December, 2019

 OK – it’s New Year’s Eve. Time for political predictions. They’re largely pointless, of course, since the prophets tend to be at their best explaining what has happened rather than what will happen. That said, I’ll give it a shot. The SDLP: It’s possible the John Hume party will have a resurgence that drives back […]

SU    Jack Straw, who served as British Home Secretary and as Foreign Secretary under Tony Blair when Blair was completely under the control of U.S. President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney,  has launched a blistering attack on Jeremy Corbyn. Amongst the numerous alleged sins of Corbyn is having spoken to Irish […]

Some years ago, a priest I know and who is, in all sorts of ways good, declared that the majority of priests of his generation – 30s-40s-50s –  were quite happy with partition in Ireland and quite liked living in the UK. This seems reinforced by this morning’s announcement that four Catholic priests in the […]

CHRISTMAS 1944 , PEACE AND GOOD WILL Sir I was fascinated by your Diarist’s piece on Christmas 1944 because I clearly remember being three years old on 28th December that year. I was secure and warm and fed and remember eating apple pie. Amongst my presents was a toy aeroplane which my brother Brian assured […]

Goal – Sports Equipment, Message, Plan – Document, Sign, Word There is only so long  you can sit on the toilet or the sofa, thinking  about the look on Nigel Dodds’s face when he realized what the North Belfast returns were telling him. Schadenfreude (pleasure in the pain of others, Virginia – what are they […]

There are two contrary forces at work in our tormented little statelet. One is the pull to have the institutions of Stormont run again, the other is to ignore Stormont. In the long and maybe medium term something’s gotta give. Responsible people feel the need for Stormont restored. They say we need ministers to oversee […]

Colm Eastwood cuts a youthful figure. Even with that beard and the touch of grey he still looks boyish. Picture him alongside MarkDurkan and you’ll know what I mean. This week Colm was inducted into the British House of Commons. In fact there is nothing common about the inhabitants of the House of Commons: out […]

NOT SINCE DREYFUS HAS ANYBODY ENDURED THE MALIGN EXECRATION SUFFERED BY JEREMY CORBYN by Donal Kennedy The courage of  Emile Zola (for which he may have paid with his life) vindicated the character of Dreyfus and saw him freedfrom imprisonment, his commission in the French Army restored, and his detractors exposed for the bigots and […]

There is considerable crowing and unfounded euphoria around today. On a local scale, of course. On the wider sphere, we’re all up against it. That misogynistic racist Trump declares he’s the subject of the biggest witch-hund since they banded up against the witches of Salem in the seventeenth century. In our next door neighbour, we […]

I accept that this will not be a welcome thing to say for many people, given the dominant and overwhelming ‘narrative framing’ of the outcome of the election. But return to the sort of flawed approach to power-sharing that forgot about the values of the Good Friday Agreement on parity of esteem, equality, human rights […]