August, 2016

The recent deaths of former Catholic bishop Eddie Daly and Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster, elicited different responses. The late Duke received a fulsome tribute from Tom Elliott, who appeared to equate the quality of the Duke’s life with the amount of money that he had.  “He owned vast areas of land across the […]

Our First Minister of Norneverland, Arlene Foster , seems to have some fears after the Brexit vote to exit the EU and the loss of EU finances in the future.There is also the fear that the economy will not be so easily sustained without the free-movement of people. In a letter to the British Government, […]

I’m given to understand that this letter appeared in the Irish Times yesterday – Jude.   A chara,   The Irish bishops should be careful about withdrawing all the students from Maynooth for the Brits might reclaim it since they originally bought and paid for it. The Brits funded the original seminary to make sure […]

      Though THE TIMES was condemned by Britain’s Press Council for a lie publshed in 1981 and THE DAILY EXPRESS and THE DAILY STAR were condemned for the exact same lie published in 1982, and the British Government under Margaret Thatcher coordinated its publication neither the Government nor the papers were chastened. They […]

About two months ago I typed four words and was astonished at the passion-filled response they elicited. The four words were “A bit like this”: I was responding on Twitter to a picture of a paramilitary parade in Lurgan and an accompanying comment about Shocking Paramilitary Demonstration In Front Of Children. ( There was one […]

Part 2 recalled the British Press Council’s condemnation of THE DAILY EXPRESS and THE DAILY STAR  for  publishing an untruth  previously published in  THE TIMES     and previously condemned by the Press Council. I didn’t explain that both the Daily Express and the Daily Star published the untruth simultaneously as part of an attack on Greater […]

It should not be imagined that when, in May 1981 THE TIMES  of London attributed all the deaths in “the Troubles” since 1969 to Republican violence it made an honest mistake. The Ulster Unionist MP James Kilfedder had  uttered exactly the same falsehood on radio, and Margaret Thatcher had echoed, if not preceded him in spreading […]

As soon as the Brexit news broke, Enda Kenny was in front of the TV cameras calling urgently for a meeting of all the affected parties – that is, all political parties north and south. The words had barely left Enda’s mouth when our First Minister, Arlene Foster, told the TV cameras that she had […]

  In 1981, Bobby Sands and the other nine hunger-strikers exposed the sycophantic journalists and commentators in the south of Ireland for what they were – pro-imperialist propagandists. The men who died on hunger-strike in 1981 exposed the lies being propagated by the pro-British propagandists. By their amazing sacrifice they showed the world how corrupt this little […]

John Patton blogs at www.phototilly.eu Bishop Eddie Daly’s first ministry was as curate in St Patrick’s Castlederg; I began my   teaching career there at St Eugene’s Secondary School. He would have been very aware , as I was, of the extent of rural poverty and deprivation in the surrounding area. Nevertheless, his gentle charisma was […]