August, 2013

I was at ‘West Belfast Talks Back’ last night –  the signature event of Féile an Phobail.  Tara Mills was in the chair and the panel consisted of Peter Osborne of the Parades Commission, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald,  the UUP leader Mike Nesbitt and Jeremy Corbyn, the Islington MP.  As always it was an […]

I was at ‘West Belfast Talks Back’ last night –  the signature event of Féile an Phobail.  Tara Mills was in the chair and the panel consisted of Peter Osborne of the Parades Commission, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald,  the UUP leader Mike Nesbitt and Jeremy Corbyn, the Islington MP.  As always it was an […]

If the Lord Mayor of Belfast got a jostling yesterday, the DUP gave itself a thorough kicking.  Two parks, two reactions. At Dunville Park sunshine, the Lord Mayor sliding down the chute, Nelson McCausland and Gavin Robinson standing by as people listened, applauded, went about their normal business and  youngsters enjoyed their play.  At Woodvale […]

If the Lord Mayor of Belfast got a jostling yesterday, the DUP gave itself a thorough kicking.  Two parks, two reactions. At Dunville Park sunshine, the Lord Mayor sliding down the chute, Nelson McCausland and Gavin Robinson standing by as people listened, applauded, went about their normal business and  youngsters enjoyed their play.  At Woodvale […]

My dictionary defines ‘double-think’  as “the acceptance of or mental capacity to accept contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time, especially as a result of political indoctrination”.  I think that summarises rather nicely what’s going on over the proposed republican parade in Castlederg.  “It is an outrage that Sinn Fein in west Tyrone has […]

My dictionary defines ‘double-think’  as “the acceptance of or mental capacity to accept contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time, especially as a result of political indoctrination”.  I think that summarises rather nicely what’s going on over the proposed republican parade in Castlederg.  “It is an outrage that Sinn Fein in west Tyrone has […]

I remember walking into the scullery and detecting that something was wrong. I was four at the time, and one of my older sisters and my mother were talking as they washed the dishes.  I  asked what they were talking about and they told me a bomb had been made, so big it could blow […]

I remember walking into the scullery and detecting that something was wrong. I was four at the time, and one of my older sisters and my mother were talking as they washed the dishes.  I  asked what they were talking about and they told me a bomb had been made, so big it could blow […]

Let me make one thing absolutely clear. Well, two or three things actually. First I like Joe Brolly. I like his mother Anne and his father Francie even more: I have a splendid pic of Anne on the wall in front of me as I write, smiling that beautiful smile of hers. And I remember […]

Let me make one thing absolutely clear. Well, two or three things actually. First I like Joe Brolly. I like his mother Anne and his father Francie even more: I have a splendid pic of Anne on the wall in front of me as I write, smiling that beautiful smile of hers. And I remember […]