This spell of great sunshine we’ve experienced in Norneverland has come as something of a surprise.We’re not used to it and it takes some time readjusting to the sultry heat and the sight of so much exposed white flesh as the denizens throw off their winter woolies and raid the dressing- up box.It’s no time […]
May, 2016
CHURCHILL: THE IMPERIALIST WHO LOVED IRELAND by Donal Kennedy
I don’t carry a revolver nor a censor’s blue pencil nor have I ever handled either. Otherwise I would be tempted to use the lead from one on anybody using the word “iconic” and the lead from the other on the word in print. On 15 May THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT carried a review of “Churchill […]
On the use of violence for political ends
I remember once, in the Christian Brothers primary school, being punished for having punched a younger boy. The Christian Brother made a little speech about how cowardly and detestable it was for someone to assault someone smaller and weaker than themselves. He then beat the tar out of me. I mention this, not because I’ve […]
THE IRISH IN NEW YORK by Donal Kennedy
A few weeks ago. totally by chance, I discovered on You Tube a 90 minute documentary made in 1998 whose praises I could not attempt. I believe that only a curmudgeonly begrudger, and there are some of that stripe who tune in here, would regard it as lacking in interest. It was made by an American […]
‘The Irish in WW1: forgetting and remembering’ by Donal Kennedy
To the Editor IRISH WORLD London I’m too young to remember the First World War, having been born 23 years after it ended. I doubt any of your readers can remember it. And I’d bet the Artist Hughie O’Donoghue’s abstract “Seven Halts On The Somme” (28 May) are works of his imagination and not […]
American TV: entertaining but of no relevance to us
Ninety-eight percent of American TV, as you know, is rubbish. The remaining 2% can be very good, but you might have to do a bit of digging to find it. One TV show that must be in the top 5% is called United Shades of America. It’s on CNN and is presented by a very big, […]
ANNIVERSARIES by Donal Kennedy
Today, May 29, is the 100th Anniversary of the end of the 300 day 1916 Battle of Verdun, where an estimated 700,000 French and German soldiers were killed. Yesterday, May 28 THE TIMES had an article celebrating a happier, anniversary, the 50th of the meeting of Archbishop Michael Ramsey of Canterbury withPope Paul VI in […]
Brooklyn and the Irish
I’m only now beginning to recover from the jet-lag, having 14-24 May in Brooklyn, a part of New York generally considered desirable. The leafy streets with their brownstone buildings around the Park Slope area of Brooklyn are indeed very elegant. Walk down one of them as dusk descends and lights come on and birds […]
‘ Pride and Prejudice’ by Jessica McGrann
I have been complaining a lot recently about the lack of interest in the south over the north but I now realise this is just way we are as a people. There is a distinct lack of interest in matters beyond our own little worlds. And it is not because it isn’t important to us, […]
IRISH HISTORY: YESTERDAY & TODAY by Michael John Cummings
British Ministry of Defense officials and other denizens of the Whitehall government complex behind # 10 Downing Street were jubilant. The source of their joy? Through their media tentacles the British continued to dominate both sides of the Atlantic with revisionist views of the 1916 Irish Easter Rebellion. The 6 day battle signaled […]