First published on al mayadeen Where did it all go wrong? Once the vanguard of Irish republicanism and claiming to be fighting for a free sovereign socialist 32 county Irish republic SF is now a parody of its previous incarnation. From a revolutionary party supporting a legitimate armed struggle against Britain’s illegal immoral imperialist military […]
November, 2021
THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS , THE CRUISER, A POSER AND SWEET FANNY ADAMS – by Donal Kennedy
From September 1948 to June 1957 I went to St Fintan’s CBS, then on the Burrow Rd, Sutton, Co Dublin I was first in the Primary and then in Secondary when I did my Inter Cert. As I lived near Howth Summit I used catch the Hill of Howth Tram down to the Railway Station, […]
PAT + JUDE TALK ABOUT THE SCARY OMICRON, BOJO AND THE PIG, AND WHY WE LOVE TO BE MOVED TO TEARS
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, along comes Omicron. Nobody knows for sure how disastrous it might be but it is putting a big black cloud over the run-up to Christmas. Has Boris Johnson gone too far,with Peppa Pig references and losing his place in his speech to […]
TV REVIEW: THE VIEW
This review first appeared in the Andersonstown News As ever, Mark Carruthers stands (why oh why do they have to stand?) clutching a sheaf of notes. “Could Christmas be cancelled?” he asks, and welcomes us to THE VIEW (BBC ONE). He has as guests Christopher Stalford (DUP) and Owen Tennyson (Alliance). The latter looks young and guileless, the former less young and […]
LAW, DISORDER, SECRETS AND LIES – by Donal Kennedy
One Friday afternoon in 1911 an almost empty House of Commons passed the Official Secrets Act with less than an hour’s debate. In 1848 in similar haste the Treason Felony Act was enacted. Both Acts are still in force. How much in force is itself an Official Secret. On the face of it a person […]
THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS , THE CRUISER, A POSER AND SWEET FANNY ADAMS by Donal Kennedy From September 1948 to June 1957 I went to St Fintan’s CBS, then on the Burrow Rd, Sutton, Co Dublin. I was first in the Primary,and then in Secondary when I did my Inter Cert. As I lived near Howth Summit I […]
PAT + JUDE TALK ABOUT THE DEATH OF REFUGEES, ANTI-VAXERS, GARTH BROOKS + CROKER, AND THE BRIT AWARDS
Are you saddened by the deaths of those refugees who died recently, trying to make it to England? Or are you enraged? Should vaccination be made compulsory? Or is that an infringement of personal liberty? Croke Park sold out in full for a Garth Brooks concert. It could have sold out five nights in a […]
Three letters from this morning’s Irish Times
There are three letters of note in the Irish Times this morning which, taken together, go to the heart of the border poll issue. In the first, Letter Writer 1 from Dublin 5 declares “If a nationalist solution is imposed by whatever means, other than the inclusion of a willing majority of unionists, the result […]
SCHOOLS OF VIOLENCE – BROTHERS AND ARMS – by Donal Kennedy
To read some commentators, the Irish Christian Brothers were distinguished mainly for violence and the approval of its use for Republican ends. My father and his brother, my mother’s four brothers, my own two brothers and myself were Christian Brothers’ Boys, so I think I know something about the Order. I have before me a photo of my […]
A victim of state violence – by Joe McVeigh
The murder of my cousin Michael Leonard by the RUC on 17th May 1973 affected us all as a family and it greatly influenced my thinking about the conflict in Ireland and the role of the British state in the murder and intimidation of Irish citizens. Not only was I deeply affected by my cousin’s killing but I […]