This has to be one of the coldest, wettest, bleakest Sundays we’ve had this winter. If we were characters in a Russian novel, it’s on a day like today that Ivor would go out and hang himself in the barn. But not if he had s copy of today’s Sindo. If he had, he’d be laughing madly and opening a […]
February, 2015
AMONGST US by Randall Stephen Hall
Amongst Us. By Randall Stephen Hall© A cappella singing with drum and percussion. Just click the link or cut and paste it into your search engine. https://soundcloud.com/hugh-midden-speaks/amongst-us-21-2-15 This song is a partner to the musical poem “Silent Valleys”. Set around the end of the Nine Years War, amongst the devastation in Ulster […]
Martin, Gerry and the art of trampolining
Am I going mad? If you’d asked me six months ago if I thought the Belfast Telegraph was a stout supporter of republicanism, I’d have replied with some confidence “Are you kidding?” Let’s say it hasn’t been unknown for the occasional columnist at the Bel Tel to write the odd column that hasn’t been totally twinkling […]
OLD FLASH HARRY by Harry McAvinchey
I have to confess to a secret love affair that has lasted many years. Okay , it is maybe not so secret as to endanger my marriage, but it is there steadily bubbling away in the background like some cosmic,post creation, static noise in my particularly unique mental universe . 1969 was the year that […]
Nelson sees through the smoke and mirrors
I had just placed my third spoonful of Rice Krispies in my mouth this morning and was about to chew and swallow, when I heard the voice of that fine fair-minded man Nelson McCausland coming from my radio. Nelson as you probably know was educated at Worcester College, Oxford. That venerable institution also produced Rupert […]
I HOPE THIS PARANOIA ISN’T CATCHING by Harry McAvinchey
Why does it always have to be some kind of contest? This carry- on about the Irish language has political pundits exercised again. It ‘ s like the rutting season with all the politicos bashing their mossy antlers.Huffing themselves up into election mode. That holds especially true with unionist politicians at the moment .There’s […]
Land sales, Protestants and the Orange Order
As a youngster, I remember watching open-mouthed in Omagh County Cinema as Rock Hudson, starring in This Earth Is Mine, filled his fist with a chunk of farming landa nd held it up against the sky. “The good earth” he intoned, as only Rock could intone. Wow, I thought. The good earth. At the time […]
FREEDOM…THAT’S THE TICKET by Harry McAvinchey
They’re busy tearing away at the bones of it at the moment .Things were beginning to get too civilised with free bus travel for the over sixties and free prescription charges for everyone. What was wrong with any of that? It sounds like an act of desperation to take away these fundamental assets when so […]
Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams: what if?
It’s funny how the unthinkable can, when you’re not looking, turn into the thinkable. Ten, fifteen years back, it would have been unthinkable that Martin McGuinness would have found ways to work with Ian Paisley, and vice versa. Chalk and cheese, oil and water, the immovable meets the unstoppable. But they did. And those who […]
Paul Givan: a Christian or a hypocrite?
The DUP’s Paul Givan was on TV a fe weeks ago talking about his move to insert a Conscience clause in legislation which would protect people like the Ashers. You remember the Ashers: they’re the people who in all conscience couldn’t respond to a gay couple cake request, because it clashed with their values. As I […]