August, 2016

  Zaatari refugee camp, Jordan, September 2015 © Sam Tarling/Corbis via Getty Images Onora O’Neill JUSTICE ACROSS BOUNDARIES Whose obligations? 252pp. Cambridge University Press. Paperback. £21.99. (US $32.99). 978 1 107 53817 7 If politics is the art of the possible then too often political philosophy is the art of the impossible: an intellectual competition […]

The recently departed and no doubt sorely missed Theresa Villiers told us that the conditions don’t exist to allow for the triggering of a referendum on the ending of partition. I suppose that whatever conditions existed she would say that anyway. However apart from demanding such a poll what do republicans and democrats need to […]

  A thoughtful and informed piece on those Palestinian flags and Glasgow Celtic by Eddie Whyte.  Well worth a read…   UEFAs Discrimination of Palestine

It’s odd the important things we tend not to discuss. Such as when it’s necessary to have a referendum on an issue and, equally important, who decides when and if that referendum will take place. We are in the absurd position where a border referendum will be called only when the British Secretary of State believes […]

The recent visit of Pope Francis in July to Aushwitz-Birkeneau concentration camp in southern Poland reminds me of an unforgettable visit I made there last year. I arrived at the front gate of Auschwitz with the familiar sign above the gates, ‘Arbeit macht frei’, meaning ‘Work makes you Free’. Everywhere was quiet –except for the sound of shoes shuffling […]

On the face of it, the case was open-and-shut: Glasgow Celtic fans had displayed Palestinian flags, so the club was fined, since such flags are it seems forbidden at football matches. But why would displaying Palestinian flags be seen as provocative? Presumably because Celtic at the time were playing an Israeli club, and the Israelis […]

The piece below was passed me by Manus O’Riordan, probably one of the best informed men in these islands and a worthy son of the late Michael O’Riordan. It seems that Brendan Behan repaid, on Ireland’s behalf, some of the debt we all owe for the Greek contribution to our civilisation!   Years hence in Grecian plays, song, […]

Sometimes there really are not enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done .Part of that is down to the erratic summer weather this year .It has left many outside projects compressed until the last possible moment awaiting the first clement spell of sunshine to proceed . It’s not only […]

  (I have of course paid Joe to say the bit about this blogsite…- Jude) I have known Des Wilson now for nearly 50 years. He celebrated 70 years as a priest last year –years of great upheaval and sorrow for him personally and for the community in which he lived and worked as a […]

PETER DALY AND THE BATTLE OF QUINTO, AUGUST 1937 Peter Daly, a veteran of Ireland’s War of Independence, volunteered to fight in the Spanish Anti-Fascist War, and was the Commander of the 15th International Brigade’s British Battalion during the Battle of Quinto, which took place 79 years ago this month, in August 1937. In the […]