December, 2024

        Proper preparation for constitutional change is hard to oppose. That makes the growing consensus surrounding it easy to understand, sensible and very welcome. More work is required, but informed observers know that reflection on a united Ireland is in a different and better place. Many hope the Irish Government will now play a more extensive part in the […]

Are you a friend of Hugo Duncan? Or maybe he’s your uncle?  Either way, this is a day of great joy and glad tidings. The King of England has bestowed on humble Hugo an MBE.You’re probably thinking Hugo did this so people would be impressed by him, that they didn’t mind Hugo referring to himself […]

Jimmy Carter, it’d be true to say, had a good innings – he died the other day at 100. While he was just a one-term president – he lost to Ronnie Regan – and he made mistakes, like his attempt to intervene in Iran when America tried to rescue embassy staff. But throughout his long […]

They say you should never meet your heroes, they’ll only disappoint you. I recently listened to the podcast ‘Free State’,  normally presented by Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning. In this holiday podcast Joe had left the building for reasons best known to himself, and  Dion, a mild-voiced man, took full charge of interviewing the guest […]

    For fifty years or more I have offered my opinion on serious matters in letters, articles and blogs, giving my name and often my full postal address, and even mug-shots.    I do not claim infallibility and I will happily stand corrected if necessary.    Nobody pays me for my opinions nor would […]

    (Philip O’Connor blogs at https://www.patreon.com/ourmaninstockholm )     Ireland without her people is nothing to me, and the man who is bubbling over with love and enthusiasm for ‘Ireland’, and can yet pass unmoved through our streets and witness all the wrong and the suffering, the shame and the degradation wrought upon the […]

Did you tuck into turkey on Wednesday? Most people did, but if you check back, that poor old bird lived a rotten life, had a brutal death, and then you – yes, YOU –  ate it. Is the tide turning, as it were? Will turkey be a thing of the past in a few years?  […]

      Liberation theology takes a very different view of the causes of violence and conflict in our world from Church theology or state theology. The capitalist economic system which inevitably divides people into rich and poor is denounced in Liberation theology as anti-Christian and anti-human.  Liberation theology’s main focus is the plight of […]

What is the obsession people have about getting home for Christmas? And is singing about peace on earth just a once-a-year indulgence in hypocrisy? Pope Francis has talked recently about the possibility that the slaughter in Gaza is not just cruel but a genocide. Good. What took him so long? Peter Mandelson has said some […]

by Joe McVeigh     Like many Irish people, still alive today in the six north-eastern counties and who lived through the second half of the 21st century, I know all about State violence. We were on the receiving end of it here in the 6 counties- some more than others. The State forces were well […]