My latest in @eriugenareview:

1/ Brian Boru: Ireland’s Charlemagne

There is a popular perception that, before English colonization, Ireland was a backwards land of barbarism. This perception is chauvinistic among conservatives and paternalistic among liberals. Even proud Irish nationalists can’t help but feel a sneaking suspicion. That perception is wrong. This is not to suggest that the Irish of that earlier era built spaceships, but that a great high civilization and great men of history existed in Ireland. One such great man was Brian Boru.


2/ Brian Boru was born in southern Ireland in 941 AD to one of the leading clans. His father was the King of Dál gCais and King of Tuadmumu which is approximate to the modern day counties of Clare and Limerick. As a younger son, it was assumed that he would go into the Catholic priesthood and was sent away to learn under monks. “He learned to read Greek and Latin. He memorized the careers of Caesar and Charlemagne, studied the tactics of Xenophon's calvary and the deployment of the naval fleet of Xerxes."[1]

Boru’s education was no paltry experience. Irish Catholic monasteries were the most sophisticated centers of knowledge in all over Europe at this time. German historian Keno Meyer, noted, “Ireland had become the heiress to the classical and theological learning of the western empire…[the Irish] became the teachers of the whole nations, the counselors of kings and emperors...The Celtic spirit dominated the larger part of the western world and its Christian ideals imparted new life.”[2]

Boru became one of the most educated men not just in all of Ireland but perhaps all of Europe. His path to the priesthood was cut short when tragedy struck his family. Vicious hordes of marauding Norse vikings — that were disturbing all of Ireland — turned their eyes towards Boru’s home. His father, mother, siblings, and neighbors were killed in a viking raid.

My latest in @griptmedia:

1/ IN IRELAND, COLONISATION WAS THE OPPOSITE OF A “CIVILIZING FORCE”

Recently, Daily Wire commentator @MattWalshBlog wrote, “colonization has largely been a civilizing force in the world. A force for good. Most of the world would still be living in the Stone Age without it. Don’t buy into the leftist “decolonizing” propaganda.”

This was in response to the trend across western universities to critique European histories of colonialism across non-European lands. Admittedly, these critiques often overly stigmatized Europeans as being exclusively colonizing and brutal. However, those like Walsh fail to realize the proper reaction to these critiques is not to embrace the cartoonish villain colonizer that his opposition has portrayed.


2/ The connotation of colonization today is not simply one group of people moving from one place to another. It is, instead, focused on a native people being displaced and subjugated by a foreign people justified through force. It would be incredible for any right thinking person to endorse such an activity.

It is even more incredible that Walsh – being an Irish Catholic American – can endorse colonization given his heritage. Irish Catholics were brutalized over centuries and only fled Ireland to get away from such a terrible system. Irish Catholics in America are there, for the most part, because their ancestors fled colonization in Ireland.

Walsh claims colonization was civilizing and good. He also claims countries were in the Stone Age before colonization. Let’s inspect those claims using his ancestral Ireland.

1/ My latest for @griptmedia

DRILL BOYO DRILL: THE CASE FOR IRELAND’S OIL AND GAS POTENTIAL

> Ireland's looming energy crisis
> Why green extremism increases energy risk
> How Ireland could tap into a $1 trillion+ opportunity in offshore oil and gas

gript.ie/drill-boyo-dri…
2/ Ireland pays the highest electricity bills in all of Europe, and the country’s diesel and petrol prices are also rising.

Ireland has suffered some of the worst consequences of the global energy crisis caused by the disruption of Russian energy exports due to the Ukrainian conflict. This is compounded by the developing world’s rapidly increasing global demand for energy. Ireland is faced with a situation of dwindling available supply and expanding competition for that supply.

Energy is everything. It’s the basic input that keeps society running. You don’t fool around with it. Ireland could ensure its national security needs and even expand its commercial horizons by drilling for oil and gas in its offshore territorial waters.

Yoga was created by this Swedish man in the 19th century that was exported to India through English military and English YMCA . YMCA provided more philosophical addendums to it. Then Indian nationalists appropriated it in their effort to build a distinct national culture of… https://t.co/459hNy7Cq3 https://t.co/jBp5RCmOSgtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…

https://twitter.com/Liber_Rex/status/1673349882650689537

Yoga doesn’t have to be about anything. Look at the average army handbook for warm ups. There is a direct line from that to the 19th Swedish guy that excludes India yet has 80% the same movements maybe with more rigidity

ANNOUNCEMENT:

I'm launching "The Carey Project" where I have partnered with @AmericanAffrs & @AmerCompass to uncover the hidden history of protectionism and its two most interesting economists: Mathew and Henry C. Carey.

ryanresearch.substack.com/p/the-carey-pr… 2/ Adam Smith. Karl Marx. Two economists that tower above all. The former represents capitalism and the latter socialism. Their writings are continuously poured over and examined. One cannot talk about mainstream economics without being derivative of these avatars. However, their… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

1/ The End of Irish History and the Last Irishman:

Published in Notre Dame's new @eriugenareview journal, I wrote the definitive guide to Irish history in response to @philippilk's essay "Is Ireland Still Ireland?"

Learn about the origins of the Irish, their pre-modern… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2/ Irish nationalism is inherently linked to history. It requires a historical understanding to define identities and evaluate events. It is primarily concerned with the native Irish Catholic nation’s struggle against foreign English Protestant empire on the geographic island of… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

The United States Post Office to my knowledge is the oldest and largest centralized govt run communication and value transfer system with no significant history of censoring users of it

https://twitter.com/sovereignbrah/status/1640312155731030016

I know many examples of free market banks and payment processors censoring and banning users yet we don’t consider those oppressive

Interesting history of how institutional America through Hoover's FBI pivoted to embrace and recruit heavily from (Irish) Catholic colleges which would go on to become the rank and file stereotype Very interesting to read up on in light of this showing the culmination of a transition away from this

Everything in blue was outsourced and everything in red was bid up by extra profit boomers received from managing the outsourcing The demand for all medical services and products has gone up because are population is older, fatter, and sicker than ever and willing to use all medical interventions with major revenue happening in 75+ cohort. High demand low supply... you know the rest

Thinking about the debates b/w Nietzschianism and Christianity, and one of the things that seems forgotten but boringly in front of our faces all the time is:

the YMCA The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was founded by George Williams. He was concerned about the lack of healthy activities for young men in major cities; the options available were usually taverns and brothels.

1/ Introducing: The Full Stack Economist Newsletter

This is for entrepreneurial economists who seek to manage a nation's economy from a holistic framework. It will report info & insights on all verticals necessary to running a healthy economy.

ryanresearch.substack.com/p/introducing-… 2/ Rather than myopic theoreticians, this is for practical economists interested in action. Just like the full stack developer — a developer that has mastered all areas of coding — the full stack economist is one that's mastered all areas of the economy.
ryanresearch.substack.com/p/introducing-…

JFK's 1963 speech in Ireland:

"Others...see things and say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were and I say: 'Why not?'" It is that quality of the Irish - that remarkable combination of hope, confidence and imagination - hat is needed more than ever"
jfklibrary.org/archives/other… @willobri

Amazing how the Irish latte class revels in the opening up of the Irish economy to free trade in 1958 as an unalloyed good yet we see here in 1975 it wrecked the Irish economy
Ireland's rapid and healthy growth happened from the 1980s-1990s because of gov't investment and direction, focus on increasing returns to scale / high tech exportable sectors, and growth of indigenous firms.
ryanresearch.co/post/the-rise-…

Little known document written by NY Justice Daniel F. Cohalan (and leader of Irish American revolutionary movement) in 1919 called "The Indictment" which called England "the last bulwark of autocracy" in the world.

There are a lot of similarities in the dynamics of American neoliberal Reaganomics and EU/ECB integration.

The early generation of boomers gained a lot per se from these policies but the millenials and zoomers have only seen negatives. If you weren't Germany, you joined the EU/ECB and the trade off was

pros:
> better borrowing rates
> market enlargement

cons:
> stronger currency
> no monetary authority
> no tariff ability

"Why apply the label of right-wing populist to the protests?"

I've seen this come up a few times to my article and let me address that. I'm using a neutral / clinical definition of "right-wing populism", not the hyperbolic pejorative of "far right".

https://twitter.com/_PeterRyan/status/1623586076890898433

This means I’m objectively describing attitudes into a conventional rubric, not calling anyone mean names.

If we review Pew Research Center’s Appendix: Classifying European political parties, what we see is an objective and neutral criteria.
pewresearch.org/global/2020/02…

1/ Just published my 1st article on @unherd where I explain:

The rise of Ireland’s anti-migrant protests

> their causes
> their dynamics
> their future impact

unherd.com/2023/02/the-ri… 2/ Ireland has an immigration problem. Almost a year after refugees started to arrive from Ukraine, leaving state capacity buckled and local communities unnerved, two very different expressions of civic disorder have emerged.
unherd.com/2023/02/the-ri…

1/ The Duality of Sinn Féin: The Past, Present, and Future of Ireland’s Rising Political Party

In this article, I explain
> The deep history of Sinn Féin
> How that history shaped its ideology
> Its popularity and future dominance

ryanresearch.substack.com/p/the-duality-… 2/ In a few years, the Republic of Ireland’s next elections will be held. In the 2016 election the up-and-coming Sinn Féin party, headed by Mary Lou McDonald, won 13.8% of votes, in the 2020 election it won 24.5%.
ryanresearch.substack.com/p/the-duality-…

On this 100 year anniversary of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, read Michael Collins' view of it and the events that followed.

His core argument resides on the repeated attempts at compromise with his enemies and repeated democratic mandates given through elections and other channels

https://twitter.com/_PeterRyan/status/1600173622571589641

If the civil war had not occurred or if Collins had not been killed who knows what Ireland could have built for itself.

1/ Michael Collins' perspective on the Anglo-Irish Treaty and its aftermath.

> emphasis on functional utility versus idealist rhetoric
> The flip-flopping of Dev's position
> The first approval of the Treaty in the Dail Collins notes a critical detail that England removed her army and her administration from Ireland that allowed for Irish independent and stable gov't that would easily persuade NE.

Also the continued compromising with Dev's anti-treaty faction in order to work WITH them.

On the 100 year anniversary of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, was it with the will and consent of the Irish people (democratic) or not? Please elaborate why or why not