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?
August, 2020
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
THE TIMES, John Hume, Paddy Ashdown and making Britain Grate Again by Donal Kennedy
Three or four decades ago, when John Hume’s possible candidacy for the Presidency of Ireland was mooted, the Blundering Thunderer of London devoted an Editorial to telling the world that it would be wrong of the Irish to even consider the idea, because Hume was born and reared in Londonderry THE TIMES has always had […]
Noah Donohoe: Scandal and Failure by the State & Office of the Police Ombudsman – by Donal Lavery
“There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children.” – Kofi Annan “What is it about the Government and its agents and employees that they can lie to us with impunity, but we risk being sent to jail if we lie to them?” – Andrew Napolitano “Lawsuits hold these bastards […]
The Portland Protests: where are they going? by Fra Hughes
The Portland protest has reached the grand old age of Seventy. If the Portland protest were a person at the age of 70, they would be looking at retirement, they would be looking at unwinding, they would be looking at saving their energy and taking it easy, but the Portland protest is not a person, […]
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 […]
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 […]
PAT + JUDE ZOOM-CHAT ABOUT ‘HUMOURLESS’ MARTIN McGUINNESS and ANONYMITY IN RAPE CASES
Friady is what-it-says-in-the-papers-and-online -news day, so Pat and I look at a report where Bishop Eddie Daly talked about Martin McGuinness, and a report compiled in the south on the need for anonymity in rape cases. You might be surprised by some of what we say … Check it out below.