K.R Coughlan
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Stories (9/0)
Home and Away: The Domestic and External Irish response to the Jewish refugee situation in Europe
This paper will focus on two distinctively contrasting philosophies regarding the Jewish refugee crisis during the second world war. These separate philosophies have differing roots, one deriving from domestic politics and the other from European politics. The domestic and external Irish response to the exodus of Jews fleeing from their homes displays an extremely interesting contradiction. This essay first sets out to discuss Ireland’s neutrality and her place in Europe. This, in turn, could be said to have affected the political agenda of the Irish government and general consensus on allowing European Jews to enter the country. Relationships between political figures also portray a multitude of themes at work within the administration, particularly concerning antisemitism and improving Ireland’s place in Europe. One could argue that the policy of industrial protectionism was also a significant element in conjuring up anti-Jewish feeling. The next part of the paper focuses on the external Irish viewpoint, which is personified through three remarkable Irish philanthropic figures, active in saving victims of conflict during the 1940s. The two Irish figures that I wish to focus on are namely, Mary Elmes and Hubert Butler. Both were educated and had lived outside Ireland for a time, yet maintained strong links to the Irish nation and different political and perhaps religious motivations.
By K.R Coughlan 4 years ago in The Swamp
- Top Story - September 2017
Why Were Women So Accused of Being Witches in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries?Top Story - September 2017
Opening Early modern Europe was the epicentre of many social, religious and economic changes. Against the backdrop of the Reformation and the Peasant Wars in the early sixteenth century, the belief in witches was rampant throughout mainland Europe. Women were the main targets of the European witch hunts. Regarding the thoughts and belief system of ordinary people between the fifteenth and eighteenth century, there are a number of reasons why women were targeted as witches. Church Doctrine along with some popular writers of the time incorporated a large amount of misogyny into their ideas. These ideas, that spread quickly with the aid of the printing press would have influenced much of the European population to believe that women were liabilities and often accessories to evil proceedings.
By K.R Coughlan 7 years ago in Viva
Are You Liberal, or Your Kind of Liberal?
‘I’m a believer of free speech.’ ‘I don’t judge.’ ‘People should be allowed to express their opinions freely...’ This is the current soundtrack to today’s society. It’s quite a beautiful tune if truth be told. Why wouldn’t one love to shuffle day to day through our sometimes monotonous tasks, through our rat-race paced city to this sympathetic and tolerant atmosphere? Do we not all have enough dilemmas, doubts and disputes without the addition of the judgmental, the joyless and the jaded?
By K.R Coughlan 7 years ago in The Swamp