You may have inferred from my 16 September BLOG that Irish Home Rule was planned for Imperial purposes. To remove disquiet in the white Dominions with large Irish populations.To defuse the anger of Irish Americans, and foster co-operation between those urged by Kipling to take up the White Man’s Burden and the land and resources of […]
September, 2016
The GFA, reconciliation and cul-de-sacs
Why did those who voted for the Good Friday Agreement do so? The short answer is we don’t know. Nobody can see inside another person’s head, and even if they tell you their reasons, they could well be lying. But there are a number of reasons that probably featured in the thinking of many people […]
‘The Shawshank Redemption’ by Joe McVeigh
The Shawshank Redemption is a film made in 1994 by Frank Darabont and tells of Andy, an American banker, who was imprisoned after being wrongly convicted of murdering his wife. He struggles to keep hope alive in this grim world. Having become a trusted prisoner with exceptional freedom, one day he takes over the control […]
Prof Roy Foster, Major John McBride and Anthony J Jordan
A letter from Anthony J Jordan regarding Professor Roy Foster’s allegations against Major John MacBride, published in Foster’s first volume on the life of W.B.Yeats published in 1997. Major MacBride, who had led an Irish Brigade, resisting British aggression against the Boers in the Second Anglo-South African War, was shot by the British for his part […]
WHO WERE TO BENEFIT FROM HOME RULE? by Donal Kennedy
QUOTATION 1. “In the interests of the Empire I feel very strongly that the Irish question should be settled on lines that will satisfy the sentiment of the over-sea democracies, both in our self-governing colonies and in the United States. Everyone, I think will agree that it is most important and in the highest interests […]
‘The Arrogance of the Fundamentalists’ by Joe McVeigh
There is one thing that fundamentalists have in common whether in Ireland or the Middle East and that is arrogance. In Ireland the Catholic fundamentalists believe that their version of the Catholic faith is the correct one. They even believe that they know better than Pope Francis or anybody else in positions of authority except those few who agree […]
The BBC and its ‘stars’
I was on Talkback yesterday and the topic was stars’ wages. There has been a move to reveal the salary of top presenters earning over £150,000. Seems reasonable. They’re paid out of our pockets through the licence fee, so why shouldn’t we know what they’re earning and if they’re worth it? I can see the […]
‘The Irish Church: whose side is it on?’ by Joe McVeigh
Ever since the collapse of the Celtic Tiger and the introduction of austerity measures by the government in the south, the Catholic Church of the majority is being challenged about whose side it is on. Is it with the government in Dublin or is it with the people suffering as a result of the austerity measures? […]
IN CLEAR AND PLAIN SIGHT
I looked up while showering this morning and a droplet of water briefly flooded my right eye. momentarily allowing me to read the words “MIRA Sport” , the nomenclature of the showering unit ,in very sharply defined detail.That is an unusual occurrence because without my spectacles I’m as blind as the proverbial flying rodent.I’m the […]
Sean Lynch, Sue McAllister and the prison ‘service’
Sometimes the action or inaction of authority isn’t as hard to take as their attitude to it. A prime case unfolded yesterday evening. The source for what happened was impeccable: NI’s Prisoner Ombudsman. In a report, the Ombudsman tells of how Sean Lynch, a prisoner in Maghaberry, injured himself twenty times while prison staff watched this […]