Naomi Elster 11 posts 0 comments

A week and a half ago, I was sitting in a cafe in a whitewashed village in the south of Spain, transcribing a message from a rape survivor through headphones on my phone, wishing as I listened to such harrowing facts that I’d ordered the…

#WakingtheFeminists, the movement catalysed by The Abbey Theatre’s 1916 commemorations, is winding down the public campaign which drew the world’s attention to the lack of women in Irish theatre.   In reality, the 1916 commissions were…

Abortions happen. Even if you are one of the vocal few who fiercely believe that life begins at conception and a woman’s rights should be secondary to a foetus, you can’t deny that abortions happen, even in Ireland. Despite the fourteen…

I can do horror I can do horror Write it anyway. Blackfriars Bridge got its name From something terrible and fantastical that happened Because of the strange, black-garbed phantoms That walked the streets of London once. That was…

Cancer is clever. People speak about this extraordinarily diverse and complex group of diseases as if they were one disease and ask us impatiently when we are going to “cure” it. The reality is that many researchers, myself included,…

When I first studied cancer medicine as an undergraduate, my lecturer described chemotherapy as “beating up the patient with a baseball bat in the hope that you get the cancer on the way.” Chemotherapy has benefits, but the side effects can…

"Gas! Gas!….flound’ring like a man in fire or lime… guttering, choking, drowning… blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs.” Few things evoke the horror of battle as powerfully as Wilfred Owens’ Dulce et Decorum Est. Even…

The future of Manchester Divided star and England international Dwayne Kick is in doubt after shock revelations last night that the 26 year old has “never cheated” on his wife. This isn’t the first time Kick’s remarkably unremarkable…

Minister for Agri-defence denies decision to put Irish army on horseback was due to budget cuts The new Minister for Agriculture and Defence today announced that to honour the centenary of the first world war, in which the last horseback…

Local man William Dunne is standing for election. William, as he will tell you himself at every opportunity, is a local man. He’ll also tell you he understands local interests and local issues, he’s not one of them political types who are…