As the death toll rises and nearly 20 million civilians face starvation, when will the international community intervene to end this suffering? Needless slaughter, bombs, regional politicking, airstrikes, the imposed siege, weapons of mass starvation targeting the infrastructure, including hospitals, prisons, and the fabric of civil society that holds a nation together in Yemen. As […]
January, 2022
TV REVIEW: Charlie Bird on the Late Late Show
This first appeared as a TV review in The Andersonstown News I missed Charlie Bird, former RTÉ star reporter (and yes, Virginia, former pupil of mine) when he appeared on the LATE LATE SHOW (RTÉ ONE) some weeks back. Charlie, who has been a cheeky chappie as well as a much-loved reporter, has developed Motor Neuron Disease. In this second visit to the Late Late, […]
When defund the BBC campaign meets Irish reunification – by Fra Hughes
Boris Johnson and sections of the Conservative party are calling for the scrapping of the BBC licence fee. In reality they are simply garnering leverage for more political control over the state broadcaster. When I say state broadcaster I of course really mean ‘state paid propagandists’. I have been a long-time critic of the institution […]
What Kate said
This blog first appeared as a column in The Andersonstown News I wonder would Kate Hoey have got on with Terence O’Neill. Somehow, I think not. In May 1969 O’ Neill expressed the view that “It is frightfully hard to explain to Protestants that if you give Roman Catholics a good job and a good house they will live like Protestants”. In January 2022, writing […]
Doug gets badly bitten by a plague of tweets
Is Doug Beattie smart? Not very. As a former military man – at which he was very good, being awarded the Military Cross – he would have known you shouldn’t leave your rear end exposed to enemy fire, however tired and emotional you might feel of a Saturday night. Ignoring such Battle 101 rules, he […]
Irony: Owen P and the DUP just don’t get it.
This blog first appeared as a column in the Andersonstown News If you haven’t already switched on your irony detector, please do so now, as there’s a good chance you may need it before the end of this article. Here’s Owen Paterson, former British Secretary of State to NEI, speaking at the Tory Party conference in October 2011: “I don’t believe anybody can be a […]
FIGHTING WORDS AND THE REWARD OF PACIFISM by Donal Kennedy
“Resistance to the Act of Union will always remain for us, as long as that Act lasts, a sacred duty; and the methods of resistance will remain for us merely a question of expediency. Resistance by force of arms would be absolutely justifiable if it were possible.” The words were those of John Redmond. They surprised me when I […]
PAT+JUDE TALK ABOUT BLOODY SUNDAY, THAT BEATTIE TWEET, BOOZE & THE BORDER, AND A SF FIRST MINISTER?
Bloody Sunday – was it the day that changed everything? That Beattie tweet – are the DUP really offended – or glad? Are ‘dirty’ jokes no longer acceptable? Is there a line between them and the death of Aisling Murphy? Booze in the south in some cases is twice as expensive as in the north. […]
GOOD TORIES AND SCOUNDRELS’ REFUGES – by Donal Kennedy
I’ve heard it said that the only good Tory is a dead one, and declined to support it, on the ground that there might be a good one somewhere, probably in hiding. But one dead Tory, Samuel Johnson, in my view a very good man, gave as his opinion that patriotism was the last refuge […]
IS IRELAND PLANNING TO ATTACK RUSSIA ,CHINA,OR BOTH? – by Donal Kennedy
In 1918 the Irish electorate in its wisdom buried Redmondism and its mindless war-mongering. The event, but not its date, had been predicted in June 1916 by General Sir John Maxwell who wrote that the 1916 Insurgents had achieved more in a week than Redmond’s and Parnell’s party had in 40 years, that it was […]