The guest-editor, Simon Lee, introduces this issue:
Fortnight #500 had twelve fascinating takes on the timing of a border poll but I had just met social entrepreneurs from the North West at a recent EU ‘Europe of the Regions’ workshop on Dúiche at the Irish College Leuven where the discussion was about today’s cross-border partnerships and inclusion of those living on the borderline or beyond borders. These ideas can apply across these shared islands. The planning of Donegal 2040 and the whole culture of engaging the diaspora feature in this issue, with cross-border economics, communications and civil society. Meanwhile, popular culture’s insights into human nature led television entertainment in the first quarter of 2026. The BBC’s The Traitors fourth series screened in January, followed by the BBC replaying RTE’s autumn 2025 debut series of The Traitors Ireland. The University of Aberdeen’s Psychology team, celebrating their 130th anniversary, held a brilliant on-line seminar on The Traitors, so I asked their Head of Department to write about faithfulness, deceiving others and deceiving ourselves. As a counter-balance to Fortnight’s first 500 issues on politics, I asked the Lady Chief Justice, the previous Lord Chief Justice and a Litigant in Person to reflect on how faithful we are to the rule of law, the search for truth in legacy and justice in disputes. Law, politics and broadcasting are not, however, hermetically sealed worlds as shown by the career of another contributor, a former law student turned politician turned broadcaster and non-aligned member of the House of Lords. A book review on the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland by a science and law graduate from Dublin now a law professor in Cardiff completes this set of articles. We can share original insights throughout these islands. Levi’s jeans have linked the number 501 with being ‘original’. Here is a #501 original …
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