At the end of each year,,under The Thirty Year Rule, selected (carefully vetted) British Government Documents are lodged in the Public Records Office in Kew, Surrey, for the perusal of the Public. Journalists and Academics, with or seeking Editorial or Faculty Chairs descend on the Office and each January 1st the media broadcast their discoveries […]
August, 2019
Gregory bares his teeth
The main hall in St Mary’s University College on the Falls Road was busting with people last night. Car parks front and rear filled, pavements bulging with illegally parked cars, people stacked like grain in a granary inside the hall, people bunched outside the hall in overflow. And two lecture theatres providing a video view […]
Fintan, David and the Dunning-Kruger effect
In yesterday’s blog, I outlined how Fintan O’Toole offered his unique solution to the Brexit mess: Sinn Féin’s seven MPs would resign their seats, leaving them to be occupied by independents such as Dame Nuala O’Loan, who would then go into the House of Commons and vote down a no-deal Brexit. Afterwards they’d give SF […]
THE BRITISH FORCES’ NETWORK IN IRELAND: Part Two – THE IRISH TIMES
On 2 October 1969 the following letter was sent from- The British Embassy DUBLIN to– Kelvin White, Esq., Western European Department, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London S.W. 1, Dear Kelvin, Your letter of September 24th – Major McDowell and No.10 Downing Street. 2. I had McDowell to lunch today. It is all about something he mentioned […]
Fintan’s cunning plan to stop No-Deal Brexit
A couple of days ago Fintan O’Toole (or Fintan O’Foole, as one of my interviewees for my new book called him) came up with an idea which, he said with his usual modesty, would stop a no-deal Brexit. Since most of us have taken to hiding behind the sofa with our hands over our eyes […]
IRISH CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING by Fr Sean McManus
“This article is important reading for all Members of Congress concerned about the damage Brexit can do to justice and peace on the partitioned island of Ireland ( Six Counties of which are still under England’s control, i.e Northern Ireland).The author explains the background to England’s historic policy of racism and assumed superiority, always treating all […]
Jacob on the attack
I once sat at a table in the BBC beside Jacob Rees-Moggs’s da. Things were slightly crowded and at one point Baron Rees-Mogg’s knee touched mine. I’m pretty sure it was an accident. I mention this incident, not because The Baron is the subject of this column- he’s not, his son is – but I […]
Fr. McManus on German TV explaining opposition to a Brexit Hard Border
FCAPITOL HILL. Friday, August 2, 2019—There has been a flurry of international media attention to Brexit and its danger to the Good Friday Agreement, and to the reaction of the Irish National Caucus. In the past three days, the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus has received calls from London BBC radio; from BBC’s leading news and current affairs TV show “Newsnight”; from Euronews-NBC, the English language TV channel […]
Bashers Johnson and Cummings
Maybe if Jacob Rees-Mogg had worn short trousers and a schoolboy cap, the EU might have understood him better. In fact if Boris Johnson and his entire cabinet had got kitted out in similar grab, maybe adding the hair-ruffling touch that the new British prime minister is constantly giving his blond thatch, it would have […]
THE BRITISH FORCES’ NETWORK IN IRELAND Part One by Donal Kennedy
Those of you who remember the COLD WAR (against the Soviet Union and the countries it liberated from from the Nazis) may remember hearing “This is the BBC Light Programme (or was it Home Service?) and the British Forces Network in Germany.” In Ireland, although uniformed British Forces vacated the Twenty-Six Counties between 1922 and […]