January, 2017

  Did Britain surrender Dublin Castle to Irish Revolutionaries in January 1922 or did Irish Revolutionaries surrender to Dublin Castle? The question has a new lease of life as Dublin Castle prepares to open a Garda Museum in the new year with an exhibition of weapons and equipment used by the Royal Irish Constabulary and […]

  When Arlene Foster became First Minister I had mixed thoughts and feelings. I have no doubt that she is an able individual; a Solicitor by trade and someone astute enough to make the journey from UUP stalwart to leader of the right-wing party that opposed the then monumental shift to  rectifying the struggles of […]

“Political institutions cease to have value when they do not reflect equality, mutual respect and parity of esteem, and have become detached from the lives of citizens they are meant to serve.” The words of Declan Kearney, the National Chairman of Sinn Féin. There are few who would disagree with his words. The question is, […]

There are some unexpectedly light passages in a recently published tome of above average avoirdupois, entitled : -‘Forgotten Patriot: DOUGLAS   HYDE and The Foundation of the Irish Presidency’ by Brian Murphy. One passage deals with the re-naming in 1938 of the former Viceregal Lodge which had been picked as the residence of future Irish Presidents. […]

I wonder how Arlene Foster is feeling this morning. Is she staring across fields at the dreary steeples of Fermanagh, wondering why in God’s name she didn’t stick with the solicitors’ firm she used to work for in Enniskillen,  thus avoiding all the gouging and kneeing that comes with politics?   Or is she doing deep-breathing […]

Allow me a (passing) moment of humility: if I had achieved for the starving world one-tenth of what Bob Geldof has achieved, I’d consider myself entitled to spend the rest of my life saying stupid things and doing even stupider things. OK, that’s the nice stuff done. Now to the news, from freshly-released 1986 state […]

  One hundred years from now (2117), Ireland will be a completely different place. For one thing it will be one country again with four provincial assemblies under one central government. The British will have cut their losses and departed and Ireland will be once again a nation among the nations of the world. It […]