Category Archives: London Review of Books

In Belfast

Posted on January 13, 2013 by admin

Apparently there were 43 illegal roadblocks in Belfast on Monday night. In a bar with Christmas lights on the ceiling, a hundred yards from a City Hall not flying the Union Jack, most drinkers were glued to their smart phones. … Continue reading →

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What’s Mined is Theirs — Ireland’s Oil and Gas

Posted on October 26, 2012 by admin

Earlier this month, Providence Resources announced that an oil field at Barryroe, off the coast of Cork, is expected to yield 280 million barrels. The company’s CEO, Tony O’Reilly Jr, the son of the media mogul, told the Today programme that this … Continue reading →

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Scotland Rallies for Independence

Posted on October 3, 2012 by admin

How George Robertson must regret saying in 1995 that ‘Devolution will kill Nationalism stone dead.’ Robertson, then the shadow secretary of state for Scotland, was trying to appease sceptical unionists. Last weekend, 13 years after a devolved parliament was established … Continue reading →

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The World’s Last Colonial Museum

Posted on October 3, 2012 by admin

The Royal Museum for Central Africa in Brussels has been called ‘the last colonial museum in the world’. It’s not hard to see why: in the marble lobby a statue celebrates ‘Belgium bringing civilisation to the Congo’; the Memorial Room lists the names … Continue reading →

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Among the Orangemen

Posted on August 14, 2012 by admin

Ian Wilson, a former Grand Master of the Orange Lodge in Scotland, addressed the annual Orange parade in Broughshane, Co. Antrim, on 12 July. After describing Martin McGuinness’s handshake with the queen as ‘a humiliating surrender’ for Sinn Fein, Wilson … Continue reading →

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Iceland Myths

Posted on August 14, 2012 by admin

Iceland is often held up as the poster child for an alternative approach to the global crisis, but how accurate are the stories about the Nordic nation? My London Review of Books blog took a look. In April, a video entitled ‘Iceland … Continue reading →

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LRB Blog: Yes Scotland

Posted on June 7, 2012 by admin

‘Go on, Dougie,’ the man beside me shouted. His silver and blue lapel pin twinkled in the wan light of Screen 7 at Cineworld in Edinburgh. To my left, a woman beat her foot as Dougie MacLean shuffled with his … Continue reading →

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LRB Blog: A Moment of Clarity

Posted on June 7, 2012 by admin

On Wednesday afternoon, excerpts from a speech by the Irish finance minister Michael Noonan to the Bloomberg Ireland Economic Summit in Dublin, purportedly copied from the Irish Times website, appeared on PoliticalWorld.org. The contributor, PaddyJoe, accused the newspaper of removing … Continue reading →

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Local Currencies

Posted on May 7, 2012 by admin

My latest blog on the London Review of Books site, on local currencies, runny Spanish omelettes and ‘the Miracle of Worgl’: Death to the Euro.’ The handmade sign was pinned to the wall of a community centre in San Luis, … Continue reading →

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