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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, Magdalene 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. The Reconstitution of Ireland charts that journey, through the author's published letters to the editor of The Irish Times that were contemporaneous with the subjects addressed, and in prose that accompanies each letter.
But there's more, much more: the book 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.
Seamus McKenna: As a Civil Engineer he was involved in harbour development, the building of a natural gas platform, and many large construction projects. He obtained an MBA from Trinity College, Dublin in 1996, after which his career went international. He returned to Ireland to play a part in the Celtic Tiger years of financial and investment excess, when he became involved in construction and property development. This all came crashing down when the global financial crisis of 2008 - 2010 hit. His novel, THE MAKER'S NAME, while a work of fiction, takes inspiration from his career experiences.From 1978 he has been having his letters published in the Irish Times newspaper. Those letters are the basis for his book "THE RECONSTITUTION OF IRELAND: Separation of church and state, and other topics, through the letters pages of The Irish Times", which argues for the removal of religious discrimination from the Irish public system, particularly as it applies to schools.He is the author of the Omicron Forex Trading Manual, a best-selling treatment of algorithmic Foreign Exchange trading. His letters and articles, on a wide range of topics, have been published in the Irish Times and in other publications over many years. In 2023 he was awarded a Master's Degree in Creative Writing by Dublin City University (DCU). On 21st July 2024 he broadcast his short-form piece "Chickens, Hurling and a Famous Bootmaker" on RTE Radio 1's Sunday Miscellany programme (New writing for radio).
