Dun Laoghaire's premiere pizza spot.

This machine can make a pizza in 3minutes. There are two tables and chairs and Dun Laoghaire shopping centre advertise it as a restaurant.

Guns Kill People.

Washington Post Journalist Todd Lindeman has compiled this graph to illustrate violent deaths in America by age and cause. The results are shocking. I don't know how the vast majority of people don't see through the NRA. It explains a lot about the power of lobby groups like them in America.

Continued State Prejudice: The Irish Travelling Community.

Wrote this a while ago for www.swp.ie 

In this article I want to examine the development of the state’s attitude towards the Irish Travelling Community and by doing that look at the relationship between settled and travelling communities.

Much like anti-working class discrimination, Traveller discrimination seems to be an acceptable form of prejudice in modern Ireland. In everyday society words like ‘tinker’ or ‘pikey’ seem to be thrown around as if there is nothing wrong with these sweeping insults. In Dublin city centre it is a common thing for pubs and clubs to refuse to serve travellers and people are often asked to leave 

Integration of Africans in Irish Society.

Written in 2011 as an essay.

There are some interesting findings here, in particular in relation to the police and the state and their treatment  of migrants.

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I want to look at the development of Irish social policy in the way of immigration and integration. The typical indicators of levels of integration are education, health, culture, language and qualifications. I will look at each of these in detail. One could have excellent educational qualifications but have no English, ones culture may not be catered for in anyway by the state and one’s health care may not be catered for by the HSE. For example Sickle Cell Anaemia (a disease which mostly affects black people) treatment was not available via the medical card up until relatively recently. 

I will look at policy that impedes integration and aspects of legislation that aids it. Different people from different places have different levels of rights. Tight bureaucratic rules can impede integration and social inclusion. Bureaucratic forms and rules can cause problems for people with no English or low education.  I will look at each of these elements of integration in detail. 

Sexism and Gender Inequality in Ireland.

Written in 2011 as an essay. 

I decided to pick this topic as the 100^th anniversary of International Women’s day was just a few weeks ago. The weeklong event raised some important questions and proved that sexism is still a problem and quite prevalent in Irish and international society even in the year 2011.


All one has to do is to look at the heads of schools in UCD, the shafting of Joan Burton on the government panel and the recent threatening of rape as a joke by Gardai to see sexism is what holds women back. There are some obvious facts to point out in relation to gender inequality in Ireland today. It’s no secret that women are more likely to be accused of promiscuous behaviour, more chance of being a victim of sexual assault, less likely to enter political office (15% of TDs in Dail Eireann are women), more likely to fear walking home at night and it is very likely for women to be afraid to enter their own home. “National Research by the National Crime Council found that 1 in 7 women have experienced severe abusive behaviour of a physical, sexual or emotional nature from a partner at some times in their lives. The survey estimates that 213,000 women in Ireland have been severely abused by a partner”. (Domestic Abuse of Women and Men in Ireland: Report on the National Study of Domestic Abuse, National Crime Council and ERSI, 2005).

Myth-busting Lies about Immigrants.

(From 2009)

Every now and then someone will try and tell me an urban legend or a myth about refugees, asylum seekers or migrant families and workers and often these rumours are egged on by false media reports and either bias or sloppy journalism. People are angry and need to voice their anger but this doesn’t always go in the right direction and often the finger is pointed at people who are not from here as it’s a scapegoat for the pent up tension in society.

However I am not claiming that people who say these things are just ignorant or uneducated. I think the routes of racism are much more societal and are about the scarcity of resources and people being pitched against each other to fight for these resources. Most people I feel are actually against racism they just do not tend to know the facts, they just know they are defending the right people. The route of racism is a very interesting topic and it stems from a socio-historical analysis of slavery, imperialism, persecution and war. However that is another day’s work; what I want to do here is simply dispel those rotten myths and lies we often hear on the bus, in the post office or wherever.