Newcastle – oh dear, oh dear!

Forgive the self-indulgence of my posting again about Newcastle United FC. But there is a very sad Irish angle to the terrible and sometimes farcical events afflicting the Magpies. Right now, it looks certain that veteran goalkeeper and long-serving member of the Irish national squad Shay Given will leave for the fleshpots of Manchester City; and [...]

Learning behind bars

While cleaning out some old papers and documents the other day, I came across a notebook I had used for a short while in 1974. Written in big letters on the cover were the words ‘Gedanken im Gefängnis‘ (‘Thoughts in Prison’). Yes, it was a prison diary. Not what you might think, though. In fact, [...]

Memories in cyberspace

If last week, on January 20th, you had (let us say, at 4.30 pm Irish time) opened www.whitehouse.gov on your browser, you would have seen the final messages of the George W. Bush administration on the web. An hour later, and you would have seen the welcome to the new world of United States under Barack [...]

So do we need the historians here?

Yesterday I was engaged in a discussion with a number of colleagues from various universities, and the conversation turned to the disciplinary mix needed in a higher education institution to ensure that it can be a credible university. We agreed that it was possible to be a perfectly respectable university, and successful, while not having, [...]

Public service broadcasting

If anyone from somewhere other than these islands is reading this, they may not know what I am talking about in this post, so a quick explanation up front. Jonathan Ross is a radio and television presenter on the BBC; his regular Friday night TV show on BBC1 draws millions of viewers, and he has gained great [...]

Newman’s university

Just over two months ago, on November 17, was the 150th anniversary of the resignation of John Henry Newman (later Cardinal Newman) as Rector of the Catholic University of Ireland. Newman was the founding Rector of the university, which had opened its doors to students four years earlier in November 1854. Without going into the details here, [...]

A matter of faith

A few years ago a survey was conducted of Church of England (Anglican) clergy which revealed that a majority of them could not accurately list the Ten Commandments. This was seen at the time as deeply symptomatic of the terminal decline of English Anglicanism, because it showed that the keepers of its flame were ignorant [...]

A lovely invitation

Overheard this morning in a Dublin newsagent’s shop, a conversation between two elderly ladies. Lady 1: ‘He’s such a lovely man, so athletic.’ Lady 2: ‘And so well spoken. He’s lovely’. Lady 1: ‘And his lovely wife and two daughters, they looked so proud.’ Lady 2: ‘Yes, with all the world watching. They seem such a lovely family.’ [...]

Provosts and Presidents

Over the past week I have been reading the book by William Watts, A Memoir, which is the first autobiography by any Provost of Trinity College Dublin. Bill Watts led the College between 1981 and 1991, and for much of that time I was myself a rather bolshy junior lecturer there. The book describes his [...]

Looking into the abyss…

It would be hard to exaggerate the potential catastrophe now facing the university sector in Ireland. Last week the Irish Independent reported that one university had a ‘shortfall’ – presumably a deficit – of €16m in its current spending. In the case of another university, it is claimed (unconfirmed by the university) that it has issued a [...]