Charles Haughey has died at the age of 80. For most readers, that will mean nothing. For those who grew up in Ireland, this death will either bring sadness or a quiet sense of satisfaction. I am in the latter group. Haughey was the epitome of the 'cute hoor', an Irish idiom for an individual who does whatever they want to get whatever they want. Think DeLay or any of the reptiles in Congress, and you're not too far wrong. To me, Haughey epitomized everything that was wrong with Ireland in the 70s and 80s. Over at Crooked Timber, fellow ex-pat (and Arizona resident) Kieran Healy has a worthwhile rundown.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
Daniel Davies stakes out a controversial position at Crooked Timber:
I tend to regard myself as Crooked Timber's online myrmidon of a number of rather unpopular views; among other things, as regular readers will have seen, I believe that the incitement to religious hatred legislation was a good…
"I am not a pretty girl - that is not what I do."
Ani DiFranco
A few weeks ago, I received a facebook message. It was from a male admirer of my blog (and his fiancée, coincidentally). In it, he said "You are GORGEOUS, and your tits look absolutely incredible." I froze. I know it was meant as a…
I am a lucky author.
Anyone who writes a book hopes to avoid the fate that David Hume famously ascribed to his Treatise of Human Nature, which he said ''fell dead-born from the press, without reaching such distinction, as even to excite a murmur among the zealots.'' I certainly have managed to…
Jerry Coyne missed one: he lists a few annoying columnists in the Guardian, Andrew Brown and Madeleine Bunting, but I guess he didn't notice that Michael Ruse just posted a whine about Dawkins and other atheists. Well, a few of us: he mentions Dawkins, Dennett, Coyne, and me as the people who bring…