How did Ireland move from the authoritarian, stultifying and cruel country of much of the twentieth century to the relatively liberal state we now enjoy? The bad old days gave us mother-and-baby homes, Magdelene laundries, institutional child abuse and its egregious cover-up, and the attempted blocking of the free movement of citizens to maintain state control over women’s bodies. This book charts that journey, through the author’s published letters to the editor that were contemporaneous with the subjects addressed, and in prose that accompanies each letter.

But there’s more, much more: The Recon-stitution of Ireland deals also with such things as hare coursing; divorce and abortion referendums, EU membership; the physics of raindrops; politics; economics; international affairs; noise pollution; the wars in Gaza and Ukraine; and many other matters. Up front and centre is something that is still a major issue: the domination of Irish state-funded education by the Christian churches.