My late mother would have called Jimmy Savile “an odd crature”. Even back in the the day when “Wee Mick” and the rest of the Stones would have been on Top of the Pops around 1964/1965. She always loved the excitement we all shared with the craziness of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones social, […]
June, 2014
THE DARK ANGEL OF ANTRIM by Randall Stephen Hall
There is, in Antrim town The dark imprint of an angel. A dusky silhouette On a gable wall. And yet, I’m left to wonder . . . Yonder, at the wall So tall, this dark stain. The evidence of such a presence In this local town. Lounging by the Six Mile […]
And so, as the sun sets in the Bahamas, we say farewell to Sir Tony…
I remember Tony O’Reilly. Ever since I was a youngster, he was presented to us as our golden boy. Good looks, Irish international rugby player, record number of tries playing for British and Irish Lions, gorgeous Australian wife, lots of children, the boss of Heinz in the US. There was nothing this blessed man touched which […]
THE GARDEN by Harry McAvinchey
I love this. Bending down on my hunkers picking a few strawberries and raspberries for the porridge bowl. This time of year. June. This time of morning too .That wide-open stillness. Not too much background noise. The birds fighting and yippering in the bushes. Nagging each other.I noticed two young thrushes yesterday fighting over […]
The past: we’ve had one-eye teachers
“Propaganda is a soft weapon: hold it in your hands too long, and it will move about like a snake,and strike the other way” – Jean Anouilh One of the most successful propaganda feats – at least until recently – was to insert in the national and international consciousness the belief that our Troubles were the […]
AFTER THE STORM by Harry McAvinchey
It is a curiousity how the brain edits the electrical storm that crosses the many floors of the mind. Lightning flashing while synapses blast and turmoil , ripping changes across dimensions and oceans of shardy, tarnished memories. I’m in a bar sometime in the late 1950s or possibly the very first or second year […]
Are the Craigavon Two our contemporary Gerry Conlon?
My old ex-schoolmate Eamonn McCann had an interesting piece in the Irish Times yesterday. He was talking about the Gerry Conlon case and how, at that time, most Irish journalists kept their heads down and their mouths shut. To have done otherwise would have been seen by many as tantamount to saying you supported the […]
Martin McGuinness, Her Maj and Crumlin Road jail
I was looking at that photograph the other day of Queen Elizabeth walking through Crumlin Road jail with Peter Robinson on one side, Martin McGuinness on the other, and was that Theresa Villiers peeping smiling from behind? I can see why Robinson and Villiers were there: she’s their monarch and head of state, they go all […]
That Suarez bite: it’s hard to imagine worse, isn’t it?
It’s terrible, isn’t it? Disgusting, I heard one man say. And this is the second time Suarez has done it. Bit a man, I mean. When Chiellini showed his arm to the referee, they say the man nearly got sick. Never saw the like. Chiellini of course had to be rushed straight to hospital, where […]
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX PART 2 – by Harry McAvinchey
I know, I’ve already hinted at this somewhere before, but let’s face it ,the way things are going in Northern Ireland , it could easily become an ongoing series, like a syndicated comic strip.If I pop my clogs , maybe some other creator can take up the torch and roll out a few more ideas […]