November, 2016

  During the recent Presidential Election Campaign in the USA there was much trumpeting about the discrimination doled out to minorities ranging from the Afrro-Americans to the Muslims and the Latinos. There was also much L. trumpeting about the specficic treatment meted out to another minority, the Native Americans aka the Indians. In fact, much […]

(I’m trying to tidy my papers so that I can access pieces I’ve written over the years and decided that in the spirit of peace to men of goodwill I’d share my thoughts with them. In this case “men” embrace women – in the sense of subsuming them. If persons of ill-will read them, the […]

Cardinal Nicholls of Westminster Archdiocese suggested that some media were guilty of fostering a climate of fear of refugees ahead of the June 23 referendum that resulted in a surprise vote for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. He told a Nov. 18 press conference that attitudes toward migrants had since hardened, making it harder […]

I was on TalkBack yesterday (yes, again, Virginia – they know quality when they hear it – now shut up), talking about the President of the GAA’s suggestion that the singing of Amhrán na bhFiann and the flying of the Irish tricolour might be scrapped in the context of an agreed Ireland. As it turned […]

Me..? Sport..? Not much interested , I’m afraid. That is probably a minority opinion, but then most of my opinions are minority opinions anyway, so I’m hardly going to worry about that , am I? I’m the kind of guy who enjoys Tom Waits’ harder- edged later” hit -that engine -block-hard -with -a-big -stick and-see […]

President MIchael D Higgins’s praise of Fidel Castro has, quite naturally, disturbed Fine Gael’s spokesmen. Fine Gael led Irishmen to Spain to support the murderous mutineer General Francisco Franco. Fine Gael condemned the Fianna Fail Government for not supporting Fascist Italy’s murderous, racist aggression in Abyssinia. A typically ignorant Fine Gael spokesman justified the “Christian” […]

How’s your local bobby, then? Flashes you a small salute and a smile when he stops you, does he? Calls you ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’, sends you on your way with a cheerful “Many thanks, sir”? Right. Me neither. When the PSNI first appeared on the streets in their funny new uniform, the change of tone […]

Rugby is really on the up in the here and now and on both sides of the Black Sow’s Dyke, what with the brobdingagian Bid from Biddyland for the Rugby World Cup, 2023 and all. The Rugby World Cup, is right. There are 206 listed countries in the United Nations. The same number of countries […]

Since the Belfast Agreement of 1998 there have been some changes on the ground –not least in policing and in terms of freedom of movement. Republicans now share power and hold many elected offices but they have no control of the public purse. The economic situation in the six counties has not improved. Emigration is […]