Watching the opening match of the World Cup, I was impressed by the cordiality between the elected President Putin of Russia and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia as together they watched Russia defeat Saudi Arabia by five goals to nil. I was rather taken aback by the main cartoon in THE TIMES the next morning which depicted President […]
June, 2018
A NEW ANTHEM FOR A NEW PEOPLE? OR AN OLD ONE? by Donal Kennedy
Following Dr Varadkar’s Prescription of A New Constitution For A New People, Fintan O’Toole, the Paid Piper of The Irish Times, followed by some of his younger admirers, if not a plague of rats, has called for the scrapping of Amhran na bFhiann/ A Soldier’s Song , the anthem of those who have given allegiance to the […]
DEVASTATION OF UNIVERSAL CREDIT by John Patton
Growing up in Ireland, the Paupers’ Field and the Polo Field were our childhood play areas. As children, the emotional overtones did not register with us nor did any real distinction occur between the two grounds. Seventy years later , I find those memories strangely relevant to current society as the gap between rich […]
Arlene: not waving but drowning?
So. Arlene has moved from being the crocodile woman to being the neighbourly woman. She’s put aside the iron fist normally used for repelling reptiles and has extended the hand of friendship to her GAA neighbours, even to the point of holding up, while smiling, a Fermanagh shirt with Irish writing on it. It’s a […]
Last night with Mary Lou
So – ring out the old, ring in the new. Goodbye Gerry, hello Mary-Lou. We’ve known for some time that Gerry Adams has stepped down and that Mary Lou McDonald has succeeded him as President of Sinn Féin. But it’s only when she did the leader’s address at the Sinn Féin Árd-Fheis that it came home […]
SAYING THE FIRST THING THAT COMES OUT OF THEIR ORIFICES by Donal Kennedy
Ireland’s Foreign Minister, Simon Coveney has said that Boycotts never work. Could it be that he has never heard of the Land League or of Michael Davitt? The Taoiseach has spoken of a modern Constitution for a modern people.It is as if our people have just arrived on the planet without any history, traditions or […]
Leo, the Orange Order and uncomfortable facts
Did you get to chat with Leo when he was up in Belfast a while back? Me neither, although I’m not sure what I’d have said. Perhaps “What brings you to Belfast?” The occasion was the opening of Feile an Phobail in West Belfast. You’d never have thought that, given the way it was covered […]
Dark chapters in history not confined to Ireland by Donal Kennedy
Letter to the Irish World: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was quoted in your issue of 9th June as describing the discovery of illegal adoptions between 1949 and 1969 as “another dark chapter in our (Irish) history”. Indeed it is, as is the Irish media contention that it was a uniquely Irish and uniquely Catholic scandal. London’s Observer of 10th June […]
Diane frets about those two MEP seats
I’ve never met Diane Dodds but she strikes me as a pleasant little woman. Not given, as far as I can judge, to outbursts of rage or spleen, Which is probably just as well, since she’s married to Nigel Dodds, something most of us wouldn’t wish on our worst enemy. But Diane has been thrust […]
Brendan Howlin v Stephen Collins: Gloomyguts vs Pollyanna?
Put two economists in a room, they say, and they’ll come out with three different points of view. Do the same on Brexit and you’ll get a fudge. Why wouldn’t you? Journalists and pundits are no less dumb than the rest of us, and besides, they don’t like nailing their colours to the mast in […]