February, 2014

When I was in my late teens I used to dream about the bomb. That’s the nuclear bomb. I’d see it going off in the distance and experience this terrible sense of doom, that everything and everybody was over, finished, no way back. My friends, who dreamed about girls, laughed and told me to get […]

  Scotland – nice place or what? Lovely scenery, excellent whisky, one great football club. Oh yes – and a growing appetite for independence. The latest poll indicates that, while still behind, the gap between those who’d say Yes to independence and those who’d say No has narrowed. Following the Scot Nats White Paper on […]

  One of the great things about social media like Twitter is that you get to hear about stuff that would never make it to the mainstream media in the country where you live.  For example, you’ll read in the newspapers and hear on television about Boris Johnson’s latest wheeze, to make strikes by London’s […]

  Gerry Adams, if he has a free minute and is reading the papers these days, must cast a wry thought towards Cardinal Sean Brady. You’ll remember that a lot of people who wouldn’t dream of darkening a church door suddenly became very concerned for the Catholic Church in Ireland, that it should have a […]

  Running a political party is no easy job. Especially if that party is republican: you probably remember the old joke about the first item on a republican agenda always being The Split. To function a political party needs to hold together, vote together – get the benefits of unity of action in the Assembly/Dail. […]

  When it comes to dealing with Scotland or Ireland, English politicians seem to have a knack for doing or saying the wrong thing. Up until now, the Better Together campaign in Scotland was urging that country to stay in the United Kingdom because if they didn’t, they’d be in terrible shape, not least financially. […]

    Dear Mr Humphrey, It was good to get to know you on the Nolan Show last night, even if only in the course of a brief encounter.  A rational exchange of views, however short, is always helpful in our divided society. But perhaps we could make a little more progress if we keep […]

  Imagine a beautiful landscape painting by someone like Gainsborough or Constable. Now imagine you come into the gallery one day and see that someone has scratched several vertical lines across the painting and has drawn half a dozen vertical lines between the vertical ones. What effect would you say that made on the painting? […]

Did you ever watch a game where you regretted both teams couldn’t lose? Well, check out yesterday’s Irish Times. You’ll find the next best thing. Peter Robinson and Micheál Martin are squaring up to each other about the events of 1969-70. The Fianna Fáil leader Martin says it was repressive unionism that created conditions for […]