It seems to me that THE IRISH TIMES today is bound neither by a discernible code of ethics nor that it navigates with the aid of a moral compass. I have been a regular reader of the paper since the early 1960s when it did not set my teeth on edge. But the paper appears to […]
July, 2020
The strange disappearance and death of Noah Donohoe – Article 2 by Donal Lavery
“If you want to see what someone or something is really like, take it out of the moonlight and view it in the sunlight, warts and all.” That was the advice once given to me by a prominent journalist. And they were right – that’s how one should think and view events in life. Nothing […]
Why do we have to imitate Britain?
This blog first appeared as a column inThe Andersonstown News Last week I read a newspaper column by Fintan O’Toole; in it he argued that the handling of the pandemic by the southern state had been a turning point: “If Covid-19 had struck the world even five years ago, one of the first questions on the minds of Irish officials would have been: what […]
Learning not to be Irish by John Patton
Children of Empire was the education system’s perceived model. Looking back on my school days in Derry and particularly those spent at primary level, the curriculum was designed to make us view ourselves as part of Britain. Although the Northern Ireland State or the Six Counties, as it was called in Nationalist circles, was twenty […]
HEROES AND VILLAINS AND PERVERSE DISCRIMINATION: A BLOG FOR TODAY by Donal Kennedy
EIGHT YEARS AGO I IDENTIFIED THE PERVERSE AND PERVERTED CAMPAIGN TO LABEL THOSE WHO SUFFERED OR FOUGHT IN DEFENCE OF DEMOCRACY IN IRELAND AS VILLAINS AND TO INSTALL THEIR MILITANT ANTI-NATIONAL, ANTI-DEMOCRATIC ENEMIES IN A PANTHEON RESERVED IN SELF-RESPECTING STATES FOR THOSE WHO HAD EARNED SUCH HONOURS. I failed in my purpose, for the time being. […]
The strange disappearance and death of Noah Donohoe by Donal Lavery
“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.” – George Washington Before I write anything I must state that I did not know the late Noah Donohoe nor his family, but I commend the efforts, grace and dignity of his mother, Fiona, throughout all this tragedy. She is a proper hero and […]
Freedom of the press and Official Secrets Act by Donal Kennedy
The British Parliament had its Third Reading on an Official Secrets Bill on 30 June 1920 and THE TIMES voiced its disquiet at what it claimed was an attempt to muzzle the Press. Which it reprinted today. (30.6.2020) I don’t know whether the Official Secret Act in force today is exactly ,as the Bill introduced […]
The Battle of Pettigo, 4 June 1922 – by Joe McVeigh
The invasion of Pettigo and Belleek in June 1922 was a real show of British determination to maintain by force of arms the six county Orange statelet that came into being on 7 June 1921. They accepted that they could not hold the whole country but they were determined to hold on to the northeastern part of it […]
Jude Zoom-chats with Dafydd Trystan, former Chair of Plaid Cymru
In this Zoom- chat, I’m talking to Dafydd Trystan, an academic and former Chair of Plaid Cyrmu. We discuss developments in the popularity of the Welsh language and its links with a rising tide in Wales that seeks full independence from the UK
Bobby Storey’s funeral and Stephen Nolan’s Show
I’m doing something right now that I haven’t done for months – listening to the Nolan Show. At the start of the show Nolan declared that this was such a major matter, he had cleared the decks and would focus on one matter of public importance: the lack of distancing at the funeral of Bobby […]