August, 2020

Pat + Jude talk about NZ and Covid, and a cross-border university

New Zealand hasn’t really got the attention it should for the way it has handled Covid-19. The population is not too different from Ireland – so how come  we’ve done so less well? Then there is the case of the opportunity for a cross-border university linking Derry-Letterkenny-Sligo. Should it happen?  If it doesn’t, who’s to blame?

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Look, over there, a Republican Bonfire! by Fra Hughes

When is a bonfire not a bonfire?  Apparently when it’s being built by antisocial elements hell-bent on destroying their own community, endangering lives and property while putting their own selfish interests before that of society. That is the rationale being used to remove nationalist bonfires. The recent heavy-handedness of the police in removing bonfire material […]

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A cross-border university for the North-West?

There is a huge gulf between Dublin and Cork, and there’s a chasm between Belfast and Derry. Even when they finally get round to building a decent road between Belfast and Derry, there’ll still be a huge space. It’s a second-city thing, Cork people resent overly-bloated Dublin,  Derry people resent Belfast getting the plums every […]

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The high cost of maintaining the British empire by Joe McVeigh

In Belfast, between July 1920 and July 1922, 557 people were killed; 303 Catholics and 172 Protestants and 82 members of the RUC and British army. Catholics made up a quarter of the population of Belfast at that time. Catholic relief organisations estimated that in Belfast between 8,700 and 11,000 Catholics had been driven out of their jobs and 23,000 […]

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John Hume: his soul goes marching on

This blog first appeared in the Andersonstown News Every death is a tragedy: the departure of any man or woman leaves a hole in the lives of those who loved them. But when someone of John Hume’s stature dies, it feels like the loss not just of a national treasure but of someone akin to a national parent. John Hume was never […]

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Beirut emergency appeal by Fra Hughes

I have been asked by friends in Lebanon to highlight the following appeal. Civic society leaders in Beirut are calling for aid in the aftermath of the hugely destructive explosion in Beirut on August 4. Those in a ‘position to help, can alleviate the suffering of those in a position of need’. This humanitarian crisis […]

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