Ireland

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Monty Python’s Philosophers Football Match ‘Replay’: Ireland vs England in a World Cup of ideas?

For an Irish Times Unthinkable 2026 World Cup special, I ask who would line out in an Irish team for a renewed edition of the Philosopher Football Match? George Berkeley and John Toland are nailed-down starters but there’s a place for Roy Keane too…

Now imagine: “There are seconds left – the sides are deadlocked. Does a tree fall in the woods if no one sees it? Who knows, but VAR has spotted a hand ball in the English box. And it’s George Berkeley who is stepping up to take the penalty. ‘Esse est percipi,’ he says. ‘To be is to be perceived.’ Bentham – a notorious critic of human rights – tries to refute it. Already on the losing side of a key argument in moral philosophy, he dives the wrong way. And it’s a goal!

“More precisely, it either crossed the line, or it didn’t cross the line, and that’s good enough for referee Erwin Schrödinger.

“England captain AJ Ayer is protesting; he says the verification principle of logical positivism implies the final score is a pseudo-statement lacking empirical rigour. John Locke and John Stuart Mill are arguing about the proper limits of liberalism after conceding what was a soft penalty. And, in an outburst viewed as unsporting behaviour, an exasperated Bertrand Russell proclaims ‘the present King of France is bald’ and gets a red card.”

One doesn’t have to dream. Ireland has a winning tradition of philosophy. It deserves more recognition.

Read the full article here: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026/06/08/ireland-vs-england-in-philosophy-who-would-win-a-world-cup-of-ideas/

And a recommended team change from UCC’s Prof Vittorio Bufacchi: “… the absence of Jonathan Swift from the starting 11 is unforgivable. Swift’s contribution to the philosophical tradition of utopianism, immortalised in his masterpiece Gulliver’s Travels, cannot go unnoticed, especially this year, the 300th anniversary of its publication.

“Swift’s inclusion in the Irish team could be a gamechanger. As Kathleen Williams pointed out in her 1958 book Jonathan Swift and the Age of Compromise, Swift’s work is characterised by ‘the elusive brilliance of the attack … [but] the attack is also a defence’… take William Molyneux out and give the No. 10 shirt to Swift. A small change guaranteed to make a big difference.”

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2026/06/10/in-the-world-cup-of-ideas-jonathan-swift-should-play-for-ireland
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In Ireland, we’ll talk about anything except the meaning of life

For all the faults of the Catholic Church, it at least attempts to provide an answer to the ultimate question of life’s ‘purpose’

David Brooks signed off from The New York Times in January 2026 after 22 years as a columnist. He penned a thought-provoking, final piece on the “shredding of values” he has witnessed in America.

A deep source of regret for Brooks is the way education has become just another arm of the economy. “Multiple generations of students and their parents fled from the humanities and the liberal arts, driven by the belief that the prime purpose of education is to learn how to make money.” He cited recent Harvard research showing 58 per cent of college students say they experienced no sense of “purpose or meaning” in their life in the month before being polled.

“Loss of faith produces a belief in nothing,” Brooks writes. “I’m haunted by an observation that Albert Camus made about his Continent 75 years ago: The men of Europe ‘no longer believe in the things that exist in the world and in living man; the secret of Europe is that it no longer loves life’.”

Picking up on the theme, I wrote this piece for The Irish Times, arguing for a national conversation on values, or better still a national conversation on the meaning of life. Why are we here? Is there a purpose to our lives? In Ireland we’ll talk about anything except the most fundamental question of existence.

For all the faults of the Catholic Church, it at least attempts to provide an answer. Much of Irish society is too incurious, or too prejudiced against religion, to even enter the discussion.

My own submission is that we’re here to be human – and that means erring on the side of humanity. On hard cases, I humbly suggest we should lean into kindness.

Call it an article of faith. But some kind of faith may be necessary. As theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote: “Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.”

Full article here…

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026/03/09/in-ireland-well-talk-about-anything-except-the-meaning-of-life
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Say no to groupthink: how philosophy can transform learning

Why is there such resistance to teaching philosophy in Ireland?

Joe Humphreys          Tues, Nov 19 2013             The Irish Times

If philosophy had been on the curriculum 30 years ago, would we be in the same mess we’re in today? It’s a tantalising thought and the very sort of “what if?” question philosophers love to debate. But it’s being asked with deadly seriousness by an increasing number of educationalists.

“To help children think about what’s important to them, and why, is surely important to their education,” says Prof Joe Dunne who was, until recently, a principal lecturer at St Patrick’s College, Dublin City University. Citing US philosopher Michael Sandel’s idea that “statecraft involves soulcraft”, Dunne says philosophy can help students reflect on the sort of hidden values or “external goods” operating in society.

In a post-primary system where there’s a “fragmentation of subjects”, philosophy also “could get students to think more about knowledge in the round”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/say-no-to-groupthink-how-philosophy-can-transform-learning-1.1596500

(continues….)