December, 2011

Mother of God – what now?  I don’t know whether to turn cartwheels or break down and cry.  David Cameron has followed instructions from his Conservative party and gone out to Brussels as a British bulldog, only to come back knowing what it feels like to be a lamp-post used by 26 dogs in quick […]

Mother of God – what now?  I don’t know whether to turn cartwheels or break down and cry.  David Cameron has followed instructions from his Conservative party and gone out to Brussels as a British bulldog, only to come back knowing what it feels like to be a lamp-post used by 26 dogs in quick […]

What a world, eh? People being laid off, shops shutting up shop, the air thick with the crunch of bankruptcy. Even the Christmas trees are looking smaller and sadder this year. But if it’s bad here in the north it’s worse in the south. When a government has to break the budget bad news into […]

What a world, eh? People being laid off, shops shutting up shop, the air thick with the crunch of bankruptcy. Even the Christmas trees are looking smaller and sadder this year. But if it’s bad here in the north it’s worse in the south. When a government has to break the budget bad news into […]

I have a soft spot for British soldiers, the ordinary guy on the ground. He’s probably joined the army for the same reason that men have done for hundreds of years – because it was a way to earn a living, even though earning that living meant  being taught how to take the life of […]

I have a soft spot for British soldiers, the ordinary guy on the ground. He’s probably joined the army for the same reason that men have done for hundreds of years – because it was a way to earn a living, even though earning that living meant  being taught how to take the life of […]

What price historical documents? Or to be more accurate, what impact if any do they have on those who view them? Yesterday  Enda Kenny put online the signed document of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The names are all there – Collins, Griffiths, Lloyd George, Birkenhead.  Lloyd George told Collins that if he and the others didn’t […]

What price historical documents? Or to be more accurate, what impact if any do they have on those who view them? Yesterday  Enda Kenny put online the signed document of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The names are all there – Collins, Griffiths, Lloyd George, Birkenhead.  Lloyd George told Collins that if he and the others didn’t […]

I blame Franklin D Roosevelt  – he started it.  On Sunday 12 March 1933, shortly after his inauguration as US president, he began a series of radio broadcasts known as the “fireside chats”. His first one was on the banks crisis, the second on his plans for recovery and others on similar topics like  the […]

I blame Franklin D Roosevelt  – he started it.  On Sunday 12 March 1933, shortly after his inauguration as US president, he began a series of radio broadcasts known as the “fireside chats”. His first one was on the banks crisis, the second on his plans for recovery and others on similar topics like  the […]