Mercantilism is back. This is not the time to embrace neutrality. Yes, I'm looking at you, Ireland.

My piece on Trump, mercantilism, and what the EU needs to do about it. Including a shout out to Federico Varese. www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

Happy birthday, Antonio Gramsci. Born on this day in 1891, died in a Fascist prison in 1937. One of his most famous quotes was true in the 1930s, and it's still true today in the 2020s: "The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters".

My analysis in @irishexaminer.bsky.social on patience, from Heraticlus to Montaigne to Hegel, all in less than 1000 words because no one has the patience to read anything longer these days. Patience is good for democracy, just as tyranny feeds off impatience. www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

January 3rd, Cicero's birthday. Also today, Trump's kidnapping of Venezuelan president Maduro, in Venezuela. How are Cicero and Trump related? Read here: theconversation.com/a-short-hist...

A symposium on my book 'Why Cicero Matters' has just been published online, with analysis by some of the most eminent classics scholars in the world: Victoria Rimell, Gesine Manuwald, Scott F. Aikin, Massimo Pigliucci, Lynn Fotheringham. syndicate.network/symposia/phi...

A golden sky on Blue-sky. No filters. This is Anzio, near Rome, taken from a spot in close proximity to where Cicero had his villa. Smart guy this Cicero fella.

On Dec. 7th, 43 B.C., Roman philosopher and statesman was assassinated. The Roman Republic died with Cicero. He was killed by his enemies: populist, capricious authoritarians. Fast forward 2068 years...the rest is history repeating itself.

Writing about immigration in @irishexaminer.bsky.social Govt taking a risk with tougher talk & policies. May look like it's following public opinion but Irish econ is hugely dependent on intrnl labour. Few parties have out flanked the right on migration & won www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

It's World Philosophy Day! www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

Join me on a live podcast next Thursday, November 20th, to celebrate World Philosophy Day.

Are you in Cork City today? Why not pop along to Horgan's Quay 1 / T23 PPT8 near the Dean Hotel and visit the Mapping Climate Change exhibition. Open today until 4pm. Open until 6th Dec: Tue, Wed, Fri 12 – 4pm Thur 4 – 7pm Sat 10am – 4pm Closed Sun / Mon

There is only one take from the presidential election in Ireland: Catherine Connolly won by a HUGE margin. It was a POSITIVE campaign, and the LEFT candidate won fair and square. The rest is minor details: spoiled votes, Jim Garvin, etc. is just background noise.

It's election day in Ireland. Go out and vote 🗳.

Yup, caught in the act, yet again, far-right bashing, this time on the far-right threat to public health.

Thomas Hobbes conference in Malmesbury (of course), March 2026. Spread the word. Send a paper proposal. Tell your students. #Hobbes #PhilosophyMatters

With Catherine Connolly (future president of Ireland), John Maher, my daughter Natalie, and her friend Lidia.

Some people are expensive. Others are cheap. Me? I'm free. 👇

If you are in Dublin on Saturday 27 September, come along to this free event! I'll be in conversation with the amazing Justine McCarthy of The Irish Times as part of the Festival of Italian and Irish Literature in Ireland 2025.

Canvassing with John Maher (Labour) for the next President of Ireland, Catherine Connolly.

If you liked 'Free', you will love 'Indignity'. I read both. In this interview Lea Ypi says: "every voice out there is always a result of some power relation". Her book explores the indignity of dominant power relations, and yet there is always moral freedom. A beautiful book by a remarkable writer.

Hospitals in Gaza reported that eight people – including three children – died from starvation and malnutrition in the last 24 hours. My piece for RTE Brainstorm on how Netanyahu's politics of starvation is starving human rights:

My piece on the politics of hunger and starvation in Gaza: www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Having read all four Sally Rooney's novels, this is how I rate them: 1. Intermezzo 2. Normal People 3. Conversations with Friends 4. Beautiful World, Where Are You Tell me if you agree or disagree.

Walking for many miles between the dry stone walls of Inis Meain, on the Aran Islands, trying to make sense of Gramsci's distinction between dialectical materialism and historical materialism.

I'm at Cork Opera House since 4am, watching the mesmerising Eileen Walsh in 'The Second Woman'. Possibly the most incredible thing I've ever seen on stage. Part of Cork Midsummer Festival.

Review: Why Cicero Matters, Newcastle ClassicsFest 2025 "As we see the rise of right-wing populism around the world and in our own communities, with all its destructive tendencies, it appears to me that Cicero definitely does matter" northeastbylines.co.uk/culture/hist...

The three-days 'Why Cicero Matters' ClassicsFest finished last night, but the banner is still up, and I'm still on a high. Seven events, including talks, debates, an oratory competition, and a theatrical reenactment of a Cicero trial. Life doesn't get better than that. @classicsforall.bsky.social

Starts tomorrow, 15-17 May. See you in Newcastle. @litandphil.bsky.social

Starts this Thursday, in Newcastle, at The Lit & Phil: 'Why Cicero Matters'. @litandphil.bsky.social

Philosophy meets rap music. My piece in today's Irish Times on Kneecap, Wittgenstein, Charles Taylor, and Hannah Arendt.

This is not a popular view, but this is why I believe in more military spending across Europe. In the @irishexaminer.bsky.social today.

Excited to share this symposium on my book at Philosophy & Public Issues, edited by Uğur Bulgan and Valentina Gentile. Features super interesting critiques from @artsofdenial.bsky.social @vittorio66.bsky.social Mara Marin and Rossella De Bernardi. Thanks to everyone involved 🥰 shorturl.at/FCM7A

Pope Francis had a Masters Degree in Philosophy.

I'm holding a first 'head' edition of Hobbes' Leviathan, 1651. In Malmesbury, at the Thomas Hobbes Festival last weekend. Life can be sweet.

In Malmesbury, UK, I found the perfect pizza. Four books in the 'Leviathan ', four sections in the pizza.

Happy birthday Thomas Hobbes 🎂 Four more years of the Trump-Vance-Musk triumvirate and life will once again be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

Tomorrow I'm giving a talk on Hobbes and 'The Hunger Games', in Malmesbury, Hobbes's hometown. And today I find that the local bookshop in Malmesbury has done this! A whole window! That's me with Amanda, owner of the fabulous Barn Owl Books.

Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short, but "may the odds be ever in your favor”. My talk, next Saturday, on Hobbes's birthday (April 5th), in Hobbes's hometown (Malmesbury). See here for details: thomashobbesofmalmesbury.org/recent-events

Political theorists! Have you ever seen a 1st edition of Hobbes' masterpiece "Leviathan"? Would you like to see it? It's on show at the Thomas Hobbes Festival, April 4-6, 2025. Come to Malmesbury! I'll be giving a talk on Hobbes & The Hunger Games on Hobbes' birthday, April 5th.

This is a book I've read. This is also a book the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hasn't read, but should read. P.S. those who follow Italian politics will understand the meaning of this photo.

My piece in @irishexaminer.bsky.social, a chance to revisit my book 'Everything Must Change: Philosophical Lessons from Lockdown', published in 2021 by @manchesterup.bsky.social. Article here: www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

Well look at that. A roomful of people holding up a copy of my book 'Why Cicero Matters'. That's the Clonmel Philosophical Society. I had a blast discussing the book with them yesterday, philosophical debate at it's very best. Cicero rocks!

My analysis on separation of powers, and Donald Trump's threat to democracy, has crossed the Atlantic and has been published in Minnesota. spokesman-recorder.com/2025/03/01/s...

Tomorrow, one Roman (me!) giving a public lecture on another Roman (Cicero).... well, kind of, Cicero wasn't born in Rome, but that's another story.... anyway, join me in Cork, Monday March 3rd at 7:30pm.

Donald Trump, seriously? Zelinskiy "disrespected the cherished Oval Office"? Did you not disrespect the 'cherished Capitol' on January 6th 2021? Did the Trump-mob not disrespect American democracy on Jan.6th? Respect starts at home.

Mes amis. My article on Trump and the separation of powers, published last week in The Conversation UK, has now been translated into French. Je suis très content de cette publication. theconversation.com/une-breve-hi...

My piece just published in @uk.theconversation.com on the history of the separations of powers, and how this mechanism is coming under threat not only in Trump's US but also in Europe. And yes, there is a bit on Cicero as well, for good measure: theconversation.com/a-short-hist...

Is Donald Trump mad? My OpEd on madness and absolute power. With references to Caligula and Nixon, Aristotle and Machiavelli. And of course Shakespeare's King Lear.

Great interview. "[Cicero's] impact on humanitarianism, the Enlightenment and the Founding Fathers of America is immense." Francis Hutcheson's best known portrait features him holding Cicero’s De finibus bonorum et malorum (“On the ends of good and evil”). www.irishphilosophy.com/2017/08/08/u...