November, 2017

I sometimes wonder about the Great British public.  Mention the word ‘royal’ and the brains of otherwise sensible people seem to evaporate out their ears and any other exit point available.  We saw this just two days ago when the news that Prince Harry had become engaged to  Meghan Markle, who can be seen in that godawful […]

It’s quite good fun watching politicians on the swinging trapeze, risking everything in an attempt to impress the audience. South of the border for the last couple of days, there’s been some dazzling risk-taking. Not that politicians want to risk any more than necessary, ever. But Frances and the Whistleblower is a story that has […]

I’ve just had the most terrifying thought:Frances Fitzgerald could condemn Ireland, north and south, to years of economic hardship. With, of course, a little help from her friends. As causes for having a general election, Frances is a straightforward case: she had information about the smearing of Garda McCabe the whistleblower.  She says she was […]

      Pic 1   Seanathair agus a gharinion….

On the face of it, there’s not much resemblance. Frances Fitzgerald is older, I would guess, than Arlene Foster. Where Frances is generally pleasant and smiling, Arlene’s default expression is that of someone who’s just swallowed a wasp and is trying not to think about it. Frances Fitzgerald is Tanaiste and comes from that party, […]

Engaging in debate on radio or television is bad for your health. There are many reasons for this, I find, but the main one is that sense, as you drive home, of  l’esprit de l’escalier  – literally the wit of the staircase. That’s  the stage after a debate when you think of all the things […]

In a few hours’ time I’m due to go on Nolan Live (BBC NI) to discuss Elisha McCallion’s ‘glorification of terrorism’ , as Arlene Foster has described the Derry MP’s Ard Fheis speech. Since I didn’t see it on the televised Ard Fheis, I thought I’d better listen to it online. I was surprised.  It’s a speech […]

OMG. It’s a crisis. A huge crisis facing as many as ten people in places like London, Belfast and Dublin 4. Grandchildren are hugging their mothers’ skirts and pleading “Mummy, why is Granny Ruth trying to pull out her hair? Why is Uncle Nelson trying to stick needles in his eyes?” For this morning in […]

Like buses, interviews have a habit of coming in twos.  Last Sunday The Sunday Times  had a feature interview of Gerry Adams by Justine McCarthy, and RTÉ’s The Week in Politics  had Leo Varadkar interviewed by Aine Lawlor.  The headline of the interview in the Sunday Times  was ‘I’m very much at peace with myself’. The statement comes in response to Justine McCarthy’s […]

Pics 1-3 are by John Patton   Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pics  4-8 are by Antrim Lens Pic 4   Pic 5   Pic 6   Pic 7   Pic 8  “Bit of sunshine on Thursday, so I headed down to Lough Neagh to see some of our foreigner winter visitors to the lough arrive, but […]