My first feeling was one of embarrassment. Whatever we may think of unionist politicians, they are our fellow Irish men and women. And the sight of them standing shed of their garments, politically naked, without the teensiest fig-leaf to cover their not-an-inchery, is something that provokes more discomfiture than satisfaction. The first thing we […]
December, 2013
MUSIC AND ART
Miss Martin’s piano was lovely. It had a nice chocolate colour to it, not scratched and black like ours. All its keys worked and none of them had bits of their ivory missing. When I pressed them, they gave a rich cushioned sound. When Miss Martin pressed them, it made me think of stretching back […]
On walking and chewing gum at the same time
I was recently talking to a young man about the situation here in the north. He expressed the view that young people like himself, as they grew older and more influential, would sweep away the old die-hard attitudes of the past with its obsessions over flags, parades and the border. This morning in the […]
The DUP and its red line
There’s some anticipation as to what the Haass talks will finally produce tomorrow (or will it be New Year’s Eve?). Part of the anticipation is the nature of what is agreed and part is what kind of gains or losses unionists/republicans have made. On one issue, however, there’s no need to wait. Even before the […]
Mandela, Conor Brady and the wonders of the internet
The internet is a miraculous invention, but for newspapers it poses many problems, the primary one being how they are going to survive. Sales figures for newspapers everywhere are falling as people use the internet to follow events. Personally, after a life-time of buying at least one daily newspaper, I now do all my […]
A Journey Round a Picture of my Father
[This is a piece I did about twenty years ago for BBC Radio 4] I came on an old picture of my father the other day – one I hadn’t seen before, or maybe had seen and forgotten about. He looks as if he’s in his early thirties and he’s wearing a crumpled three-piece suit, […]
1983: the year of the big squeeze
The past is a different country but the word coming from recently-released British government papers for 1983 sounds a familiar note: Sinn Féin must be stopped. Which when you think about it was an odd position to take, given that the same people urged republicans to adopt the democratic pathway. The Catholic Church in the […]
Dick and Meghan gird their loins
Dick: Oh God – do I have to? Meghan: ‘Fraid so. Once more onto the breach, etc. DIck: But that’s England – God for Harry, England and St George. This is Ireland. Meghan: Tell me about it. To think I once believed crawling along a building ledge ten stories up in Iraq to escape insurgents […]
Greencastle 5 mile run: hats off, people
Within the next hour I’ll be getting into the car and driving with my son Matt and his wife Tiffany to Greencastle,Co Tyrone. There, despite the highest medical opinion and bog-standard common-sense, I’ll attempt to run five miles. It’s an annual event that attracts hundreds of runners and while the race itself is invigorating (assuming […]
‘Belfast in Frost’ by Patrick Joseph Dorrian
This fine piece by an observant man. Belfast 19/12/13 Hoar frost, in the morning, on the high ground; Napoleon’s Nose is looking coked; on the non neutral streets, lamp posts, with the Summer’s flags, look bedraggled. That which was flown in celebratory defiance, is now surrendered to merciless wind. Now, looking unflappable, in the normal […]