July, 2017

‘Ballad of the Landlord’ by Langston Hughes

Thanks to Joe McVeigh for drawing my attention to this.   Landlord, Landlord, my roof has sprung a leak. Don’t you ’member I told you about it way last week?   Landlord, Landlord, these steps is broken down. When you come up yourself it’s a wonder you don’t fall down.   Ten bucks you say […]

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Newton Emerson: the Nemesis of Sinn Féin

Below  is a draft of a letter I sent  to The Irish Times yesterday.  I can’t think why they didn’t print it.   Having trudged through yet another anaemic attack on Sinn Féin (‘Bid to end Stormont stand-off should be taken seriously’ Thursday 27 July 2017), Newton Emerson ends his column by turning from Sinn Féin […]

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ABSTENTION FROM WESTMINSTER A PROVEN WINNER by Donal Kennedy

In the June 2017 United Kingdom General Election both the SDLP and Sinn Fein contested all eighteen constituencies in the North of Ireland. The electorate had a clear appreciation of the records of both parties and of their intentions. The SDLP promised that their candidates would, if elected, sit on the Commons benches and Sinn […]

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Let’s see: how can we be even dumber than than themuns?

(I’ve just learnt from a Man Who Knows that the above picture is from last year. So maybe the dumber have seen the light this year – in which case read no further and go peruse Malachi O’Doherty’s Unauthoristed Biography of Gerry Adams…) There can only be one thing stupider than a unionist bonfire bedecked with Irish […]

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Bigotry & ‘Whataboutery’ by Joe McVeigh

  In response to my condemnation of the burning of an effigy of the late Martin McGuinness, some anonymous brysonite under the pseudonym ‘Tam’ replied; “What about the real people Martin McGuinness burned?” Such a pathetic comment in relation to the burning of an effigy of Martin McGuinness on a Twelfth bonfire hardly deserves a […]

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Lies and omissions – you mean there’s a difference?

I’m on holidays in France and I can’t begin to tell you how far away our divisions and accusations seem. The weather is warm, the streets full of holiday-makers, most of them French, and nobody knows or cares a damn about the state of society and politics in our North-East Nest. It’s at times like […]

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