Why does RAAD flourish? Or even exist? The authorities would say because they’ve cowed the local population, people are afraid to speak out against them or name them. RAAD would say it serves a community purpose: it puts the fear of God, or at least of pain and/or death, into the drug-pushers. Who’s right? Well, […]
June, 2012
RAAD – different from a distance?
Why does RAAD flourish? Or even exist? The authorities would say because they’ve cowed the local population, people are afraid to speak out against them or name them. RAAD would say it serves a community purpose: it puts the fear of God, or at least of pain and/or death, into the drug-pushers. Who’s right? Well, […]
That handshake – big deal, small deal, no deal?
John Hume’s famous line about not being able to eat a flag has always struck me as odd, given that flags aren’t for eating. At the same time I think that we here in the north sometimes attach too much importance to symbols. And symbolic acts. Take the flag that flutters…I nearly said flutters proudly, […]
That handshake – big deal, small deal, no deal?
John Hume’s famous line about not being able to eat a flag has always struck me as odd, given that flags aren’t for eating. At the same time I think that we here in the north sometimes attach too much importance to symbols. And symbolic acts. Take the flag that flutters…I nearly said flutters proudly, […]
Mr Nelson goes to Dublin
There are two ways (at least) of looking at the invitation to the Grand Master of the Orange Order, Drew Nelson, to address the Irish Seanad. One is to go with the argument of Senator Martin McAleese. He believes that to engage with those like Nelson who are “pivotal to the success of upcoming centenaries” […]
Mr Nelson goes to Dublin
There are two ways (at least) of looking at the invitation to the Grand Master of the Orange Order, Drew Nelson, to address the Irish Seanad. One is to go with the argument of Senator Martin McAleese. He believes that to engage with those like Nelson who are “pivotal to the success of upcoming centenaries” […]
Sovereign – what a big word!
Some words have, what’ll I say, a complete sound to them. Like “sovereign”. The word rolls around in your mouth like a gob-stopper. There was quite a bit of sovereign talk over the past week. There was sovereign as in “Her Sovereign Majesty The Queen’s Cor-blimey-don’t-time-fly Diamond Jubilee”. There was a lot of that, and […]
Sovereign – what a big word!
Some words have, what’ll I say, a complete sound to them. Like “sovereign”. The word rolls around in your mouth like a gob-stopper. There was quite a bit of sovereign talk over the past week. There was sovereign as in “Her Sovereign Majesty The Queen’s Cor-blimey-don’t-time-fly Diamond Jubilee”. There was a lot of that, and […]
Stop, Sydney, you’re depressing me
Sometimes I feel depressed, occasionally by personal matters but more often by public. One such occurred a couple of decades ago, when Gerry Adams helped carry the coffin of Thomas Begley, one of the two IRA men caught up in the Shankill bomb blast. There was a relentless onslaught on Adams for doing this which […]
Stop, Sydney, you’re depressing me
Sometimes I feel depressed, occasionally by personal matters but more often by public. One such occurred a couple of decades ago, when Gerry Adams helped carry the coffin of Thomas Begley, one of the two IRA men caught up in the Shankill bomb blast. There was a relentless onslaught on Adams for doing this which […]