A worried father complained to Patrick Pearse that all his son was interested in was playing a penny whistle. “Buy him a penny whistle, then” suggested Pearse, to whom it never occurred that in later times a fellow playing a penny whistle might “make a bomb.” Nor, I imagine that “making a bomb” would one […]
January, 2016
Does John O’Dowd hate English education?
Over the last few days, the Minister for Education John O’Dowd has been hauled over the coals. The charge? That he didn’t follow the English examination boards and change the grading of GCSEs from A* -E to 9-1. This, we’re told, will put students here at a disadvantage – they’ll have to follow the north’s […]
DANIEL O’CONNELL – KING OF THE HUMBUGGERS? by Donal Kennedy
Recently “SIGHING FOR A BRACE OF DUELLING PISTOLS” I took issue with some commentators who invoke Daniel O’Connell’s name to further their own perverse, if not perverted, political agendas. The late Sean O’Faolain wrote a most readable book on O’Connell called “King of the Beggars.” It might be appropriate to pen another called “King of […]
Did ‘Rebellion’ have to be like that?
After viewing the first two episodes of RTÉ’s ‘Rebellion’, you might be tempted to think that the subject-matter made it impossible to craft a series that was other than hammy and histrionic. Not so. TG4 made a series called ‘Seachtar na Cásca’ and this is a very short clip from it. Even inside five […]
BRIMSTONE COWBOYS : HIGH TECH ASSASSINS by Donal Kennedy
In happier times, flushed with victory in the Great War, British Government assassins, under cover of curfew, could slip out of Dublin Castle, enter a hotel within a hundred yards, surprise an unarmed civilian in his bed, murder him with a pistol shot, muffling its sound with a pillow and slip out again with very little effort […]
Thoughts on RTÉ’s ‘Rebellion’
(These reviews first appeared in the Andersonstown News) REBELLION (RTÉ) Episode 1 Even allowing for the fact that this was Episode 1, REBELLION (RTE1) was a bit frothy. Mind you, it’s tough going at the start of a series – you’ve got to introduce all the main characters, get credibility built into them and their […]
SIGHING FOR DUELLING PISTOLS by Donal Kennedy
(FIRST PUBLISHED IN IRISH POLITICAL REVIEW 2013) Whenever I read damned fool commentary on Daniel O’Connell I sigh for the time when every gentleman worthy of the name kept at least one brace of duelling pistols. But alas, I’m no gentleman, nor even a scholar, and must rely on my laptop to secure satisfaction . Since […]
Was the Easter Rising a just war? – a letter to the editor
Sir, Fr. Seamus Murphy SJ, in his recent ‘Rite and Reason’ op-ed (‘Government betrays the Republic in desire to placate the ghosts of 1916’, Jan. 12), claims that the 1916 Rising, which the state is currently celebrating as a decisive event in the achievement of national independence, did not meet the criteria of […]
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE IRISH
We were haggling and tussling recently …and possibly still are, about our nation state,our strange sense of identity in Ireland, our part of the little island ,the whole landmass and possibly even the whole worldwide Irish diaspora that stretches across the planet. That is one huge rambling cloud of assorted “Irish” humanity . Some elements […]
The south of Ireland and child poverty
Dr James Reilly is the south’s Minister for Children. Before that he was the south’s Minister for Health. The fact that he had to move over and let the ambitious Leo Varadkar take his place in Health tells you something about how successful he was in that role. Today on RTÉ radio he was interviewed […]