I’ve just discovered AtlanticBlog. It’s by William Sjostrom, who describes himself as “an American economist living and working in Ireland.” Working, in fact, at University College, Cork, my alma mater. So AtlanticBlog counts as another UCC blog, the only other one I know of. Though seeing as it’s written by a Chicago-trained economist, it’s composed of fundamentally different elementary particles from this one. William’s research page says he’s working, amongst other things, on “rationality and the Irish voter”. I will be very interested to see what the verdict is there. :) Another topic is “The Economics of Marriage and Divorce meets Public Choice: Explaining the Irish Divorce and Abortion Referendums,” which I used to be very interested in. My former adviser, Paddy O’Carroll, has two classic papers in early issues of Irish Political Studies on these topics. You’ll learn a lot about Divorce and Abortion in 1980s Ireland by reading them. The references are: J.P. O’Carroll, “Strokes, cute hoors and sneaking regarders: the influence of local culture on Irish political style,” (IPS v.2, 77-92); and J.P. O’Carroll, “Bishops, knights – and pawns? Traditional thought and the Irish abortion referendum debate of 1983” (IPS 6, 53-71).