Myths

Medical myths in a time of Covid-19…

Terry Maguire on April 4, 2020, 7:00 am

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One aspect of the Covid19 pandemic is the steep rise in associated myths. This is not unusual. In time of crisis we all cling to what we believe and we believe new things more easily; these certainties give us security and hope. Indeed, government in its covid19 messaging is itself controlling our behaviour in what I believe to be a more or less responsible manner. Scaring us into staying home and normalising this behaviour is key to their public health …

“There were, he said, no aborigines in Ireland…”

Pete Baker on December 27, 2012, 12:43 pm

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In the Irish Times, Paul Murray provides a good starting point for 2013 It would be easier for all of us if, in John Montague’s words, “old moulds are broken”; and if, like John Hewitt, we scrutinised the myths of our tribe. We would inhabit a happier island if we imbibed some of Hewitt’s gritty integrity that sought to comprehend the other tribe so that the “goat and ox may graze in the same field/and each gain something from proximity”. …

“No one in this small, enclosed biosphere ever told them this project was never going to work in the first place…”

Pete Baker on August 17, 2010, 4:10 pm

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In the Belfast Telegraph, Henry McDonald analyses the logically consistent, if callous, recent comments by independent councillor Martin Connolly. From the Belfast Telegraph article No matter how repulsive you might find his response to what could have been a double-murder of a woman and a child, Connolly’s position reflects traditional republicanism and its attitude towards the security forces. It also, paradoxically, illuminates the central problem facing mainstream republicans, particularly Sinn Fein: the durability of ideology. Last Tuesday evening, the other …