April, 2011

It’s funny – that’s funny-peculiar, not funny-ha-ha – the deal life serves up to different people. Today in Westminster Abbey, a young man aged 29 who’s known nothing but privilege all his life will be married to a young woman who, while certainly not from the level of comfort of her husband, is very comfortably […]

  It’s funny – that’s funny-peculiar, not funny-ha-ha – the deal life serves up to different people. Today in Westminster Abbey, a young man aged 29 who’s known nothing but privilege all his life will be married to a young woman who, while certainly not from the level of comfort of her husband, is very […]

I was on the Stephen Nolan show on BBC Radio Ulster yesterday, discussing plans a  man called Jim has for an Orange Centre in East Belfast.  Jim sounded perfectly sane but his project sounds like a March hare on acid.  He figures such a centre is needed because ‘unionism and Orangeism have been marginalised’. Eh? […]

I was on the Stephen Nolan show on BBC Radio Ulster yesterday, discussing plans a  man called Jim has for an Orange Centre in East Belfast.  Jim sounded perfectly sane but his project sounds like a March hare on acid.  He figures such a centre is needed because ‘unionism and Orangeism have been marginalised’. Eh? […]

Thomas MacDonagh in a letter to his wife Muriel,  written a few hours before his execution:   “I counted the cost of this, and I am ready to pay it”.  Eamonn Ceannt in a letter to his wife Áine,  written an hour before his execution:   “I am here without hope of this world, and […]

Thomas MacDonagh in a letter to his wife Muriel,  written a few hours before his execution:  “I counted the cost of this, and I am ready to pay it”.  Eamonn Ceannt in a letter to his wife Áine,  written an hour before his execution:  “I am here without hope of this world, and without fear, calmly […]

In a concern for peace and reconciliation, people have a habit of falling over themselves. Trevor Ringland did some falling-over this morning on BBC Radio Ulster.  He was talking about the Real IRA’s statement in Derry yesterday and he turned his thoughts to the notion of British occupation of Ireland. “There is no British occupation […]

In a concern for peace and reconciliation, people have a habit of falling over themselves. Trevor Ringland did some falling-over this morning on BBC Radio Ulster.  He was talking about the Real IRA’s statement in Derry yesterday and he turned his thoughts to the notion of British occupation of Ireland. “There is no British occupation […]

Knowing your country’s history, past or contemporary: I sometimes wonder if it matters. There’s a famous case of a youngster at comprehensive school in the 1960s, who at fifteen years of age couldn’t tell an inspector the name of the prime minister of the day (Harold Wilson). This was held up as a damning example […]

Knowing your country’s history, past or contemporary: I sometimes wonder if it matters. There’s a famous case of a youngster at comprehensive school in the 1960s, who at fifteen years of age couldn’t tell an inspector the name of the prime minister of the day (Harold Wilson). This was held up as a damning example […]