I had a moment of despondency yesterday, followed later by a cheering-up moment. Yes I know life’s like that, but yesterday was so stark in its contrast that I felt it worth noting. The first was a conversation with a young woman who asked me what I thought of the aftermath of the Haass talks. […]
January, 2014
Mark Duggan and lawful killings
I thought the most moving sight yesterday, after the judgement that Mark Duggan had been ‘lawfully killed’ by London police, was the demeanour of his brother. A big burly man, he kept rubbing his hand across his shaved head before and after telling the cameras how he and the family had come seeking justice but […]
Short days and short memories
I’ve noticed two things in recent days, the first highly welcome, the second sadly predictable. The welcome bit is that yesterday evening showed the days have just begun to stree-ee-etch themselves the tiniest bit, giving a faint hint of longer, warmer days ahead. The second is that some unionist politicians appear to be suffering […]
Mike and Gerry and a mouthful of Kellogs
I nearly choked on my Rice Krispies this morning – be warned, do not try listening to Raidió Uladh/Radio Ulster with a mouthful of cereal. It was after 8.00 a.m. and Mike Nesbitt came on to square a circle. That is, to explain how it was that on the last day of Haass negotiations, he […]
Great hatred, little room
It’s tempting but I’m going to walk right past Ruth Dudley Edward’s little anti-Gerry Adams rant in yesterday’s Sindo. There’s something almost Freudian about my old UCD classmate’s fixation on the Sinn Féin president so I think it’s more polite to avert my eyes and say a little prayer for the poor woman. Instead let’s […]
Booing the Bishop
The bishop lived in a big house across the wall from our boarding school. On slow summer evenings we’d peep over and watch him playing croquet by himself, sometimes muttering and hammering the mallet into the ground when he missed a hoop. The grass on his side was as neat as a beebop haircut […]
Five things unionist politicians might want to think about
Unionist politicians have no need to be afraid. Granting recognition to the Irish identity in the north is more likely to win friends and influence people in that community than digging in your heels. Try ditching ‘Not-an-inch’ and replacing it with ‘Fair-shares-for-all’. That way nationalists are more likely to see past the stereotype of dour […]
Post-Haass
[Chris Donnelly is a nationalist commentator and a regular contributor on the sluggerotoole.com site] The Haass Talks have ended in deadlock, with the positive sounding spin emanating from many quarters since an indication that we have seamlessly transitioned from negotiation phase to blame game phase. Unionist politicians have been singled out for particular […]
England, their England
[Another radio piece I wrote – for BBC Radio 4, I think – with minor adjustments] I discovered England in the summer of 1963, which wasn’t really too late for me but actually quite good timing. I was 20 years of age and on night-shift in a pea-factory in Huntingdon. Every morning around six o’clock […]
Jonathan Bell and the art of advertising
I know the Brandywell area of Derry well. When I was a boarder in St Columb’s we used to stand at the edge of a kind of mini-cliff and look down into the Brandywell when Derry City were playing. At weekends, we’d walk through the Brandywell area in twos with our Gaelic football gear, […]