Writer | Podcasts | Environment
My mother says when her hands are inside the soil that is how she goes to church. It took me two decades to really understand. It took me finding my own piece of land. Five square feet of neglected backyard, but it was mine Well, it was rented and not for a particularly long time …
For generations professional and amateur sorts alike have been a battleground of women athletes struggling for recognition. More than being excluded from sports played by men they often face discriminatory rules when they set up their own leagues. Generations of girls told they would not be interested or being shamed into quitting teams or training …
This is a beginning that will be repeated again and again and again. This is a story that is being retold, the same but new Beginning is the oldest thing you know how to do Again, again, again. . As messy and painful as all births are From bright light at the end of a …
The idea that a rapidly growing population would inevitably result in economic and resource crisis has been part of the popular imagination since Rev. Thomas Malthus published his essay Principle of Population in 1798. Malthus has been largely disproven but the idea that population is the greatest threat remained influential and was seen repeated in …
Continue reading "Is population growth the biggest threat to sustainable development?"
Environmental justice is not a new idea but it is one gaining ground in mainstream media and consciousness. Environmental justice refers to a number of connected ideas. Access and ownership of natural resources. Equitable burden sharing from environmental damage. Writing from an Irish prospective it's impossible to ignore the influence the Irish Water campaign has …
Continue reading "Water: the heart of Environmental Justice"
Persephone’s term begins the year’s dry lament Even while nymph’s paint gold dead leaves on the cement They force the evergreens to stay to cloak Demeter’s curse. That steals their father, Hellios away to freeze a solemn earth. Light begins to fade and skin begins to chill We reap what summer made and hope …
I have made my feeling on the state of mental health services in Ireland known in asides many times. But this Mental Health Day highlighted the disconnect between what the Irish government and its various agencies claims, and what they put into practise. The Green Ribbon (#EndtheStigma) campaign caught the support of numerous politicians. The …
A lot of people discuss and focus on individual action in reaction to political or social problems rather than wider changes. I mentioned this in my Marxism and Mental Health video. Most of the time this is to distract people’s attention from a lack of action on the part of those with the most power. …
“The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness.” (Marx 1859) In what way is health, in particular mental health a highly political and potential radical issue? In …
I am abrasive. I am armed to the teeth with knives of hand and mind and fangs and quips behind these lips so it can be unwise to tell me to smile. So despite a love/hate relationship with the word I have an abrasive personality, But then I came by it honestly. I inherited it …
Orla ní Dhúill 