December, 2017

One of the phrases that presently echoes through public discourse is “regulatory alignment”. If you’re sensible, you’ll narrow your eyes and look for shifty dealing when you hear it. People who deal in abstract language like this aren’t intent on being understood – they prefer for each listener or reader to take his/her own meaning […]

Feel like a laugh? Here’s one from Stephen McCarthy: “There are significant numbers of Catholics who believe in the Union, mostly for its economic benefits, even if Brexit has introduced some doubts on that front.” Stephen is the darling of the Ulster Unionist Party, which hasn’t had much luck electorally in recent times. Stephen is […]

Pics 1 and 2 are by Perkin Warbeck   PIC 1   Pic 2    “Pic 1 The Residence of The Earl of Understatement. Pic 2: This is a dog. He is a watchdog. His name is Gnasher. The G is silent as the Gaeltacht Minister of the Free Southern Stateen. Gnasher hates Carols. He especially […]

Were you shocked? Most of us were, both by the scale and detail of supergrass Gary Haggarty’s brutal violence.Scale: five murders, five attempted murders, twenty-three conspiracies to murder. Detail: loyalist paramilitaries flipping a coin to decide who’d kill a Catholic, Haggarty intervening to say he’d volunteer to do it. It’s hard to think of more callous […]

It’s amazing what you can learn before nine in the morning, if you stay alert. I was idly listening to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme as I showered, and Nick Robinson was interviewing an Anglican bishop about turning godless Britain back to God. She said (yes, Virginia, she said) that they found godless/non-Anglican people weren’t […]

I think it’s catching. Here’s David Davis with Andrew Marr last weekend, talking about the agreement arrived at between the UK and the EU for Phase One of Brexit talks: “This was a statement of intent more than anything else. Much more a statement of intent than it was a legally enforceable thing.” Whatever about […]

I did a day-trip to Dublin yesterday, and checked out the delights of the new Luas line. From Connolly Railway Station you can travel in style, cutting across O’Connell Street. If you want to get to Grafton Street you have to then take a connection  to either Trinity College or Stephen’s Green. I’m not sure […]

I was one of those who signed that letter to Leo Varadkar ( aka ‘the Indian’, if you’re Lord Kilclooney, aka John Taylor) which appeared in the Irish News (aka the Venerable Organ [VO]) yesterday. I approved all that it said: it really is time that our Irish identity was acknowledged and protected north and […]

Why are unionist politicians so tetchy these times?  We had the famous crocodile remark (turbo-boost for Sinn Féin at election, thank you very much), we had Lord Kilclooney aka John Taylor refusing to apologise for calling Leo Varadkar ‘the Indian’,  we had Peter Robinson telling  Leo and Co to ‘wind their neck in.’ These repeated bursts […]

Pics 1-8 are by John Patton    Pic 1   Pic 2   Pic 3 Pic 4   Pic 5   Pic 6    Pic 7   Pic 8   “Looking for pictures of my late sister, Mary, who died in July, I came on these old  Derry images from around 1969-70. I’ll not dwell […]