There are two kinds of ghost village in Ireland. Each is the legacy of over-reliance on an exotic and apparently endless resource. In the 1800s, Francis Drake’s potato rapidly became the staple crop of the Irish peasant. Nutritious, bountiful and resilient, it could support families on tiny parcels of land, and new settlements extended far… read more +

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br1ZbkDv3YU&hl=en_US&fs=1&] It is a time of recession, rising unemployment, a growing drugs problem, and Pat Kenny fronting a current affairs programme… Welcome to 1985.

I wrote this piece on the run-up to the Lisbon campaign for Prospect Magazine in London, on Cóir and Ireland’s new culture wars.