September, 2021

An interesting book review sent to me with a brief comment by a former classmate (NOT ‘old  classmate’) now living in Switzerland… Is he right? ‘ Some years ago a cousin in Derry told us a thug from up the street went into their corner shop, picked up a sandwich and walked out, eating it. When the lady owner protested she was told to “F- off”. They said most […]

Jeffrey Donaldson was born in 1962, Micheál Martin in 1960. Looking at them, Martin seems somehow older – another generation from Donaldson.  Maybe that’s because Micheál has considerably less hair on his head. But both are the same political age. Micheál became a full-time politician when he was elected to Cork Corporation in 1985; Jeffrey […]

AMERICAN BREXIT COMMITTEE 1919 CHESTNUT ST, SUITE 1724 PHILADELPHIA, PA 19103 John M. Corcoran Esq, Chairman Michael J. Cummings, Secretary September 9, 2021 Mr. Mike Donilon Sr. Advisor to the President Executive Office of the President The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, D. C. 20500 Dear Mr. Donilon: The American Brexit Committee consists […]

This TV review first appeared in The Andersonstown News I’d have put money on Kerry winning last Saturday’s All-Ireland Football semi-final (RTÉ TWO), only for two restraining features: the bookies were giving odds of 1-7 on a Kerry triumph, and I’m a Tyrone man. So it was with some nervousness I settled in front of my TV at the weekend.  This is going […]

1 2 3 4 5 6 ‘The Quiet Man’ was shot  in Cong, County Mayo the same year that Mayo last shot the lights out by winning the Sam Maguire Cup: 1951. Uncle Sam, simultaneously,  was busily engaged in catigating  the locals  in Korea as a criminal shower of Calbans .. Is there a portent […]

Jeffrey Donaldson has vowed that he’ll pull down the Stormont Assembly if, by late October, he hasn’t got satisfactory solutions to the Protocol. Is he bluffing? Would he dare face the electorate with the DUP in the shape they are, according to polls? Boris Johnson has broken his election pledge not to raise the level […]

The rush to get citizens vaccinated proceeds apace. The speed of vaccination depends on several variants not unlike the disease it is trying to combat. While Covid19 mutates and changes, the original vaccine has to date remained the same. While conspiracy theorists may deride the vaccine program as part of a new world order master […]

I coulda been, God Help US, but fate intervened I have no family roots there. My mother’s were many generations in Dublin. My father was born in Kilkenny, his father was from Tipp and his mother from Leitrim. But my parents started married life in the Wesht. My father had just been appointed by the newly […]

  Did you see the first item of RTÉ’s Prime Time last night? I mean, DID YOU SEE IT? I haven’t been so entertained, educated and informed in years. Miriam O’Callaghan was ring-mistress and her guests were Pearse Doherty (on-screen from Belfast) and Hildegarde Naughton.  Hildegarde is Minister of State at the Department of Transport. […]

. The 90th Anniverary of the founding of THE IRISH PRESS, 6th September, was commemorated by one Ray Burke in THE IRISH TIMES “Irishman’s Diary” in perhaps the most mean-minded piece in that slot since the departure of Kevin Myers. Burke gives a masterclass in ignorant sneering  ending with the statement that a newspaper founded by […]