August, 2017

My withdrawal from having written in a while has been down to wanting  to see how things would play out and take stock of all the latest developments in the political arena. There are after all years when nothing happens and weeks when everything happens. I don’t therefore pretend to know everything that is occurring […]

Pics 1-4 are by Perkin Warbeck   Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4   ‘SUNSET   SERENADE, not’.   Pic 4:           ‘Float like an effin’ boat Sting like a Jay–s jelly fish ‘.   (‘Céad Míle Malta’ by Perkin Warbeck).

“He was a man of exceptional ability and courage and he spent most of his life finding ways of atoning for the crimes he had committed before, at 20, he realised he was fighting in a squalid sectarian war rather than a resistance movement.” That’s Ruth Dudley Edwards talking about the IRA informer Sean O’Callaghan, […]

  One was reading recently – too recently to remember precisely where – about the song ‘Begin the Beguine’. Seems like the wonderful WASP called Cole Porter was on a cruise ship in 1935 sailing between Indonesia and Fiji when he composed the deathless song. The name of the cruise liner was – no, not […]

  This was meant for the Irish Times, but accidentally went to the Morning Star   —–Original Message—– From: donalmkennedy@aol.com To: lettersed@peoples-press.com Sent: Thu, Oct 21, 2010 Madam In seeking to compare Sinn Fein in 1918 with the party it supplanted to the former’s disadvantage Charles Hazell (Oct 21) correctly records the fact that Sinn Fein polled 47% […]

OK – full attention, please. What part of our little North-East Nest (NEN) was worst hit by the recent wet weather? Well done – what’s referred to as ‘The North-West’. The pictures of damage in places like Eglinton, Plumbridge and Drumahoe are appalling. If you’ve ever suffered even the mildest of flooding in your home, […]

  One of the great problems facing all of us who want a democracy in Ireland is the Unionist Siege Mentality. ‘What we have, we hold’. ‘Ulster will fight.’ ‘We are the conquerors’ .’’Not an inch’ are just some of their slogans. This mentality is reinforced every year during the summer months. The Unionist party which, from its […]

  I remember reading, well into the 1960s, in the Irish newspapers, syndicated opinion pieces by the American journalist Walter Lippman. He was born in 1889, had established himself comfortably before the First World War, advised Woodrow Wilson, won a Pulitzer Prize at least once and been given the accolade “The Father of Modern Journalism.” […]

  I read Michael McDowell’s article in this week’s Sunday Business Post with interest. His great fear is that FF will go into government with SF in the south after the next election. According to McDowell SF are not a ‘normal democratic’ party. According to McDowell they are run by an army. People are forced […]

For a short period in 1970, I lived on one side of the border and worked on the other. Each weekday morning I’d drive in my unreliable car from outside the small Donegal village of Muff to St Jospeh’s secondary school in Derry’s Creggan. It should have been a pleasant drive but it rarely was: […]