July, 2020

Pat McArt is off on a luxury overnight in Cavan but that hasn’t stopped him from tuning in and giving us his usual insights – if anything, travel has sharpened his thinking 😉 .  We discuss this plan to have a Shared  Ireland (or is it island?) which the SDLP and Fianna Fáil seem intent on. I’m afraid I have some sharp words on that. And.  then we have a look at the travel arrangements N and S – which are as  clean and precise as a hound’s tooth – a hound that’s been put through a mincing machine, that is.

Andrei Kocetov is a member of the Federation of Trade Union Council, in the Peoples Republic of Lugansk,LPR, a newly created Republic in the Donbass region, between Russia and Ukraine, formerly a part of Ukraine until 2014. The EuroMaidan coup of 2014 was not endorsed by all the people of Ukraine.  Historically the country has been split between […]

For anybody who is sympathetic to the British Labour movement, and  respects its better traditions and  altruistic members, Andrew Rawnsley’s “THE END OF THE PARTY”  makes sorrowful reading. It charts the  jettisoning of principle by the architects of NEW LABOUR, and the wrecking  ball they took to any human values The episode which most turned my […]

The family of young Noah Donohoe have once again appealed for any and all information relating to the disappearance and death of the 14-year-old to be forwarded to the Police, KRW law firm or Relatives for Justice. The tragic and confusing circumstances surrounding Noah’s untimely passing continue to cause anxiety and distress for both his family […]

“Is Adult amusement killing our children, or is killing our children Adult amusement?” – Marilyn Manson  “The Crown is a (secret) state within the state, surrounded by barbed wire, which is always in power.” – Ex British Cabinet Minister, Tony Benn MP (speaking during an episode of After Dark).  I have long wondered why people […]

This Zoom-conversation with Prof Mary Heimann of Cardiff University is part of a continuing series I’m hoping to do on nationalism in different contexts. Professor Heimann is an authority on the former Czechoslovakia  and has written what many regard as the definitive text on the subject:        Czechoslovakia: The State That Failed.  If you want to get a sense of the slipperiness of the notion of nationalism, take a look…

This blog first appeared as a column in the Andersonstown News Donal Trump has shocked the world again.  Days before Roger Stone was due to report to prison for a 40-month sentence, he found himself a free man, because his former boss Trump had commuted his sentence for lying to Congress. Stone was a “long-time confidant” of Donald Trump, and so he walked free. The […]

 There can be few feelings more stuffed  with self-loathing than to have spent twenty minutes recording a discussion and then discover you hadn’t pressed ‘Record’.  But the Collins clan is nothing if not persevering, so Pat and I repeated our discussion, this time with the recording system working. As you’ll see, we talk about the […]

In my younger days I was an ardent admirer of Conor Cruise O’Brien and still admire his writings in the days when he sued the Daily (or Sunday?) Telegraph for Libel. I remember when THE IRISH TIMES (which I then admired) celebrated his return to the Irish Labour Party with the sort of coverage which […]

When I first saw the reports which indicated that the Apple Company had a €13 billion tax bill owing to the southern state, that it was appealing this charge, and that it was supported in its appeal by the Dublin government, I had to check it wasn’t the  first of April. Of course Apple would […]