Welcome to The Ironist
ISSN 2817-7363
The Ironist is dedicated to exploring irony wherever it occurs. We have a range of articles, stories and even book reviews which cover historical and contemporary life and events. We welcome you comments, support and submissions.
Ramblings #2 – Disconnect
The picture above has a touch of unexpected colour. A different angle and a picture can be transformed. Change a word and a poem will be remembered. We work for years at what is important to us, be it family, work, or, sadly, (for far too many people), starting wars....
Ramblings #1 – At the Limehouse Cut
William Morris, Eleanor Marx, George Bernard Shaw et al. gave speeches nearby I am sitting on a wooden bench by the Limehouse Cut, the oldest canal in London, built in 1770. It is a Sunday morning, and there are only a few passers-by on Commercial Road that crosses...
We Need More Insouciance
Flt. Lieut. Peter Guy Scotchmer next to his damaged Typhoon after returning from an attack on an E-boat. Today, we read and hear not only about wars in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and of impending wars, but of riots and the threats of riots in many countries....
Gordon of Khartoum
An overdue retrospective Major General Charles George Gordon, CB, 1833-1885 The Victorian Age was an idealistic age, beginning with the might of the Royal Navy breaking the thralldom of slavery outside the British Empire. There was a dawning acceptance of Darwin’s...
A Culture of Reticence
The past is another country. They do things differently there. – L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between (A mosaic from Hadrumetum, in Tunisia, an important pre-Carthage Phoenician city, which depicts Aeneas surrounded by Clio, (history), and Melpomene (tragedy). This...
The Luring of Children
A Bookseller’s stall in Kutaisi, Georgia Now the ‘Luring of Children’ is a provocative title for an article in a non-political periodical like The Ironist. It comes from a picture, (above), that I took in Georgia (the country), recently, at a bookseller’s stall in the...
Unsung Heroes of Art History
An Ode to Snail Amidst the splendor of art history, nestled obscurely amongst majestic portraits, mosaic goddesses, and epic battles, an unlikely yet constant character appears time and again: the humble snail. Yes, those slow-moving, shell-carrying...
What can We Believe?
The Need For Critical Thinking Children, quite rightly, expect adults to look out for them. Maybe, when we grow up, we continue to expect others in authority to look after us. Or we WANT to believe they care. The more fools we are. Last night my bank called and said...
Possession
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. --F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby I have often wondered why it is that some slight and unremarkable memories remain strongly embedded in our waking consciousness while others...