May, 2019

Vickie and her wilder side

For decades I’ve found that huge lumpy statue of Queen Victoria at the front of Belfast City Hall an eyesore. Stern, joyless, imperial. And it’s not just in Belfast.  Most places where she’s given a statue, it’s similar to this life-denying eye-offender. But this morning I discovered what I should always have guessed – Victoria […]

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LAPDOG BITES BULLDOG (42) by Perkin Warbeck

                                                                                                                                                                                   SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA Simply red, was the colour which Jeff and Mutt saw when they looked through their rose-tinted BA-issued reconaissance binoculars in a wee northerly direction towards Croak Park from the shared space atop Liberty Hall. Even as they waited to sing their first performance in public of the song first […]

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Voting in the EU election – a waste of paper?

These coming  EU elections are tempting. You might decide that election of a representative to Europe is an exercise in futility, and the election campaign one filled with sound and fury, signifying nothing. How else would you describe an election to a parliament, organized by a member state who doesn’t want to be a member?  […]

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TRUST THE BRITISH? WHY? by Michael John Cummings

Think back to January, 1972, when  innocent civil rights protesters lay dead on the streets of Derry.  The British manipulated media readily embraced the use of terms like “armed gunmen” and “terrorists” to describe the victims.  The Widgery Report absolved the  British Army and the world moved on.  It was all a lie perpetuated for 40 years until the Saville […]

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Goodbye to all that

We all love a simple story, particularly if its sad ending brings about long-term good. The most recent example was the untimely death of Lyra McKee,  shot dead apparently by a dissident republican. There can be few who don’t grieve the loss of such a young life; but when we say that from her death […]

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LAPDOG BITES BULLDOG (41) by Perkin Warbeck

SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA Once they’d stepped out on to the roof of Liberty Hall, Jeff and Mutt (JAM), as programmed, broke into a, erm,  jam session. A fail-safe dodge specially designed to practice their scales, memorise the lyrics  of their Second Song, the one penned and sung  by  Sam of the Pyrrhic victory, get their […]

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