Some Norwegian Catholics 12 Aug 2013 | 08:00 pm

Writers, politicians, journalists, academics — Norway’s Catholics seem an intellectual bunch. The Church in Scandinavia is on a slow but steady ascendant, and it’s telling (of both the rise and fall o...

A Maori in Buenos Aires 12 Aug 2013 | 07:56 pm

The Argentine stopover of Te Pēhi Kupe So far as I can tell, the first Maori to visit Argentina (or the United Provinces of the River Plate as it was then called) was the young nobleman Te Pehi Kupe ...

The Dome of the Custom House, Dublin 30 Jul 2013 | 10:20 pm

THE MOST RECENT series of the ITV detective drama “Foyle’s War”, though set in London, was filmed entirely in Dublin. (Ah, those Bord Scannán incentives!). I’ve noticed a phenomenon in which something...

Into the Qadisha Valley 22 Jul 2013 | 09:56 pm

THE HOLY VALLEY cuts down like a gash in the earth, with the cathedral city of Bcharré on the clifftop, almost hanging off of it. One almost wonders if you started building at the other end of the tow...

Lebanon Diary 22 Jul 2013 | 09:52 pm

Early evening sun illuminates the pendentives and architraves of the Maronite church. Discoloured prints of numerous saints — of East and West — crowd one of the few side altars. The Arabic numerals i...

Lebanon Without Comment 22 Jul 2013 | 09:50 pm

Curiosity Killed the Cat 14 Jun 2013 | 05:45 pm

All sensible right-minded people love the Phoenix and hate the Phoenix. It is a wonderful place, yet somehow attracts the very worst and most tiresome lot of humanity. read more

Some Aspects of the Fall of the Fourth Republic 14 Jun 2013 | 05:40 pm

Only interesting, I’m afraid, to those reasonably acquainted with the situation of France in May 1958. read more

No. 6, Burlington Gardens 29 May 2013 | 08:30 pm

I’ve often thought that No. 6 Burlington Gardens is London’s closest answer to your typical nineteenth-century Teutonic university's Hauptgebäude. read more

IHT, RIP 29 May 2013 | 08:25 pm

The New York Times Company, owners of the International Herald-Tribune, announced they are going to kill off the 126-year-old newspaper. read more