Hello! I hope your Saturday is going well. Here is a talk I gave in November, at the Psychological Society of Ireland’s annual conference. The transcript appears below. Enjoy! * * * * * * Transcript: Psychology, religion, and public policy Now, this particular topic is very wide-ranging. I wouldn’t […]
Yesterday the Irish government published the Executive Summary of the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. It begins with the following statement: The story of mother and baby homes in Ireland is complex and its nuances cannot easily be captured in a summary. Well […]
A letter in today’s Irish Times: And — oh look! — basically the very same letter in today’s Irish Independent: This chap really does make heavy use of his letter-writing kit. It’s almost as though he is on some sort of campaign. Here are some line-by-line hot takes: “… we […]
I guess most of you already know the background to this. (For those unfamiliar with this story, be assured of its international significance. Check out, for example, this New York Times feature. Or this BBC Podcast. Or just go read Wikipedia.) I’m from Tuam. This whole issue disturbs me on […]
In the Irish abortion referendum, the ‘No’ side — those campaigning against the repeal of Ireland’s archaic Constitutional abortion ban — certainly had their work cut out. The way the Constitution was worded meant they had to persuade the Irish electorate to defend all of the following: (a) forcing raped pubescent teens to […]
Ah yes, I remember it well. I was twelve. A Catholic priest brought me into a private room, on my own, and showed me a photograph of a naked boy. The boy was standing on some rocks by a river bank. He was trying to spear a fish with a […]
