The following article is reprinted with the kind permission of The Nation (www.thenation.com), a progressive weekly magazine published in the United States. Solnit is a contributing editor to Harper's Magazine and a Tomdispatch.com regular. Her book on disaster and civil society, A Paradise Built in Hell, will be out later this year. Free article

JOSEPH 'JACK' CROWE is Leinster's honouree for this year's Le Chéile celebration, the annual Ard Fheis function when Irish republicans are honoured for their special contribution to the struggle for Irish freedom. Jack talks to ELLA O'DWYER about his life in struggle. Free article

ONE IN TEN people in Ireland are reckoned to suffer from mental health problems. Physical and mental health are two sides of the same coin but when it comes to mental health services the issue is more complex. While a person suffering from a physical ailment will have no problem letting it be known, the person with a psychological problem may be very much more reluctant to say so. A stigma still hangs over the whole mental health issue and that taboo further constrains and isolates the sufferer. While a commitment to progressive change has been made at Government level, there has been a long delay in delivery. Free article

A FEW years ago, against my better judgement it has to be said, I went on an unpromising blind date. Now I've gone on my fair share of them but I hadn't heard good things about this lad. Rumour had it he was loud, obnoxious and a teeny bit racist. Still, Roisín, my long-suffering flatmate, had long-suffered enough listening to me moaning about being single and so I ended up on one of the most awkward, excruciating and painful dates of my life. Rumour, it turned out, had undersold him. Free article

Tumoideachas aitheanta agus Scrabble™ do leanaí Free article

When I told a chap off the team last week that my broken arm would mean that I would not be able to play this year, he manfully resisted the temptation to burst into tears of despair. Underwhelmed I think might be the apt expression. Indeed, his silence may even have been due to the fact that he was pondering placing a large amount of money on us winning the championship. Free article

The 1910 General Election for the Westminster Parliament was momentous for both Ireland and Britain and it helped to set in train political events that would lead to the 1916 Rising. The Irish Parliamentary Party at Westminster had been led by John Redmond since 1900. He had helped to reunite the Party and its support organisations in Ireland. These had been bitterly divided since the Parnell split in 1891 but in 1900 the Irish Party and the United Irish League (UIL), which organised in the Irish constituencies, regrouped under Redmond's leadership. Free article