The Politburo Has Decided That You Are Unwell

by John Waters

For nearly fifteen years John Waters has been a dissident voice writing in his weekly column for The Irish Times, invariably confronting the conventional wisdom on issues ranging from fatherhood and the official denial of the rights of parents and children, to the absurdity of Ireland's seemingly endless tribunals. He is known for an elegant representation of common sense in the face of ideology, received thinking, and self-serving cant. In these controversial and highly-charged pieces he revisits his principal themes and concerns of a most turbulent decade in Ireland and the world, providing an invigorating look at how Ireland and its place in the world have changed in that time.

300 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2004

About the author

John Waters was born in Castlerea, Co Roscommon, in 1955. He held a range of jobs after leaving school, including railway clerk, showband roadie, pirate radio manager, petrol pump attendant and mailcar driver.


He began part-time work as a a journalist in 1981, with Hot Press, Ireland’s leading rock ‘n’ roll magazine and went full-time in 1984, when he moved to Dublin. As a journalist, magazine editor and columnist, he has specialised in raising unpopular issues of public importance, including the repression of Famine memories and the denial of rights to fathers.