There is talk about circulating a book about atheism in secondary schools.It follows Michael Gove giving copies of the King James’ Bible ,freely to schools. It’s called the “Young Atheist’s Handbook”. It has already been freely distributed to schools in the UK by the Humanist Society.What is there to be afraid of? Well it […]
July, 2014
Pearse and Redmond: daft talk and blood-drenched hands
There are two Irishmen whose names will feature in more and more headlines over the next eighteen months. They are John Redmond and Patrick Pearse. This afternoon a ceremony attended by President Higgins will honour the Irishmen who died in the Great War, men who were encouraged to die by the words of Redmond. Ian Paisley Jr […]
HERE COMETH THE WASPS by Harry McAvinchey
I see that the Allied Irish Bank and the Electricity Supply Board are catching up with New York, London and Tokyo in flaunting their “green” credentials and introducing rooftop beehive colonies to their office buildings.Well, they need to do all that they can. There are more important things than money and electricity to consider. The […]
Flags, a death and some unanswered questions
First, a man is dead, so our thoughts and prayers should be with his family. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam – May he rest in peace. The man in this case was 68-year-old Oswald Bradley, who drowned while trying to remove two Irish tricolours from an island near Bessbrook. Prior to the Irish […]
MOUNTAIN SONG by Randall Stephen Hall
The poetry that evolved into “Mountain Song” was inspired by a number of things . . . The sight of Errigal, the quiet presence of the Cavehill or the mystical bump that is Slemish. The trees that look as if they are trying to catch your attention by waving their arms. A small bell tower, […]
Newry and Mourne and being balanced
There’s trouble, no, not at t’mill but at Newry and Mourne Council today. Noel Thompson had the two sides on Good Morning Six Counties Ulster earlier today. It seems that the Newry and Mourne mayor Dáire Hughes of Sinn Féin has written to local shopkeepers, asking if they stocked Israeli goods and if so, could they provide customers […]
TWO RIGHT CHARACTERS by Harry McAvinchey
One of the worst meals that I ever ate in my life was served up by a fellow, one of whose aliases was “Bob Ridell” . I’m not sure even now if that was his alias or his real name , because he used several monikers depending on circumstances and location. It was a meal […]
How to be a brick wall
I’ve just come off Facebook, where I was responding to a fairly detailed comment from Mick Fealty. Not everybody likes Mick (not everybody likes me, for God’s sake, which shows how unreasonable some people are) but I like him, despite his regular assaults on Gerry Adams and all his works and pomps. Anyway, one of the […]
Supporting vs throwing shapes
With the obscenities that are happening in Gaza, it’s an effort to wrench attention back to our own tormented situation. But wrenched it must be, to listen as Peter Robinson tries to laugh off suggestions he might be pushed from his leader’s perch. It is of course no laughing matter, which is why the DUP […]
THE PERFECT MACHINE by Harry McAvinchey
I awoke thinking of bicycles. There’s nothing too extraordinary in that really. It’s how the mind operates isn’t it? In more ancient times people would invariably read some great prophesy into this. They’d call the soothsayer or hoke through the entrails of some dead animal for an abstract reason for this glowing image appearing and […]