March, 2020

I’ve just been sent the You Tube film of Bill Clinton’s address at Martin McGuinness’s Funeral Mass. It surpasses that of any statesman, of any age that I have ever read. I don’t think Clinton employed speech writers and I’m sure that his speech there arose from his own deep understanding of the situation in […]

The very likely choice of Joe Biden by the Democratic Party doesn’t reassure those of us on this side of the Atlantic that the US and specifically the Democratic Party isn’t full of knuckle-heads.  But we can make mistakes in our own judgement of Americans. Certainly of Irish-Americans. The oft-repeated line by unionist politicians that […]

Let’s face it: we’re fascinated by the United States. Partly, no doubt, because millions of Irish people have travelled there in search of a life, partly because the US exerts soft power throughout the world, teaching us to look to it as the model of Western democracy. At the moment it’s certainly not the model […]

So. Would you like to see Sinn Féin in government in the south?  Or would they do better to form the opposition in the Dáil? There are arguments both ways. Those who contend that they should go into government, say that the electorate voted for change, and Mary Lou and Sinn Féin represent that change. […]

They say it’s not what happens but how you react to it that counts. If  we go with that, then the weekend  Sunday Times Behaviour and Attitudes poll showing Fine Gael with 18% support, Fianna Fáil with 20% and Sinn Féin with 35% might just as well not have happened. The RTÉ website RTÉ News […]

Micheál:  Get into the car. Leo:  What? Into – Micheál: Get into the shaggin’ car, Leo! Leo: But why? Micheál: Because it has dark windows and no one will see us. Leo:Oh, OK. But what’s that tube attached to the exhaust – Micheál: Get in and shut up, you smarmy git! Leo: [Gets in and […]