July, 2012

“A sense of belonging and direction”. That and poverty are the two many reasons why young people join republican dissident groups (and now presumably the one group, the IRA), according to Henry McDonald in The Guardian. Mmm. I suspect he’s right, but then a sense of direction and meaning, a sense of belonging is something […]

“A sense of belonging and direction”. That and poverty are the two many reasons why young people join republican dissident groups (and now presumably the one group, the IRA), according to Henry McDonald in The Guardian. Mmm. I suspect he’s right, but then a sense of direction and meaning, a sense of belonging is something […]

OK, OK – so I got it wrong. On Monday. On Tuesday night RTÉ made up for ignoring the north in the first half of John Bowman’s historical documentary and gave us lots of northern-related stuff. It even had my old friend Eoghan Harris declaring “I am a propagandist – that’s what I’m good at”. […]

OK, OK – so I got it wrong. On Monday. On Tuesday night RTÉ made up for ignoring the north in the first half of John Bowman’s historical documentary and gave us lots of northern-related stuff. It even had my old friend Eoghan Harris declaring “I am a propagandist – that’s what I’m good at”. […]

John Bowman presented an interesting programme last night – or half-programme, as the other half is due for screening tonight. It’s about the history of RTÉ and its impact on the development of modern-day Ireland. By the time he was done I was shouting at the box. Firstly it followed the common RTÉ practice of […]

John Bowman presented an interesting programme last night – or half-programme, as the other half is due for screening tonight. It’s about the history of RTÉ and its impact on the development of modern-day Ireland. By the time he was done I was shouting at the box. Firstly it followed the common RTÉ practice of […]

I’m surprised somebody hasn’t cut off George Monbiot’s writing hand, or at least ripped out his tongue. He is what you could call a dangerous truth-teller: he informs the British public of facts they’d rather not hear, in fact that they’d do nearly anything rather than hear. His latest example is an  article on British […]

I’m surprised somebody hasn’t cut off George Monbiot’s writing hand, or at least ripped out his tongue. He is what you could call a dangerous truth-teller: he informs the British public of facts they’d rather not hear, in fact that they’d do nearly anything rather than hear. His latest example is an  article on British […]

As  12 July 2012 fades into history,  two events stick in my mind. The first was the  Kesh-Orange-banners-in-a-field-world-record-attempt: once remembered, it takes some forgetting. The second was  the Shankill loyalist band pirouetting outside St Patrick’s Church, playing the Famine Song. That three-minute clip did more to lay bare the dark side of Orangeism than a hundred […]

As  12 July 2012 fades into history,  two events stick in my mind. The first was the  Kesh-Orange-banners-in-a-field-world-record-attempt: once remembered, it takes some forgetting. The second was  the Shankill loyalist band pirouetting outside St Patrick’s Church, playing the Famine Song. That three-minute clip did more to lay bare the dark side of Orangeism than a hundred […]