Category: Protestant Culture
Aftermath and trauma
When I was 14, my family took a trip to the Scottish Borders to visit my aunt and uncle who’d bought a farm there. It was the first time I’d been out of Ireland and to me it felt like a whole new world. Bridies, Irn Bru, midges that were more bitey. And I distinctly…
Airports are turning Green
When my auntie told me this story, sure I nearly keeled over it tickled me so much. It’s amazing what hurdles we are prepared to accommodate when we understand that it’s in our interest to do so. The game is presented to us with simple tribal rules. Them and us. It’s always been played this…
The Identity-ometer
Pick a side. Well – as I already knew from playing football every lunch break at school, you rarely get to pick your side. It picks you. And to be honest, you should be grateful that you’re on any sort of side at all. And whatever team you’re tentatively part of (not that they pass…
Love your neighbour
As a child, what I saw and what I read didn’t seem to match up. Loving your neighbour, seemed pretty central to what was being taught – yet even as a kid I could see that the adults had moved on from that. It had become problematic. The thing that really confused me was that…
Ach away…
I’ve seen my dad mow the lawn a thousand times. Usually my brothers and I were waiting in the wings to play football on the freshly-cut theatre of dreams it created. My dad was usually a bit grumpy about this. Apparently our excessive footballing had created patches where grass was now impossible to cultivate. There…
