Do you know who Simon Harris is? I am ashamed to admit that I really wasn’t clear on who this important man is- somewhere in my head he was mixed up with Simon Coveney. But all is now clear. Simon Harris is a Minister of State for the Department of Finance – in other words, he’s […]
August, 2015
The Lighthouse Festival, Killough
Every so often I run into a situation that seems to contradict itself. For example, I was at a political discussion about the implications of a united Ireland yesterday in Killough, Co. Down. It was clear that the people there were fascinated by the different perspectives on the notion of a UI – there were […]
Sshhht! Peter’s talking. I think.
Picture by Northern Ireland Executive You know the way politicians are always telling interviewers: “That’s a hypothetical question you’re asking me and I don’t deal in hypotheses, I deal in the real world”? Well, our First Minister doesn’t go in for that line of response. With one bound he is free of such restrictions: “ […]
CILLA AND GEORGE by Harry McAvinchey
Cilla Black died, afew weekends ago , while I was in her home town, Liverpool. She was in Spain at her villa at the time of her demise.Apparently she’d fallen and subsequently had a stroke.I didn’t mind Cilla during the days of Beatlemania .She was a loud part of that whole excitement . My Liverpool […]
Enda opts for a state funeral, John A gets in a lather
It’s started. Only the other day I predicted (yes I do get the occasional one right) that the Fine Gael/Fianna Fail politicians in the south were going to have a hard time commemorating/celebrating Easter 1916, while continuing their barrage of criticism against the political violence that went on here for several decades. It seems that […]
Hanging John Redmond
It must be nice to be hung in Leinster House. It’s a signal honour, telling the world that you are someone that Ireland respects, and that you’re a model for future generations. Is that over-egging it? I don’t think so. We don’t hang portraits in Leinster House of those we don’t revere. And that’s why […]
DEAD END KIDS IN A DEAD END STREET by Harry McAvinchey
So that’s it ! Politics are promoted as the art of the possible. Are they not? Within Norneverland they’ve always been played in a curious way way compared to most other places , given that half the population appear to cling on by their breaking fingernails to a teat- mother that really doesn’t want any […]
Telling history or selling a distortion
Picture by Paul We can be very blinkered people in this sad corner of the world. I was listening on BBC Raidio Uladh/ Radio Ulster to a couple of local veterans who had been in the British army – both in the UDR I think. One of the men had lost both legs, both were […]
Paper tigers and the real thing
Picture by jared fein It appears DUP councillor Brian Kingston has his knickers in something of a twist. He’s unhappy about two things – the fact that the Wolfe Tones played until after 11.30 pm at the Ardoyne Fleadh, but worse -they sang a song that included the phrase “Ooh, aah, up the Ra!” […]
ANTIGONE – STILL RELEVANT by John Patton
Jean McConville , the widowed, Belfast mother of nine children, was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1972; she was secretly buried and her family waited over thirty years for an official ceremony. She is the best known of ‘The Disappeared’ and her death still causes controversy throughout Ireland. Antigone, disconsolate and wracked with grief, […]