John Waters is an Irish journalist, author, and columnist known for his work with Hot Press, The Irish Times, and The Irish Independent. He has written on social and political issues, specialising in father's rights and cultural critiques. 

Ireland changed faster than almost any country in the West. The question now is whether the Irish still recognise the nation they live in. In this episode of Thinking Class, we discuss the moral, cultural and demographic transformation of Ireland over the course of John Waters' lifetime.

We explore the Ireland of his youth — ethnically and culturally homogeneous, Catholic, rule-bound, often austere, but also warm, coherent and recognisable — and contrast it with the globalised, post-Catholic, media-managed Ireland of today.

We think out loud about:

• the collapse of the old moral order
• the rise of a new elite class
• the decline of journalism and honest public speech
• the Enoch Burke case and the Irish judiciary
• immigration, demographic change and public silence
• Ireland as an economic zone rather than a nation
• the relationship between Ireland, Britain and the wider West

John Waters is one of Ireland’s most distinctive dissident voices. A former mainstream journalist, he has spent decades chronicling the moral and institutional transformation of Ireland and reflecting on what that change means for ordinary people, national identity and the future of democracy.

This is a conversation about Ireland and about what happens when a country forgets how to tell the truth about itself.

Links

• Visit John Waters website: https://www.johnwaters.ie/
• Read John Waters Unchained: https://johnwaters.substack.com/

About Thinking Class:

Thinking Class is an independent forum for long-form inquiry examining the political, cultural and civilisational questions shaping England, Britain and the West.

Hosted by John Gillam, the show features serious conversations with historians, legal scholars, economists, theologians, politicians, and public intellectuals.

Thinking Class is concerned with discovering long-term patterns over headlines and hot-takes. Expect historically-grounded analysis on matters of national character, institutions, demography, democracy, identity, inheritance, institutional continuity and social change.

New episodes every week.

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