Published on
5 March 2020
Posted in Big Society, Education, Human Life, Philosophy, Social Commentary, Virtue
Facebook has given new meaning to the saying, ‘Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit’. Social media has brought with it great benefits, but one of the biggest problems associated by many with them is that there seems to have come about post hoc if not propter hoc a diminution in understanding of […]
Published on
12 December 2019
Posted in British Politics, Christianity, Culture, Liberty, Morality in Public, Virtue
Democracy is seen by most people, much of the time, as one of the brightest jewels in the crown of Western culture. Unlike the slavery-based ancient Athenian democracy it is the product of assertion of the freedom and dignity inherent in every human being, and as a result on 12 December every UK citizen over […]
Published on
29 September 2017
Posted in Liberty, Marriage & Family, Virtue
Last month James Damore, a 28-year-old software engineer, was fired by Google after his critique of the company’s affirmative action policies was leaked online. The full text of the now infamous 10-page memo argued that average biological group differences between men and women ‘in part’ explain the current low representation of women in the tech […]
Published on
16 June 2017
Posted in Big Society, British Politics, Public Policy, Virtue
This is the first in a 3-part series of reflections on the 2017 UK General Election. Only eleven months ago, Theresa May delivered a much-lauded opening address just outside 10 Downing Street, in which she extolled the virtues of ‘One Nation’ conservatism. Whilst a passing mention was made of her predecessor, her firm pledge to ‘fight against […]
Published on
18 April 2016
In recent weeks, newspapers and media at large have been speaking about the biggest leak in contemporary history. The Panama Papers amount to 2.6 terabytes of information or 11.5 million documents on offshore tax havens. The records constitute the internal database of Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm, and were published by the International Consortium […]
Published on
24 February 2015
Posted in Christianity, Culture, Human Life, Ireland, Moral Philosophy, Social Commentary, Virtue
If God exists, says Stephen Fry, then he is an ‘utterly evil, capricious monster’. It is worth bearing in mind that, in the context of his interview for Irish television’s (RTE‘s) The Meaning of Life, Gay Byrne was not asking Fry to speculate on the concept of a Creator in the vague terms sometimes proffered by Hollywood celebrities. Byrne began, […]
Published on
18 November 2013
Posted in Conscience, Culture, Human Life, Human Rights, Legal Affairs, Moral Philosophy, Morality in Public, Virtue
‘In any legal system, whether a given norm is legally valid, and hence whether it forms part of the law of that system, depends on its sources, not its merits.’This working definition of ‘legal positivism’ has a certain notoriety, even while it provokes disagreement. This legal tradition is popularly understood, and with some rationale, to […]
Published on
23 August 2013
In one way or another the assorted strands of the wide Judeo-Christian tradition have always acknowledged divine revelation as the source of a duty to care for the poor and destitute. Islamic scholars and authoritative sources in many other religious traditions have also emphasised the importance of caring for the poor, arguing that as God’s […]