November, 2015

First Minster Peter Robinson has suddenly had a change of heart; he believes Stormont will now “be fit for purpose.” Since his comments in September 2014 that “Stormont was not fit for purpose”, the institutions have limped on, there has been agreements, disagreements, fall outs, pulling out of Executive Ministers, “hockey cokey” politics, and the […]

And so they’ve done it. A deal has been agreed and we can relax in the knowledge that Stormont will survive at least until the elections in May. Something lost – nothing for victims of violence – and something gained – £500+ million, even though we were repeatedly told by the DUP, as though addressing […]

  Since Friday’s deplorable and tragic events in Paris, the French leader, President Francois Hollande has commented he is committed to “destroying” Islamic State (ISIS) and described the attacks in Paris as an “act of war” and that France is now “at war.” Hollande has also stated that France will seek to extend emergency powers […]

      (PUBLISHED IN IRISH POLITICAL REVIEW FEBRUARY 2015) In a corner of a foreign field, the Embassy of the sovereign  Irish State in Brussels recently hosted Gay Byrne and a film made by the Irish State Radio and Television station to blacken the name of  the Irish insurgents of Easter  1916, to belittle the nation […]

I was going to write about the critical storm that’s been stirred by Jeremy Corbyn’s reluctance to commend a shoot-to-kill on Britain’s streets, but I think I’ll opt instead for the shoot-to-score philosophy that will bring the south of Ireland to the Euro Finals in (that’s right) France next Summer. Like thousands of others in the north, […]

A clown in Holy Orders, celebrating Requiem Mass in Dublin for a soldier killed serving with the British Army in Afghanistan (or Iraq) said in his praise that the deceased always carried his Irish passport. Perhaps we should expect the Pope to canonise all adulterers who wear their wedding rings when on the job? And […]

  (This blog originally appeared on the blogsite Political Mind Fields)             The moral issue of redefining marriage has become a political one. Why? Have politicians not enough to do sorting out the Health Service, the economy, crime etc? Have churches lost the right or ability to lead their people? In […]

So France has launched a major air strike in retaliation for the mass killings in Paris over the weekend. That’ll not surprise anybody. France has been involved in bombing raids in Syria before this, and when you’ve been grievously attacked, it’s natural to strike back, preferably with greater force than that to which you were […]

“None of them along the line know what any of it is worth”, Bob Dylan Broken and curled leaves laid out , a carpet of old copper pennies glinting before us as we walked and crunched .The warm wind soughing and sighing through the baring riddle of branches in the raggedy Autumn trees. September and […]