August, 2017

  Writing in a Belfast newspaper last week, RD Edwards explains her reasons for voting for Brexit. After her curious explanation she goes on to say that she still agrees with herself.   “I finally voted ‘out’ because I thought staying shackled to an unreformed arrogant, expansionist, bullying and inept EU would be a worse option for […]

I’ve just ended a (fairly limited) contribution to this morning’s Nolan radio show. The question under discussion was, predictably, the vacuum at Stormont and the need to get an Assembly and an Executive in place. My good friend Nelson McCausland of the DUP was on and he made it abundantly clear to Stephen Nolan’s stand-in Vinny […]

Attention, All: Starting on 1 September (Friday), for reasons too tedious to list, this site will not be hosting any guest blogs or posted comments, with the exception of SATURDAY PICS OF THE WEEK.  My thanks to the many people who’ve written guest blogs – I’d urge you to think about setting up your own site […]

  A recent visit to west Cork reminded me of the severity and brutality of the struggle in Munster during the war for independence/‘The Tan War’ (1918-21) when the Flying Columns led by Tom Barry took on the might of the British empire. When I visited the homestead of Michael Collins in Woodfield, a few […]

The Architect Sir Christopher Wren is buried in London’s St Paul’s Cathedral and his tomb has the inscription – “Si monumentum requires, Circumspice” which means “If you want (his) monument, look about you.”  For the new St Paul’s, replacing the old one burned down in 1666 is all Wren’s own work. The Great Fire had […]

A: I hear much talk of Patrick O’Donovan. Is he  a new Irish snooker star? B: No. Patrick is a Fine Gael TD and the new junior Minister at the Department of Finance. A: That’s nice. Does he get to roll naked in a bath full of €100 notes? B: Not as far as I’m aware. […]

I passed on the report – see BLOG OF 23 AUGUST. The USA, the UK and their Allies were setting up NATO, Ireland’s Coalition Government had declared that the State was a Republic and was deemed to have left the British Commonwealth. Britain’s Labour Government created a new Government of Ireland Act purporting to vest […]

Sometimes you have to laugh at the things people come out with.  Fintan O’Toole in a recent Irish Times article cited yet again Churchill’s famous ‘dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone’. But of all the times I’ve seen that line repeated, I’ve never read anyone who pointed out that the dreariness of Fermanagh and Tyrone is not […]

In his review (March/April) of “Coolacrease” Joost Augusteijn tries to be fair. But, referring to the 1918 Election, he falls into a trap laid by British politicians and journalists noted in his diary by Edward MacLysaght on January 28 1919 exactly a week after the first meeting  of Dail  Eireann.   “In quoting statistics for […]

  Recent reports in the media that the British government wanted to have a direct say in who was to succeed Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich in Ara Coeli did not come as a great surprise. It was clear from the English Press that they were none too happy with Tomás – because Tomás was too […]