Sorcha Óg You arrived Sorcha with the dawn on the fifteenth of June, another bairn for Scotland, a sister for Leo and Senan, a daughter for Jen and Neill , another grandchild, a burst of radiance in this gilded summer. Your Gaelic name means ‘light’ and you have in your sweet and gentle newness brightened […]
July, 2018
Diane boots that backstop
After a period of careful training with her husband Nigel, Diane Dodds has stepped up and smashed the backstop ball past Leo Varadkar, Simon Coveney and Theresa May (political football allows as many goalkeepers as you want – the rules are very loose) and into the net. Hoooray! Afterwards, Diane explained her reason for kicking […]
England expects…
Moscow today is a city awash with World Cup rumours. There are claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered his services as motivational coach to the national team, as they face into their big game against Croatia this coming Saturday. President Trump is reported to have phoned his Russian counterpart. “Tell your boys to […]
PROTECTION RACKET VEILED, UNVEILED AND REVILED : EGYPT UNDER JOHN BULL by Donal Kennedy
Egypt was an autonomous state of the Ottoman Empire from 1867 to 1914, But from 1882 to 1914 it was ruled by Britain as a “Veiled Protectorate” which had no basis in law. In 1914 when Britain went to war with the Ottoman Empire, the veil was withdrawn and Britain officially proclaimed the seized […]
Cowdenbeath: Urination against the wind once again?
Regardless of your political loyalties, you have to admire Arlene Foster. She’s like a woman repapering a room in an old grand house, while overhead the whine of fighter jets and the thud of explosions rattle the building’s foundations. For example? Well, the Irish Times has a story this morning headed ‘Reject bigotry, Foster asks […]
HEY HEY CAN YOU REMEMBER WHEN? by Donal Kennedy
Can you remember when young people marched in American streets asking their Presidents how many kids he killed that day?If you can you must be getting on a bit. Imagine citizens whose sensibilities were outraged at the thought that their President, his administration and their armed forces were zapping innocent kids’ Today’s young citizens, in […]
The BIIGC: the body that cheeses unionism off
How do you like your British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIGC)? Maybe East-West; that’s how UUP leader Robin Swann sees it. “Given the structure of the BIIGC, which must focus on non-devolved issues within the three-stranded approach, it is hard to see how it will move us any closer to restoring devolution.” That’s pretty much how Arlene […]