January, 2014

Last night at Skainos

  Graffiti is a bit like tweeting, you have to squeeze your ideas into a tight little package. Which is what those who objected to the event in the Skainos Centre did when they sprayed ‘Taigs Out’ and…what was the other one? …’No IRA bombers‘. So little thought in such few words. Those who were […]

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A modest alternative to Orange marches

I’ve said it before (repetition for the sake of emphasis, Virginia):  the most interesting reading on this blogsite is often to be found among the comments added by readers.  One such happened a couple of days ago on the topic of Orange Order marches. I’d made the suggestion that all marches –  the 4,000+ loyal […]

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The Wrong Prescription by Lena McCann

  Lena McCann  is a member of the Belfast U3A Creative Writing Group. The group meets on Monday afternoons in Ormeau Road Library.   “Prescription for Doherty” the pharmacy assistant called out. Eileen moved forward from the back of the queue and collected her husband’s prescription. As she stepped out of the door of the chemist’s […]

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How Not To Compromise by Jeffrey Donaldson

  Words are slippery things. We think we have a grip on their meaning, then someone uses them in a different sense and they slide out of our understanding again. One such word is “compromise”. In my lexicon it has implications of two more or less equal parties with markedly differing views who move towards […]

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Remembering the past

  ‘Children made to eat their own vomit, Inquiry to be told’. That’s the heading of an article in today’s Irish Times. I feel a sense of identification every time I read about this Inquiry into the Nazareth nuns who worked in the Nazareth House in Derry’s Bishop Street and in Termonbacca, a couple of […]

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Hey Belfast: how old do you think you are?

  How old is Belfast?  A tweet by Good Morning Ulster this morning suggested it was straightforward:  ‘Belfast is 400 years old, we’re talking to presenter Dick Strawbridge about a programme documenting the city’s growth’.  If you go into St Anne’s Square in Belfast and venture down an alley-way leading to the car park, you’ll […]

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Me, Hell, Lesley and Wallace

I took part in a discussion this morning with two very nice people. It was on BBC Raidio Uladh/Radio Ulster’s ‘Sunday Sequence’ (best programme on BBC Raidio Uladh, by the way) and the two very nice people were Wallace Thompson, a former adviser to Nigel Dodds of the DUP, and Rev Lesley Carroll, a Presbyterian […]

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How to be moral and Newtownabbey Borough Council

It’s funny what some people find offensive. That’s funny-peculiar, not funny-ha-ha. Newtownabbey Borough Council have found a dramatic performance by the Reduced Shakespeare Company offensive without ever having attended a performance. I think all critics should take note: you don’t have to go to the film/play or read the book or visit the art gallery. […]

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Matt Baggott: nice but a bit blancmangey

  And so farewell, Matt Baggott. You were a good man – a Christian, by all accounts. But whether the post of Chief Constable requires one who’s prepared to turn the other cheek is a moot point. The perception for many of us was that your policing approach was less softly-softly than sitting duck. The […]

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