September, 2011

Since Martin McGuinness has announced his candidacy for the post of Irish President, I’ve lost count of the number of programmes and newspaper articles that have focused almost exclusively on his past in the IRA. It happened again today. I was on BBC Radio Ulster/Raidio Uladh’s The Stephen Nolan Show and that was where all the […]

Since Martin McGuinness has announced his candidacy for the post of Irish President, I’ve lost count of the number of programmes and newspaper articles that have focused almost exclusively on his past in the IRA. It happened again today. I was on BBC Radio Ulster/Raidio Uladh’s The Stephen Nolan Show and that was where all the […]

We really should be more grateful, you know. We could have been born in Somalia and faced with  death by famine or disease. Or we could have been born in Afghanistan or Iraq or Libya, where if disease didn’t get us,  NATO war planes might well have obliterated us. But we’re relatively lucky – the […]

We really should be more grateful, you know. We could have been born in Somalia and faced with  death by famine or disease. Or we could have been born in Afghanistan or Iraq or Libya, where if disease didn’t get us,  NATO war planes might well have obliterated us. But we’re relatively lucky – the […]

I have this recurring nightmare. I’m in a room and I’m sitting opposite a row of people who are looking at me very hard. I’m in this room because I’ve answered an ad for a job and I’m reasonably confident I can get it. I’m experienced, I come with good references and I’ve got loads […]

I have this recurring nightmare. I’m in a room and I’m sitting opposite a row of people who are looking at me very hard. I’m in this room because I’ve answered an ad for a job and I’m reasonably confident I can get it. I’m experienced, I come with good references and I’ve got loads […]

Well who’d have thunk it? As I write this, Twitter is flooding with reports that Martin McGuinness will be the Sinn Féin-backed candidate for the Irish presidency. Well. Nobody saw that coming. NOBODY.  But they had good reason not to. For a start, McGuinness is terribly important to the success of Sinn Féin in the […]

Well who’d have thunk it? As I write this, Twitter is flooding with reports that Martin McGuinness will be the Sinn Féin-backed candidate for the Irish presidency. Well. Nobody saw that coming. NOBODY.  But they had good reason not to. For a start, McGuinness is terribly important to the success of Sinn Féin in the […]

When I was at boarding school, the Dean used to stand outside the College chapel in the morning, as we trooped into (compulsory) Mass, staring at our shoes. If he found someone who hadn’t polished his shoes, there was hell to pay.  Up to his room that night (so you’d lots of time to worry […]

When I was at boarding school, the Dean used to stand outside the College chapel in the morning, as we trooped into (compulsory) Mass, staring at our shoes. If he found someone who hadn’t polished his shoes, there was hell to pay.  Up to his room that night (so you’d lots of time to worry […]