March, 2023

I didn’t watch the first programme in this series, and turned off the second within a minute.   Because it immediately equated President Putin with the NAZI tyrant.   Had the programme told us about Hitler, and later provided a case to equate the Russian leader with the tyrant, I would have used my critical […]

  Speaking of democracy – the Democratic Unionist Party has it in their title – is democracy dovetailing nicely with politics? Well, not really. The average CEO in the US these days earns – or should I say is handed? –  some 400 times the salary enjoyed by the average worker in his/her firm. So […]

  “Under its successive names, accepted or given Socety, The South Place Ethical Society is a traceable    and constant endeavour to study carefully, and hope to keep abreast of the growing knowledge of the world, at whatever cost to traditional prejudices and opinions, to do this in a spirit no less of tolerance than of […]

a I see someone called Carl Mullan in the news. Never heard of him before.   But in 1949, in Lansdowne Road I saw Ireland’s first Grand Slam winning  Captain,Carl Mullen playing, and I seem to remember him with his shorts pulled down  and mooning at the Bay.   I forget what position he played. […]

Will Donald Trump be arrested this week, for having paid off the lovely Stormy Daniels, with whom he once had (ahem) a stormy affair? Vladimir (‘Vlad’ to his friends)Putin has been declared a war criminal, a charge that will apparently last all his life. He won’t be able to travel other than to somewhere like […]

When John Bolton was US Under Secretary of State during the Presidency of G.W. Bush,  he said the US did not recognise the right of the ICC to sit in judgement over the US and its allies.   As National Security Advisor under President Trump in 2018 he launched a tirade against the Court which […]

      Russia gave Ukraine a substantial repayable loan in 2013 and Ukraine has ratted on the agreement.   The loan was in Eurobonds. Disputes on such loans are referred to the Supreme Court of the United  Kingdom.   Russia has made a claim for a return of its money.   Ukraine claims that […]

      HOW STALIN’S DEATH WAS ANNOUNCED ON THE BBC 70 YEARS AGO Forgive my rambling down Memory Lane, other paths and maybe  a cul de sac or two. I remember the reporting of Stalin’s death in March 1953. I was11 years old. And my surprise on hearing the BBC tell me that in […]

  Happy St Patrick’s Day – and isn’t it great to see everyone – even unionists – participating in the big day. Mind you, it’s a day that has its perils – as Leo Varadkar discovered when he talked about interns in the Capitol. Ooooops… But maybe we’re going for the entertainment part of politics? […]

    On Monday 13th March THE IRISH TIMES published a letter from the Russian Ambassador which appeared to demolish an editorial in that paper two days earlier. It also appeared to demolish virtually all  the anti-Russian reports and arguments published in the mainstream media in the west during the last couple of years. The […]