February, 2019

BALANCING GUILT WITH THE GINGERBREAD – THE WELFARE STATE AND BRITAIN’S EMERGENCIES by Donal Kennedy

The late Flann O’Brien, a.k.a. “Myles na Gcopaleen,,” ,was a Divil for strong Beverages. But he had no stomach at all for Sir William Beveridge, the British Civil Servant whose 1942 Report largely inspired  Britain’s Welfare State. In one of his less funny Irish Times column he attacked it. I don’t know whether O’Brien’s reactionary […]

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Eoghan Harris – An tost fada by Tom Cooper

Eoghan Harris told us (Sunday Independent, 17 February 2019), not for the first time, that he made An Tost Fadafor RTE in 2012. The Irish language TV documentarypresented Cannon George Salter’s memory of his father’s alleged expulsion by the IRA from West Cork in April 1922, three years before the Cannon was born. Modesty prevents Mr Harris from noting that RTE upheld two complaints I made about […]

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MONACO MON AMOUR? by Donal Kennedy

I never was aware of Jim Ratcliffe’s existence until a few minutes ago and would believe that he has never been aware of mine. The Guardian reports – He’s Britain’s rchest man.That he’s an influential Brexiteer.That various EU countries have done deals with his companies that will make him much richer however the cookies crumble. That […]

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What Anna Did

Outside my window as I type I can hear the birds giving full-throated approval to the sun that’s climbing and doing its best to pretend this is Spring. But I’m happy to take simulation if I can’t have the real thing.  So in the spirit of post-Winter, here’s a laugh. In the Ukraine there is […]

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LAPTOP BITES BULLDOG (30) by Perkin Warbeck

 The dulcet tones of Dinah Shore flotated over the much-anticipated and lately-postponed  sporty Weekend at the West Egg Mansion of the West Brit Egg Head in DUPlin.. –Make the World Go Away   Get it off  my shoulder….. Despite Dinah’s surname, she in fact hailed from land-locked Tennessee and later in her life, after a […]

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Why The Observer doesn’t like Jeremy Corbyn

  There is a picture today in the online version of The Observer.   It shows Jeremy Corbyn peeping out of a dark doorway, looking furtive. The headline is “Brexit/ Corbyn told: change course before it’s too late” You don’t need to read the story to know where The Observer’s sympathies lie.  The newspaper and […]

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