September, 2016

The Australians and others call it ‘cultural cringe’. That’s when a people or group look at what they consider a superior cultural tradition and assume the cringe position on the worth of their own tradition. It shows must sharply in colonial or post-colonial situations. When I was young, American pop-songs, American hairstyles, an English accent […]

Gerry Docherty and Jim Macgregor: Hidden History – The Secret Origins of the First World War. Mainstream Publishing, 2013 This really is a remarkable book, I found it hard to put down once I started. The myth about the nasty Germans was well sold and it seems that most people have accepted that version. This book states […]

  o I met a woman I know the other day. “I’ve stopped following you” she told me. I was alarmed – was she stalking me? Hoping I knew the way somewhere? Suddenly aware that my sense of direction is non-existent? I’ll come back to that. Last week, one of my daughters-in-law gave birth to […]

  Only recently I discovered that the author of the 1916 song ‘The Foggy Dew’ was a priest in the Diocese of Down and Connor, Father Charles O’ Neill who was  a native of  Portglenone.  He was born in 1887 and died in 1963 and is buried in Newcastle, co Down.. To find out more about […]

  A new group of people from all sectors – business, community, farming, and individuals, calling themselves “Border Communities Against Brexit” have come together out of concern that the North’s remain vote in the recent Brexit referendum, will not be respected. Spokesperson for the Fermanagh branch of the group, Fr. Joe McVeigh said: “In June, […]

On 7 August 1994, Kathleen O’Hagan (aged 38 years) was shot dead by the UVF in her home near Creggan, Carrickmore, County Tyrone. Kathleen was seven months pregnant. Her other four children witnessed the killing. Her husband Paddy was out that night. The UVF claimed the killing. It was three weeks before the IRA ceasefire. […]

I’m pretty sure I know many saints and that if you look around you know many too. From all backgrounds, many religious beliefs and none. Open-hearted, generous minded, helpful to their neighbours, courageous, even heroic when stricken with illness or looking after others suffering affliction. Cheerful and humorous. I don’t think many of them “are seeking first […]

John Patton blogs at phototilly.eu    Conflicted probably best summarises my thoughts in the aftermath of the Brexit Vote. Given the trajectory of my political and social development , I should be unspeakably delighted that GB jumped off a cliff into the mire on June 23rd; the very public humiliation of a British Prime Minister at her […]

See www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/president-unveils-new-memorial-to-those-who-died-in-famine-1.2787280 for report. In this “Irish Times” coverage, Fiach Kelly reports the President as follows: “The Irish Famine, he said, “was more a series of mistakes” and was “not providence”.” This is the opposite of what he had in fact said: “Famine was never only an accident of nature. It was more than a […]

A fuschia waterfall of colour is spilling off the verge onto the road .The good wife is nagging me to cut the bushes back before the neighbours start complaining or if it continues to grow across the road. I shrug it off as best I can. Some things are more important than the neighbours’ momentary […]