A week or so ago, there was a programme on BBC TWO titled Tom Jones’s 1950s: The Decade That Made Me. It featured the green, green grass of home man going home to Pontypridd and his roots in Wales. When Tom got tired talking we got short clips of Joan Bakewell or Michele Hanson telling […]
April, 2016
‘”THE RIGHT TO DIE” – WHAT PERNICIOUS NONSENSE’ by Donal Kennedy
To the Editor of the Irish Post: Your Editorial “Hopeful Kate’s campaign for the right to die” is pernicious nonsense. We’re all going to die, but in the meantime have the right to life. Campaigning for death is the very antithesis of hope. You urge Dail Eireann to support Deputy Halligan’s campaign, which in the last […]
What are the SDLP and the UUP for?
As we head into the northern election, and the politicians in the south insult the electorate by pretending the massive delay in government-forming has to do with the public good rather than saving their skinny hides, two questions arise: (i) What is the SDLP for? (ii) What is the UUP for? As Suzanne Breen […]
A BIRTHDAY LETTER TO MA’AM
Dear Ma’am (I believe that’s how I should address you, and not as ‘Dear Your Majesty’), Since today is your birthday (no, don’t tell me about having a second birthday – it’ll just get me confused), could I wish you a fun day and loads more birthdays going forward. You are truly amazing, Ma’am, and […]
SUGAR SUGAR
Chocolate and sugar have always been about politics. Especially that sweet sugar. It was the ancient Persians ,closely followed by the Greeks who initially discovered the real delights of sugar. I should say they discovered the amazing grassy reeds which produced a sweet- tasting honey, without the aid of honeybees. That was in India sometime […]
I COULDA SUNG WITH THE OLD GROANER! by Donal Kennedy
One Sunday afternoon in the late Summer of 1977 I went to Mass in Westminster Cathedral. During the Collection I noticed two pews ahead of me a gentleman who put American “greenbacks” into the plate. He was dressed in a fawn pullover and trousers, with the lack of colour I associated with some friends of […]
‘READ ALL ABOUT IT! W..B. YEATS WAS INNOCENT! – IT WAS “THE TIMES” WOT GOADED SINN FEINERS TO VIOLENCE. IN 1916!’ by Donal Kennedy
Years after 1916, a worried W.B. Yeats asked himself – “Did that play of mine send out, certain men the English shot? The play, THE COUNTESS CATHLEEN, was staged in 1899. The poor poet was innocent. It was “THE TIMES” of London wot done it, though it’s taken it 100 years to ‘fess up to […]
Jarlath Burns and the back of a van (but check the footnote)
What constitutes fair criticism? It’s an important question, especially since we’re in the middle of an election campaign. (What do you mean, you hardly noticed?) Actually ‘fair criticism’ is a misnomer. ‘Fair insult’ would be nearer the mark. Former GAA star and school principal Jarlath Burns has been criticized and is under investigation by the […]
BRITISH EMPIRE by Richard Gott (The Guardian)
In his speech to the Conservative party conference this month, David Cameron looked back with Tory nostalgia to the days of empire: “Britannia didn’t rule the waves with armbands on,” he pointed out, suggesting that the shadow of health and safety did not hover over Britain’s imperial operations when the British were building “a great nation”. He […]
About Tom Elliott and me on the Nolan show this morning
I’m just fresh (and piping hot) off a discussion on the Nolan radio show with Tom Elliott. We were discussing the case of IRA man Colum Marks, who was shot dead during an IRA attempt to mortar bomb Downpatrick police station in 1991. Mr Marks was unarmed when killed and the Attorney-General has called for the […]