🤍| The Irish Times gives #TSTTPD a 90/100 score, defining the record as “a manifesto for all the believers who will try at love one more time.”

“This album is the fruit of abject misery but is also steeped in Swift’s trademark indefatigable optimism”

I reviewed The Tortured Poets Department for the The Irish Times

Mania set to synths; more venomous than ever. But the true soul of The Tortured Poets is neither its misery nor its anger, but its optimism

irishtimes.com/culture/music/…

The Michaela School head teacher is right: secular measures prevent, rather than inflame, religious prejudice.

🖊️ Finn McRedmond
newstatesman.com/comment/2024/0…

Love Heaney on his Latin teacher and the discipline that Classics and Latin afforded his writing

From the foreword of his translation of Aeneid, Book 6

My latest guest on Maiden Mother Matriarch Podcast is Finn McRedmond on the recent referendum in Ireland on the constitutional definitions of marriage and motherhood, as well as previous referendums on abortion and same sex marriage. youtube.com/watch?v=KRoaia…

I wrote about Leo Varadkar’s legacy. He forced the realisation in Britain that Ireland would not behave like a vassal state.

irishtimes.com/opinion/2024/0…

Applejuiceification and the illusion of choice: a short thread

“The Dublin political classes’ attempt to referendum their way through the culture wars has brought them closer together but further from the electorate.”

🖊️ Finn McRedmond
newstatesman.com/comment/2024/0…

My first ever column for the Irish Times written over four years ago, during the height of Brexit. On how Leo Varadkar eludes the British stereotype of Irish people:

irishtimes.com/opinion/neithe…

“This was a moment when the commanding heights of culture looked at Swift – too rich, too thin, too heterosexual, too apolitical – and decided she needed course correcting.”

🖊️ Finn McRedmond

newstatesman.com/comment/2024/0…

This week's cover story: Trouble in Toryland 🖊️ By Rachel Cunliffe.

Inside:
• Bruno Maçães on Gaza.
• Finn McRedmond on Taylor Swift.
• Sohrab Ahmari meets J.D. Vance.
• Andrew Marr on Labour in Rochdale.
• Jill Filipovic on Trump and Biden.

newstatesman.com/politics/conse…

How Taylor Swift became a metaphor for post Obama America

Me on the incoherent superstar, for the The New Statesman

newstatesman.com/comment/2024/0…

The triumphant incoherence of Taylor Swift

I wrote about the one thing everyone misses while trying to wrestle with the politics of Swift

newstatesman.com/comment/2024/0…

Was delighted to debate the question below with ⁦Finn McRedmond⁩ and ⁦Etain Tannam⁩ among others, as part of the ⁦Royal Irish Academy⁩ ARINS project. FWIW I think it’s a bit more complicated…worth watching for the anecdote from the pub in Cork! youtu.be/gXlz6PbuYf4?si…

I wrote about Blockbuster's first website, what it can teach us about AI, and why we need to move on from the sparkle emoji.

Link in next tweet!

This is rather excellent on Saltburn

This is so well-observed by Finn McRedmond - from Saltburn to Privet Drive to Howard's End - on Britain's repulsion at the middle classes:

newstatesman.com/comment/2024/0…

I wrote about Saltburn and the great British trope: laughing at middle class strivers with ideas above their station

For the The New Statesman

newstatesman.com/comment/2024/0…

Ricky Gervais is condemned as a boring culture warrior. The real story is much sadder than that.

My latest for The The New Statesman on how Gervais has aged out of brilliance

newstatesman.com/comment/2024/0…

'The Office was made from forensic observations about ordinary life. Gervais saw a universe inside a workplace and reflected it back to us. Then his world changed.'

This is great by Finn McRedmond:

newstatesman.com/comment/2024/0…