September, 2016

Press Release: Historian Barry Keane granted Appeal hearing in long running British spies case against Home Office.   Round 5 of Historian Barry Keane’s long running case against the British state’s refusal to release a 106 year old file identifying ‘Paid informants in Irish Secret Societies’ in Ireland and the United States is set for […]

Why are there more people claiming for disability in Norneverland than anywhere else? Is there a greater degree of incapacity , physically ,or more likely , mentally ,here, moreso than anywhere else.Why is that so, if it is indeed a fact? Is it a side-effect of living in a self-sustaining lunatic asylum where the rule […]

A letter appeared  in a Belfast morning newspaper(Aug 29) from a regular writer to that paper, Trevor Ringland. As a unionist he is pro-monarchy and anti-republican. He clearly does not like republicans or republicanism. He describes republicanism as a ‘flawed ideology.’ Mr Ringland began the letter by stating “I probably won’t watch 66 Days…” Such a negative […]

Photo by Newstalk At one point in my career I was a member of a group called the Association of Teacher Educators of Europe (ATEE). I attended a number of their conventions and was involved in some joint research projects with academics from other countries. I noticed a number of things during the time I […]

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/the-irish-and-the-british-1.2795522

This is an exciting day for tens of thousands of Irish sports fans.  In less than two hours’ time,  the football will be thrown in by the referee and the All-Ireland Gaelic Football Final will begin. I don’t know the official figures, but I’d feel safe in saying that since Croke Park hosted 82,000 people […]

1) On the need for an inclusive national conversation on the transition to an agreed, united Ireland, against the backdrop of the new circumstances created on the island by the recent Brexit decision – sinnfein.ie/contents/41462   2)  On a Sinn Féin fact finding delegation which I led into Maghaberry Prison in County Antrim yesterday, and during […]

Tom Cooper, in his BLOG (September 7) answered the  assertion in THE IRISH EXAMINER by Maurice Manning that Sinn Fein had hijacked the commemoration of the 1916 Rising, Manning apparently thinking that the “Reclaim the Vision of 1916 ”  parade, promoted by Tom Cooper and The Irish National Congress, was a Sinn Fein Initiative. In a […]

The spiritual writer, Richard Rohr, reminds us again and again that the qualities most required for us to grow as mature people are humility and honesty. These are the two most important qualities in the spiritual life and also, interestingly, in Alcoholics Anonymous. Each person is a mixture of light and dark, light and shadow […]

Pic One: by Madadh Mor “Taken by my daughter on an ordinary street in Liverpool a few weeks ago. She’s an animal lover but even she thought it was a bit excessive.  Of all the animals the pig seemed to be the best mannered. Don’t think the fouling applies to it.” Pic Two :  by […]