June, 2016

  Following the Loughinisland Police Ombudsman report confirming collusion in a sectarian gun attack, it has got me thinking once more about the Kingsmill massacre, another sectarian gun attack. The key difference is the police know who committed the Loughinisland attack, but have chosen to cover it up to protect state agents and what murky […]

I’ll start with a gigantic understatement. There are many lacunae in my education. For instance I’ve only read one book written by a member of the Bloomsbury Set – a circle of insufferable snobs so much in and out of each others’ orifices that only a veteran Boy Scout might hope to get them unknotted. I once […]

They say politics and sport do not mix, but can the two really be separated? A sporting event should be a contest between dedicated individuals who have worked long and hard to hone their abilities and wish to put their prowess to the test against other similarly matched individuals hopefully to experience the satisfaction of […]

  I note that there are various messages on social media urging people to stand up/observe a minute’s silence  at 14:06 for the victims of Loughinisland, when six innocent people (including an 87-year-old man) were shot dead by loyalist gunmen in an atrocity which almost certainly involved collusion. In some ways to recall that horrible […]

There are many areas of life that are a treasure/burden, and social media are one of these. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter give a voice to millions who otherwise would remain largely unheard. They provide a platform for sharing good news and bad, supporting people in their pain and rejoicing with them in […]

There are lyrics and catchphrases, profane and sacred, that make me wince with embarrassment or provoke rude parody. Can anybody listen to ‘Hail Glorious St.Patrick’ without embarrassment at such mongrel doggerel and without wishing it were put down by a vet?  Or Longfellow’s moralistic hectoring on the reality and earnestness of life? Or enterprises proclaiming […]

  One subject which fascinates me is that concerning the demographics of our society – It is clear that this world is changing and gender roles are not as assigned as they once were. In Ireland, this past century and further back, women have been living in an open-air prison. Life for women has been […]

An unfounded rumour or story may be described, in polite society, as a “canard”  to avoid calling its narrator a liar and risking litigation or the inconvenience, for late sleepers, of Pistols for Two at Dawn. You’ll of course know that the term literally means “Duck” a bird famously flavoured with orange sauce. I hope to […]

  When I first went out to work I spent some of my lunch hours savouring the pleasures of roaming streets broad and narrow for I had been recently incarcerated for two years in a boarding school situated some sixty miles from Cork and one hundred from civilisation. One such break I visited Eason’s beside […]

  So – watch the footie last night? I mean of course the game between Northern Ireland and the Ukraine. I didn’t – no, that’s not strictly true. I watched parts of it. I saw the replay of the first NI goal, I missed the second goal, and I watched the cavorting, cart-wheeling delight at […]