Stephen Holland - Multimedia Journalist

The news that the Pontins campsite chain in the UK had a blacklist of Irish surnames which they labelled “undesirable guests” came as a shock to many, who saw it as discriminatory, racist, and unjust. This was the initial reaction as all the headlines said was, “Irish surnames”. But upon further investigation you learn that this policy was designed to exclude Gypsies and Travellers and was not aimed at everyday settled Irish people. This is when a lot of the shock, horror, and outrage began to dissipate and suddenly this was no longer the broad issue of social injustice that it first seemed. Why is that? Why is it that in an age rampant activism and accountability Travellers are so often left out of the conversation surrounding racism? As If it does not count when it is just Travellers? It is often claimed that Ireland is not racist, and we can point to the Pontins scandal and say, “isn’t it just awful what they’ve done in the UK”. But when it comes to discussions surrounding Traveller...

Gautama Buddha once said, ““the past is already gone, the future is not yet here. There's only one moment for you to live, and that is the present moment”.  People have always tended to either live in a rose-tinted recollection of an Ill remembered past, or an over-exaggeration estimation on the possibilities of the future. Never has this been truer than under the gaze of Covid19. With nothing to do but ponder over memories from the before times, or to dream of the day someday soon when things will have gone back to normal. The question I wish to investigate today is, have people lost hope in the future thanks to this virus?  My answer to this question would be: No.  We have not lost hope in the future, but I think we may put too much hope in it. Every conversation I have is about what we will do in future, how great things will be when we can, or remembering back to when we used to be able to do this or that.  But we are alive today and whether we like it or not the...