A few months ago I stumbled on a video recording of a speech given by President Putin. I don’t speak Russian but I heard what was presented as an English translation. It seemed to me that the President, or his speech writer was familiar with the speeches and writings of Edmund Burke and an […]
March, 2022
A border poll: what’s the hurry and who’s creating the hurry
I was talking to a person the other day and the subject of a border poll came up. (Indeed, Virginia – no surprises there – how wise you are.) This person expressed the belief that Sinn Féin were in a hurry to get a border poll and national reunification because many of its old soldiers […]
How to be a Unionist without stating that you are one – by Carl Duffy
There’s a seemingly increasing number of people in the North of Ireland who identify as neither nationalist nor unionist. While I can certainly see the appeal in trying to remove these labels – one must wonder what this position means? Perhaps, they want the six counties to be a sovereign state that’s separate […]
PAT + JUDE TALK TO PAUL GOSLING
Today, Pat and I have a special podcast with Paul Gosling as our guest. Paul has written and spoken extensively about the economics of a reunited Ireland, so the opportunity to ask him some questions is timely. Sit back and make yourself more informed, maybe even more politically optimistic.
A DISSERVICE IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY – by Donal Kennedy
I I overheard a couple of minutes of a service from Westminster Abbey the other day and I marvelled at the Almighty’s patience in not sending fire and brimstone to obliterate it and its parliamentary and governmental environs. For I heard learned Men of the Cloth, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, uttering the most dishonest, […]
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO DOWNING STREET : Part 2 – by Donal Kennedy
In Part 1, I described how the deluded David Cameron chose a visit to St Petersburg, the site of the bloodiest siege in the history of warfare, which started in September 1941 and lasted 900 days, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 800,000 civilian inhabitants, to claim that Britain had defeated Fascism. The […]
BELFAST – A GENEROUS MEMORY by John Patton
My grandfather was the most important male influence on my early childhood; he was a cooper and my recall of him working in his shed remains vivid. My memories of Derry at the time are of walks by the Faughan where he fished and visits from his brother , Paddy , with his paper […]
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO DOWNING STREET: Part 1 – by Donal Kennedy
David Cameron, when Prime Minister, visited St Petersburg, a Russian City, which in Soviet times was called Leningrad, and which suffered great loss of life during the Nazi siege. Mr Cameron claimed that Britain had defeated Fascism. The Soviet Union lost 26,000,000 of its people in the struggle against the Nazis, and inflicted more casualties […]
PAT+JUDE TALK ABOUT THE OSCARS, SF&UI, CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLIES AND HOW CLEAN IS YOUR NUCLEAR PLANT?
Was Will Smith right to smack Chris Rock at the Oscars, when he made a joke about his (Smith’s) wife? The Irish Times today has an editorial about a border poll and Sinn Féin, and it says there needs to be ‘shared reconciliation’ first. Does there really? Most people think citizens’ assemblies are great […]
BARKING MAD by Donal Kennedy
I wrote a few weeks ago how everything German, from Dachshunds to Shepherds to Battenberg to Saxe-Coburg-Gothas had to renounce their identities to save themselves being kicked to death when Britain launched its long-planned and prepared war on Germany in 1914. Much of Ireland went Barking Mad too at the time. The Parliamentary Party, […]