June, 2014

I’ve just read a Belfast Telegraph piece by Ed Curran in which he laments the fact that, forty years on from when he was a young journalist, we’re heading into another summer of marching chaos. There’s talk of the need for compromise, of the hardliners in Ardoyne  who don’t want any parade at any time, […]

Right !! Now that Peter Robinson has bounded forth and with one mighty leap has apologised and escaped his accusers one more time….was the seemingly non compos mentis pastor really right all along? Have we all made a misjudgement based wholly on his cack- handed delivery and because of this did we miss his message?Did […]

You’re familiar, I’m sure,  with the notion of the tipping point. It’s defined in one dictionary as “the critical point in an evolving situation that leads to a new and irreversible development”.  It’s fair to say that electorally, Sinn Féin have now reached that point. The question has changed from being “Will Sinn Féin make real […]

  Bandsmen being expressive outside Limavady parish priest’s house What does culture mean in Northern Ireland anyway?There’s much talk and pontificating about culture recently .There’s especially much talk from the unionist or loyalist community about their culture being under attack, but what does that mean? Are they talking about the fact that their culture appears to consist […]

Well, one thing we can be sure of: virtually nobody will listen to the Pope. They’ll listen to the headlines all right –  “Pope Says No to Scottish Independence!” – and so he’ll join the list of Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, J K Rowling and George Galloway who are being used to prop up Alistair […]

Well there it was . Lisa McAlister was standing in on the Nolan morning show as Mr Nolan headed off to the USA. Naturally enough  at this time of year the conversation was the flags obsession. Nothing new there you might think. Here we are nearing Groundhog Day again and as sure as the dandelion […]

 I’m sitting listening to Billy Hutchinson saying that he doesn’t know who put the Union flags up in South Belfast and that anyway, the people who did so didn’t cause any breach of the peace, it was the people who reacted to this flag erection who caused or might cause a breach of the peace.  […]

There are those who would do anything rather than think. Grease the cat’s boil, clean out the henhouse, kill the cockroaches in the back bedroom – anything rather than get down to applying the grey matter. I’m inclined that way myself (and yes, Virginia, there are those who say I demonstrate it on a near-daily […]

How will they dress up the deaths of the five American soldiers reportedly killed in southern Afghanistan yesterday by their own side? They’re using the term ‘fratricide’ at the moment, which sounds marginally better (I think) than ‘friendly fire’. But when the bodies or remains are shipped home to the US,  how will the burial […]