August, 2012

Are the Irish people a gullible race? I’d like to think not, especially since I’m one of them, but there are times when it’s hard not to conclude that we’d swallow anything if it was rammed down our throats skilfully enough and often enough. Take Syria. We all know what’s happening in Syria. A group […]

Are the Irish people a gullible race? I’d like to think not, especially since I’m one of them, but there are times when it’s hard not to conclude that we’d swallow anything if it was rammed down our throats skilfully enough and often enough. Take Syria. We all know what’s happening in Syria. A group […]

Well, I note where the British Secretary of State is doing what he does best: pretending to act as an enlightening influence on the two benighted tribes in the north of Ireland. Nudge us towards being as normal as Finchley. It’s important work, because it makes him look as if he has a function here. […]

Well, I note where the British Secretary of State is doing what he does best: pretending to act as an enlightening influence on the two benighted tribes in the north of Ireland. Nudge us towards being as normal as Finchley. It’s important work, because it makes him look as if he has a function here. […]

I watched the arrival of Katie Taylor and her father in Bray this evening and it was a heart-warming scene. The sun was out, the sea sparkling, the crowd filled with love and admiration of this modest young woman. Great to see. And then I thought: why wasn’t there a proper greeting of the Irish […]

I watched the arrival of Katie Taylor and her father in Bray this evening and it was a heart-warming scene. The sun was out, the sea sparkling, the crowd filled with love and admiration of this modest young woman. Great to see. And then I thought: why wasn’t there a proper greeting of the Irish […]

  Sometimes – particularly at weekends – I feel a terrible lassitude coming over me, where I don’t want ever to write another word about anything in the world, real or imagined.  Then I’ll come across something that will spark me into life, either because I think the person has hit the proverbial nail soundly […]

  Sometimes – particularly at weekends – I feel a terrible lassitude coming over me, where I don’t want ever to write another word about anything in the world, real or imagined.  Then I’ll come across something that will spark me into life, either because I think the person has hit the proverbial nail soundly […]

1.  It was a crap fight. In fact it’s a long time since I’ve seen as crap a fight, amateur or professional, male or female. If you caught the young English woman Nicola Ward in her gold medal fight, or think back to Katie Taylor’s previous fight, you’ll see the difference: night and day. Mind […]

1.  It was a crap fight. In fact it’s a long time since I’ve seen as crap a fight, amateur or professional, male or female. If you caught the young English woman Nicola Ward in her gold medal fight, or think back to Katie Taylor’s previous fight, you’ll see the difference: night and day. Mind […]