Before conquest and colonisation transformed Ireland, the island was home to a sophisticated Gaelic civilisation governed by native law, kinship, and local sovereignty. Yet the Ireland remembered today is often as much a creation of nineteenth-century poets, folklorists, and revolutionaries as it is of medieval reality. From the kings of the…

I don't particularly like Ed Sheeran's music. I think Steve Earle wrote the better "Galway Girl", and one of Ed's Brisbane concerts once cost me a $140 parking fine. Yet living near Suncorp Stadium has taught me that his significance lies elsewhere. He fills stadiums, supports local businesses and helps sustain communities like Caxton…

My generation lived through the end of exile. We left Ireland before smartphones, social media, livestreams and FaceTime transformed emigration into a permanently connected experience. The digital revolution brought home closer than ever before, but it also complicated the question that has always faced emigrants: where do we truly…