A S H Smyth › On <i>Uncertain Ground</i>

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Tag Archives: politics

On Uncertain Ground

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

In which I, ASH Smyth, High Anglican atheist, descendant of Huguenots, dissenters, Presbyterians, Church of Ireland types, and maybe even Quakers, make my Catholic press debut, on Phil Klay’s Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War. — For The Catholic Herald

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Afghanistan, America, Americans, Barack Obama, books, Catholicism, citizenship, Iraq, Jesuits, John McCain, Journalism, Libya, movies, Navy Seals, Niger, non-fiction, Pakistan, Penguin, Phil Klay, Somalia, St Ignatius, Syria, The Catholic Herald, Ukraine, USMC, veterans, war, writers, Yemen | Comments (0)

Trouble at’ Mill

Monday, May 31, 2021

Notes on the life (and afterlife) of JS Mill, philosopher . The classical liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill was born and died this month – in, respectively, 1806 and 1873 – and in between he wrote (or co-wrote, with his wife, and then his step-daughter) On Liberty, Utilitarianism, Principles of Political Economy, Considerations of Representative Government, […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Amazon Kindle, Avignon, Bertrand Russell, bookshops, champagne, Charles Darwin, Colombo, death, Dilsiri Welikala, economics, education, Edward 'Clerihew' Bentley, Eliza Jarvis, Falkland Islands Radio Service, finance, Florence Nightingale, France, Frederick Langmead, furniture, GF Watts, Greek, Harriet Taylor Mill, health, Helen Taylor, Homer, housing, India, James Mill, Jean-Henri Fabre, Jeremy Bentham, John Milton, John Stuart Mill, Journalism, Joy Lo Dico, Kalpitiya, Latin, Matt RIdley, medicine, Millicent Fawcett, Monty Python, obituaries, philosophy, Rupert Jarvis, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sri Lanka, the Chapman brothers, the East India Company, the Falklands, the London Stereoscopic Company, The Spectator, The Times, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Thomas Carlyle, Tom Holland, UCL, Utilitarianism, Vernon Bogdanor, Westminster, women, writing | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, May 25, 2020

. The barnacles are scraped off British men-of-war twice a year..5 — The Nelson Evening Mail, Thursday, September 6 1906 . Wicca is the fastest-growing religion in the UK after Islam. The Dutch term for a sex buddy is ‘seksbuddy’. George I and his prime minister conversed officially in dog Latin. Irish 6th-formers know what The Communist Manifesto is […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged carparks, crime, Dutch, employment, Fred C Trump, George I, Harvard, irony, Islam, Kalutara, Karl Marx, Latin, law, museums, Nations Trust Bank, Nelson Evening Mail, New York, news, Port Said, property, religion, Royal Navy, satire, school, seafood, sex, the British, the Irish, Unitarians, Utilitarians, Walter Rothschild, war, Wicca | Comments (0)

Trouble at t’Mill

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

The curious life of John Stuart Mill, philosopher . When JS Mill was born, his father, James, challenged a friend to ‘race with you in the education of… the most accomplished and virtuous young man.’ That other child has not gone down in history – but he may well have dodged a serious bullet. Learning […]

Filed in feature, Journalism | Also tagged Avignon, Bertrand Russell, Blackadder, crime, education, Edward 'Clerihew' Bentley, England, fathers, Florence Nightingale, France, Greek, India, James Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Milton, Journalism, JS Mill, love, Milicent Fawcett, Monty Python, philosophy, Poetry, Reading, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Smith, sons, the East India Company, the Liberal Party, The Spectator, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Thomas Carlyle, UCL, Utilitarianism, women's suffrage, Wordsworth | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, December 2, 2019

. There are more kilts in London than in Scotland. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Thursday, May 9 1907 . At 45% of the population, white Christians are a shrinking demographic in America. Hermal eggings are so leek. No sensitive person would choose to be the historian of the Irish asylums in the first part of the […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged America, children, clothing, drink, ducks, English, food, goldfish, health, Hegel, history, holidays, humour, London, madness, Nelson Evening Mail, new, religion, Rioja, Robert Southey, Russia, satire, Scotland, Smak, Spinoza, the Irish, WG Grace | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE #5

Thursday, December 6, 2018

Of arshins, poods, and workplace happiness. A whole new week’s worth of the news where you aren’t. — For Queen Mob’s Tea House

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged accents, Alan Titchmarsh, Armenia, army, BTS, children, Christmas, doctors, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, employment, health, Italians, measurements, men, Nelson Evening Mail, pens, Queen Mob's Tea House, Richard Dawkins, Robert Browning, Russians, satire, Shakespeare, Sri Lanka, the Irish, the Orient Express, the Scots, theatre, train-travel, vending machines, wolves, work | Comments (0)

‘5 Living Presidents’? ASH Smyth demands a recount

Saturday, December 1, 2018

A list of all the living presidents, as at 5:57pm, December 1st, 2018 – for reasons that, I think, should be self-evident. — For Queen Mob’s Tea House

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Americans, presidents, Queen Mob's Tea House | Comments (0)

Portrait of a ‘lady’ – Constance Markievicz, by Sarah Purser

Friday, November 30, 2018

Tonight, the Irish journalist Mary Kenny has a play on at the Irish Cultural Centre. Entitled Dearest Old Darling, it’s based on letters sent between the Dublin feminist, socialist, communist, Sinn Fein MP (elect, but never sitting) Constance Markievicz – née Gore-Booth – and her sister Eva. My great-great-great-aunt, Sarah Purser, portraitist, landscape artist, and […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Académie Julian, air travel, An Túr Gloine, aristocracy, bathing, Brendan Behan, burglary, Communism, Constance Markievicz, Count Casimir Markievicz, Douglas Hyde, Dublin, Elizabeth Coxhead, Eva Gore-Booth, exploration, feminism, France, Georgina Gore-Booth, grandmothers, Guinness, Huguenots, Ireland, Jack Yeats, James Joyce, John Butler Yeats, John O'Grady, Kathleen Kearney, Lady Gregory, landlords, letters, Lissadell, Mary Kenny, Maud Gonne, Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, National Gallery of Ireland, Oliver Gogarty, painting, portraits, religion, Roger Casement, Rome, Royal Dublin Society, Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts, Sarah Purser, Sinn Fein, Sir Henry Gore-Booth, Sligo, socialism, stained glass, the Arctic, the British, the Irish Cultural Centre, theatre, Yeats | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE #3

Thursday, November 22, 2018

A little bit more idiocy from around the global village. — For Queen Mob’s Tea House

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged baseball, beauty, birds, books, Caucasians, Central Park, China, Communism, death, Fernando Po, fire, grandmothers, Joseph Conrad, knives, MAGA, manufacturing, men, MILFs, Nelson Evening Mail, New Zealand, parenthood, petroleum, PornHub, potatoes, Queen Mob's Tea House, Roxy Jacenko, satire, saxophones, science, teenagers, the internet, the ocean, trivia, University of Iowa, widows, women, Yiddish | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, April 9, 2018

. Last year 15,391 persons kept bees in this colony. The number of hives was 74,341. — The Nelson Evening Mail, April 10 1907 . It’s not every day a virgin conceives and bears a son. Indifference to facts is not confined to the alt-right and the hyper-liberal Left. The word ‘minge’ is of Romany extraction. […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Alcoholics Anonymous, alt-Right, anatomy, apiarists, bees, Bill Wilson, Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club, British Empire, chronology, computers, cricket, Dr Bob Smith, drink, elk, empathy, England, Erith, Europe, Gamini Jayantha Molligoda, hashtags, health, India, intelligence, Nelson Evening Mail, New Zealand, offspring, Queen Victoria, religion, Romany, science, sex, Sri Lanka, Truth, weather, women | Comments (0)