This feature on the beautiful (and wonderfully vibrant) Danish city of Aarhus appeared in The Irish Independent on June 6. “Why wasn’t Jesus born in Aarhus?” starts a popular Danish joke. “They couldn’t find three wise men.” Evidently, second-city bashing is not a sport confined to Ireland: Copenhagen’s urban sophisticates love to mock Denmark’s other […]
Unlucky Jim fails to find a foothold as Lucky Jim holds firm
I argued that baby-boomers need to be coaxed down from the top of the academic tree in this opinion piece in The Times Higher Education on June 3. There’s been quite a bit of reaction and comment to the piece on the THE site. A few weeks ago I bumped into an old college friend […]
The explosive affair that scandalised Victorian society
This review of Chloe Schama’s excellent debut book Wild Romance appeared inThe Sunday Business Post on May 30. In February 1861, the Four Courts hosted a trial that gripped the public imagination, not only in Ireland but in Britain also. Thelwall v Yelverton was one of the most explosive cases ever to come before a […]