Why are some unionists so opposed to the new arrangements for checks on products coming from the UK and entering the north of Ireland? Because, they say, this will mean an economically united Ireland. And they are right, or mainly right at least. Ireland north and south will trade as though there was no border […]
January, 2020
To the Moon by Randall Stephen Hall
To the Moon. 2020 By Randall Stephen Hall © I grew up in Belfast. None of my relations or my mum and dad were from Belfast. Yet this is where I grew up. My mother’s family mostly, were from North Antrim and quite probably Scotland. My father’s relations can be traced back to Cavan and […]
Catherine Noone puts her foot in her face
Person 1: Who is this Catherine Noone? Person 2: Catherine No one? Are you trying to be funny? Person1: Look, this is a conversation, not a written exchange. In writing you might mistake Noone for No One. In a conversation such as this, it’s impossible. So – I repeat: who is this Catherine Noone? Person […]
Irish Reunification: It’s Now or Never – by Donal Lavery
There’s an old quote from the Godfather films that “your enemies get strong on what you leave behind”, and I would agree with that generally speaking. We have a situation where Mr Johnston (God bless him – for this at least) has perhaps unintentionally “reunified” Ireland “economically” (in Jamie Bryson’s apparent view, given his legal […]
Michael McDowell is what? How amazing…
Ranelagh Arts fest. Senate Debate, Sandford Park school. Ruairi Quinn, Michael McDowell, Eoghan Murphy TD, Noel Whelan. Chair: Dan O’Brien, Irish Times. Photo: Michael Foley. Michael McDowell is many things, but a shrinking violet is not one of them. A thick-skinned political bruiser would be nearer my assessment of him, and a smart thick-skinned political […]
Letter to the Irish Times by Niall Meehan
Commission to Investigate Child Abuse Irish Times letter today was published due to the intervention of Office of the Press Ombudsman. Niall Meehan Irish Times 28 January 2020 Commission to Investigate Child Abuse Sir, – Problems with the report of the 2009 Commission to Investigate Child Abuse (CICA, the “Ryan Report”) go beyond inflating numbers detained in […]
On TV last night: winners and losers
Did you watch the leaders’ debate from Galway last night? I stayed up for the full two hours and found it pretty engrossing. Mind you, I kept glancing at Twitter, where the comments on the debate were frequently scabrous and hilarious, and better than the telly. Among the Twitter comments were people running a score […]
A wind of change in the southern media?
It’s amazing how highly you start thinking about people who finally agree with you. This weekend produced comment by several sources that has given me a glow verging on smugness. I’ve frequently expressed my irritation with the way the mainstream media approach Sinn Féin. In fact within the last week I’ve compared it to the […]
STATE COMMEMORATION FOR THE IRISH NATIONAL INVINCIBLES? by Donal Kennedy
-The late Brendan Behan collected at least one Dublin ballad commemorating the Invincibles hanged for the 1882 killing of Cavendish and Burke in the Phoenix Park. He remarked that Republicans celebrating the Pikemen of ’98 and the Fenian tradition shunned their memory. In these more broad-minded days perhaps the Invicibles should have parks and streets […]
DISSING DEV – PART 2 – The Alleged Sectarian – by Donal Kennedy
A stranger parachuted into Dublin in 1938 would find two old Cathedrals, belonging to the Church ofIreland, an University in the city centre affiliated to the Church of Ireland, and, living in style in the Phoenix Park, the President of Ireland, n.a member of the Church of Ireland and the son of a Church of […]