What is The Fitzwilliam?
The Fitzwilliam is a long-form publication about policy, philosophy, science, history, and culture. We believe that Ireland needs more big and ambitious ideas, and we know that there is a lot to be learned from the experience of other countries.
If you are new to The Fitzwilliam, here are some of our favourite essays:
We welcome pitches for interesting essays, and will pay around €400 per 1,000 words of original writing and research. You can email these to hello@thefitzwilliam.com or message @_fitzwilliam. The Fitzwilliam has been around since 2022, and we thank Emergent Ventures for the financial support they have been providing since 2023.
We are proud to have a thriving community in Dublin, Belfast, and beyond, which includes the following regular meetups:
The Fitzwilliam Reading Group, a monthly reading group about policy, economics, literature and emerging technology. This frequently involves invited subject matter experts; some favourites have included Santi Ruiz on Statecraft, Alan Fernihough on railway history, and Eoin O’Malley on the Irish political system.
The Fitzwilliam Maths Circle, a monthly problem-solving meetup for adults who want to learn mathematics together in a fun and supportive environment. Previous problem sets can be found here. It matters a lot to us that science and mathematics have a flourishing future in Ireland.
The Fitzwilliam AI Circle, a fortnightly journal club and technical collaboration group about modern AI research. This is run in collaboration with the Advanced Research and Invention Agency as part of their Innovator Circles programme.
We’ve run a handful of other quirky events:
Two academic conferences on the history of economic thought: one about Adam Smith and another about Milton Friedman.
Readers’ meetups in San Francisco and New York.
Irish premieres for documentaries about the structural engineer Peter Rice and about the legendary Stewart Brand.
Our work has occasionally been featured or republished elsewhere, including in The Dublin Review of Books, and on the Conversations with Tyler podcast.
Why the name?
The Fitzwilliam was a title in the peerage system of Ireland. A group of us had the idea for The Fitzwilliam while at lunch in a hotel near Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin. We thus followed the tradition of conspiracies to improve the world being named after the location of their founding meeting.
The team
Editor-in-chief: Sam Enright (Twitter, website, personal blog) is the Innovation Policy Lead at Progress Ireland. He grew up in a small town outside Dublin, and holds an MA in economics and philosophy from the University of Edinburgh. His email is sam@thefitzwilliam.com.
Managing editor: Fergus McCullough (Twitter, website, personal blog) is Director of Operations at Progress Ireland. He grew up in Co. Antrim, and holds an MA in international political economy from King’s College London. His email is fergus@thefitzwilliam.com.
Associate editor: Peter McCullough (personal blog) is an editor for the Dwarkesh Podcast. He grew up in Derry, and holds an MPhil in intellectual history from the University of Cambridge. His email is peter@thefitzwilliam.com.
While funemployed, Neil Shevlin has been helping out with the maths and AI circles.
We welcome any feedback or ideas via email, and are especially grateful for any errors you spot (you can also see Sam’s mistakes page).
