It sounds like a rude sort of phrase but ‘pulling a Peter’ is about to enter the lexicon of Irish politics. Haven’t you heard it yet? It’s Irish for finding a handy target, preferably an ethnic minority, then accusing it of criminality and in turn blaming it for all our economic ills, in order to win [...]
What about the homeless? I’ve always had an issue with whataboutery. Urbandictionary.com defines “whataboutism”, or whataboutery, as “when you deflect criticism by pointing out flaws in your opponent, specifically using the phrase "what about x?" This is an attempt to excuse you from changing your behavior by painting your opponent as a hypocrite.” It’s annoying, a [...]
What was she thinking, walking home alone? What was she thinking, wearing that? What was she thinking, getting that drunk? What was she thinking, getting a taxi by herself? Last month, a woman was brutally attacked while walking home from a house party in the early hours of the morning. The attack happened in the Togher [...]
The stereotypical whistling builder is the standard starting point for any discussion about gender based street harasment, which usually ends in someone telling a feminist to ‘relax, love’. But, campaigners say, street harassment is a real issue with real life consequences for women’s lives. The international campaign group Stop Street Harassment defines gender-based street harassment as [...]
You judge a society by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens, and once again it seems we are failing. We’re one of the richest, happiest and most advanced countries in the world but we can not get care - of our children, our elderly, our sick or our people with disabilities - right. We leave [...]
There’s a woman I see around Cork regularly and I’m a tiny bit in love with her. Back straight, head high, she is always dressed smartly in a sort of continental way. You know the kind of outfit I mean. Crisp things in monochrome that make Irish women (me, anyway) look like wrinkly spuds. Comfortable but [...]
Love your body. We’ve heard it all before, and to most of us, raised on a diet of, well, diets, skinny celebrities and wonder cures, it’s in one ear and out the other. But body image is a fundamental part of who we are, and it affects everything from our relationships to our careers, no matter [...]
My childhood memories are filled with holy statues, the smell of incense, the sound of pews squeaking on a tiled floor in an echoey church. Visits to the crib and offkey hymns were Christmas. The somewhat gory sight of the Virgin Mary’s foot crushing a snake fascinated me during primary school assemblies, and the comforting Sunday [...]
Are you feeling a bit wrecked? Sleeping badly? Suffering from poor digestion? These symptoms and others are now recognised by the WHO as signs of burnout. Burnout, I hear you scoff! I’m not some 80s Wall Street trader, up all night snorting cocaine and roaring at people on the trading floor all day! Or a life [...]
We live in an age of unprecedented equality between parents, but, almost three years in, I can confirm that it’s news to many people that men can be parents too. Many of my female friends out-earn their husbands and partners. Sometimes, the early rationale for their career decisions included an expectation that the man would take [...]
