January, 2019

I see that Pope Francis has recently cited the failure of the League of Nations, a body about which I have never seen a book in a library nor in a bookshop. Nor have I read an obituary where even a paragraph has been devoted to it. Within about a week recently I read in […]

Before starting this blog I reached for the nearest dictionary to my armchair, one of the many scattered about the house, which I consult for crosswords or for spelling .It was a Pocket Oxford Dictionary and   though the introductory pages showing its date of publication were long gone I inferred that it predated my own […]

One of the most depressing things about this GTC of Ireland is the selectivity of outrage. Sometimes the outrage is evoked because an organization has been criticized (“How dare you say the Orange Order is anti-Catholic!”), sometimes when an individual is made fun of (“How dare you talk that way about Ruth Dudley Edwards!”) and […]

                                                                                      by                                              Yesterday, The Twelfth Day of  Christmas, all our troubles seemed so far away, a bhuachaillí. But still, even the infamous Grouse heself  is entitled to one last crib. By coincidence last night was also Twelfth Night, the last night of the Festive Season. While the former translates as The Twalfth Day […]

Another Monday morning, another picking through the entrails of Brexit. If you say the word often enough – Brexit Brexit Brexit Brexit – it begins to sound like a clanking machine part you don’t understand. Which makes sense. Bright-eyed and smiling as ever, Nigel Dodds spoke on BBC Raidio Uladh/Radio Ulster just now. Noel Thompson […]

There was a time when Christmas season damped out the noises of the mundane. Not now. Now there is a great deal more static in the United States than any number of celestial choirs can possibly hope to quell. The disquiet arises, at least in part, from a growing sense of uncertainty in the American soul. Nothing […]

≈ In October 1939 Britain’s First Lord of the Admiralty,Winston Churchill spoke on the wireless – “ I cannot forecast for you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, inside a mystery, wrapped in an enigma.” The old scoundrel had a way with words, some  of which he stole from others with out acknowledgement, […]

Fourteen months ago I suffered a minor stroke which knocked the stuffing out of me and dispelled my belief that I was still a teenager. I’d had intimations of this, needing hearing aids, and sometimes forgetting where I’d put them, when they were still in my ears and the batteries had gone flat. And I […]

Looking back on a year, there’s a tendency to think of events that happened. But most of the time events are created by people. So with that in mind, here is my 2018 list of event-steering people I could happily have done without. 1.Nigel Farage.  Mr Farage projects himself as a cheerful chappie. And is […]

Sometimes Jesus is portrayed in books and films and in most drawings and paintings as a very serious and gloomy person -not really much fun to be around. I think that is a pity. True, there are not many references to his sense of humour in the gospels but from what we can gather from […]