Hello from a parched Berlin, where another week of 30 degree days is set to end on Sunday. Berlin’s political temperature is scorching, too, after historic election wins last weekend for the far-right Alternative for Germany. The main chill factor ahead is mainly economic: worries that a Volkswagen meltdown could give the already ailing German economy – and, inevitably, Europe – a major flu. After staying indoors during the hot days, a fan blasting and my iPad glowing, here are my selections from this week.
1. Tom Honan’s marvellous portraits of Diarmaid Ferriter’s Beckettian profile are the icing on the cake that is Frank McNally’s conversation with the UCD historian, Irish Times columnist and social media abstainer. Influencers’ firmly-held, uninformed views are no substitute for Ferriter’s original archive research and empathetic reflection that inform his new book The Revelation of Ireland. Rather than wonder what others think of Ireland, he asks: “Why can’t we just be decent and take the social contract seriously?”
2. Finding – and telling – the heartbreaking story that humanises a huge tragedy: Mark Paul reached the gold standard of journalism with his tribute this week to Denis Murphy. The 56-year-old London-Irish man perished in the Grenfell disaster along with 71 others in 2017. Murphy’s last words to his son on the phone: “I’m stuck, I can’t breathe.” Mark’s first-class news, analysis and human interest Grenfell coverage (while juggling meetings with high-level Irish political visitors to London) remind us that, for the Grenfell families, the tragedy remains even when the news agenda moves on.
3. Michael Harding was in fine form with this week’s column on how to cleanse both mind and devices after Trump-Rogan-Tate-Morgan binges. Those angry men are now just as much of a health hazard to 21st-century country life as older dangers: “I haven’t forgotten the time the badger ransacked the scullery, although on that occasion it was me who stood terrified and naked, while he eyeballed me boldly, before getting stuck in the cat flap on his way out.”
What I Read This Week: Background hum of an approaching election grows ever louder
What I Read This Week: More Murdoch bombshells and an Irish cinema trailblazer
What I Read This Week: The real meaning of Donald Trump’s speech and the Derry girls having a moment
What I Read This Week: ‘Brilliant writing is all about small details’
4. In a week of obsession over the cost of a Dáil bike shelter, Shauna Bowers offered an uncomfortable reminder of how – no matter how prosperous or decadent Ireland becomes – talk about mental health rarely results in action, or spending. Huge therapy staffing gaps and waiting lists for treatment condemn many Irish people with mental health issues to a vicious, Dickensian circle of violence and prison. As the mother of a schizophrenic adult son says: “I tried to get him help ... but instead all he got was a criminal record.”
Radio highlight of the week
As someone who has never really gotten into podcasts – at least the ones that waste 10 minutes of my time before getting to the point – I have remained true to radio, where the BBC Sounds App remains a well-sorted, tightly-edited treasure trove. Thriller writer Lee Child was a recent guest on This Cultural Life, talking about his Northern Irish father, his childhood love of libraries and the David and Goliath Ladybird book that eventually inspired his 100 million-and-counting Jack Reacher series with the idle thought: “What if Goliath won?”
Best of the rest
As Irish Times Berlin correspondent I spend most of week popping in and out of the luxurious ivory tower of anglophone journalism. But there are many riches to be found beyond. Outlets such as eurozine.com offer windows into what the rest of Europe is thinking and debating. That website is carrying a lengthy essay by UCD’s Bryan Fanning about a shift among Irish conservatives and their “atavisms of Irish nationalism” to co-opt and poison Irish obsessions with Irishness, a text that originated in the always-excellent Dublin Review of Books.
For those without German, some media outlets here offer English-language highlights, such as Der Spiegel’s interview this week with Olaf Scholz. Heavy on two German political obsessions – blame and detail – but light on answers, it’s a revealing glimpse of why just 23 per cent of Germans want Scholz for a second term as chancellor.
English-speaking residents of the German capital turn to The Berliner magazine for bleeding-edge tips on cultural and culinary trends. This month’s issue turns its gaze to a revealing, pardon the pun, obsession of Germanglophiles: nudity. Germans have been getting naked for a century without fuss but now the hipsters have discovered textile-free activities: naked tea parties, sports groups and even a karaoke session, where one punter confesses: “I think karaoke is way more embarrassing than being naked.”
Most Read
- ‘She couldn’t have done better’: Leaving Cert student with maximum points misses out on college course due to lottery
- Eamon Ryan: If warnings about Atlantic Ocean circulation are correct, Irish people could become climate migrants
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- ‘I love Ireland. Ireland is 100% different to back home. It’s peace, calm’
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