As Belfast City Hall braces itself for another flags protest at lunchtime today, and Leinster House in Dublin waits with fear and trembling for the arrival of Willie Frazer and his rag-tag-and-bobtail crew, who will demand “sarcastically” (Willie’s word, I promise you) that the tricolour be removed from above that place, my thoughts turn naturally […]
January, 2013
Theresa Villiers – what is she for?
As Belfast City Hall braces itself for another flags protest at lunchtime today, and Leinster House in Dublin waits with fear and trembling for the arrival of Willie Frazer and his rag-tag-and-bobtail crew, who will demand “sarcastically” (Willie’s word, I promise you) that the tricolour be removed from above that place, my thoughts turn naturally […]
History and her abuse
“History’s a whore. She rides the winners”. That was the blunt assessment of one of Stewart Parker’s characters in Northern Star. Is it a fair judgement? What is history anyway? When I was interviewing for my book Whose Past Is It Anyway? Davy Adams made the point that he’d be happy to see TV commemoration […]
History and her abuse
“History’s a whore. She rides the winners”. That was the blunt assessment of one of Stewart Parker’s characters in Northern Star. Is it a fair judgement? What is history anyway? When I was interviewing for my book Whose Past Is It Anyway? Davy Adams made the point that he’d be happy to see TV commemoration […]
I read the news today, oh boy!
One of the marks of a civilized society is a free press. Free to print any headline they like. You’ll remember when Gerry Adams resigned his Westminster seat, the press had great fun with headlines about how he now was a baron or something like that, because if you resigned a seat at Westminster they […]
I read the news today, oh boy!
One of the marks of a civilized society is a free press. Free to print any headline they like. You’ll remember when Gerry Adams resigned his Westminster seat, the press had great fun with headlines about how he now was a baron or something like that, because if you resigned a seat at Westminster they […]
A can of worms? Leave it to Leo
Leo Varadkar , the south’s Transport Minister, is generally regarded as seriously right-wing. So I’m not sure what he was thinking of when he told journalists that he was in favour of votes for the Irish diaspora. “I like the idea of the President being the President of the Irish people and the Irish nation. […]
A can of worms? Leave it to Leo
Leo Varadkar , the south’s Transport Minister, is generally regarded as seriously right-wing. So I’m not sure what he was thinking of when he told journalists that he was in favour of votes for the Irish diaspora. “I like the idea of the President being the President of the Irish people and the Irish nation. […]
That Border poll: who’s right?
When I was interviewing Gregory Campbell for my book he made an interesting point regarding unionism. He said that when the south of Ireland was riding high ten years ago, unionists weren’t interested in a re-united Ireland; now that they are a bankrupt state unionists still aren’t interested. In short, he said, economics had nothing […]
That Border poll: who’s right?
When I was interviewing Gregory Campbell for my book he made an interesting point regarding unionism. He said that when the south of Ireland was riding high ten years ago, unionists weren’t interested in a re-united Ireland; now that they are a bankrupt state unionists still aren’t interested. In short, he said, economics had nothing […]