June, 2022

The one thing that should never happen – but might

There’s an article in today’s Irish Times by Pat Leahy which touches on something many of us so dread, we don’t like to think of it. Besides, we’ve got enough to worry about:  the cost of housing, the cost of living, war in Ukraine, Covid, the environmental crisis. Leahy forefronts the nightmare crouching at the […]

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Katie Hayward and telling it like it is

I  find Professor Katie Hayward an impressive person. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s that she’s a professor of political sociology at Queens, maybe it’s the quiet way she lays out her thinking. Right now I think we should listen to her very carefully. On Talkback,  she’s given her judgement on the legislation proposed regarding […]

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The protocol: six things to think about

British Foreign Secretary Lynn Truss says she’s changing the protocol in the interests of everyone in NEI. All the political parties and business organisations say that what she’s proposing will be contrary to the wishes of everyone in NEI bar the DUP. Tail wags dog? When Dorothy Parker was told that President Calvin Coolidge was […]

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HENRY KISSINGER AT 99 – by Donal Kennedy

  The Sunday Times Magazine (12 June) carries an interview with the Nobel Peace Prize Winner Henry Kissinger by  the historian Niall Ferguson, the author of a volume covering Kissinger’s life from 1923 to 1968 and currently writing  a second  volume to be completed next year.Ferguson is a comparative spring chicken, born in 1968. Kissinger […]

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The DUP: Stormont tough-guys

You say potaytos, I say potahtos, let’s call the whole thing off. At the time of writing, it’s impossible to know what arrangements the Johnson government will table that’ll strip away at least some aspects of the protocol agreed with the EU.  They say they’re taking this step to protect the Good Friday Agreement.  But […]

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ANY OLD IRONIES – by Donal Kennedy

  Michael McDowell, in THE IRISH TIMES today, tells us that the Tories are realising that Johnson is leading them into the political wilderness. I hope Michael is well paid for his expertise. Competing for the Irony Cup, London’s “Thunderer” carries a front-page photo of The Duke of Cambridge selling “THE BIG ISSUE” to highlight […]

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