June, 2016

I’ve kept out of the Brexit debate so far. I’ve lived in Britain for 52 years and have never known a more poisonous atmosphere than the current one. When the British media, with the encouragement of the British Government, were attempting to whip up an anti-Irish frenzy and anti-Irish  sneers, masquerading as jokes were the […]

Two German Officers are the heroes of my story, for they dispel the fog of Military History as it is currently presented in Ireland. The first of these gallant gentlemen, following the defeat of the Kaiser and his own demobilisation, was ce-Commissioned in the Irish National or Free State Army, established its School of Music and […]

So will it work? Can Scotland and the north of Ireland make a legitimate case when they say that they voted to stay in the EU, while the rest of the UK – excluding London – voted to leave it? Scotland has the stronger case, for the simple reason that Scotland has the possibility of a […]

  The Irish state formally left the British Commonwealth in 1949 with the establishment of the Republic of Ireland. At that time, this policy was seen as a natural further step in the direction of a fully sovereign Irish state, separate from Great Britain. Today, a full 67 years later, there are Irish figures of […]

Letters Editor NEW YORK TIMES 620 8th Avenue New York, New York 10018   Dear Editor: Max Fisher’s ‘work around’ for the democratic vote to Leave the EU is not without precedent in the United Kingdom.  True England is “…a country that prides itself on democratic values.”, so perhaps the options might not be deployed,  but […]

There’s a story of a village newspaper account of a parish concert, which either unwittingly, or with malice prepense, reported that a certain lady had brought down the house with her rendering of “Take Me Back To Old Virginity.”  Several  gentlemen  readers choked on their cornflakes, the vicar was unavailable  to officiate at their funerals, and  the Coroner […]

(John Patton blogs at phototilly.eu) Note: John isn’t really shouting at you. It’s just that I haven’t been able to convert the font to something less shouty-looking. Mea culpa – Jude The Queen purred, apparently, when David Cameron phoned with the result of the Scottish Referendum; we have not been informed of her emotional reaction when […]

There is much talk about national identity and culture in the news which appears to have come to a head with the vote to leave the EU.It’s a fact that the very idea of a “national identity” is a fairly recent construct anyway. The whole idea of having a country or even a nationality to […]

Let me say this about that: everybody gets their fun some way…Makes you wonder how it went down in Scotland, eh? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/06/27/wales-players-celebrate-englands-defeat-to-iceland-and-euro-2016/