Category: Irish Society
The Judiciary: Who they are and their everyday work
The School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin will host a presentation by Prof Sharyn Roach Anleu under the above title at 4pm, Thursday 2nd October 2008, in the Robert Emmet Lecture Theatre (Room 2037, Arts Building (Map)), Trinity College Dublin.
Sharyn Roach Anleu is a Professor of Sociology at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia, where The Judicial Research Project is undertaking wide ranging socio-legal research concerning the Australian judiciary as a legal and social institution and as a professional occupation. The presentation will examine the social and career background of members of the judiciary and their everyday work to create a picture of the judiciary as a professional occupation, working among and dependent on other professionals, including social workers.
More information is available here (doc), and from the School of Social Work and Social Policy.…
Censoring Theatre in Britain and Ireland
The Licensing Act, 1737, by requiring that every play to be performed on the English stage must first get a licence from the Lord Chamberlain, effectively constituted him a censor of the theatre until the repeal of the Act by the Theatres Act 1968.
An exhibition just opened in the British Library
showcases the successful post-war resistance to theatre censorship (see also press release | archive | blog | review). Excellent articles in the Guardian (Yes to pansy but no to bugger) and the Times (A disgusting feast of filth?) put the exhibition into fascinating historical and theatrical perspective. Update: There is an excellent page on the BBC website about this, including a seven minute clip from the Today Show on BBC Radio 4 in which David Hare and Michael Billington discuss the demise of theatre censorship.
In a few weeks time, The Golden Generation will be joined in the British Library by an even more ambitious exhibition: Taking Liberties. The struggle for Britain’s freedoms and rights (blogged here by one of its curators), which promises to
…unite[] the pivotal documents which made or changed political history for the nation including Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights 1689, the Articles of Union 1706 ..
Another small step towards Mental Capacity legislation
In December 2006, the Law Reform Commission published a very valuable report on Vulnerable Adults and the Law (83-2006) (pdf). In May of this year, Carol Coulter reported in the Irish Times that the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform intended to act on that Report by means of a Mental Incapacity Bill which would replace the existing wardship jurisdiction with an alternative system for dealing with the affairs of vulnerable people, which will offer them assistance in making decisions and protect them from exploitation. Today’s print version of the Irish Times (but not, so far as I can see, the online version; update: though it did get a mention in the paper’s online Breaking News section) has further developments: …
Vouching for Consumers
The Consumer Protection Act, 2007 (also here), though it is the latest in a long line of piecemeal legislative forays into the area, nevertheless bids fair to provide substantial protection for consumers, provided both that the National Consumer Agency established under it is vigilant and active in that goal, and that it is allowed to be (for example, it may not survive in its current form calls (for example, by Fine Gael) for its abolition as part of the government’s cost-cutting desire to merge various statutory agencies). One important step was taken yesterday with the publication of draft guidelines for the retail sector. …
University fees? Yes, Minister
Whenever I hear discussions of the funding of universities, my thoughts turn first to a classic Yes Minister (BBC | imdb | wikipedia) episode (imdb | synopsis | wikipedia | YouTube) in which the worthies in Sir Humphrey’s Oxford College lobby him against the pernicious effects of government funding policies. Much of that sketch is relevant to the current debate in Ireland about third-level tuition fees (Irish Times | RTÉ News), where it seems to me that two separate issues have been conflated (or confused) in some quarters. Moreover, one of these issues needs to be resolved before any of the other elements of the current debate can be properly addressed.
In 1996, when the Government “abolished” third-level fees, what actually happened was a little more complicated. …
Free Speech, even for Kevin Myers – Update
The controversy about the article by Kevin Myers in last week’s Irish Independent rumbles on. And as I said in my last post, that is all to the good. It is the frank and open debate of the points he makes in the article that will best serve his critics, not an over-reaction to his rhetoric.
Here’s a sample of the online reaction: …
Free Speech, even for Kevin Myers
Kevin Myers (pictured left) is a mordant and trenchant journalist, possessed of contumacious views and caustic expression. He is a classic contrarian, articulating non-populist positions with style and vigour. Sometimes he does this with Swiftian ridicule and satire; sometimes with polemic and overstatement; and sometimes with acerbic and penetrating insight. When he gets it right, he is one of Ireland’s best exponents of sharp and biting political commentary and analysis.
Though I rarely, if ever, agree with him, I am always challenged by what he writes. Sun Tzu, in The Art of War, advised that one should know the enemy. In that spirit, I read Kevin Myers: I seek him out because I know that I will usually disagree with his views. And the fact that he can challenge my views, or a contemporary consensus, is, in many ways, the best justification for freedom of expression. When he takes a strong position, it challenges those of us who disagree with him to understand our own positions, marshal our thoughts, and understand precisely what we believe and why we believe it, the better to explain why we disagree with him.
However, last week, Myers crossed the line from commenting on the news to making it.…
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