With just a week until Christmas Day, I thought it’d be interesting to see what readers of this blogsite see as an important image for them. The one above is actually several years old – the year of the big freeze – but it’s special to me because that was the last time all four […]
December, 2015
Leading the field in disclosure: the British government
(This article first appeared in the Andersonstown News) All changed, changed utterly? The Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday took as long as it did and cost as much as it did because Britain insisted on hanging onto as much documentation from that time as possible. Westminster fingers had to be prised clear, one by one, […]
THE LIVES OF GREAT MEN by Donal Kennedy
“BRITAIN THINKS” is a polling organisation which on 22 November asked Britons what they considered the most important qualities of leadership and who best displayed them. Great communication, decisiveness and and integrity were the qualities they plumped for. And, in their opinion Winston Churchill had them in spades and all other contenders came nowhere near […]
THE IMPENDING DEATH OF BELFAST by Amm Ghobsmacht
OK, the title is a bit over the top but I needed something to catch your attention and now you’re here just a looksie (I promise it’s not about flags!). It’s regarding the ’regeneration’ plan for the northern part of Belfast’s city centre. For those of you not in the loop regarding such matters, […]
Arlene ascends – who’d have thunk it?
It’s stunning when you think about it. This evening, Arlene Foster will be officially crowned as the new DUP leader, to succeed Peter Robinson in January. There are several things about Arlene that make her installation amazing. One is that she’s a woman. Remember, she’s to be the leader of a party which, when members […]
Solidarity with Paris? Maybe not… by Donal Kennedy
to: lettersed@irishtimes.com Like a more distinguished Dubliner than myself I consider myself every bit as much an incorrigible an Irishman as ever stood on the Pont Neuf in Paris. And, like that Dubliner, I consider myself a Republican.. But I must cast a cold eye on Frank McDonald’s appeal (An Irishman’s Diary, Dec 15) for […]
Prince Charles gets a royal leg-up
It’s been denounced as a shocking example of secrecy and privilege. It took a three-year battle with the British Cabinet Office to get them to cough up the information that Prince Charles had been receiving confidential cabinet papers for decades. Stuff regarding secret proposals for new legislation and other discussion documents that the public won’t […]
Donald Trump and James McConnell: simplifying the world for us
What do Donald Trump and Pastor James McConnell have in common? They both distrust Muslims. Trump’s suspicion of an entire religion takes the form of calling for border closure against all Muslims. Pastor McConnell shows his wariness by saying he doesn’t trust them and that they are a hellish bunch. Both men when pressed will […]
CITIZEN OR SUBJECT OR WHATEVER
I have been tussling with this one for a while now.It has been pointed out to me in passing ,that anyone born after 1998 in Northern Ireland {“the Six Counties”} and whose parents have never bought an Irish passport at any time in their lives, will not be able to hold said passport at any […]
BOOK MUSINGS by Donal Kennedy
When my siblings and I were young, each Christmas and Birthday our Grandmother in Cork used send us parcels of books which had survived the attention or inattention of my father and his siblings whose dates of birth ranged from 1895 to 1915. As both she and our Grandfather had been teachers there were […]