Walls. 18.11.14 By Randall Stephen Hall. https://soundcloud.com/hugh-midden-speaks/walls-19-11-14 From platform four at Central. Central Station, Belfast. I stood and waited for the train That would take me to Whitehead. An Ceann Bán. Not so long ago I would stand And wait for the same train. But something had changed. The view. For […]
November, 2014
Pudsey, Enda and violence
At the start of a day of pain, when the Fine Gael and Labour parties in the south of Ireland are busy lighting blessed candles in the hope that the public will soften and accept their drastically reduced water charges, it seems unfeeling to even mention another topic, but I can’t help it. Would somebody please […]
ODDNESS, KISMET AND SERENDIPITY by Harry McAvinchey
I’ve decided , looking out at the outside world , that this dreary weather is not conducive to any kind of creative or physical activity. It must be something to do with the chemical balance of the brain .That feel-good chemical.serotonin ..isn’t kicking in. I’m not quite ready for one of those SAD {That’s “Seasonal […]
Tallaght and Sligo: if that was violence then it’s paying off
Leo Varadkar did not look a happy man last night. But then he was lined up on Prime Time opposite Ruth Coppinger, and Ruth eats people like Leo for breakfast. Without missing a beat she brushed aside Leo’s charges of ‘socialist revolution’, orchestrated violence and all the rest of it. The irony is that if Leo […]
TIGER TIGER BURNING BRIGHT by Harry McAvinchey
“The tiger that stalked Paris”.Yes that story really appeals to my worldview. The “tiger” that was spotted running wild outside Paris was a story with legs on it and it was quite prepared to run and run on those striped shanks for another while .Everyone wanted this tiger-hunt to go on and keep the public […]
Mary Lou McDonald, Joan Burton and Leo Varadkar: some thoughts
So. Two women in a place where they’re not wanted. A couple of days ago Mary Lou McDonald figured that she wasn’t getting an answer to her question about water charges (a conclusion hard to disagree with her if you caught the Tanaiste’s answer to her) and so she annoyed the Ceann Comhairle, was told […]
Online newspapers and rude readers
Newspapers made a terrible mistake when they went online and allowed readers to comment on their content. There are at least two reasons why this was a mistake: (i) the comments are very often at odds with what the journo has written; and (ii) the comments are often far more entertaining – not to say […]
RECYCLE FOR LIFE OR DEATH by Harry McAvinchey
Now , that ‘s what I’d call taking recycling to its logical conclusion. It seems that all the metal from cremations is being harvested and re-used. My father used to say to me, with a chuckle, that one day the graveyards will be so full that they’d be sharpening the corpses’ feet and hammering […]
LOST IN TRANSLATION by Harry McAvinchey
It’s just being reported on the radio that Roy Keane , the footballer has just been in an altercation with a fan in some hotel .Did I hear that right? Does that mean he has inadvertently walked backwards into a spinning electrical device used for forcing air around a humid room or has he smacked […]
Mary Lou McDonald’s legs
A: Is it true Mary Lou McDonald has lost the use of her legs? B: Not as far as I know. Why do you ask? A: Well I thought maybe she’d had a fit of temporary paralysis yesterday, the way she sat on and on in the Dail. B: Ah no, that was deliberate. A: […]