February, 2016

I wonder was Napoleon a good swordsman. In those days, cavalry charges would have been very important in winning battles, but I don’t recall any paintings showing him wielding a sword; maybe he was holding one under his waistcoat. And George Washington – was he a top cannoneer, or whatever you call the guys who aimed […]

Kevin O’Shiel, the Tyrone Nationalist, who was a key player in the foundation of the Irish Free State, the friend of Mick Collins, election agent to Arthur Griffith and the first judge in the Dáil courts, described George Irvine, “that extremely rare thing. A Northern Protestant, Separatist Republican, who had fought through Easter Week Rising […]

Over the past few days, there’s been a social media outcry by Sinn Féin supporters that their party candidates in the election are not getting equal air-time with their political opponents. They’ve even created  a chart showing the major news bulletins on RTÉ, with a line through those that failed to include a Shinner. The claim is that […]

Interesting blog on ‘Mindfields’  regarding Easter Rising. Thanks to Francis Teeney as well as author of piece.   http://blogs.qub.ac.uk/politicalmindfields/2016/02/17/the-master-of-the-kings-music-who-supported-the-easter-rising/

  Exactly a year to the day after the commencement of the Easter Rising, 24th April 1917, Sergeant-Major William (Bill) Leeman Ceannt was killed in action during the First World War, Battle of Arras. A year previously, Commandant Eamonn Ceannt, Bill’s younger brother, had occupied and instructed the 4th Battalion of the Irish Volunteers in […]

Last night I watched RTÉ’s Prime Time and it was disturbing viewing. Not the setting – it was quite beautiful, a former chapel in Swords with exquisite mosaic floor. Not the tone of the debate or questions. What was disturbing was the candidates who’d been invited to be questioned by Miriam O’Callaghan. There was Pascal […]

Democracy’s a funny thing.  We insist on democracy in political life – government for the people, by the people and all that. But if someone suggests democracy in the work-place, s/he is told to wise up. How could you have a bunch of workers deciding company policy? That’s a job for management, the boys at […]

There’s been another debate ? …You don’t say? Was it the same as the first one? It’s all perception. I can’t pretend to know all the intricacies of political life or the back-stories of all the politicians involved in the Republic of Ireland.Are they really so interesting that I’d want to do that? There was […]

There is a polite convention that one doesn’t speak ill of the dead. In keeping with it a community sought somebody to speak over the grave of a departed curmudgeon and finally chose the local barber, The barber’s words were as eloquent as Lincoln’s at Gettysburg, and, if brevity is  truly the soul  of wit, […]

So. A lot of us spent two hours in front of the box last night, watching the gladiators. Did anybody lose a limb? Suffer a head-wound? Flatten their enemies? Lucinda Creighton. She came across as smart, clear in what she wanted, reminded the audience she’d resigned a ministerial position on grounds of principle. And promised […]