January, 2022

In 2014 the world was informed by western media that a people’s uprising against an unpopular government was taking place on Maidan Square in Kyiv the capital of Ukraine, as supporters of Ukraine’s integration with the European Union gathered to protest. Sounds OK, doesn’t it ? A people labouring under a former Soviet Union state […]

Will he stay or will he go? Or, since we’re talking about Boris Johnson, will he be toppled as leader of the Conservative party? My guess is he’ll stay and he won’t be toppled as Tory leader. Even typing the sentence brings a sour taste to my mouth. How can the Tory party, so fond […]

 Every so often, I come on a newspaper article that cuts to the heart of a major matter. One such appears in The Irish Times this morning, and if you have the opportunity to read it, I’d urge you to do so. It’s by Kathy Sheridan and it’s entitled ‘Will the real Sinn Féin please […]

I’m no clairvoyant. But I will stick  my neck out to predict that this year, as last ,chancers and  charlatans who have habitually marketed lies of their own or recycled those of others will continue in business. Lies emanating from Dublin Castle during the Anglo-Irish War (1919-1921) and earlier, continue in circulation. Profits, see, are […]

This TV Review first appeared in the Andersonstown News TV travel documentaries fronted by a celebrity are becoming as common as Covid. There were two on telly last week, one after the other. The first featured Michael Palin and was called Michael Palin’s Himalaya: The Journey of a Lifetime (BBC2) . In it, Palin reflects on the time he journeyed from the Khyber […]

The new British Foreign Secretary is Liz Truss. She says she will not hesitate to invoke Article 16 and …the mind boggles. Will she? The cost of heating a home this winter is going to be an awful lot more than it was last year. Will people have to decide between heat and eat?  Shouldn’t […]

ON A VISIT TO ST PETERSBURG, WHEN PRIME MINISTER OF THE UK, DAVID CAMERON  BOASTED THAT BRITAIN HAD DEFEATED FASCISM. A later British Prime Minister, Tony Blair,  sought to justify attacking Iraq under false pretences in 2001 by invoking Bitain’s  “Oldest Alliance” – that with the United States of America in  Sir Anthony  Blair’s book. The US/UK alliance […]

Kate Hoey has written a foreword to a unionist publication, in which she notes that a great number of people who are “of a nationalist persuasion” are occupying professional positions in NEI and are activists for the nationalist cause. Them uns, it’d appear, are EVERYWHERE. You’d like to have your cake and eat it? Well […]

This blog first appeared as a column in the Andersonstown News It’s Christmas time, so Just supposing the leaders of political unionism were to have a Christmas dinner together, what would the seating arrangement look like? Well, at the top you’d have First Minister Paul Giv …No, hold a minute. He may be First Minister but his boss – the DUP party leader – is […]

An earlier version of this blog first appeared in the Andersonstown News In this here stateen, on 28 April 2021 ,Arlene Foster resigned/was toppled as First Minister, amid general unionist frustration with the Withdrawal bill and the ‘Irish protocol’ in particular.  It seemed somebody tougher than Arlene was needed to stand up to the ruling Conservative Party in Britain. In its first-ever leadership contest, Edwin Poots […]