June, 2010

I was talking with two friends the other day when the subject of education came up. “Caitriona Ruane has made a complete and total hames of the whole thing!” one of them declared. So I asked my friend if he knew what Ms Ruane had done or not done that made her responsible for the […]

I was talking with two friends the other day when the subject of education came up. “Caitriona Ruane has made a complete and total hames of the whole thing!” one of them declared. So I asked my friend if he knew what Ms Ruane had done or not done that made her responsible for the […]

It’s understandable, I suppose. If  you’ve been depicted by the media for thirty years as Satan’s spawn,  while maybe dozens of people who would gladly kill you live within a mile or two,  you’d be happy to reach a stage where some redress of the balance is possible. But the documentary on Gerry Adams that […]

It’s understandable, I suppose. If  you’ve been depicted by the media for thirty years as Satan’s spawn,  while maybe dozens of people who would gladly kill you live within a mile or two,  you’d be happy to reach a stage where some redress of the balance is possible. But the documentary on Gerry Adams that […]

  The English team’s eye-watering failure in the World Cup has been put down to a number of things, prominent among them the fact that they were a divided camp. Fabio Capello was supposed to be the tough man in charge; then the team began to wobble and  John Terry jostled his way to a […]

  The English team’s eye-watering failure in the World Cup has been put down to a number of things, prominent among them the fact that they were a divided camp. Fabio Capello was supposed to be the tough man in charge; then the team began to wobble and  John Terry jostled his way to a […]

I wonder if there’s a cut-off point for becoming interested in something? Like, say, gardening. Yesterday I  dug the little three-metre strip that runs along the left-hand side of our driveway. It wasn’t easy. There are Things that have their roots in there that go down until they touch the  upper floors of hell. Then […]

I wonder if there’s a cut-off point for becoming interested in something? Like, say, gardening. Yesterday I  dug the little three-metre strip that runs along the left-hand side of our driveway. It wasn’t easy. There are Things that have their roots in there that go down until they touch the  upper floors of hell. Then […]

I have a friend who was born and grew up in Ireland, then emigrated to Canada. In his mid-thirties he was faced with a choice.  Strip away the rhetoric and it came down to this: he became a Canadian citizen or he lost his job. Now he liked Canada a lot and wanted to live […]

I have a friend who was born and grew up in Ireland, then emigrated to Canada. In his mid-thirties he was faced with a choice.  Strip away the rhetoric and it came down to this: he became a Canadian citizen or he lost his job. Now he liked Canada a lot and wanted to live […]