My manager Si holds his shoulders high when we return to the office. Today we assessed a man whose mother wants him out. Disabled or not, she said, it’s strange for my son to still live here, and he’s started locking me in the bathroom. Si will offer the son a placement with us. It’s … Continue reading Compassion fatigue
Helen Levitt (1913-2009) was a photographer of the New York streets, the city where she was born and lived all of her life. In recent years, Levitt’s work has undergone something of a rediscovery with major exhibitions in Paris, New York, and Arles. She is currently the subject of a retrospective at the Photographers Gallery … Continue reading On the Stoop – Helen Levitt retrospective in the Photographers Gallery
People play tig with traffic to avoid me. Even that wrestler guy with the bulldog tattoos and Rottweiler gets out of my way. I never thought I’d be king of the pavement, but all it took for my coronation was a deadly pathogen and making a seamless transition from pleb to key worker while wearing … Continue reading Sick days
We get called into Leisureland out in Salthill for 9 AM. There are twelve tables spaced out across two basketball courts in the sports hall like we’re doing the leaving cert in some specialist school. I only just made the cut this year; eight years of lifeguard experience in Kerry counts for nothing once you … Continue reading Between the flags
We cooked 100 burgers at a time then used a big metal blade to scrape all the fat and gristle into a trough that ran along the side of a grill called the grease trap. The real grease trap was my uniform. The hat was paper, but everything else was as plastic as the name … Continue reading McHeadwound
We had pink jobs and blue jobs at the oyster farm. It was never meant seriously, more like an in-joke, playing on stereotypes and all that. Continue reading Pink jobs and blue jobs
Issue One, Work. Available to buy now. https://noparties.bigcartel.com/product/no-parties-issue-one Continue reading Issue one now available
Words by Brian Ward People are gradually waking up to the realisation that the internet is not a bodiless ether, but is a mass producer of carbon. Every year the amount of carbon produced as a direct result of the internet is increasing. Coverage of this issue first became fixed in my mind with the … Continue reading Ireland’s data centre bubble
Anna Walsh Note: I do not represent the Trans Writers Union. Rather, the Trans Writers Union represents me, and as such my personal thoughts recorded here do not necessarily speak for other members of the TWU. In the summer of 2020, it seemed as though every weekend culture magazine in Ireland was giving certain writers … Continue reading The Formation and Aims of the Trans Writers Union
For several years now the role of experts in society has been under fire. In 2016, Michael Gove said the people and the country had had enough of experts, he seemed to touch a nerve and reflect, if not the opinion of the majority, then certainly an element within the popular consciousness. So what if … Continue reading The Conversation and Gatekeeping: using experts to provide a veneer of authority.
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