January, 2020

Tall person:  Shocking business, this whole commemoration thing. Small person: I couldn’t agree more. Tall person:  Have you a view yourself on this notion of commemorating the RIC and the DUP? Small person: I have. Tall person: Which is? Small person: I personally will never forget Nigel Dodds. Tall person:  Did I say DUP? I […]

January 6th 2020 Sir, Calls to boycott the January 17th state commemoration of the RIC have concentrated on the integral role of Black & Tans and the Auxiliaries, recruited mainly from England. Black & Tan recruits began deploying after March 1920, the British officer-based Auxiliary Division some months later. Before this, on the evening of […]

– I have defended Jeremy Corbyn from the tsunami of character-assassination  waged against him by the Conmen and Neo-Conmen of the war-mongering Henry Jackson Society. And the lady and gentleman  auxiliaries of the Press, the Book and the Cloth. I have never believed that Corbyn had the makings of a Cabinet Minister, much less a […]

I have reservations about the Democrats’ Elizabeth Warren being capable of taking on the brute bullishness of Donald Trump in the presidential elections this year. But in terms of political smarts, she is way ahead. She has reacted to Trump’s assassination of the Iranian general Qassem Sulemani (“We gat him!”) by pointing out why it happened: […]

On March 6, 1919, a British Cabinet Minister, answering a question in the House of Commons in Westminster explained – “It was decided by the Government that the Royal Irish Constabulary could not be permitted to join the National Union of Police and Prison Officers, in as much as the Royal Irish Constabulary is a […]

I still can’t rid myself of the suspicion that Sinn Féin don’t really want to go back to Stormont. They’re no doubt genuine when they say they want people in our Green Tormented Corner to have the best services possible, and are opposed to direct rule from Westminster (I mean, hey, who would choose to […]

A  few weeks ago a United Nations agency reported that Norway enjoyed the best standard of life on earth. And that Ireland enjoyed the third best. In the early 20th Century most of Norway’s electors voted by referendum for Norway to separate from Sweden. The Government in Sweden was minded to resist the separation  by […]

\ THE GUARDIAN (30 December 2019) headlines a piece by their Legal Affairs  Correspondent, Owen Bowcott -“Some IRA ‘informers’ wrongly targeted by killers, files show.” I wouldn’t dare to label Mr Bowcott, THE GUARDIAN, the former Northern Ireland Government, or any British Government as “Informers.” for, with the exception of Mr Bowcott, I know that […]