Paul Hannon

For some reason, none of this seemed odd to me until I visited Seville and Cordoba, where buildings constructed for use by one faith were taken over by another when political power shifted.

St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh (Roman Catholic) - Wikipedia

Instead, its top Catholic edifice is located in another state (the U.K.). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Patr...

In other places, a change of regime (such as independence) might have seen one of Dublin’s two cathedrals returned to its majority faith. But no.

Pope to be asked to settle Dublin's cathedral question Pope Leo XIV is to be asked to settle one of the outstanding issues of the Reformation that has affected Dublin for 500 years.

One of the many odd things about Ireland is that, having been one of the most Catholic countries, it’s capital city lacks a Catholic cathedral: www.rte.ie/news/dublin/...

Investigation continues into arson attack at IPAS centre An investigation into an arson attack at an IPAS centre in Drogheda is continuing, after gardaí confirmed a fire had been deliberately started in the building on Friday night.

www.rte.ie/news/ireland... what the story might not make clear for non-Irish readers is that this is a center for housing refugees while their applications for asylum are being processed.

Changing geopolitical environment reshapes science, technology and innovation policy, says OECD Rising geopolitical tensions and security concerns about emerging critical technologies are reshaping international co-operation in science, technology and innovation (STI), according to a new OECD re...

www.oecd.org/en/about/new...

The report shows a sharp rise in research security measures – policies designed to protect sensitive research and prevent foreign interference. In 2025, countries reported 250 such policies — almost ten times more than in 2018.

Who else could have pulled it off?

They only have two centuries of experience to draw on, but GWR still surprised that a lot of people travel to and from Oxford. Maybe if they had some tangible sign of demand, like ticket sales, they could provide an adequate number of seats.

This may be obvious, but the trick to the BOE’s QT announcement seems to be that sales of long-term gilts are pretty much the same as last year (20% of £21 billion vs 33.3% of £13 billion) even as total sales rise. Some people might have wanted to see no further sales at the long end.

Dept contacts German authorities over protester assault The Irish ambassador to Germany has conveyed her concern to German authorities after an Irish demonstrator was assaulted by police officers during a pro-Palestine protest in Berlin.

The Irish ambassador to Germany has conveyed her concern to German authorities after an Irish demonstrator was assaulted by police officers during a pro-Palestine protest in Berlin.

How it started….

Does the Bank of Italy have Daniel O’Connell’s heart?

I had not realised that the Bank of Italy was involved.

The curious case of Daniel O'Connell's missing heart Before Daniel O'Connell's body was repatriated to Dublin for burial in Glasnevin Cemetery, his heart was removed, embalmed and donated to the Irish College in Rome. However, his heart later vanished w...

You think your country has problems - Ireland does not know where the heart of The Liberator lies: www.rte.ie/news/ireland...

Prospective buyers are drawn by the English language, a high quality of life, safety and convenient access to the rest of Europe, real-estate brokers say.

Americans Are Snapping Up London Mansions Like Never Before U.S. buyers are taking advantage of the falling prices for high-end homes in the U.K. capital.

Further evidence of London’s collapse into anarchy and despair. www.wsj.com/real-estate/...

Awful weather, Tour finished for the day, decided to cast a glance at the CD rack. Which was a good call. I’d forgotten how great this is.

I took my life in my hands and went to see a musical performance at a building that used to be part of the railway network, but of course the trains no longer run there.

No convincing needed.

So the eurozone economy grew twice as quickly in the first quarter as previously estimated. That huge revision was largely due to US stockpiling of pharmaceuticals purchased from Ireland. GDP up by 0.6% and employment up by 0.2% in the euro area - Euro indicators - Eurostat

If you do view low IQ as something to do with genetics, isn’t it a challenge that such a low-IQ population can become so academically successful so quickly? It’s almost as if low or high IQ had little or nothing to do with genetics, and a lot to do with the resources devoted to education

As most people would acknowledge, it is no longer economically “backward.” Yes, there is quite a bit of tax avoidance and financial engineering going on, but Irish workers are in general pretty highly skilled and productive

Partly as a result of that work, the Irish education system was revamped, and became among the best in the world. Indeed, according to the OECD, the only countries with a larger share of the population having completed a university education are Canada, Luxembourg and Japan.

So Lynn moved on. As for my Dad, he was doing some work on how to improve what had been a truly awful education system that,until the mid-1960s, had only offered high school to the children of the middle classes, and a university education to a tiny elite

“I reflected on the likely headlines I would get if I wrote one of the monographs that the ESRI produced analysing the problem and its solution. Headlines like Professor advocates sterilizing the mentally retarded and incentives for graduates to have more children.”

What kind of eugenic policies? In the interview, Lynn explained that he held back from publishing his views because he had felt they would gain little traction in a devoutly Catholic country.

Lynn was interested in IQ, where Irish people did not score highly. “So I formulated the theory that the low IQ was likely a significant reason for the economic backwardness. The solution for this problem was obvious. What was needed was a set of eugenic policies that would raise the Irish IQ.”

Now, it is true that Ireland was less advanced economically than its next door neighbour at that time. One could wonder whether there was any link between its economic situation and its history as something close to, but not exactly a colony of that neighbour.

If you are unfamiliar with Lynn’s thinking, his initial thoughts on arriving in Ireland are revealing. In an interview with a Danish academic published in 2011, Lynn explained that he had been struck by how economically “backward” this country was.