There’s a slight anti-American bias among some of us towards the way Americans use the English language. I mean, all that turning nouns into verbs – like no one feels torn two ways or has mixed feelings any more, they’re conflicted. But one phrase of theirs that fits neatly here at present is ‘tough love’. […]
September, 2014
2014 NOT 1984 by Harry McAvinchey
Now , there’s a curious slice , hacked out fairly cack-handedly from the logical pie; an episode worthy of an Orwell dystopia. Let me explain . I am, and have always been a music lover. I listen to all kinds of music. To me , the Beatles and the Stones can sit easily beside Satie […]
Irish independence and murky water
It’s funny the things you hear on our national broadcaster (No, Virginia, I’m talking about RTÉ). On Saturday I was listening to The Marian Finucane Show and she was talking about Scottish independence. I can’t remember the exact words but they amounted to “Well, the Scots have voted down independence and we here in Ireland […]
Charlie and Joan get a jolt
Fine Gael’s Charlie Flanagan and Labour Party leader Joan Burton have been directing some heavy cross-border fire of recent days. It is directed – do I need to say? – not at unionist politicians, but at Sinn Féin, their political opponents in the south. Joan is on record as saying that giving Sinn Féin control […]
BOYS AND TOYS, GIRLS AND GUNS by Harry McAvinchey
We’re a funny creature aren’t we? No matter what age we are there’s still that love of novelty . We love toys when we are children. We are sometimes emulating something we see our parents do or copying things we see on the television screen or in films. As adults we fetishise objects well beyond […]
A golden Autumn day – with Sammy
A mellow, perfect Autumn morning – well, afternoon now, actually, but the point applies. It seems almost a pity to spoil it with words. But needs must. I was watching Sammy Wilson on TV a few minutes ago and it struck me: how complex and contradictory people are. To look at Sammy, you’d think he […]
Scottish sauce for the other two ganders?
In the course of the Scottish referendum, there was a demonstration outside the BBC. Members of the Yes campaign were incensed by what they saw as BBC bias in the reporting of the campaign – biased against their side, that is. Although the BBC report of the protest didn’t mention it, other media outlets said […]
MORNING HAS BROKEN by Harry McAvinchey
I didn’t wait up for the result. It’ll be there all right in the morning .I’ll sleep on it . When I wake up. Scotland will either be part of a union dominated by a Westminster government,or will , as they used to say in the serials..with one mighty leap be forever a free people, […]
The taste of defeat
To all those Scottish people this morning knuckling the sleep out of their eyes and murmuring “The people have spoken, the bastards” I can only say “I feel your pain.” The opportunity was there for the people of Scotland to take control of their own affairs from their imperial masters in London,and they chose not […]
NEVER MIND THAT SCOTTISH PLAY …WHAT ABOUT THE BEANO by Harry McAvinchey
Yes…”the Scottish Play”or “Macbeth” …never to be uttered within a theatre lest it’s loosing leads to disaster. As I write this, Scotland’s declaration is still blowing in the wind . We’ll not know whether they have decided to abandon the cosy nest and swaddling of the UK and decide to hitch their own kite to […]