Spicebag and the Guards – art in Ireland

An artwork that does not contain nudity or blasphemy provokes public outrage? What the hell is going on? It’s rare for a piece of art to make a stir in public discourse and when it does it’s usually because it’s terrible – the famous Anna Livia sculpture in Dublin is...

On the fascist attack on the Students of Florence

On Saturday 18th of February, a group of high school students, members of Collective Sum , peacefully occupying their school in protest at a variety of problems, were attacked by a group of fascists from an organisation called Azione Studentesca (Student Action) which...

Review: The Tailor Of Ulm

The Tailor of Ulm (Il Sarto Di Ulm) by Lucio Magri (translated by Patrick Camiller) Honeymooning in 1979 on a package holiday to the Hotel Alaska, Rimini (it’s surprising how attractive the word Alaska sounds on a hot July day in Italy), I became friends with a man...

Review: Marching on Rome – the return of the undead

Blood and Power, The Rise and Fall of Italian Fascism by John Foot, Bloomsbury Publishing, 416 pp, £25, ISBN 13: 978-1408897942 ‘They haven’t gone away…’ In a recent article in The Guardian, John Foot suggested that the extreme right was about to win the general...