The United States turns 250 this weekend, and you’ll find some superb writing on the anniversary of the grand experiment on irishtimes.com today. Washington Correspondent Keith Duggan has spent much of the past six months on the road, crossing the country in search of stories that tell us about the state of the modern republic at a moment of acute national anxiety. In a sweeping reflection on the anniversary, he writes of a country riven by its political divisions, where the conspiracies, accusations and noise of the two factions “who have long stopped hearing one another have left many Americans feeling numb and psychologically battered”.
Our main editorial picks up the theme, observing that the tensions at the heart of the project have taken on new forms in the dynamic, ever-changing American story.
“A new gilded age of concentrated wealth now presses against the democratic institutions meant to hold it in check: a hyper-politicised judiciary; a Congress unable to legislate; an executive inclined to rule by fiat; a centuries-old constitution nearly impossible to modernise. The rest of the world watches all this uneasily, not least because it is filtered through the erratic persona of the current president, who is not so much the cause of America’s current roiling contradictions as their most visible embodiment.”
And yet. The July 4th events coincide with the World Cup, which has, if only for a few weeks, presented the world – and America itself – with a different view of the country and its relationship with the rest of the world. Despite dire forecasts, Duggan writes, “the tournament has turned into what it always turns into: a carnival of human spontaneity and joy and exquisite sporting melodrama. It pairs people from countries in stadiums for a few hours of intense, unforgettable shared experience. Frequently, the tournament pits former colonies against their old European conquerors. It seems apt that the World Cup should take place here, in the United States, at the very moment that it celebrates, or marks, its transformation from colony to independent nation, to empire and self-appointed pilot light for democracy.”
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Some of the best English-language journalism on the World Cup has come from our team covering the tournament, and this weekend’s coverage underlines as much. One of our journalists on the ground, Ken Early, has a thoughtful piece on the gap between the republic’s official rhetoric of freedom and democracy and the reality in which its people live. Little surprise, he writes, “that so many Americans believe their government to be a scam.”
If you’re one of those people who, like our World Cup podcast presenter Paul Howard, stays up through the night to watch Algeria v Switzerland, or even if you’re not one of those people, you’ll enjoy every word of Malachy Clerkin’s beautiful column on a tournament that many of us will forever associate with “quiet nights in sleeping houses, the volume turned low and the sitting room in lamplight, trying to swallow a roar as a late goal flies in or a keeper gets low to save a penalty in a shoot-out”.
One of the reassuringly familiar voices of those late nights, if you’re watching RTÉ’s television coverage, is that of Didi Hamann, the German former international who has been a fixture of the broadcaster’s studio panels for almost two decades. Gavin Cooney has an interesting interview with Hamann on the role of the pundit, his memories of Giles and Dunphy and his relationship with Ireland. (Gavin also has a piece on why England’s problem in a tournament like this is its own Premier League, which he calls the Starbucks of football).
And one more: be sure to read this moving piece by Dave Hannigan about Lionel Messi, grief and “the Esperanto of modern maleness”.
Beyond the football, there’s plenty to read across all our sections this weekend. In news features, Ellen O’Riordan asks who will benefit from the new rules on rural housing; Conor Pope finds out which restaurants have passed on the VAT cut to their customers; Gerry Moriarty looks at Jeffrey Donaldson’s not-so-secret double life; and Arthur Beesley has an in-depth piece on abuse of staff in Irish restaurants. In the week that Ireland began its six-month stint as president of the Council of the European Union, Genevieve Carbery speaks to Irish people who live in the 26 other EU member states, asking them about their relationship with Ireland and the lessons the country could take from their adopted homes.
In our World section, I enjoyed Naomi O’Leary’s piece on the Italian towns and villages seeking to entice Irish and other foreign pensioners with a 7 per cent tax rate; and Mark Paul’s primer on Andy Burnham’s fashion choices – dark-rimmed glasses, “short shorts”, Centrist Dad blazer-and-T-shirt – and their role in shaping his carefully crafted public image.
Among a strong line-up of columns this weekend are Róisín Ingle’s quiet reflection on her relationship with Taylor Swift; Cliff Taylor’s warning that Ireland’s economic luck will eventually run out; and Ella McSweeney’s argument for punishing polluters like we do tax-evaders.
Ian O’Riordan has an interesting article on Norway’s sudden sporting dominance; Rosita Boland speaks to the playwright Conor McPherson; and Darragh Geraghty picks some audiobooks for the summer.
Enjoy the weekend.
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