March, 2018

The Irish Times spoils my Saturday

As I sometimes do, I’ve started the day on the wrong foot: I read the Irish Times editorial. It wrings its hands over the Good Friday Agreement (naturally it refers to it as ‘the Belfast Agreement). It then blames everybody – Sinn Féin, the DUP, the British government, the Dublin government. It quotes the wise […]

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About the rugby boys…Oh, and Martin McGuinness

Q: What was a major feature of media reporting over the last six weeks or so? A: What has become known as the rugby rape trial. Q: Was this because it was a matter of  public concern, affecting the welfare of great numbers of people here? A: No. Q: Why did it receive reporting in […]

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Hooray for the RAF! Hooray for the war crimes?

It’s amazing what you hear on the radio as you munch your cornflakes. I was tuned in to BBC Radio Four this morning and they were reporting from some RAF air base – the programme itself appeared to be coming from there. Ex-RAF and present RAF men came on and reminisced about old planes and […]

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An interesting News Letter report and an even more interesting riposte

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/sean-o-callaghan-was-an-irish-saint-says-basque-journalist-1-8431070   Perhaps a statue of O’Callaghan should be erected next to that of Edith Cavell yards from St Martin’s in The Field by the National Portrait Gallery. Cavell was included in the Church of England’s Calendar of Saints following her execution for spying by the Germans in 1915.  The British claimed she was an innocent […]

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Mary Lou and the media

You get people who don’t read reviews of their work. They say it’s because they couldn’t care less what the critics think, but I’d guess it’s because they care too much about the critics and are afraid to look. My habit is to scrape up every little bit of review I can possibly find. Which […]

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Doug Beattie and changing the subject

You’re no doubt familiar with the concept of l’esprit de l’escalier, the things you wish you’d said a few minutes earlier but didn’t. I had a keen sense of that after discussing the case of the hooded men with Doug Beattie on the Stephen Nolan Show t’other day. The subject of discussion was the failure […]

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A sad day and some sad bigots

This day one year ago Martin McGuinness died. This evening,  Father Michael Canny,  who officiated at Martin McGuinness’s funeral, will say a memorial Mass in the Long Tower Church, Derry, from which Martin was buried. Martin’s  wife, sons, daughters and grandchildren will gather as a family for an hour of togetherness before attending the Long […]

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