New Blog – These Are Songs

In a traitorous bid to dilute the prestige of the tuppenceworth brand, I have started a new blog. It's called These Are Songs and it is about songs. The first post is a ridiculously long one about "Frankie and Johnny".

Read More »

Waiting for Obama

A week later, and it still seems hard to believe. I surprise myself by being stirred, thrilled even, by even the most schmaltzy and saccharine of the celebrations of the election of Barack Obama. I looked at the papers on Thursday with something approaching wonder.

Read More »

The Morning After

I wake up in the dark. I get up and stagger out of bed and downstairs to prepare my son's breakfast bottle.   I stand waiting for it to heat.

Read More »

Web 2.0 and copyright: When legal rights feel wrong

I was contacted last week by Gareth Stack, who is a thoughtful recent graduate of Trinity College Dublin. Gareth had contributed to a User Generated Content based competition by Hot New Band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. They asked their fans to send in videos of themselves singing along to one of their songs and then cut a selection of them together.

Read More »

A Ryanair Budget

I don’t know how many times it’s happened to me. At the McDonald’s counter, I am presented with my Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal, ketchup not included. “Could I have some ketchup, please?"The guy at the counter gives me a single sachet.

Read More »

Shell, Broadhaven Bay and the Failure of News

BelmulletOriginally uploaded by Conor LawlessDuring August of this year I wrote a blizzard of letters for clients of McGarr Solicitors who were worried about their crab fishing pots. As it turned out, they had good reason to be worried. Traditionally, August is the middle of the Long Vacation, and therefore ought to be a sleepy time for law firms.

Read More »

Podcamp Ireland Talk: PaperRound as a tool to teach Critical Thought

This is a rough write up of the notes I made for my talk to Podcamp Ireland on the topic of Teaching Teenagers Critical Thought and Media Literacy. My description of what I wanted to say was so maladroit that it was a great surprise to me when I actually got people coming in to hear me speak. Many thanks to all of them.

Read More »