So the House of Lords, or prominent members of that place, have urged that all investigations into the north’s past be halted. It seems a joint letter to Karen Bradley, our current proconsul, has been signed by former British secretaries of state : Peter Hain, John Reid, Paul Murphy and Tom King. The letter is […]
October, 2018
Was the British government the main protagonist in the Troubles?
Where do people get their ideas on contemporary matters? From their own experience, from friends and from the media. The first two have clear limitations. Space and time restrict the number of personal experiences you can have, and how much you can learn from them. Likewise, you may be popular but you can have only a limited […]
Blog from America
Memorial to Irish survivors of An Gorta Mor arriving in Phildelphia One of the great myths about Irish-Americans is that they are clueless about modern Ireland: their eyes are misty and filled with images of comely maidens dancing reels and Mother Ireland groaning under the yoke of England. There are probably Irish-Americans who live in […]
Danger: disaster ahead
Brexit events are moving at such speed, it’s got dangerous to comment on them, because by the time your words appear in print, the latest twist in the Brexit saga may have left them out-of-date. Besides which, the whole Brexit matter is riddled with contradictions. Take, for example, the DUP (yes I know, Virginia, but […]
October 5, 1968: the day won by brutality
October 5, 1968 – exactly fifty years ago today – members of the RUC attacked a civil rights march in Derry. If you were a media student and looking for an example of the power of television, you wouldn’t need to go any further. As October 5, 1968 headed into twilight and night, everything had […]
Unionism and how to terrify yourself
www.irelandstory.com Alex Kane has an article in today’s Irish Times, where he catalogues “My top ten list of existential ‘threats to the Union’ “. (When Alex says ‘Union’, he’s invariably referring to the union of the north with Great Britain). In ways it’s an interesting read – most lists, particularly of fears, are. He starts […]
October 5, 1968: What was it all about? by John Patton
British civil rights – that’s what we were agitating and marching for in 1968. The demand was for the same citizenship rights as those enjoyed in Carlisle or Exeter, Reading or Inverness. With unemployment figures, ranked among the highest in Europe, local authority housing denied to the majority of the population, a gerrymandered electoral […]
Stanley Johnson sounds off
I’ve just finished reading a report on Boris Johnson’s father Stanley Johnson, and even in a world of Tory ignorance, he leaves you gawking, with the Top Gun theme song ‘Take My Breath Away’(recorded ironically by Berlin) ricocheting around in your head. Johnson Sr was interviewed by Channel 4 from the Tory Party conference yesterday. […]
Arlene and her bloody red lines
Do you remember when the polite Dublin 4ers and the scornful northern unionists used to roll their eyes in disgust at Patrick Pearse’s speeches and their references to a blood sacrifice? Loony dreamer of blood-drenched dreams, a half-crazy who called others to accompany him in a doomed rebellion. And do you remember how much we heard […]
Theresa May and the numbers game
Two questions: Would you buy a used car from Arthur Daley? Would you trust Theresa May on the promised backstop for Ireland? OK, the first one was the hard one: in the dear dead days of Minder, Arthur had a sentimental streak that could help in your dealings with him. As to the second […]