibuster’s Rhyme & Reason – E15 -The Karenina Principle in Ireland’s Insurrections

Paul February 23, 2021

According to Tolstoy’s Karenina principle, the failure of one component results in the failure of the entire exercise. The failure to coordinate overseas military aid and nationwide support for the 1798 and 1916 rebellions is possibly a working example. An earlier discussion…

Oldfilibuster’s Rhyme & Reason – E14 – The unworkable solution of the workhouse

Paul February 23, 2021

There is no doubt about it, the workhouse, whose structure was a blot on the Irish landscape, was the most feared and hated institution in the terrified imaginations of the Irish poor. They would do anything to avoid submitting to that hellish…

Oldfilibuster’s Rhyme & Reason – E13 – Neo-liberalism, laissez faire and the Great Irish Famine

Paul February 8, 2021

In The Wealth of Nations (1776), Adam Smith argued that markets are governed by an ‘invisible hand’ and thus should be subject to minimal government interference, to allow said free markets to facilitate sustained economic growth. Letting the free market be king,…

The Hugh Lane Concert series – Xenia Pestova and Ed Bennett

Paul February 3, 2021

The sixth and final programme in the third series, features Xenia Pestova and Ed Bennett playing a programme of piano and electronic arrangements by Leo Chadburn, Annea Lockwood, Ed Bennett, Gayle Young and Alvin Lucier. This radio programme features concert excerpts interspersed…

Oldfilibuster’s Rhyme & Reason – E12 – Plantations and Penal Laws leave a shadowy legacy

Paul February 1, 2021

Sometimes it takes centuries; sometimes it takes decades, but invariably, the legacy of colonialism lingers for too long after its demise; and this we see in the border that separates the six counties of Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland. The…

Oldfilibuster’s Rhyme & Reason – E11 – The Os Have it

Paul January 25, 2021

On September 14th, 1607 Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O’Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell left Ireland’s shores for good. The event is commonly known as The Flight of the Earls and those who took part in the flight became known as…

Oldfilibuster’s Rhyme & Reason – E10 – Itchy Feet

Paul January 20, 2021

Itchy Feet There is no doubting that Ireland was overrun by two gangs of ‘gurriers’; the Vikings, starting in 795, and the Normans in 1169. While one gang faded into the fabric of Irish society rather than conquering us, the other gang ignited…

Oldfilibuster’s Rhyme & Reason – E09 – Hands

Paul January 11, 2021

How often have we praised someone’s handiwork? It could be a fine painting, a patchwork quilt, the way they play Chopin’s etudes or the way they pitch a tent. Aristotle praised the hand as “the instrument for instruments” – the hand that…

Oldfilibuster’s Rhyme & Reason – E08 – A tandem of post-modernism on the R827

Paul January 6, 2021

A tandem of post-modernism on the R827 – the young James Joyce and Flann O’Brien gadding about Blackrock If you were a municipal historian you might take a passing interest in what de Selby has to say on the subject of roads,…

COVID-19 effects on European wide initiatives

Paul December 23, 2020

In this programme Sally Galiana talks to three experts about the impact Covid-19 has had/is having on the many EU partnership projects that take place across the EU every year, particularly Erasmus +. We examine how Irish projects have been affected and…

Oldfilibuster’s Rhyme & Reason – E07 – Coming Home

Paul December 17, 2020

We’ve all been spending a whole lot more time at home in recent months. In many ways, our homes may have become our own small country. When we look at the big world picture, we are probably grateful if we have a…

Oldfilibuster’s Rhyme & Reason – E06 – Bold Botanists

Paul December 15, 2020

It’s a dull early summer evening in suburban Dublin. I’m in my favourite room – the back garden; having just emerged from my second favourite room – the greenhouse. The flowers on the apple, pear and plum trees have been replaced with…