And so this is 2025. Have you received the letter telling you you’ve got an OBE or an MBE or a knighthood? No? And if you did receive such a letter, what would you do. Pat and I discuss the matter (hello again, Hugo). We also discuss the way headlines are used in newspaper articles, […]
January, 2025
MASTERS OF INVENTION UNMASKED by Donal Kennedy
You may have read “SCHOOLS OF VIOLENCE, BROTHERS AND ARMS” as a Blog here a couple of years ago. It originated in the Connolly Association’s IRISH DEMOCRAT in the 1980s. It challenged and refuted the depiction of the Irish Christian Brothers as violent Republicans. As far afield as Lahore, where Tariq Ali was […]
Look out – here comes a cop
I’m reading at present The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth. It’s fiction, showing what would happen if a US dictator won an election and the police began targeting a minority community. Catholics/nationalists aren’t a minority in the North any more. Which is ironic, since the construction of the state down to the last twist […]
SUGGESTED QUESTIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR by Donal Kennedy
Have you ever:- Heard or read a condemnation of A. The Soviet Union refusing to declare war on Germany in September 1939? B. The United States refusing to declare war on Germany in September 1939? C. Any country, other than Ireland, refusing to declare on Germany in September 1939? […]
It’s a sin to tell a lie – but a popular sin
There’s a famous story about when George Washington was six years old. He received a hatchet as a gift and with it he damaged his father’s cherry tree. When his father discovered what George had done, he was pretty angry. Young George bravely said, “I cannot tell a lie…I did cut it with my hatchet.” […]