Is there a human trait that stinks in the nostrils more than hypocrisy? In politics, it surfaces usually in attitudes to other parties. If you’re talking about Irish politics, it surfaces most frequently in attitudes to Sinn Féin. Most recent example of such comes in a moral outburt from Fianna Fail, in the person of […]
January, 2015
DACHAU BLUES by Harry McAvinchey
“We must be ruthless…Only thus shall we purge our people of their softness…and their degenerate delight in beer-swilling…I don’t want the concentration camps transformed into penitentiaries. Terror is the most effective political instrument…It is my duty to make use of every means of training the German people to cruelty, and to prepare them […]
Winston Churchill and Alexis Tsipras: similar yet different
There are a number of similarities and several differences between Alexis Tsipras, who has just won the Greece election, and Winston Churchill, the fiftieth anniversary of whose death was on Saturday. 1. Churchill and Tsipras were/are charismatic leaders and led/lead the defence of their country against Germany. (You did know that Germany now runs Europe, […]
WRATH OF THE GODS by Harry McAvinchey
You might think it serendipitous.Maybe there is some cosmic intervention afoot. Can it be coincidental that on the day after the the statue of the sea god was stolen during the night that the following day’s news carried film footage of several fishermen being hauled from their sinking boat in the turbulent Norneverland […]
Tomorrow : squeaky-bum time in Greece. And Ireland
Tomorrow could decide the outcome of the south’s election. “WHA-A-T?” I hear you yell. “The south’s election isn’t until 2016 – have you gone mad?” Well the jury is still out on that last question but let me remind you that tomorrow there will be a general election in Greece. The party the polls suggest […]
WASTE AND A WASTE OF TIME by Harry McAvinchey
There’s a rhythm to it all .There ‘s something of a political lull in Norneverland so they’re on the radio discussing things like bins and recycyling waste again. It’ll not be long before the conversation wends to kicking a can down the road and discussing people dropping litter ,or errant dog- owners allowing wee Fifi […]
Don’t believe everything you hear – or read
OK, your starter for ten. Did Fr Michael Cleary father children? If you’d asked me that yesterday I’d have said without hesitation that he did. How do I know? Well, wasn’t there a young guy appeared on the Late Late Show who was his son? Or am I thinking of the son of Bishop Eamon […]
CLOWNS TO THE LEFT, JOKERS TO THE RIGHT… by Harry McAvinchey
They used to say , you knew you were getting old when the policemen starting looking like children to you.Well , you know , they started looking like children to me about forty years ago, so that one mightn’t fly…..No when I really felt I was getting older was when the politicians started […]
Full and frank disclosure? It hurts when I laugh
I note where an academic unionist is claiming that the Irish government got off far too lightly in the Stormont House Agreement. How so? Well, it’s all in the comparison between what the Agreement asks of the British government and what it asks of the Irish government. The British government is to “make full […]
NORNEVERLAND WATER, FLAGS AND MAGNA CARTA by Harry McAvinchey
What a day! There ‘s a fog thickening outside. Real smoky, soupy stuff too. I’m wondering what I should write about. I’ve started reading a book about quantum biology but I’ll not distress you all with any of that until I’ve had time to digest how robins navigate using the chemistry and weak magnetism […]