August, 2019

Donald and Boris: few degrees of separation

Donald Trump and Boris  Johnson – divided by an ocean but joined at the hip. If you were told that Boris was the love-child of Donald,  chances are you’d entertain the notion for a few seconds at least. Because they do have startling similarities. Hair Donald: Hair colour is a damp blond-to-orange. This is a […]

Continue Reading

Civic nationalism and the Taoiseach

One of the most revealing events I’ve ever attended was the one held last January, I think it was, in the Waterfront Hall. It had a series of speakers and panels, and while they weren’t all riveting or novel, taken as a whole it was a moment when civic nationalism made it clear that it […]

Continue Reading

BAWLS, BALLS, BALLS: DAME EDNA O’BRIEN DBE, HER TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS & A SURFEIT OF CODSWALLOP FROM SIR ROBERT GELDOF, GENT. by Donal Kennedy

The piece below arises from a TV programme featuring Edna O’Brien, Derek Jacobi, Bob Geldof and John Banville screened some weeks ago. The first part is autobiographical to illustrate the unique blessings enjoyed by most of my contemporaries in Ireland during the most murderous years of world history. I was born lucky, Dublin in December […]

Continue Reading

Oh it’s lying time again…

The one respect in which Boris Johnson is cast in the same mould as Donald Trump is that they both consider truth a wearisome encumbrance. Or more plainly put, they’re both serial liars. Since Boris is the man in the spotlight right now, let’s consider his upmarket porkies: He got a job with The Times […]

Continue Reading

IRISH CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING by Fr Sean McManus

Distributed to Congress by Irish National Caucus “ As Yogi Berra would have said, ‘It’s like deja-vu, all over again.’   England’s elite often say the Irish should forget the past and move on. Yet when the Irish do move on, the London government always takes them back. Right now Boris is  trying to take Ireland […]

Continue Reading

I’m a liberal, so better do what I say

 William Crawley was questioning people on Talkback yesterday about ‘intolerance masquerading as liberalism’, and how people could be ‘de-platformed’ in the name of liberalism.   I thought that was pretty hilarious – William sounded as if he was a total stranger to such a notion. The BBC is a classic example of supposed liberalism that […]

Continue Reading

THE BRITISH FORCES’ NETWORK IN IRELAND: Part Seven: The Silence of the Sheep by Donal Kennedy

In Part Six I mentioned the Prudence of Sir Anthony O’Reilly’s  Daily, Evening and Sunday, newspapers based in Dublin to mention, much less exploit, the  discovery of the “WHITE NIGGER LETTER” in 2003, written in 1969 by British Ambassador Sir Andrew Gilchrist’ which resulted in Lord Goodman’s creation of the oath-bound IRISH TIMES TRUST which […]

Continue Reading

THE BRITISH FORCES’ NETWORK IN IRELAND: Part Six: THE PRUDENCE OF INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS by Donal Kennedy

The IRISH TIMES was losing money in 1959 and its sales according to (UNAUDITED) circulation figures amounted to about 35,000 as against 170,000 for the daily IRISH INDEPENDENT and 120,000 for THE IRISH PRESS. The SUNDAY INDEPENDENT and the EVENING HERALD complemented the IRISH INDEPENDENT. The SUNDAY PRESS and THE EVENING PRESS complemented THE IRISH […]

Continue Reading

LAPDOG BITES BULLDOG (55) by Perkin Warbeck

SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA                                            Despite the eighteen-wheeler  truck loads of dross which delayed-viewing  talk shows on telly daily dump upon the frayed carpet of our flying duck-walled sitting rooms, nonetheless, we would all be at […]

Continue Reading

Everytime we say goodbye…

Donald Tusk thought there was a particularly hot corner of hell for people who triggered Brexit with no semblance of a plan for what came next. Boris Johnson said the EU could go whistle for its £39 billion owed by the UK. Yet there they were at Biarritz yesterday, all bonhomie. It was as weird […]

Continue Reading