A few days ago, a flock of sheep was herded through Westminster. An odd sight, you might think. Sheep don’t belong in the big city. Oh but they did it to get publicity? Almost certainly right, but why sheep? The people involved would have got as much or more publicity if a young woman had […]
August, 2019
GRETA THUNBERG, BANDWAGONS AND THE EXPLOITATION OF NAIVETE
The IRISH TIMES VIEW, predictably, is uncritically supportive of the “Green” activism of sixteen year old Greta Thunberg The Swedish child admits that she had no friends and has Asperger’s Syndrome. People with Asperger’s are frequently brilliant at memorizing encyclopaedic lists, at mathematics and playing games such as Bridge, but are inclined to being excessively single-minded, […]
Peterloo and another unpunished crime
The English are a strange people. I’m not talking about their devotion to cricket (G B Shaw said “The English are not a religious people and so they invented cricket to give themselves some concept of eternity”). I’m not even talking about their devotion to fair play while spending millions on one family (the Windsors) […]
THE BRITISH FORCES NETWORK IN IRELAND: Part Five: Enter Lord Goodman- A Fixer Without Peer
T One of the Twentieth Century’s Most Colourful, indeed Intriguing, figures, Arnold Goodman (1913-1995) now enters our story, indeed the whole world’s story, as interpreted or invented, by THE IRISH TIMES. He had a long and impressive CV, including- Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain Chairman of British Lion Films Governor of The Royal Shakespeare Company […]
Gordon gallops to the rescue of Precious Union
You’ll sigh with relief at the news that Gordon Brown has saddled up his old grey mare and is galloping to the rescue of the fair maiden Precious Union. Again. First time out was when he threw his weight behind the Better Together crowd in Scotland during the run-up to Scotland’s independence referendum. This time […]
IRISH CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING by Fr Sean McManus
I Distributed to Congress by Irish National Caucus DUP efforts at outreach now look like cosmetic exercise John Manley. Irish News. Belfast. Thursday, August 14, 2019 FOR years the so-called Derry Model has been an example of how negotiation and compromise can help resolve contentious parades without either side appearing to lose face. But the trust and respect that has […]
God rest Mrs. Doherty’s brave and noble Irish soul by Fr Sean McManus
Letter to Editor. Irish News. Belfast. Published Thursday, August 15, 2019.THE article on the death of Margaret Doherty, mother of the 1981 hunger striker Kieran Doherty, brought back memories of a sad time(August 9). I had the honor and privilege of being of a little service to the Doherty family when Kieran died. When his body was brought back to his […]
Who are the victims of the Troubles?
The word ‘victim’ is probably the most passionately-disputed term to emerge from the Troubles. Much of the discussion has raged around the notion that not only those who were killed but those who did the killing might be described as victims. This is seen by many relatives of those who were killed as insulting: how […]
Whither civic nationalism?
What has become of civic nationalism? There was that heady Saturday morning meeting in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall some months ago, and then something in Newry, but since that not much. Is it fizzling out? Probably not. I’ve two reasons for saying that. In yesterday’s Irish Times Prof Colin Harvey had a letter suggesting that civic […]
LAPDOG BITES BULLDOG (53) by Perkin Warbeck
SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA Most faceless and indeed, facebookless folk from A to Z who live offstage in the Anonymous Zone are familiar with phone topping up. But it is left, in the main, to the lot of the privileged few who bask in the loo-like limelight of their own importance who are versed in the […]