August, 2016

That Daithígate affair: what is it all about? Ask a politician from any other party than Sinn Féin and they’ll tell you with a worried look that it’s a matter of having our institutions working effectively, about avoid bias in committee hearings, about ensuring that the chair of Stormont committees are neutral and about making sure […]

 Letters to the Editor, Irish Times 19 August 2016 Your Culture Editor, Hugh Linehand, in telling the story of the Marino Casino mistakenly describes Michael Collins, Richard Mulcahy, J J  “Ginger” O’Connell and Oscar Traynor s “rebel leaders”in 1921. Collins and Mulcahy were both Sinn Fein members of Dail Eireann, with a popular mandate to rule […]

  There are a lot of people calling for Sinn Fein to provide s blue print, a road map or a vision for a united Ireland. A lot of the merging of infrastructure, energy etc… is already happening and will continue so I will focus on the vision. Likewise, cooperation between hospitals and health, children’s […]

Photograph by Antrim Lens   I was at the P J McGrory Memorial Lecture in St Mary’s University College a week ago, given by the distinguished English barrister Michael Mansfield. It was the first time I’d seen in the flesh this man whose legal work has woven in and out through the history of the […]

About the time Elvis Presley was called up by Uncle Sam and I lost all interest in pop music, for some reason I was exposed to De Senectute by Cicero. Those with even a nodding acquaintance with a liberal education will know that the work was about old age and that Marcus Tullius Cicero was a […]

My last article on People Before Profit attracted a lot of attention and commentary, so I thought it best to use this one to answer some of the questions which arose from it. The word ‘Enigma’ is appropriate, for reasons I will elaborate on; For one thing I can’t do when it comes to People […]

Sent: Mon, 15 Aug 2016 10:57 Subject: [Aubane] Letter to Sunday Independent The Sunday Independent published my letter yesterday but omitted the last paragraph Sir, James Mathers’ letter ‘Casement’s full story’ (7.8.16) is both unfair to Sir Roger and factually inaccurate. The view that “Britain was fighting for democracy and human rights” in its war […]

Some years ago I was given a present of a BBC Diary. It showed the public holidays of various countries in Europe. Republican, secular France and the Lutheran and other Protestant countries had breaks from work on what Catholics called Holy Days when the Faithful were obliged by their Bishops to attend Mass. Ireland shared only […]

  I’d quite like to add another dimension to this blogsite. That’s why I’m starting what I hope will be a weekly series of photographs. They don’t have to be taken during the past week and they don’t have to have (but can have) a political dimension. I’m just looking for photographs that are striking/beautiful/thought-provoking. […]

  It is almost 20 years on since the Good Friday Agreement, which was a peace accord to recognise that there are two traditions who are polar opposites on the national question.  Those who consider themselves Irish and support the unification of our country, and those who consider themselves British and who support the continued […]