November, 2013

The Truth About Babies

  (Note: this should appear in the Politics-free Zone – it’s a short story I wrote some twenty years ago. If it’s not in Politics-free Zone, you’ll know I’m working on it) Presumer Livingstone and me, we avoided Frankie Dalton.  He was too clean – all shiny hair and trimmed fingernails and short trousers that […]

Continue Reading

Note to Politics-free readers

Dia duibh  – welcome all. I’m hoping I can keep my more creative side alive by putting up occasional posts here of pieces I’m working on or have worked on in the past. The Early Years is a section of something I’m working on. I’d really really like this to be a two-way thing: that […]

Continue Reading

An open letter to Colum Eastwood

        Dear Colum, I know, I know – never trust the media. Just when you think that they’ve settled on a semi-permanent basis to bashing the Shinners, out of nowhere they turn on you. It’s disgusting – have they no sense of proportion, no self-respect? So I want you to know: I […]

Continue Reading

That Boris – a laugh or what?

  I like Boris Johnson. He has daft hair and a highly-developed sense of humour. When he comes on the telly you listen, because you don’t know what he’ll come out with next.  Few politicians can match him as an entertainer. That’s why so many people voted him into the office of London’s Mayor.  It’s […]

Continue Reading

Early Years

EARLY YEARS I was born on the Twelfth of July, 1942 – a poorly-chosen date for someone from a Catholic/nationalist background. It wasn’t so much a problem with  Protestants/unionists as with my own sort, who would mockingly enquire if my middle name was Billy and had I a sash at home. We lived a mile […]

Continue Reading

And baby came too…

  Do you know how many children Mary Lou McDonald has? Have you ever seen a picture of Gerry Adams with his son? Or Martin McGuinness with his children? No, me neither. So why is that? Footballers do it. Other politicians do it. John F  and Bobby Kennedy brought it to a fine art. Why […]

Continue Reading

Is the DUP coming or going?

  I was reversing my car the other day and craning my neck over my right shoulder to check how close I was to the kerb, when I had a terrible thought that I was about to scrape the car in front . So I whipped my head around and gave myself a ferocious crick […]

Continue Reading

The shadow of the past

Thanks to all the good people who shared their thoughts on what they would say inside 90 secs about the past –  including those who said they’d use the time to mock me… You can hear what Alex Kane and I said here  – we’re near the start. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03jdrc1 I thought it important to stress […]

Continue Reading