December, 2016

And so, as we tremble on the edge of Christmas 2016, all is not gloom. Yes, we’ve had a monumentally stupid Brexit vote in England and Wales (that is, if you define a stupid action as one performed contrary to one’s own interests), we’ve had the gross cartoon figure of Donald Trump elected as President […]

Pics 1-6 this blessed Christmas Eve are by Antrim Lens. Pic 1                                                              Pic 2                       […]

ME: So – what do you think of this Brexit thing? TAXIMAN: Yeah! ME: Eh – did you vote? TAXIMAN: Too right, mate. First one down at the polling station, me. ME: And did you vote for it, or – TAXIMAN: Voted for Brexit. Only thing makes sense. ME: Was it the control of your own […]

*I believe that we human beings share this planet called Earth for a short while and that it provides a temporary home for human beings and other species; we are all connected for eternity (outside space and time) in what is called the Divine Mystery. *I believe that God/Eternal Mystery/Creator created us to be responsible […]

Fr James Quigley was born in the townland of Castleraw near Loughgall, in County Armagh in August 1761, the second son of James Quigley and Louisa Donnelly. He went to grammar school in Dundalk, was ordained a priest in 1784, at the age of 23 years. In 1785 he was sent to the College of […]

What is James Brokenshire for? This is a question I’ve found myself asking more and more recently. He is of course the British Secretary of State, but given that we have our own Executive (‘’An ill-favoured thing, sir, but mine own’), is there anything Brokenshire does that enhances life and/or politics here? Well, he’s the […]

  Mark Pettigrew blogs at http://mark7694.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/irish-unity-northern-unionists-just.html   Irish unification and Scottish independence both ultimately involve a constitutional exit from the United Kingdom, but the northern context of Irish unity differs markedly from the Scottish question. The debate surrounding the 2014 independence referendum was no romanticised notion of Scotland the brave sending proud Edward’s army homeward […]

  SPAD-LANDS By Randall Stephen Hall @   I watched you on the big screen The other night And the beating of your soul. I could see and feel the rate of your heart And from the start those open staring eyes. Wide open and running like a wood burner. With your windows flung open […]

These are three people I admire a great deal for their contribution to making the world we live in a better, a more humane place. They are now dead but their legacy remains. They all lived in the United States and became active in the movement for peace and civil rights which spread through America in the 1960s and […]

I am old enough (alas) to remember the final weeks and months of Richard Nixon’s presidency. I was living in Canada at the time, and the big US networks provided detailed nightly coverage of what had been uncovered that day, what new revelations had emerged, who said they couldn’t remember, who clearly had lied, and […]