Well, at least there was one news item with a bit of bite from yesterday’s Paddy’s Day celebrations. UTV led their six o’clock news with footage of the punch-up that followed St Mary’s defeating Boys’ Model School in the final of the Schools soccer. Somebody jostled someone and next minute it was like the aftermath […]
March, 2011
You made me mad
Well, at least there was one news item with a bit of bite from yesterday’s Paddy’s Day celebrations. UTV led their six o’clock news with footage of the punch-up that followed St Mary’s defeating Boys’ Model School in the final of the Schools soccer. Somebody jostled someone and next minute it was like the aftermath […]
St Patrick: dear, reluctant saint of our isle
Changed times. When I was a youngster, parades were fewer and more modest on St Patrick’s Day. Now they’re everywhere, usually with lepping girls and fire-eaters. The Americans, as usual, are to blame. They started it all, on 17 March, 1762. Some Irish soldiers serving in the English military were given permission to march through […]
St Patrick: dear, reluctant saint of our isle
Changed times. When I was a youngster, parades were fewer and more modest on St Patrick’s Day. Now they’re everywhere, usually with lepping girls and fire-eaters. The Americans, as usual, are to blame. They started it all, on 17 March, 1762. Some Irish soldiers serving in the English military were given permission to march through […]
Maggie, the flag and managing the vote
Maggie Ritchie, God bless her little red jacket, is busy buttressing her unionist vote in South Down. The VO this morning reports that she’s concerned something bad may happen at the St Patrick’s Day parade in Downpatrick. It seems a Sinn Féin councillor wants to carry a tricolour in the parade. Maggie says. “There may […]
Maggie, the flag and managing the vote
Maggie Ritchie, God bless her little red jacket, is busy buttressing her unionist vote in South Down. The VO this morning reports that she’s concerned something bad may happen at the St Patrick’s Day parade in Downpatrick. It seems a Sinn Féin councillor wants to carry a tricolour in the parade. Maggie says. “There may […]
Joe Duffy – disgraceful radio in action
Sometimes it gets too much, and yesterday was an example. Like thousands of people, if I’m not doing anything more important I’ll switch on RTÉ in the afternoon and listen to Joe Duffy’s Liveline. He’s a decent broadcaster, in that he knows how to get the best out of people much of the time and […]
Joe Duffy – disgraceful radio in action
Sometimes it gets too much, and yesterday was an example. Like thousands of people, if I’m not doing anything more important I’ll switch on RTÉ in the afternoon and listen to Joe Duffy’s Liveline. He’s a decent broadcaster, in that he knows how to get the best out of people much of the time and […]
History speaks – but is anyone listening?
Who’s been in charge in Japan? I don’t mean over the past week or so; I mean over the past, what, twenty, thirty years. I ask because they appear to have been asleep at the wheel. In August 1945, the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, resulting in casualties somewhere […]
History speaks – but is anyone listening?
Who’s been in charge in Japan? I don’t mean over the past week or so; I mean over the past, what, twenty, thirty years. I ask because they appear to have been asleep at the wheel. In August 1945, the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, resulting in casualties somewhere […]