August, 2018

  When they’re out to get you, they don’t mind what they throw at you. Two politicians – one Irish, one British – know the truth of that. They are Gerry Adams and Jeremy Corbyn. You don’t need me to remind you of the many efforts that have been made to destroy Gerry Adams politically […]

I spent many hours on Saturday and Sunday watching the BBC Proms production of “On The Town” and excerpts from “West Side Story” and old footage of their composer, Leonard Bernstein, the centenary of whose birth was celebrated at the weekend. On Tuesday I read a long Obituary of Neil Simon, writer of such comedies […]

How do the DUP feel about the border? It’s both easy and hard to say. Easy in that they believe in it totally, because if there was no border there’d be no Northern Ireland. The fact that for years we’ve been able to travel freely throughout Ireland doesn’t change the fact that there is a […]

THE HAMMERSMITH IRISH CULTURAL CENTRE HOSTS AN ANNUAL LECTURE DURING THE “DECADE OF CENTENERARIES 1912-1922”. THIS YEAR THE LECTURE WAS GIVEN BY IVAN GIBBONS A HISTORY PhD., A DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRE, ON “IRELAND IN 1918 – IRELAND’S MOST PIVOTAL YEAR”. THE IRISH POST (LONDON) SHARED HIS THOUGHTS WITH US ON 27 JULY. DR GIBBONS […]

I’ve listened to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks pretty frequently on BBC Radio Four’s ‘Thought for the Day”. I can’t remember a word he said, but I do recall the smooth timbre of his voice, like honey poured over a slice of home-made bread. A soothing voice. But there’s nothing soothing about the report in yesterday’s newspapers […]

  ‘Thought for the Day’ on BBC Radio Ulster/Raidio Uladh usually makes for cringe-worthy listening, especially since they decided to ban me from the slot. However, the equivalent ‘Thought’ on BBC Radio Four can sometimes be listenable and even interesting. That was the case this morning, when the contributor referred to the recent death of […]

     The Continuity MOPEmobile, blaring out its theme/ meme music ‘For he’s a Jolly Good Infallible Fellow !’ on the tannoy, with the hilariously annoying Real Pope Colm (not merely viceless but voiceless too) at the steering wheel and his trio of back-tracking song birds, The Popettes (from left to righteous: Miriam, Marian and […]

There were two things stressed during the Pope’s visit to Ireland: the numbers coming out to see him, and the Pope’s response to victims of clerical sexual abuse. You don’t need to have a people-counter to tell you that fewer people lined the streets, fewer appeared in Croke Park or the Phoenix Park than when […]

As a child I was taught about Christ’s condemnation of those who would scandalise children when He said that it would be better for the scandalisers to have millstones tied round their necks and drowned in the depths of the sea. I thought He was referring  to adults who used profane language which might be overheard  by children. When […]

Here’s a hypothetical situation for you. You’re working for this big firm as a very junior clerk. Your line manager is a total arse – well no, not a total one. With other people in the firm he’s charming and witty. With you, when you’re alone, he bullies you, he shouts at you, he thumps […]